Welcome Argentina!!

Argentina. Land of Corned Beef, Eva Peron, the Tango, and Los Pumas rugby team. Whilst their footballing counterparts, driven by Maradonna and primadonnas, have twice won the World Cup, the Argentine rugby team has never dominated on the world stage. They face a permanent struggle in fact. They have no annual tournament to compete in [...]

Louis Deacon – Central to the Cause

Louis Deacon plays a very important part in the England first XV hence his continued selection for the Argentina game this weekend.
His role – to make Steve Borthwick look good in comparison.

Ambition 0 Inhibition 1

On Friday and Saturday, I was having some doubts about not going.
On Sunday, boy was I pleased that I hadn’t wasted my money on that drivel.
What is so completely wrong with the setup that the same problems which beset Andy Robinson and Brian Ashton can continue to afflict the supposed clean start of Martin Johnson?
We [...]

Return of King Jonny Fails to Turn Aussie Tide

For the first 10 minutes of yesterday’s match, it was as if we had been set into a time machine, back six years. Here was Jonny Wilkinson, dropping a goal, kicking a penalty, ticking the scoreboard over, giving England an early lead, a lead from which they would press on and suffocate the opposition. But [...]

Can England Beat the Wallabies today?

OK, so Australia are in disarray. They have lost all but one of their tests this year, the players are disillusioned in the coach, and attendances are collapsing. On top of that they have just hopped off a plane from Japan and now have to pitch up at Twickenham. So all England have to do [...]

Welcome back Steve Thompson!

Congratulations to Banjo on his selection for tomorrow’s test match against Australia, and welcome back to International colours. When he retired in 2007 due to a serious neck injury, few would have thought such a comeback was possible. Dom and I met Steve Thompson outside the Stade de France about an hour after England had [...]

Not going doesn’t feel so great…

With England’s first autumn international just one day away, the decision not to go – made on sound economical grounds – doesn’t feel so great.
We’ve got the usual buzz, got the butterflies, not got the tickets. (You can still get tickets from Ticketmaster).
My fellow blogger Matt is well up for it.
What do I expect from [...]

It’s Autumn, It’s Australia, it Must Mean a Cracker!

Whilst England can claim only two victories on Australian soil in their entire history (albeit one was rather special!), at Twickenham their record is rather better. Matches between the two teams in TW1 tend to be close run and exciting matches. Here I recall some of the best Autumn Internationals of recent years.
1998
England 11 – [...]

Elite Squad – four released

Four released from the elite squad.
Armitage, Blaze, Kay and Strettle have been returned to their clubs.
Surprise over Armitage who is the only genuine 7 in the squad (come on Lewis, who are you kidding?).
And very surprised over Strettle who seems to operate in a different space and time dimension to other eligible English wings but [...]

Elite Squad

England’s revised elite player squad:
Forwards:
Steffon Armitage (London Irish), David Barnes (Bath Rugby), Duncan Bell (Bath Rugby), Richard Blaze (Leicester Tigers), Steve Borthwick (Saracens, captain), George Chuter (Leicester Tigers), Jordan Crane (Leicester Tigers), Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers), Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers), Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints), James Haskell (Stade Francais), Ben Kay (Leicester Tigers), Courtney Lawes (Northampton [...]