Robbie Henshaw was Ireland's top tackler for a third game in a row. Unbelievable stuff from the young lad!

He doesn't sing either of them! Never bothered me.

Haha it was a joke

But that's why my aunt's partner hates him.

Was a good day of sport for me with the Reds winning as well.

I recently watched England v New Zealand from 1967. What a different game. No lifting in the line outs, the scrums were over in an instant, and the players weren't all built like brick out houses. What really surprised me though was that Twickenham wasn't even full, and I don't think England played New Zealand very often in those days.

I did think the goal kicking was comical, with the players all using toe punts, Surely someone must have realised that it is much easier and more accurate to use the instep

London Welsh down.
Bristol, Worcester and Yorkshire up.
Trap door shut.

The Premiership has been 'ring fenced' in all but name for a number of years now.
Best check your urinals are more than 60cm apart.

I was wondering if a total maximum team weight would be desirable or workable? Say 1250kgs? I can see it would make managing replacements a bit tricky and might may some players train down to a dangerously low weight as we have seen in the boxing ring and the F1 paddock.

Yeah a maximum weight rule would be a good idea, though I'm sure clever coaches would find a way around it. Also some are just naturally heavily/fatter than others and might have trouble staying within limits.

That is why I say a max weight for the team. If you want to play a Bastareaud at centre then you have to play other lighter than usual players in other positions to compensate. And it would encourage him to lose some of that unnecessary bulk.

I assume these comments are tongue in cheek . England used to have a player in the 80s, he was a massive fat bloke who could hardly run more than a few paces, Bill McClaren called him the greengrocer from Bristol, I just can't think of his name , any ideas.

Why did England , or in fact many teams today, just kick all re-starts to the Ireland defence. Why not chip it high to give your own side a chance of getting the ball. You must have a good chance of the defence making an error if they are put under pressure

Jammy out, hate to see ye hitting form - city were disgraceful.

I really could not understand that either, it was almost like England expected the Irish backs not to have the ability to catch the ball, go to ground and the team to recycle possession - very strange that they did not change it when the Irish kept winning the battle in the rucks.

I think the strength of the Irish scrum really affected the mentality of the English - everyone thought Ireland could be in BIG trouble - it actually turned out Ireland got the push on the majority of the time.

And England lost two crucial line outs, and incredibly declined to kick a penalty within easy distance of the posts. These were very poor errors and in effect cost England the game, or at least a good chance of winning the game.

The player from the 80s I mentioned earlier , I have just remembered , it was Phil Blakeway , from Gloucester , who Wiki claims was only 16 stone, more like 26.

Yeah to be fair she's not the only one, I've heard a good bit of talk recently about player 'participation' (so to speak) in the anthems. Some people take it seriously

Some anthems may provoke more response than others though. For example I find even myself singing along to Flower Of Scotland, real powerful stuff and it'd get anyone going. Ireland's Call just couldn't be much more uninspiring in my view. Plenty of guys don't sing along. I wouldn't myself yet I'd belt out Amhran na Bhfiann

I've heard Warburton often get stick (pretty harsh) over his lack of passion in the National Anthem. And you see guys like AWJ, Roberts and H'Penny belting it out. Different strokes and all that...

On a similar note, I notice the likes of Hartley and Vunipolas who aren't English-born always sing GSTQ. Rare enough you see that in any other team or sport.


Yeah the real old matches are far more free-flowing some cracking tries and moves! Hookers were barely much more than 13 stone, they'd do well to be under 17 now nearly

However stuff like the bolded take from those games imo anyway. It was still very much in the amateur era

My own opinion is late 90s/early 00s was the real peak of 'easy on the eye' Rugby. The game had gone professional so with high-tech systems, tactics and so on firmly in place it meant it wasn't a complete free for all, but players were still a bit lighter, which meant more free-flowing play. Players naturally had much more skill than olden days too. I do find it hard to sit down to watch international matches not including Ireland anymore. France Wales bored the arse off me- get ball, run, crash, recycle. Rinse and repeat


Tony Ward recently proposed a 13 aside idea in the Irish Independent. Take out the flankers. Arguments for and against, but I'd like to see it tried anyway.

He touched on a very interesting point though. While it's not at complete crisis point yet you do need to look ahead. Is it going to take a serious injury before player size and welfare is truly looked at?


That's the thing. Bone structure and stuff like that too play a part in weight. Like Chris Robshaw is the same height as Sean O'Brien but heavier in KG. Anyone can see O'Brien is more bulky and 'bigger'- Robshaw is far more athletic and rangy.


Liverpool have really peaked, they're the best team in the league for my money right now. Only March yet though, plenty to be played for!


England looked visibly rattled all afternoon. Dropping silly balls, giving away stupid pens, offside constantly. At one stage the ref told Attwood to go back and he still didn't heed him when chasing down kicker. When their pack didn't come up trumps it had a direct affect on the backs at times.

It's not often you can say it but I think England' best two players were in their backline. And funnily enough they were the two new boys

Ireland missed a sitter of a try early on aswell though. They had a huge overlap out wide from a ruck under the posts but instead gave it to Best who was held up. They scored a pen from it but it was a real miss. Had they got a try there I think they would have won pulling up.

