Indeed. They play for free for England, good of them considering they don't want to be there according to certain people.

skill wise he is one of the best players in prem let alone national team. give him a chance,if he fails he fails,but lets not drop him for no reason.

Wow they give their England paychecks to charity, I was actually commenting on their club paychecks, you'd think playing for their national team and representing their country would be more than enough. Just hope it's not performance related.

Compare them to the England Rugby Team who aren't paid anywhere near what the football team are a paid, either club or international, then you see pride in playing for your country.

It is, that is the bloody point, they give the England paychecks to charity so only play because they want to play for the team and represent their country.

And in what way do the England rugby team show their pride? Is it the tossing dwarves and diving off ferries?

Yes, like when they went out and got p*ssed in New Zealand.

If Messi is as consistently disappointing for Argentina as Rooney is for England then he should absolutely not be a permanent fixture of the Argentine team. I see no point in picking big names just for the sake of it. If the Argentine team were more effective without Messi then so be it, pick someone else. Some players are amazing for their club but nothing special when you put them in an international team of players they're not so used to playing with.

10 years ago. A lot changes in that amount of time.

Ah, our brave, passionate rugby boys.

They're clearly so full of pride in playing for their country that absolutely none of them forego their international careers by buggering off to France. For more money.

What a lesson for our footballers.

Was he injured pre 2012?

Genuine question. I don't remember.

This rugby master race thing is getting old.

And he's fully fit this time for the first time in 10 years. If he's no good then judge him on that.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...2-7769629.html

Can the 'rugby am de bestest!!!' crew just go discuss it in the rugby foru- ah yeah.

Couldn't agree more, old bean

Haha you have to love the nonsense threads from the World Cup bandwagon brigade, don't you.

Haha I was trying to find a thread started by you. I couldn't find one.
You could always make your very first thread ever on DS if it bothers you that much.
Go on make a thread. It's only a bit of fun.

I'm more concerned Rooney hasn't got over the nervous breakdown he seemed to have at the last World Cup. He couldn't trap the proverbial bag of wet cement.

Injured and clearly not fit.

Just how fit do you need to be to trap a ball?

More a case of being paralised by anxiety.

To be honest you can't really just single out Rooney in 2010, the whole team was rubbish.

(And he was injured).

Well the thread IS about Rooney. And he WAS shockingly bad.

And as I've enquired, how fit do you need to be to trap a ball - we are talking simple basic stuff here.

Poor old Rooney picks up all the stick when England do badly - there are 10 other players.

What would happen if he scores but we lose 2-1?

I imagine if you review the tapes he trapped the odd ball. Rooney has proven himself in a major tournament before.

Aren't we just.

He could be sent off. Honestly I think he is a bit of a target for other teams to try and wind up and I think his value to the English team is not what it once was, even then he nearly always proved to be relatively disappointing in an England shirt. I think the time had already come for him to be not offered a team place. I know a lot of people will not like the idea but for one reason or another he has disappointed his country too many times. As he has got a place just keep him on the bench.