The Rugby Union Thread

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Population

England 56m
France 64m

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Ok I’ll wade in.

England have some weird selection problems. Despite having an excellent league structure they can’t put a side on the pitch that should reach the latter stages of any tournament. They should be pushing for a 6 nation’s title every season.

They currently have problems at 8 through to 13 and also 15. The balance of players Vs play style is miles off. It’s a selection and coaching failure over a player one. I look at them and you can’t see what they’re trying to do in attack. There’s no structure.

Farrell, Vunipola, Tuilagi are examples of players where I’m honestly questioning if they are honestly the best players available and why are they picked game after game. They don’t bring anything to the side imo, and certainly don’t fit with the players round them.

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I also think stating Scotland were poor is a bit of a disservice. Ireland dismantled them yesterday.

The standout thing for in this world cup so far has been the accuracy levels of the top sides Vs the rest.

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Really looking forward to next week, Ireland v All Blacks should be a cracker

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Ireland will bottle it.

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This Ireland team seem to have a bit more about them, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Recent results against New Zealand suggest it should be a tight affair, either way.

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It will be for sure.

My head fancies Ireland for it but I have a nagging doubt that the All Blacks will do a few things new, unexpected.

My reasoning is that Ireland have become very good at winning the breakdown. Similarly the way to stop the All Blacks playing is to get to them and disrupt the breakdown. Italy for example gave them a free run there. But I also fully expect New Zealand to be 100% ready for Ireland’s attacking patterns.

I just hope that a sin bin or whatever doesn’t swing it.

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Ireland 5m

And rugby only played in half of the schools

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It’s the college system that then feeds into the club’s which then feed the region’s. It’s set up perfectly in Ireland to feed the national side.

It’s similar to South Africa and New Zealand where the colleges and universities develop the youth.

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Err this is odd

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They’ve also developed a pretty decent Southern Hemisphere pipeline helping them develop their players.

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Like every other team in 6 Nations

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They have all been known to do it. Hell, I did an internship back in the day with who Im pretty sure was our first genuine import, Hemi Taylor. But it isnt a big contributor to the Welsh side. While we have a few cross border examples of English raised players with dubious connections to Wales, that is a bit of a different situation. As for legit imports, I’m pretty sure Anscombe is the only genuine one in the World Cup squad

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What’s odd MH?

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Fiji losing and not going through more comfortably

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Fijians love to break the boundaries of convention.

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Faletau? Can’t think of any others tbf

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Toby has lived in Wales since he was in primary school. His dad moved there to finish his own career so that’s a situation similar to Thiago playing for Spain.

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The icing on the Aussie humiliation cake.

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Fiki must feel they have a good chance of getting to the next round!