Thetownend.com

The Six Nations starts tommorrow,and i'm looking forward to it :)
although i reckon the Frenchies are going to win it :(
And the curtain raiser for the rugby league season is on tonight too.I do like a bit of both codes :wink:

I have to admit I prefer League to Union - feel that it flows a bit better and is easier on the eye without the 30 man 'bundles' you can get in union!!  :mrgreen:

Reckon six nations is gonna be close between us and France - hoping we can just edge it!!  :D

It should be good. I think that England will hammer Wales tomorrow by a margin of at least 20. I think England have a decent chance of a slam.

Wales were fortunate in the first game last year, and had Charlie not kicked abysmally against the frogs, England would have been so far ahead by half time that the French come back would have been in vain. Then there was the disgraceful reffing in the Ireland game... All in all, had things gone slightly differently, England would have won the slam last year. They have a better team now, so should do well.

England are on a rise, Wales on a slump. The main team to look out for will be France - I think the battle of the packs is going to be all important, which is why I think Wales won't win. That said, Wales will probably take an early lead so it will be all about keeping a cool head (from an England perspective).

Hopefully other teams have peaked too soon for the world cup as well, I feel England have loads more to offer and are only just starting to play like they know they can.

As long as England don't lose to Scotland I couldn't really care less who wins.

I think Scotland might do alright this year. They should beat Italy, and I reckon they have a decent chance of turning over Wales and Ireland. They just need to give the ball to Patterson at every opportunity... and bring back Danielli!

The England Scotland game was great last year, though it is very difficult to imagine Scotland beating them this year. I don't think that you have much to worry about.

Perhaps. I think that is definitely the case with New Zealand. Tana Umaga retiring is a huge blow... and McCaw's concussions are worrying. Without those two, their all conquering team suddenly looks rather beatable.

I'm worried about the French though.

Yeah that's my main concern as well. The team to beat in my opinion and will be a threat for some years.

The Kiwis do a hell of a good job at peaking between World Cups :-))(

Swindon Vs Donny is on, fuck the Rugby!.

Obviously Swindon are  the main concern,but i still find the egg chasing interesting :)
Anyway Spud,i bet you'll be watching  the Superbowl thingy on Sunday,and everyone knows American football is just rugby with padding on :wink:

It's not that good, and I hate egg chasing

I don't particularly like cricket, but I endure posts about it.
I don't like wrestling, but there was a monster thread about it.
I'm not particularly interested in American Football either.

I let other people get on with it, leave us alone  :cry:

Yeah apart from Michael Johnson has said that NFL is more violent and physical than Rugby Union.  :roll:

He would just out-run them all, surely?

 :soapy tit wank:
I think he means Martin Johnson :-))(

:mrgreen: whooooooops. Good one Dave.

As Simon has said,everone likes different things,some of us like tea others coffee,some nipple clamps or dogging.Its what makes the world such a beautiful place.I just happen to enjoy watching men in tight white shorts play rugby,Spuddy enjoys add breaks every ten second and cheerleaders,each to there own  8)

So are you going to the game tomorrow?, or will you be watching the *cough* Rugby *cough*

I'm not too bothered but it would be nice to stick one over the fucking taffs.

 :nod:  oh yes, especially as my gf's sisters fella is a Taff!.

My mate Super Taff is a taff. Small world.

Bloody hell thats strange.  :?

What do you call a welshman with a stick up his arse?

Going to see Swindon of course :D I haven't missed a home game this season.
Given the choice between seeing my boys play and watching the rugby on telly,i'd chose us every time :beers:

Taffy Apple

Du-dum :mrgreen:

olden but golden





or a bit shit really, but, give a fuck!

Half my family is welsh and so is my housemate Lara. So we better win.

I can't make the game tomorrow - just spent £170 on a suit so I'm skint  :(

What a result by the sweatys :shock: The garlic munchers looked average to say the least,of course there were a few first teamers missing for them,but the Sweatys more than deserved it.
Us versus tham,Grand slam decider?

