How to deal with 'diving' at St. James Park as Nigel Owens (ref) advises a Scottish Rugby player to come back in two weeks if he wants to dive
England paid the price for years of boring forward power orientated rugby. You then produce two shining examples of great ball players in Joseph and Ford and either don't select them (Ford), or put them outside some clunker who can't pass (Joseph). I feel sorry for the supporters and for the team....but years of cheering scrum penalties (still seen as a major attacking weapon....yes...incredible as that is) and endless catch and drive lineouts and that's the summary of 'winning' rugby got you where you are. Newsflash....when other teams can match England for power, and don't care about crash ball carriers like Vunipola and Burgess....England struggle. Hopefully England might adapt....Christ when the coaches scanned the world for 'the missing link' they only looked to Burgess (fantastic player though he is in league) and ignored Eastmond, Slade, Burrell?! As an aside, that Aussie performance was immense, they'd have pumped any team in the World last night.
I agree, but the modern game just thwarts a good running side. Wales of the Barry John, Gareth Edwards etc, just wouldn't get a chance to run today like then. As great as they were!
Sorry buddy, I just don't buy that - the Guinness Premiership is attritional nonsense for good parts of the year - the one shinning light of running rugby, Bath, were thwarted by teams content to close out and 'not loose' - which is why the calls for not going to the corner last were wrong as it maps that 'no risk' approach. Whilst the Pro 12 is (with the exception of the Irish) largely unsuccessful in the Heineken (or whatever it's now called) - it has produced 3 countries that are in to the Quarter finals. England need to either expand the top flight, or simply ring fence the premiership and promote the ' you'll score points, we'll score more than you' that the Southern Hemisphere guys thrive on. Twickenham is the sole stadium where scrums have the crowds on their feet, where catch and drives from 60 yards out are massively cheered. Most teams can do both of these, and plenty of other things too. Time to throw of the conservative nonsense and let the few (and I mean few as believe me, the picking of gym monsters over actual rugby players is endemic across the game) play ball, there are some extremely talented kids out there.
A passionless display by England last night; they really looked like they'd rather have been somewhere else. Very unimpressed.
