God I hate being right all the time….!

Sadly, as predicted on these pages:
I think however that we will see a fairly routine victory for New Zealand by 12-15 points. I expect England to stay in touch for fifty or so minutes before the superior class of the All Blacks sees them pull away without really getting out of third gear.
Time needed for [...]

Can the Not-So-Sweet Chariot Swing Any Lower?

I really enjoyed the game on Saturday.
Why?
Because my money was on Argentina. With the weather forecast looming and knowledge of England’s poor out of hand kicking, I viewed the 5/1 on offer as fair game and well it proved. I laid off mid-game at 5/2, job done.
And thank goodness because without the added financial incentive, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]