And the ability of England’s incredible pack. Although it kills me to say it, I’m a huge fan of Wilkinson. He is the most complete out-half I’ve ever seen. To make matters worse, irishgirl is very wrong in that there’s a lot more to England than Wilkinson.
After we get the piffling matter of the French out of the way, we’re just going to have to beat England at rugby. I’d prefer Jonny to be conscious as he sees Ireland head for the final. I’ll wake up soon.
I agree. Wilko’s allowed to be as good as he can be by virtue of the space, time and protection he gets from his forwards. Put him in a team with an average pack and he wouldn’t be able to express his full range of abilities, or as often, or to such effect; Fred without Ginger, or Ginger without Fred . . Macca and Lennon, Cheeck without Chong.
And the thing is, in modern Rugby, the backs are often the forwards; how often do you see the likes of (winger) Cohen or Jason Robinson first to a breakdown, or steaming into the ruck ?
Classic example might be that drop goal vs. Sarf Efrica that took the pressure off at the right moment; where did the space and time come from - and he had loads of it - for Wilco to put that away ?
This is absolutely not a one-man show. Wilco needs the class of the team as much as they need him.
. . . fwiw, I remember that Samoan forearm, arm, body weight, baseball bat (that would have taken his head off) missing him by . . . not very much . . . Dear God, let that be as close as the get in the next three games . . .
Sorry! . . . to Boo Boo Foo, yep, the griping about England’s mauling is very amusing. Oz’ralians moaning about another team playing to the rules, “they really push the limit sometimes regarding the law” - stop it, you’ll have me in tears!
Fact is, just like Wilco in his way, no one else can maul – while being legally bound to a team mate - like Neil Back; it’s legal, it’s, of it’s kind, beautiful and I like just about everyone else, can’t figure out how he and the team do it to such effect.
Which is nice.
And, as a general proposition, sure England are “arrogant”; everyone hates England because everyone needs to hate England* for their own reasons*. That’s never going to change because people need to inspire themselves, so you’ll always find a pretext from somewhere. It’s predicable and unoriginal, but it whips up the troops.
In truth, they’re a bunch of blokes like any other. Or was that just me being arrogant ?
Are you seriously suggesting that current rugby players regularly commit offences that would result in prison sentences?
What about the citing procedure, using TV replays if necessary?
Your assertions might have been true 20 years ago, but rugby has changed a lot since then.
Whew, quite a match. 29-9 to NZ. South Africa could’ve played better I thought and Carlos Spencer was brilliant as usual. I’m looking forward to a Southern hemisphere semi-final.
Oh the Scots are frightening the Aussies!!!
YAY the AB’s
The Australians looked better in the second half and won comfortably. The backline still looked disjointed, but Gregan the old and slow continued to show a bit after a good second half last game and Larkham showed glimpses (I’m still of the view that if he finds form, Australia can win). Sailor must surely be dropped. Smith was superb again.
When they went out to line up for the anthems and the handshakes they lined up on the wrong side, meaning that there was no carpet in front of them. There was a delay while this was explained to the English captain. He told the team not to move. The Irish President then had to walk on the grass with her nice shoes rather than the carpet that was laid on. Not a big deal IMO but a snub non the less. If a team did that to Liz II could you imagine the uproar in the tabloids? We had a smaller version of that over here.
3.5 hours to go. 10 cans of Guinness left in the fridge, a quarter of hash and I’m wearing sunglasses.
COME ON IRELAND.
sigh there’s no team for me to support anymore. Being neutral sucks.
Maybe I should offer my services as a fan to support another team?
3 hours to go, I’m in the pub waiting for the match to start and all of a sudden I start feeling like shite 
SO here I am at home drinking all the orange juice in the house and an echinacea tablet hoping I don’t get sick as a dog as I have a wake to go to tomorrow.
Lets go Ireland!
Anyone see the Ireland match?