England just never got going at all and only ever looked like scoring a try when Ireland were out on their feet and minus some key players.

You don't become a bad team over night though and I wouldn't panic at all yet if I were England. Tuilagi, Corbs, Lawes and launchbury will strengthen that team hugely, and home advantage is massive for RWC.

With the injury list I think most English would have taken 4 wins from the campaign. And if Ireland do slip up, England will likely take the title on Score Difference.

Still think United will give them a good rattle at Anfield.. League is over, absolutely no way Chelsea will slip () now ...

Race of top 4 is now on.

Yes, England certainly deserved to lose the game, they never looked like penetrating the Irish defence. And in the WC they will have a home advantage, though the IRB have mucked up big time by drawing England , Australia and Wales in the same group. That should never have happened, all three teams were potential semi finalists.

I mentioned before about the toe kicking penalty technique of rugby players of the 60s. I played rugby at school at that time and I am sure that we were not taught to kick in that way. We were told to kick the ball as you would a football. Maybe my rugby coach was a great innovator, but then again he told us to tackle the ankles, not the thighs. We were not under any circumstances allowed to kick a goal from a penalty, we had to run the ball, even if we were one point down in front of the post with 30 seconds remaining !

I think England a faulty gameplan which they didn't have the sense to ditch when it was found to not work. Robshaw's reasoning for going for line out instead of 3pts (that England were starting to get on top) seems a bit daft. Granted hindsight is always better after the event, but keeping the scoreboard ticking over would have been better than risk losing the (apparent) momentum.


England only started to come into the game in the last 10 minutes, the slightly bizarre thing is we could have snatched a completely undeserved win if Twelvetrees hadn't infringed by pulling player over the line (and subsequent scrum mucking things up), followed by the forward pass for Nowell's disallowed try.

I'm sure the media (beit English, Irish or whoever) will go to town on how made England rugby team is and what this all means for the World Cup. The best thing for the team to do is learn from this and make sure not the make the same mistakes in future.

Weren't they saying England's WC hopes were gone after a poorish 6N in 2007?

And yet had a better World Cup than most!

Thanks for shouldering blame on to the IRB David but it was really all our own fault in Wales. We knew the 2012 Autumn Internationals were to be pivotal in terms of World Cup ranking but we managed to lose all four games and that's what ultimately has us in the group of near certain death.

I really can't see us beating England in the biggest competition there is at Twickenham. Hoping the law of averages may give us more of a chance at beating Aus in the group. We waited years for another win over South Africa last Autumn, so it can be done against one of the traditional 'big 3'.

Lancaster to meet Prem clubs about proposed changes


Interesting, one of the clubs who would have been affected by this idea being in place 5/10 years ago are in favour now that they're established in Premiership.

This bit is very interesting.

“If we have something very similar to the French Top 14, who work very closely with the clubs in the Pro D2 [the French second tier], then it can take our game to the next level. "

Does Rowe realise that the D2 promoted club in France gets more funding than the established Top 14 clubs, in order to keep them on a better playing field?

Compare that to London Welsh, who've basically had to sue their way into the Premiership, such is the funding shortfall.
I'm not sure if London Welsh have any Permiership shares, as I think you need to be there for a few years before you get any crumbs. Bristol, Worcester and Leeds/Yorkshire/whatever they are calling themselves this season, have some.

The RFU have little to no interest in the Championship.

Not only that but they got humbled by SA in the groups of that exact tournament!!

And to put it into further perspective, Ireland annihilated England in Spring yet got knocked out of group at RWC while England made final, which they were unlucky enough to lose

The World Cup is a funny enough tournament in that luck plays an absolutely huge role. The 6n and Rugby championships test a teams consistency a lot more. A bad refereeing decision, off day for kicker, bad weather conditions, injuries etc can affect the outcome of the whole RWc tournament. There are so many variables

Look at SA in 07, Fiji followed by Argentina followed by an English team with zero confidence coming into the event. Talk about lucking out!

The format it has just isn't a good enough test to determine the best team in the world- imo

In an ideal world you would split the 8 teams that get out of the groups into two groups of 4 again and then make semis from top two in each. Granted time constraints ensure that'll never happen

It's far easier 'fluke' a World Cup than a 6n/rugby championship. France in 2011 was borderline farcical, lost two group matches, got by an awful English side then played the majority of their semi v 14 men and an outhalf with zero balls to take on a drop goal near the end. And probably should have won the final!!

I must admit that I was always against a closed shop, but am beginning to change my mind, especially after the London Welsh fiasco this season. I do think that should be a possibility of promotion, but I would have this after three years rather than every season and then subject to the finances , playing staff etc. and ground of the club coming up, even having a play off.

Virtually all championship sides have no hope whatsoever of competing in the first tier, but there must be a glimmer of hope for these teams to progress

I don't like the idea of a closed shop, as that just feels unfair. However a franchise system, which gives the best placed Championship side a three year licence (or something like that) at the expense of whoever is bottom in Premiership at the time could work.

I think that's sort of what happens with Super League, it allows Championship teams time to get their grounds up to standard and have some stability for poorer performing Premiership sides.

That's theory anyway, what happens in practice could be a lot worse.