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European Rugby Matches

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
A couple of interesting results over night.

South Africa went down to Ireland & Scotland put 100 points on Japan!?
Otherwise fairly predictable for England & NZ.
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
haha, Australia lost to the French!
Although I expect NZ will also lose...but mind you, we've got about 10 of our players making debuts on this tour & a few others who have hardly played any tests.
 

bryce

International Regular
yes there were some very interesting matches, it seems south africa are the same team they were before the tri-nations, seems they just went through a purple patch then.
the all blacks were sharp at times aswell as very messy at other times but i guess it wasn't too bad for the first game of the tour.
australia has a very weak foward pack nowadays and it isn't too much of a suprise that france knocked them over, i think the all blacks will have a fairly good chance at beating france but we will just have to wait and see how the welsh game goes before you can judge their form.
good to see scottish rugby looking to get back on track.
 

Simon

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France are the best team in europe now, the aussie camp rates them higher than england, and rightly so. i didnt see the match, but its no much of a surprise we lost....
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
I wouldn't say France are that much better than England. France are woeful outside of France whereas England can be competitive where-ever they travel.
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Don't think for a minute that Scottish rugby is back on track after a 100 point demolition of Japan. Canada & Japan have turned up in Europe to be the whipping boys of Italy & Scotland...I hate to think how they'd go against France, Australia, NZ etc.
 

nibbs

International Captain
Tim said:
I wouldn't say France are that much better than England. France are woeful outside of France whereas England can be competitive where-ever they travel.
oh yeh, that's why they were so awesome earlier in the year when they played nz and australia...right?
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Well apart from this year.

France practically get smashed everytime they come to NZ or Australia..and don't forget they lost 2-0 to Argentina last year.
 

Simon

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but this year is the only way to tell, England are nowhere near as good now as they were when they won the world cup....
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
I think that just proves how good a leader Martin Johnson was...

As for England now, I think they'll be competitive at home but they'll struggle abroad for some time.
 

Cloete

International Captain
broncoman said:
but this year is the only way to tell, England are nowhere near as good now as they were when they won the world cup....
Good to see you taking an interest in Union Simon ;)

Our forward pack was just dominated so we couldn't get clean possession. I rate Australia's backline as the best in the world, but it hardly matters when you're struggling to get the ball or retain it when they do get it!
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Talent-wise, I would disagree. I think the Aussie backline do the basics extremely well though...I rate Giteau highly though, I think he's going to be a class act.
 

bryce

International Regular
Tim said:
Don't think for a minute that Scottish rugby is back on track after a 100 point demolition of Japan. Canada & Japan have turned up in Europe to be the whipping boys of Italy & Scotland...I hate to think how they'd go against France, Australia, NZ etc.
yeah well i was basing it more on a respectable performance against the wallabies last week and to a lesser extent being completely ruthless against japan.

Tim said:
I think that just proves how good a leader Martin Johnson was...
i don't think you can blame the change of english rugby fortunes on one man, their style of 10 man rugby with the perfect sort of players to suit that style of play in numbers 1-10 was tough to get the better of and i think that is emphasised by the fact that no one did.
aussie do have a very good backline who do the basics very well and the accuracy of their passing game is second to none, one of the reasons i think this is the case is because numbers 9,10,12,13 are all from the brumbies which means they would have a very good understanding of each other after spending entire seasons together, it is also quite ironic that the other brumbies backline player number 14(rathbone) finishes off most of the moves.
 

nibbs

International Captain
i don't rate tim at all. he views don't sit well with me. England have been missing several key players since November last year not just one man. Obviously Wilkinson made no difference at the world cup huh? It was all Marty Johnson wasn't it? How could've I forgotten?...silly me
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
nibbs said:
Obviously Wilkinson made no difference at the world cup huh? It was all Marty Johnson wasn't it? How could've I forgotten?...silly me
Wilkinson is a big loss - but Johnson is even bigger IMO, an awesome leader.

The good thing is at least Wilkinson will be back soon.
 

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