So How Was it For You? The 2008 6 Nations and England

Before the 6N started one of the more popular rugby forums was running a thread titled, “Your tournament hopes and fears”. It asked fans to state their ideal tournament, and their nightmare scenario.
My ideal realistic outcome was to lose no more than one match and to finish no worse than second. My nightmare scenario was to [...]

England 33 – 10 Ireland : Ireland ahead in race to ditch coach

In many ways, this was a strange game.
Ireland came out of the blocks like greyhounds, racking up ten unanswered points before taking their foot completely off the gas. It was almost as if they realised that a thumping victory would extend Eddie O’Sullivan’s reign so they showed what they could do if they wanted to [...]

Well Done Wales…Again

Firstly, no sour grapes, congratulations to Wales on a well deserved Grand Slam. Who would have thought just a few months ago when they bombed out of the World Cup to Fiji that here they would be having swept all in the 6N before them. Who would believe as well that they would have completed [...]

The One that Got Away… Edwards Happy with Wales

And why not? He has just helped coach them to a Slam in his first season in charge, and is hailed as a demi-god in the principality (instead of being offered a derisory job such as Saxons coach…). It seems he is happy to stay where he is until 2010!! This alone should be enough to [...]

Separated at birth – Steve McClaren and Brian Ashton

In The Times today,Simon Barnesmanges to effectively put into words what so many others have been feeling or trying to say less successfully.
The similarities between McClaren and Ashton are striking – good No.2s promoted beyond their abilities to head honcho, inconsistent and illogical selection, big name dropping without the necessary wholesale changes, disillusionment among the [...]

Lack of Hard Men Makes England a Soft Touch

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t advocate dirty play, but I do like a dirty player. OK dirty is the wrong word, I like a nasty player. Every good team has one (Fancy messing with Bakkies Botha?). Every team needs one. The enforcer as journos call them, the one you can thump as hard as [...]

Putting the Boot in

One of the most disappointing aspects of England’s defeat to Scotland was the over reliance, correction, total reliance, on kicking as a game “plan”. Although Jonny Wilkinson has been roundly criticised (and I shall return to him in a minute), the one instance that for me encapsulated England’s hapless afternoon occurred quite near the end [...]

England team to play Ireland 6N:2008

Cipriani in – hurrah! Wilkinson the only change – boo!
What can we say? Ashton has left enough rope to hang himself. It’s clear to me that he’s as clueless at selection as

Scotland 15 – 9 England: Another low for English rugby

England travelled to Murrayfield with no ambition other than to continue their suffocating game plan which served them so well effectively in France.
According to the BBC, Ashton was furious at the England display:

“They just played the game of rugby better than we did in terms of their execution of the core skills. “Their kicking game [...]

Dream coaching team for Lions 2009

Forget all the talk of McGeechan, Gatland, Edwards or O’Sullivan, can I be the first to advocate the dream coaching team of Brian Ashton and Frank Hadden.
Prepare for a feast of kicking and for forwards and backs to interchangeably run slowly into brick walls over and over again.