Doubtful, I bet the Eyeties turn them over  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

 :)
That would be highly amusing and it could happen, the Italians were unlucky on Saturday.Even i with my limited rugby knowledge,know you have to put the ball down onto the grass to score a try,something the Irish blatantly didn't do for one of their trys :-))(  Surely the video ref should have been used?

Dont really like Rugby but glad we put the Taffs in their place!. :beers:

Quite... Even better that they are claiming that the sin binning was the key point in the game! They were soundly thrashed, and should have the good grace to admit it... not behave like premiership footballers.

They have also been claiming that it is not possible to win a game with 14 men. Funny... I seem to remember England beating the ABs with 13 men in NZ in Summer 2003, prompting the classic Martin Johnson interview response:

Interviewer "What was going through your head when you were 2 men down and had those scrums on your 5-metre line?"
MJ: "My spine"

 :soapy tit wank:  Martin Johnson is one of the greatest living Englishmen.
I remember that game,talk about tense! Watching us on Saturday during the last ten minutes was almost as bad :)

 :twak:

ahh but you like cricket spud! :fag:  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Everyone knows the Scots don't like cricket.You can't appreciate the subtlety of our summer game,the ebb and flow of a match.Quite frankly its much more than a game its an art form :)
Stick to the Curling  :wink:

Larwood you forget to mention the rubbish scottich weather that wouldn't really facilitate such splendid summer entertainment :wink:

 True  :)
Anyway it beggers belief that a nation who's major contribution to fashion has been a skirt for men,can take the piss out of anything by accusing it of being gay.Pot calling kettle black i think :wink:

And a nation who take great pride in "tossing a caber" - now there's a euphemism if ever I heard one!

 :soapy tit wank:

Who was the really tall blonde bloke playing for Scotland yesterday  :oops:  He's really gorgeous.

Yes and you like Men!  :wanker:

Sean Lamont?

Nice to see the Scots do the French ... hope the Welsh do them in turn next week to make it easier for us English !

I'd prefer the Welsh to get the Wooden Spoon... They are far too cocky at the moment. Come on Scotland!

England don't need it to be easy... It's more satisfying if it isn't easy.

Weekend games are [in order of importance :wink: ]
Italy - England
France - Ireland
Sheep-shaggers - Sweaty socks
And i'll be able to watch the England boys this time :beers: Hopefully we play and win in a more convincing fashion than we did last year.

England will put 50 points on Italy

France will stuff Ireland by a margin of at least 15

Scotland Wales will be close, but I think that the Scots will do it.

All in all, should be a good weekend of games.

I'd agree with that except I think Wales will beat the Scots. Wales will be able to keep the ball better than French and will be better going forward.

if we get past italy today then i think we are on for the title. last week was exactly what we needed with france losing and ireland looking terrible! but im worried about the scotland game (for the first time in my existance i think they may shock us)

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Come on Wales!

You english are all the same.....

France will destroy you in Paris, with Wales smashing em in Cardiff leaving us with the title

You barely scraped past the Italians today in one of the worst displays of rugby ive ever seen from an entertainment point of view.

Rugby teams have 15 players, not 8!!

Your lot got owned last week boyo!  :dance:

My dad's going to watch the wales/scotland game tomorrow at the millenium stad with loads of his mates. Taffs to win.

Im hoping for a draw

0-0 i reckon

Good shout, what's the odds?.

It's 18/1 for a draw, can't find the odds for 0-0 though

If you find the odds for a 0-0 draw then let me know.

Fuck off egg chasers!  :mrgreen:

and who beat wales by 47 points to 14 last week?  :wink:

I'll admit it was a dull game,but it seemed a typical England performance in that we WON :beers:  Hand on heart though it was just an adequate display and to win the Six nations we will have to play a lot better,especially considering the fact that we've got to play France and the Scots away.

Lets see shall we :) You beat a team yesterday who were a man down for half of the game.And the way France played on Saturday wasn't so impressive,although i can't see them being so complacent against us as they were against the Irish.

Good weekend .. now the real challenge starts .. is Murray suspended for the England game?

Starts again on Saturday;
Sweaty socks - Engerland
Frenchies - Italy
Ireland - Sheep shaggers

Yes he is.Still going to be a hard game,we will need to play better than we did against Italy the other week.

and we will.

