Skip to main content

An early World Cup farewell


 http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/oct/10/englands-henry-slade-shines-in-early-world-cup-farewell-against-uruguay


England’s fans will look back in anger at World Cup after hollow victory 

                                             

 

England’s Jack Nowell, who scored a hat-trick of trys is, on this occasion, held up by the Uruguay defence.

England  60  -  3  Uruguay



We (England), managed to beat Fiji and Uruguay. Hardly two of the greatest rugby playing nations of the world. We did not however come any where near to beating Australia and were fortunate in only losing to Wales by 3 points.
Where does this leave English Rugby?
Either, we do not have the necessary quality of players to compete at the highest levels of the game or we do not have the managerial skills to weld our players into a formidable, ruthless machine to drive over the top of any opposition to win ball and score tries.
Now I was one of those people who raised and eyebrow when Martin Johnson was replaced by Stuart Lancaster, but I am not one of those clamoring for the immediate resignation of the Head Coach. Personally, I have always seen Dean Richards the former England number 8 and current coach of Newcastle Falcons as a very strong candidate albeit that he has not expressed an interest in the position so far. However, it is early days.
 


Newcastle Falcons director of Rugby Dean Richards


What is perfectly clear is that things cannot continue as they are. I am one of those strange (to some) people who ardently subscribe to the philosophy that there are no prizes for coming second and whoever said "it's not the winning but the taking part that counts" (I know it was Baron Pierre de Coubertin"), has never experienced the gut wrenching physical pain of watching some other party take the trophy.
We have the 6 Nations Trophy Internationals to come over the next few years leading to the next World cup in Japan in 2019. Not very far away in the overall scheme of things, so we must find the right people now to ensure that the terraces in Paris, Cardiff, Rome, Edinburgh, Dublin, Twickenham (and whatever they call them in Japan) will be ringing to the sound of Swing Low Sweet Chariot very soon.







Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Northern Ireland and Brexit. The return of "The Troubles"

Northern Ireland: police attacked in another night of disturbances | Northern Ireland | The Guardian When the "Brexit" debate was still filling our newspapers and our television screens, readers may remember why I had changed my mind since voting to leave at the referendum vote. Apart from the economic arguments, which had become crystal clear after peeling away all the lies and misrepresentations trotted out by Bozo Boris and his "Get Brexit Done" conspirators, there was always the problem of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Would it be possible to have a border between the European Union and the United Kingdom where people, goods and services could pass freely between the two nations without customs restrictions, tariffs, duties and all the other formalities? Would it be possible to have one part of the United Kingdom treated differently from other parts of the United Kingdom, particularly when Scotland for example had voted overwhe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Enough of this hysterical nonsense

  http://style.uk.msn.com/royal-baby/how-will-the-royal-baby-look-as-he-grows-up Media generated hysteria.                           This is too much. For the last 36 hours (thought it seems more like 36 days) there has been wall to wall news coverage, media and television comment and reporting, with Sky News taking first prize for frenzied minute by minute reporting from the Palace, the hospital, from a village somewhere in England, from the studio and anywhere else that Burley, Botting and company could stick a microphone into some obscure "celebrity's" face and ask for yet another banal quote. All this galvanising the mass hysteria of some elements of the public, (who the media would have you believe is the reaction of "the whole world",) with their flag waving, dancing, singing and cheering over what is after all, no more than a woman having a bab...
Post a Comment
Read more

A perverse and rather sinister media obsession to discredit, smear and undermine Jeremy Corbyn

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/venezuela-jeremy-corbyn-blasted-for-not-condemning-president-maduro-a3606156.html#commentsDiv Venezuela: Jeremy Corbyn blasted for not condemning socialist President Nicolas Maduro as violent conflict escalates There is a perverse and rather sinister obsesseion with the media and particularly television "interveiwers", in seeking to secure from Jeremy Corbyn a "condemnation" of some person or organisation or event. This time it is connected with events in Venezuela and the actions of President Nicolas Maduro and the bloody crackdown on protests against the result of last weeks poll which inaugurated a constituent assembly . The media "stories" and the interrogation by the television interviewers, are as subtle as a sledgehammer being nothing more than a variation on the "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" question, which so many repoters use in order for them to make themselves appear very ...
Post a Comment
Read more