Rugby World Cup

[PaulWinch again]

Classic start to England World Cup bid, poor display but the win was what mattered.

[Jon Crofts]

We will get refereed out of this if were not careful, southern hemisphere refs just don't get it.

[cheltenhamlion]

Brice Lawrence and Jonathan Kaplan are genuinely reprehensible officials.

[Dave Summers]

Brice Lawrence and Jonathan Kaplan are genuinely reprehensible officials.

Add any Irish official to that as well.

Dreadful game of rugby and as I said earlier in this thread, I fear we won't move forward until this whole obsession with Jonny is done and dusted.   To be fair it wasn't just him, but the no 10 is the fulcrum of the team and sets the whole game plan up.   He just stands too bloody deep and is giving his outside backs no chance whatsoever as they are getting ball well behind the gainline.   For all Flood's faults, at least he stands flat and commits players and funnily enough, Ashton appears to see more of the ball as well.

Appears to me that half the team want to play one style of Rugby and the other half want to go fast and wide.  At the moment, we aren't playing either very well.

Still, a win is a win and we have time to improve.  We HAVE to improve

[UK Redsox]

Sorry but I don't agree with the criticism of today's Ref.

The teams were told prior to the tournament that the Refs would be looking at specific areas for offences (eg being offside or going to ground at a ruck).

England just kept on doing just that and were correctly penalised.

[cheltenhamlion]

They bloody weren't. And anyway, those two refs I mentioned are a pair of over officious, play to the crowd, wankers.

[PaulWinch again]

Bryce Lawrence is an absolute shocker, so is the other Kiwi ref Steve Jones(I think). He's an absolute disgrace.

[TheSandman]

Who was reffing the Scotland game last night? I thought he did well (And yes I was sad enough to stay up til 4 to watch it). Never liked Kaplan. Always seems to be a bit of a knob to me.

[PaulWinch again]

It's strange most of the big sides are struggling a bit. As far as England go, I think people are getting a bit carried away because we've had by far the hardest first game(with the exception of Wales) and we got through it.

[spangley1812]

It's strange most of the big sides are struggling a bit. As far as England go, I think people are getting a bit carried away because we've had by far the hardest first game(with the exception of Wales) and we got through it.

I would agree Paul and take into a/c the ref as well and a win is a win. I reckon the Argies may beat the Scots..........

[VillaZogmariner]

On the plus side, I don't think England can play that badly again this tournament.

[UK Redsox]

Uh oh, looks like the Forest's own Wayne Barnes is going to be at the centre of another refereeing controversy because he didn't ask for the TV official to look at whether James Hook's penalty went over.

[PaulWinch again]

Really unlucky for Wales.

[VillaZogmariner]

I take it it went over?

[Jon Crofts]

I take it it went over?

Nope it missed, nothing to see here, move along.