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 [...]

Autumn Internationals Round Three – Welcome New Zealand

New Zealand. Land of One Tree Hill, lamb, Russel Crowe and of course, the incomparable New Zealand All Black rugby team. Now, if there is one team that a fragile England do not want to face, it is New Zealand. If it was France pitching up tomorrow I would be certain of a home win, [...]

Lewsey Wades into England Coaching Regime

The pressure on the England coaching regime is getting serious. England legend Josh Lewsey has waded in with a scathing attack to match his famous Matt Rogers tackle: “Mike Ford didn’t win anything, while John Wells never played international rugby. Wells’s achievements as a coach are terrible – what justifies these people keeping their jobs?”
What indeed. [...]

Despair

After the latest team announcement, all I now need is for the RFU to sell the naming rights to Twickenham and my misery will be complete.
“And a warm welcome this afternoon to the Nike Rugby @ Twickenham Stadium to watch England vs the All Blacks.”

Erinle Selection

The selection of Erinle at inside centre guarantees that, apart from a couple of inside passes to Cueto hitting the line from fullback, the ball is going to get to 12 and no further.
To be fair, despite Geraghty at 12, in the past couple of games the ball wasn’t exactly being fired out wide but [...]

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 [...]

Moody the Man Again?

One of the sub-plots of yesterday’s clash between London Irish and Leicester was the battle of the open sides. The old nutter Lewis Moody versus the young wrecking ball Steffon Armitage. One of them is almost certain to line up for England against Australia in two weeks time, so who is the best bet to [...]

England Injuries – Crisis or Blessing?

Who would be a coach eh? It is bad enough for us pub selectors to try and pick a team from the rubble of the EPS, so imagine how it must feel for Jonno as he sits through each weekend with chewed nails and winces with each injury report. No sooner does he write out [...]

Ah, Autumn Rugby is Back!

As the nights draw in and the condensation starts to form on car windows in the morning, thoughts start to turn to getting the overcoats out of the back of the wardrobe and putting the lawn mower away for the year. Yes, Autumn is upon us, November is nearly here, and November means only one [...]