Financial implosion means I will be stuck at home on Saturday, so cheap beer and the big TV it is for this game after 2 hours of painfull listening to Radio Swindon (although the pain will obviously be numbed by our victory over Forest).

come on England lets kick those cunt's arses!

Italy are beating France. They definitely have got better, although I expect France to win.

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

8-12 now! it gets better!  :soapy tit wank:

France ran riot in the end! cunts!

Yeah it was bound to happen really.

England v Scotland just about to get underway! lets restore some sporting joy on an otherwise pathetically sad day

Fuck it im watching Newcastle Vs Everton instead.

3-3 at the mo

England have played rubbish. Rucking awful and our game plan has been to drive too much, no other dimension to the game. Haven't looked for the  overlap at all. Scotland have defended well also.

Just when you think things can't get any worse, we loose to the frigging Jocks :evil:

pathetic! they are all a disgrace to this nation!

scotland manager "england played pretty well today" what game was he watching?

Well done Scotland!

Thats me just back from the rugby!!!!
:beers:  :mrgreen:  :beers: :clap:  :beers:

Did you come home via bicycle? Bit slow!

ended up staying out! feeling a bit wobbly today! :shock:

Fair play, gotta be done.

Did u go out in Edinburgh?

nah, Swindon. Couldnt get tickets for the game :cry:

To be fair Rich England did play well, especially in the first half.  I think one stat summed it up well at during the 1st half.  Scotland made over 40 tackles and England only made 11, not because they missed tackles but because we hardly had the ball for you lot to tackle us.  On another day England would have been out of sight at the half.

Seconf half yeah, England didn't play so well but the decisive factor was our defence was amazing through out the match, oh and that knock on when you fella's should have scored just before the break.

I thought we were alright in the first half too,lots of possession but we didn't do anything with it.Your lot played well and its really opened it up,any of us bar Italy could win it now,i don't really care who wins as long as the Welsh don't win :wink:
Anyway i knew England were going to lose,bad things happen in three's don't they :( It just added to the cloud of despondency that hung/hangs over me :(

Cohen wants shooting for dropping the ball about three yards out just before half time.

TWAT.

Bit harsh OST,i'd lock him in a room for 24 hours with those Braveheart blokes from the build up to the game.Their spears looked pretty sharp :wink:

I'd shoot those c***s as well!

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:
It was a bit over the top,at least there weren't any bag pipers players on the roof of the stadium this year.

That knock on decided the match... that was the opportunity to punish Scotland for picking a lightweight kicker. Being a big oaf, Cohen would have just run over him Lomu style... unfortunately, he just dropped the ball Ben Kay style.

I don't think that there is too much wrong with this England team. The only thing that they need to sort out is finding a genuine number 7, and a genuine number 12, instead of picking players in those positions who would be better suited to 6 and 13.

Whatever happened to Andy Farrell? He could solve the 12 question surely... as long as he didn't hurt his big toe... again!

Seemingly that was a great bit of business by Wigan RLC,Farrell seems to have disappeared.
I have to agree El Duque,the way the experts went on you'd think we were awful throughout the entire game,when we dominated the first half.I still think we stand a good chance of winning the competition,France look dodgy and playing the Irish at Twickenham means we can still do it.

Rugby is about possession and terriotory but also about creativity. We either failed to turn possession and territory into chances or failed to convert chances. This is what we need to sort out.

We are more than capable of winning the thing!!!

We just need to make sure we don't roll over like we did a bit this week. The French have also lost to Scotland I believe, so its not like they are bound to beat us. Put in a few good performances and we can easily top the group still.

Topping the six nations means pretty much nowt, winning the grand slam yeah, but I don't think many rugby people care about topping the table after losing.

You lie Jan :) So if your lot win it,you won't enjoy it and bask in the glory of a six nation win  :shock: Obviously i'd sooner England won the Grand slam but i'd happily take a top of the league win :beers: but then i'm not a rugby person[sniff :wink: ]

England's performance was absolutly disgraceful today! no exuse for such a pile of shit to be served up!

 According to Robinson it was the band that made the difference....I know these French bands are a cacophonious horror...but I thought egg chasers were supposed to be hard......

