Thetownend.com

Not sure if theres many others who watch this, also those who like Rugby as well as football but pretty crap how England play the USA in first World Cup game not only Saturday 8th September (same as England V Israel) however at 17.00 at the same time!

I'm rather annoyed as wanted to watch both but might have to settle for watching the Kiwis and Aussies earlier to subsidise the lack of domestic football this Saturday.

Least Swindons game is 4pm Sunday so I can at least watch the Grand Prix at 1pm start to finish!  :D

I don't watch Rugby.

Played it at school and enjoyed doing so, but as a spectator sport.........I'd rather pull my fingernails out with a pair of rusty pliers.

I don't watch Rugby.

Played it at school and enjoyed doing so, but as a spectator sport.........I'd rather pull my fingernails out with a pair of rusty pliers.

I'm definitely recording that. When is it?

Jonny Wilkinson has just been ruled out of the opener  :(

Jonny Wilkinson has just been ruled out of the opener  :(

Line up for Saturday for those who care:

Jamie Noon should be shot - he's not good enough for the England team.
Tom Rees is a bit of a risk, but otherwise not a bad team...
At least there's no Farrell  :beers:

Conversions and penalties is what Im thinking of.

Conversions won't be a problem

Oh well, he's been fucking shit since the last WC anyway.

The man is a class act, england rugby has a lot to thank the bloke for, as without him they would have been no celebrations or open top bus tour 4 years ago (which wouldn't have been a bad thing).

You mean injured Sam, not fucking shit, because he hasn't been shit at all.  The man is a class act, england rugby has a lot to thank the bloke for, as without him they would have been no celebrations or open top bus tour 4 years ago (which wouldn't have been a bad thing).

Press Release

International Rugby Board (IRB) Rugby World Cup 2007

Following complaints to the IRB about the All Blacks being allowed to motivate themselves by performing the ‘Haka’ before their games, other nations were asked to suggest pre-match rituals of their own. The IRB Rugby World Cup 2007 Organizing Committee has now agreed to the following pre-match displays:

1. The England team will chat about the weather, wave hankies in the air and attach bells to their ankles before moaning about how they invented the game and gave it to the world, but no one appreciates them.

2. The Scotland team will chant “You lookin’ at me Jimmy?” before each of them smash a bottle of beer over their opponents’ heads.

3. The Ireland team will split into two, with the Southern half performing a Riverdance, while the Northerners march the Traditional route from their dressing room to the pitch, via their opponents dressing room.

4. Unfortunately the Committee was unable to accept the Welsh proposal to form a choir and sing Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual”.

5. Argentina will unexpectedly invade a small part of opposition territory, claim it as their own “Las In-Goals-Areas” and have to be forcibly removed by the match stewards.

6. Two members of the South African team will claim to be more important than the other 13 whom they will imprison between the posts. These two will then go about selecting the best parts of the pitch to settle on and claim that they have been there for centuries.

7. The Americans will not attend until almost full time. In future years they will amend the records to show that they were in fact the most important team in the tournament and Hollywood will make a blockbuster film called ‘Saving Flanker Ryan’.

8. Five of the Canadian team will sing La Marseillaise and hold the rest of the team to ransom.

9. The Italian team will arrive in Armani gear, sexually harass the female offi cials and then prepare pasta dishes, which they will flog to the crowd for a fortune.

10. The Japanese will shock fans buy demonstrating how to capture a whale for scientific research buy harpooning an opposition prop.

11. The French won’t have a pre-match display and will simply hide in fear in the dressing room for the whole match.

12. The Australians will have a BBQ on their side of the field and invite the opposition over before the game. The food and alcohol will be in abundance and by the start of the game no-one will remember what they came to the stadium for. After some streaking, the singing of dirty songs and the occasional chunder everyone will go home thoroughly convinced it was a bloody good night.

13. The Moroccan team will quietly pray during the fi rst half and then lunch suicide attacks against the opposition after the break. Unfortunately, this strategy works well for the fi rst game only, after which Morocco is forced to withdraw from the Rugby World Cup due to lack of players.

14. Samoa will prepare a huge feast in the middle of the pitch by digging a large hole and fi lling it with burning embers. They invite the opposition over by saying, “We’d like to have you for dinner”. It’s only when the opposition get to the pit that they realize there is no meat and that they are the dinner! Hopefully, with these policies now in place, further problems is this area of the game should cease to exists.

Regards,

Syd Miller
IRB Chairman

He might have made a bad and bold point, but to be fair he did say SINCE the last WC!

Although Wilkinson scored most of the points in the final, we won all those penalties because we kept the ball in hand so much, not because we kicked it around. Same as Australia. I also must have missed the great burst from Dallaglio that pretty much set Robinson on his way for the try.

And lets not forget that it was the forwards that gave Wilko the room for that drop goal. Any decent kicker should have scored it.

Cohen went to pieces against Scotland when he failed to score that try!!  Although we defended great that game, well for the 40 minutes when England were on top.

I wasn't talking about the final being down to Wilkinson, he was the major factor in Englands rise.  The forwards knew they had the best penalty taker behind them, they knew if they got into the oppositions half and got a sniff of a pen, that JW would be able to keep making the scoreboard tick over in their favour.  And that's what rugby's all about, making the board tick over, putting the opposition under pressure for 80 minutes.

It is true there are no Gloucester players in the squad?

Yep.

Tindall was in the initial squad but didn't make the cut.

Some of the argies kicking was just as bad

All Blacks are absolutely thrashing the Italians!

They are a class act.

And farrel at fly half on friday  :|