International Rugby

[luke:lamf]

Red Roses win the Grand Slam. Awesome forwards

Got to be worth a bet for the World Cup

I was annoyed to have something clash with it, so missed it. Seeing as they've recently trashed New Zealand and bullied France yesterday (by all accounts) - the only remotely competitive teams - 'worth a bet' should really be 'almost sure thing', assuming they can get their travel plans right to not arrive in NZ knackered.

TBH though, it would be a shame if England women became a steamroller in the women's game through sheer financial advantage. The games between them, France and NZ (and Australia too to a certain degree) were / are really good entertainment and I wouldn't want to change that. In an ideal world, the other Home Nations would be able to kick on quickly, but unfortunately at the moment the Women's 6N is basically England, France and 4 Italys.

[Colhint]

The England team are bringing the rest forward. The Scots Welsh and Irish are now going to central contracts. I can't believe it took the Welsh so long seeing it's their national sport. The Black ferns likewise. To be honest I was concerned about yesterday, seeing we were without Sarah Hunter, captain and number 8, Abby Dow winger, broke her leg in the Ireland game. And a partially fit Poppy Cleal. All regular starters. This was Frances big chance. And they blew it on penalty count.
 If you look at it one way you could say we have beaten the top four in the world this season over five games something like 300 points to 50 culmulatively . However 4 were at home and NZ and Canada haven't played for 18 months due to covid. NZ have employed serious coaches this year including Graham Henry. So the world cup should be a bit closer. We will still win it.
Marlie Packed should win player of the 6 nations, Poppy did last year.
England have the last 3 women's   world player of the year, and for the first time ever, Simon Middleton the women's coach, won the world coach of the year, men or women.

Now you can argue about the finances, but they are not too much more than some of the rest, but aside from that this team is something special.

And to put it into perspective regarding the money, plenty of the girls don't have a monies family behind them. Marie Packer a plumber 3 years ago, now a contracted player can't afford to take her partner and son to the world cup in NZ.

[luke:lamf]

Yes, I agree that in the long run the others will catch up, especially once they all professionalise, and expect the Women's 6N to be a belting continuation to the Men's 6N through April & May going forward.

[paul_e]

It isn't just about money, England have at least 3 exceptional players in this team who would be obvious picks in the 'best world XV of all time', it's a bit like if Brazil had been able to pick Pele and Ronaldo as strike partnership with Ronaldinho on the wing. Having that much quality in the team together drags standards up massively.

Of course professionalism and central contracts have also helped massively meaning players like Scarratt, Bern and Hunter can reach their huge potential.

[luke:lamf]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/may/09/rugby-powers-talks-new-global-north-v-south-tournament

Am I the only one who sees the idea of a biennal North v South tournament as a dilution of the RWC ? Whilst the idea of a solid day of rugby - "it is understood there is some support for a finals day involving all teams, rather than a single fixture between the top two sides" - sounds great, it all strikes me as being analagous to FIFA's cash grab to hold the football World Cup every two years.

[cdbearsfan]

Sounds better than friendlies.

[luke:lamf]

In completely unsurprising news, Manu Tuilagi has failed his MOT yet again and will not go on tour to Australia. I predict he will be fit enough for 2023 6N, do just enough to be an obvious choice at 12/13, then break down similarly about 30 seconds before England's first game of the RWC. Why on Earth Eddie Jones is even bothering to look at him these days is beyond me.

[dcdavecollett]

Speculation that the Northants lad, Freeman, might get a run.

[paul_e]

Speculation that the Northants lad, Freeman, might get a run.

I hope so, he's a bit special, his angles of running and ability to find soft shoulders is superb.

I'm also a big fan of having 1 winger be versatile enough to play 3-4 positions and he ticks that box.

[dcdavecollett]

So does Jack Nowell, if he can stay fit.

[UK Redsox]

Phil Bennett, dead at 73.

Oh, those sidesteps

Both the tackles on JPR would, quite rightly, be red cards now

[UK Redsox]

Danny Care back in the England squad

[nigel]

Danny Care back in the England squad

Really like Danny Care, but this is quite an odd one, unless they’ve got injury issues at 9

[paul_e]

I suspect it's because Youngs is missing and he likes to have an experienced 9 available. The problem there is that the reason we only have 2 experienced 9s is because he's spent 7 years picking Youngs and then older players as cover so people like Robson have been ignored and Mitchell is probably 10-12 caps short of what he should have.

[Gareth]

The 2021 Lions documentary starts on Sunday night on ITV - obviously won’t be as good as the John Bentley running around with a camcorder ones but should still be interesting given all the covid stuff around the tour.