As we all know, England are a bag of crap at international level, so here are a few suggestions to improve it: 1. Set a quota of players in a Premiership first team squad that can play for England. Say 10 have to be eligable, 2 or 3 have to be under 23 years of age. 2. Sack Andy Robinson. His style is very limited. It is all crash and bang with no finesse or guile. If possible attract a top Kiwi coach (not Graham Henry) to teach the players how to play fast, flowing rugby. 3. Get rid of 2 dimiensional players that may have won the World Cup. Lawrence, Cohen and Tindall may have been good once, but they are too old, and technically limited for todays game. 4. Include more 7s players like Tait, Varndell and the forward with the Scandinavian name. They have learned some technique on their travels. 5. Fewer games. Scrap the Anglo-Welsh Cup and make the Heiniken Cup a straight knock out tournament. 6. Central contracts. It worked in cricket, and can work in rugby, if the clubs were less narrow minded.
Although the All Blacks look incomprensibly better than everyone else, I am still reluctant to declare them World Cup winners next year. For at least the last three World Cups, they have been red hot favourites yet have choked in a bad way at the semi final stage. It is looking ominous, but history gives the other sides hope. Anyway, the clear-out begins, although Robinson is still there. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/international/4950478.stm
You're right, except that in 1995 they didn't choke at semifinal stage. The semifinal they won was - personally for me - one of the best, a seminal football match in this code of football, in which they defeated......drumroll please!.......your very own England!! I was pretty upset when All Blacks lost to Springbok in the 1995 World Cup final. That All Blacks team with Jonah Lomu was in my opinion playing on cloud 9. Anyway, talking about England: about time there is some cleanup. Although they haven's sunken to the lows that Wannabies have, the way they lost to France this year was quite telling. After they won the World Cup and were on a quite high, signs of decline were obvious when they opened last year's Six Nations with a loss to Wales. That loss had to have been a psychological blow. Also, the British Lions which toured New Zealand were heavily comprised of England and had an English coach. That Lions squad looked utterly hopeless and without any ideas or strategies.
Point 5 (fewer games) is probably the main issue. If you add the league, the european cups, the 6nations, the churchill cup, the british lions tour... It is obvious the players play too many games. It is a major issue for team France as well. The increase of injuries both sides of the channel is alarming. Let's hope the IRB and other ruling bodies will listen to reason, and reduce the number of games per season. Unlikely, of course, since it means less money in their pockets.
Ha ha ha, very funny you two . I'm curious about how Australia are doing, as they got ripped apart up front last time they came here. Do they have any front row fowards ?. As for France, they only won because it is a weak period for the other teams. The reason why the 6 nations was so close was because all the teams are equally rubbish, and not because they are all fantastic. Wales, my other nation are frustrating. They can show flashes of beautiful, flowing rugby that Andy Robinson cannot even imagine, and then make a series of basic errors to prevent them scoring a try/defend properly. If Wales could beef up a bit, and catch a ball, they could be a force with a full team.
We have never had any problems with backs, but our forward line is still decidedly weak. I don't think there has been much of an improvement since our last northern-hemisphere tour.
As a stupidly dedicated fan of rugby, I'll proffer my suggestions. Well that, and they're a mile better than anyone else. They've only won three championships, including two Grand Slams, in five years. France are bloody good and have been that way since the mid 1950s. Give them respect. Sorry, you can't be both an England and Wales fan. You are either one or the other.
the problem with the all blacks is that they seem to peek just before the world cup now they have to worry about finding a center to replace Umaga
they are...but the ab's are the best in the world they have been for every year that a world cup hasnt been held..except for 87 where they actually won it and 97 when they were crap
Since 2003: France LLL Wales WLW Scotland WWL Ireland LLL New Zealand LLLL Australia LLW Not impressed.
How about we wait until after the World Cup? If they don't get out of their group or suffer an embarassing loss to the Eagles or some other such ignominy, then the sky is falling.
Not that long. But doesn't a World Championship merit them some kind of grace period? This Yankee fan I know was saying that Boston fans couldn't complain about anything for five years. Five years is pushing it in baseball, but four years in international rugby doesn't seem obsurd to me. Just saying.
Perhaps not usually but, in all but name, the current side bears very little resemblance to the champion squad. The current English side has never recovered from the spate of retirements immediately after their World Cup win, and in the period since. Key veteran players who provided leadership to the squad like Johnson, Back and Dallaglio have all gone, and the list of others who participated in that final in 2003 who have disappeared off the scene includes Woodman, Hill, West, Leonard, Moody, Bracken, Catt and Balshaw. The World Cup victory is an increasingly distant memory, and England's post-2003 results are a far better indication of the situation they're in now than that spectacular win on the back of what was one of the most formidible forward lines in modern rugby. The prognosis is decidedly not good, and unfortunately we don't have to wait until next year to work that out.
Yep and quarterfinals and out is most certainly not a proper exit for England rugby. The idea of "as long as we don't lose to the USA" is a football mentality, where England are fighting to remain in the top tier of football powers. The pyramid of rugby is very tiny as its top point and England should be looking to be at the top with their playing base, funds and resources.
Fair enough, but the tread title suggests that there is a systemic problem with English Rugby. (By the way, as an Irish-American, I'm very put out by having to defend anything English.) I'm just suggesting that they're faced with the problems of retiring players and a run of bad form. Deferring to the superior knowledge of the posters on this board, I would suggest that four years (the interim between the most noteworthy rugby championship above all) is the grace period. I just suggested that an ignominious output in France - such as a loss to the United States, with her lack of a professional league - would be the end of said grace period.
Bad form caused by having a cabbage for coach as well as a lack of overall skill in English rugby. Problems are more than bad luck.