RWC 2023

[Worthy4England]

^^ If they're keeping the playbook closed, they've been doing a stunningly good job of it for about 18 months...

As it stands at the moment, we'd play the winner or runner-up of group C, in the quarters - which is likely to be Wales, Fiji or Australia. Both Wales and Fiji beat us in the warm-ups (although we beat Wales too) - so not going to be a gimmie - a tough game awaits. I've not noticed Ireland, Saffers, All Blacks and France holding back too much (although France played a weaker team against Uruguay.)

Just for reference, our 2003 winning RWC, our scores in the group games were: 84-6 v Georgia; 25-6 v Saffers; 35-22 v Samoa and 111-13 v Uruguay...

[TANGODANCER]

Guardian and co straight in with kicking England despite us seeing off a decent Japanese side. Might just be we're plaing horses for courses stuff, although I'd like to see a bit more of the stuff we played in the final third last game. Talk now of playing Ford, Farrell and Marcus Smith all in the same team. That might make for some entertaining rugby.

[TANGODANCER]

Tough on George Ford being left out, but I suppose,were ,resting him and expecting a win. Marcus Smith in. Have we had a flying wnger/full back since Mike Brown? Where's Anthony Watson at? Que sera,,,

[Worthy4England]

Tough on George Ford being left out, but I suppose,were ,resting him and expecting a win. Marcus Smith in. Have we had a flying wnger/full back since Mike Brown? Where's Anthony Watson at? Que sera,,,

If they're going to rotate a few. Today's game is going to be the one to do it in...

[Worthy4England]

Decent (if expected) performance. Hopefully they can get some "bounce" from that...

[TANGODANCER]

Decent (if expected) performance. Hopefully they can get some "bounce" from that...

71-0 Impressive score but can't judge too much from it. Arundell was a surprise.

[Worthy4England]

Great win for Ireland.

[Prufrock]

Tonga and Romania must be wincing

[TANGODANCER]

On reflection, there were quite a lot of positives to take despite the score. One was that on the few occasions the opposition broke they did look dangerous and our defence were rock-solid. I sincerely hope Chile aren't too disheartened by the score and can recover. Nobody surely wants that chasm in class. Next game could be entirely different, but well done England for a devasating display.

[TANGODANCER]

Great win for Ireland.

Indeed. Erin go Braugh..

[Worthy4England]

Bit torn on tonight's 20:00 game. Can they both lose?

[Worthy4England]

Well that was a proper shoeing.

[TANGODANCER]

Well that was a proper shoeing.

I turned it off in the last quarter. When I think of the Oz of ten years ago...They just had no answer . Not taking away from Wales, but oh, Australia....

[TANGODANCER]

Roman Empire falling again; this time to the All Blacks. 49-3 at half-time.

[Worthy4England]

The Roman Empire fell a while ago TD. I reckon the ABs were just saying "don't forget we're here" and they did it pretty impressively!

[TANGODANCER]

The Roman Empire fell a while ago TD. I reckon the ABs were just saying "don't forget we're here" and they did it pretty impressively!

Aye, you could say that. A rel walloping. The Ialians just had no answer to the sheer power of N.Z.

[Worthy4England]

Last games before the tourney begins...

Wales and England home and hosed for quarter finals, along with probably Ireland.

Scotland have a mammoth task...not only would they need to beat the current World no1 team, they'd have to do it by more than 8 points and without the Irish getting a BP for tries...not looking very likely.

The whole draw has made this a bit of a farce in terms of lopsiding the tournament..Ireland, NZ, SA and France all in same groups. This was based on where they finished in the previous world cup in a draw that took place 1st Jan 2020...This is about as dumb a way of doing it as you can get...had the draw taken place in 2022 when the qualifiers had completed, no way do you get that draw.

We have the bizarre scenario that the current top 4 ranked sides will all meet in the quarters, whereas they should meet in the semis (obviously discounting upsets).

In the other half of the draw, you're going to likely get 2 from England, Wales, Fiji and probably Argentina (but could be Japan), so the semis are going to be 2 of the top 4 (having eliminated the other 2 of the top 4), playing 2 teams ranked 6th - 12th.

The poor Jocks, who've been good for maybe the last 18 months, don't make the quarters because they were in a group made three years ago that had the 1st and 4th ranked sides in it and to make it worse, if the same principles are followed, they'd be in pot 3 again next time, two of the top 4 will again be in pot 2 and 2 that should be in pots 2 or 3 will be in pot 1.

The really amusing scenario is should the Scots manage the "unthinkable" and beat Ireland by the necessary margins, Ireland who probably haven't been out of the top 2 for a few years would end up in pot 3, behind one of Argentina and Japan and likely Fiji, too.

Sort it out RWC.

[TANGODANCER]

Starts on tv just as the Whites game finishes, Come on England...
...

[TANGODANCER]

" The Great Escape"..was never more appropriate. Plaudits to Samoa,

[Worthy4England]

" The Great Escape"..was never more appropriate. Plaudits to Samoa,

For sure, plaudits to Samoa. But how shockingly, appalingly poor were we? I would not be at all surprised if Fiji didn't beat us next week...