The England 'Other Sports' thread

I doubt any of them actually believe what they say either. You can usually always see promising signs when a team is actually building towards something amidst bad results and even then, an England team that's making progress likely wouldn't lose 4/5 games in a Six Nations series.

Whatever it is that makes those in the media so terrified of being critical is so culturally damaging. You could argue the toxic positivity around the rugby team is even worse than the opposite because it prolongs the situation well beyond anything reasonable.

 

Forget rugby, I’m just sick of the loser mentality in English sport more broadly. We should have high standards and make changes when they are not met. In reality, they only ever get made when we hit rock bottom or have a disaster.

If we take cricket as an example, there is absolutely no way a McCullum would have survived this long if he’d been the coach of Australia.

Unfortunately it reflects a wider cultural and societal issue in the country that people are too content with mediocrity, and it’s this mentality as a whole that is causing the country to fall apart.

 

And when success happens it is often sabotaged because of complaints from those who can’t hack it.

 

“I’m the right man for the job.”

******** off borthwick, ******** off.

 

Deference is a big problem. You can’t question the coach who the ******** are you, you must be right.

Secondly in sport it’s cultural but not what you think. You see countries who see us as rivals get gee’d up for games against us. The heads of the FA and unions, as well as a significant significant amount of fans do not care about any rivalry and are sick of it.

the only games they care about at all, regardless of any results is… can we win the World Cup? Have we got the bottle?

what they are actually saying is… can I go into work with my colleagues and show in an argument that is without a doubt that England are the best and you can never query it. Can’t ********ing stand it, and it’s completely rife… it’s literally rife. The amount of fans who do not care about the 6 nations and only care about semi finals of world cups, and see every game bar that semi final as just friendlies is infuriating. Why the ******** do you watch sport then?

It’s all about winning the argument and looking good for social media. And that’s it.

 

Ben Youngs is very good here and it's the first time I've heard a former player really dig in with the criticism. Just a shame it's contrasted with Dan Cole taking a more typically moderate stance.

 

Cole is usually good but yeah, it's annoying here and it's like he's trying to find excuses to defend Borthwick.

It's something you see too often in punditry and it happens in football too. If you don't have the courage to be impartial there's no point in going into the field because you can't do your job properly.

 

Steve Borthwick will not be sacked. The RFU have decided he has their full backing!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/cgl5p5998jyo

 

India flying again in the T20 final, putting a bit of perspective on their scoring against us.
92-0 after 6, with 65 from the last three overs.

 

I think they were always going to make this public stance. He'll get the summer series to try and show progression but if we get more of this the RFU will be under severe pressure to make a change.

 

Particularly as the Summer Matches are now part of the new Nations Championship and will be free to air on ITV. First up will be South Africa at Ellis Park! After that it’s Fiji in Liverpool and then Argentina in Santiago del Estero. Then Australia, Japan and New Zealand at Twickenham followed by a placing match (Or if we suddenly improve the final) also at Twickenham.

 

I doubt the ICC will complain.

 

This is really why the time to make a change is now. I know the World Cup is next year but a new manager would have tonnes of games to prepare. They'd have like 15 games until the first WC match.

 

If you've watched the IPL that's basically what all pitches are like, got to be honest it's not my idea of a good match. Not sure how much rigging went on, think that's the default pitch Indian groundsman prepare.

 

IPL fans might like it when it's just raining sixes, but most people want to see a contest between bat and ball. I suppose part of it is down to attendance, and it's not always easy to appreciate great bowling at the stadium, where's everyone can see when the ball clears the boundary.