Crash and burn. 43-21. Whitewash. Wipeout. [Insert cliché here]
They played so fucking well at the end, three dramatic tries besting a complacent and exhausted French defense, but holy god what the FUCK happened in the first half?! 27-0 by half time. Fuck. Also, I feel they wasted several point opportunities by playing possession rather than going for easily kicked penalties. But it was hopeless anyway, I suppose, so why not go for the tries?
Poor Keith Wood was bawling when they interviewed him afterwards, and I have to admit to holding back a few tears myself.
Oh well, at least I have dual allegiance. Come on England!
Although the injection of Catt made a big difference, on that performance England won’t beat France . But we all know the French could lose to a scratch team of Dopers if they’re not in the mood.
The Welsh can walk away very happy from this Cup.
jjimm , for a fair bit of the England Wales match you must have been wishing for a triple allegiance. 
England 28 Wales 17
Wales with three tries to one.
New Zealand must be choking on their wet-bux, only France could be expected to stop them based on this weekend’s form.
Balls, I missed it. Having gone to college in Cardiff, I do also have a great deal of affection for the Welsh team, and I’m glad they’re able to come home with their heads held high.
Two of the most exciting games I watched in this World Cup involved Wales (unfortunately losing). I can assure you I’m not very happy. Neither are a lot of my compatriots. There was a time when Wales had one of the best teams in the world, and I want to see those days come again.
Plucky little losers doesn’t sit very well with most Welsh people. (Bring back Max Boyce I say. At least we won a few games in those days)
We still haven’t had any major upsets in this competition, is there any room for one now?
V
I reckon the Poms must be feeling a bit nervous about this weekend’s game.
Clive Woodward said himself that they won’t beat the French if they play like they have been… and the French can smell the blood of Englishmen!!
Well my dear prison dodger, psychologically speaking, Les Blues are already beaten: Eight weeks ago, England destroy France
All England have to do is to not let them play a running game, imho. Oh, and crush their pack.
Fwiw, I think it’s about time the old men woke up now; I hope Richard Hill’s and Josh Lewsey’s hamstrings clear up (they’re both important now, Hill is crucial), I hope they simplify the tactics (today was silly) and I hope Wilco doesn’t end up in the funny farm, that guy is too stressed for his own good.
Onwards!
Btw, how does the most experinced team in the history of the sport motivate itself when it peaked three months ago . . . these guys should be retired already and looking at their medals on the mantle piece; unexplored mental territory . . .
Agreed on all counts - New Zealand met us with strength up front and South Africa simply had nothing to offer anywhere on else on the pitch. A sad day, but at least we managed to shrug off the “dirty” epithet during this tournament - long may that last…
Grim
Now that, kind sir, is wishful projectionism if ever I’ve seen it. Any team can get beaten decisively, and be downcast about it - but as you start winning games again, you revisit the previous loss and examine the video tape and you work out where you let yourself down. And as you continue winning with precision and cool professionalism you no longer have any fear whatsoever about that previous loss - and THAT is precisely what the French have done in this tournament. They’ve sailed through their pool games and quarter finals with Formula One professionalism and have totally flown under the radar the whole way. They’re a very, very complete side. England will have to play at their very best to win.
He’s stressed because he’s the playmaker and he’s young - very young for such a responsibility and for such an impending occasion. In many respects it’s an unfair amount of load for such young shoulders to carry because if he were to get injured or spend time off the park, I doubt England would be anywhere near the same side to be honest.
Nah… I think you’ll find that statistically, most of the key pairings on the park - such as halfback and flyhalf combinations, front row combinations, back three combinations - I’m pretty sure that almost all of those records are held by Southern Hemisphere teams.
Certainly, the Nick Farr-Jones - Michale Lynagh combination of 1986 thru to 1993 is a hard one to beat.
In order to resurrect this thread in time for the weekend I give you this link
which many of you may have seen, indeed, some of you may be involved with it!
It made me laugh, anyway.
Roll on the semi finals - Two fantastic games in prospect and much nail biting still to be done!