  ........ in France and you hear the crowd and the band playing, you have nowhere to go......

Charlie Hodgson  :wanker:

They should have played the Supermarine fly half instead of that cunt.

Pants today. Hopefully Ireland will win it. Been impressed with their attacking play and if they sort the defence out then they deserve to win.

As soon as the garlic munchers scored i knew it was going to be a waste of time,so i went to sleep instead :-))(
As long as the Sheep shaggers don't win it i'll be happy :)

ABF my friends ABF!.

I DONT want Ireland to win it (thick cunts) i DONT want them French wankers to win it either! heres what happens:

England beat Ireland by a 20 point margin

Wales beat France by 7 points

England win!  :beers:

(points difference may be slightly out i know but ah well)

Which leaves Scotland who probably won't lose. That means the Scots will win it you pillock

but Scotland wont win it though will they? we are ahead of them aint we? on points difference? anyway Scotwank will lose so it wont matter

Yeah you're right. Sorry my logic isn't very good today, if France lose by a big enough margin then England or Ireland will win it.

Now who's the pillock  :|

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Obviously it's nice to come out on top but unless it's a Grand Slam you don't go on about it.  Rugby's a decent sport, not one for piss takers.

Scotland will lose against Italy, go to the bookies see what price you can get on Italy and back them.  Beating France and England will do for the majority of the Scots, we have shot our load this season.

I have absolutely no faith in England's ability to put the Bog Dwellers to the sword... So much so, I have decided to go to Layer Road on Saturday instead of Twickenham!

France will win it now i reckon :( ,surely we should beat the Irish :-))( i know we're very dodgy away from Twickers but at home we should be able to beat the boys in green.At least the sheep-shaggers ain't going to win :beers:

I think France will win it as well.

The England Ireland game I'm looking forward to.

Why does everyone think England will win? Ireland should have beaten France and have looked the best team otherwise.

Had a bit of a rethink and if the Scots win by a big enough margin and France and Ireland lose, they can still win.

i think they can Si but it will take a miracle! i suppose the same could be said for England though sadly

Scotland have won 13-10 in Italy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/international/4814686.stm

Wales 13-3 up against France at the moment.

Wales 16 France 21

So unless Ireland thrash England I think that makes France champions.

England 24 Ireland 28

And Ireland deserved that in my opinion

fuck off did they! two of their tries shouldn't have been given! England were the better side i thought

To be honest, only an absolute battering by England would have been good enough. Stuffing them by 30 points or so as in 2002. This England set up is an absolute joke. Losing to the likes of Scotland and Ireland, whilst utterly humiliating in the short term can only be a good thing in the long term.

Robinson has been going on about referees, linesmen, and even the French band. However, had decisions gone the other way, and we had stumbled past Scotland and Ireland, then would that have been good enough? Of course not. Given the resources available, only France and the All Blacks ought to be able to challenge England. As it is, we have lost to Ireland 3 times in a row, been thrashed out of sight by everyone on the last tour of the Southern Hemisphere, and even lost to Wales and Scotland... Poor show.

I don't see how we can be so much poorer than when we narrowly lost to New Zealand when they toured. If we play like that we could potentially win the world cup. PLay like we did in the 6 nations and we're screwed.

Didn't your boys narrowly lose to New Zealand despite having a man advantage for the majority of the second half Si?  I wouldn't say that was a great achievement.

Good competitive six nations this year, fair play to France and Ireland, and great to see the former grand slam chumps Wales struggle so badly this time around.

Italy were excellent Berbizier has done a remarkable job, all the best to them, with a strong Italy the six nations is only going to get better and better!

If you watched the game I'd think you'd find that England should have won that but New Zealand held on extremely well. They are the best team in the world. I wasn't stating it as great achievement, but that level of performance would have easily won the six nations this time round.

Despite losing, this six nations has been very good imo. A good contest and the winner could have been anyone. England didn't deserve to win - they played pretty poorly in most of the games.

Fundamental changes need to be made...

For instance, Robinson needs to sit down with the Front Row and simply tell them NOT to put the shove on before the ball goes in. England get done for this all the time... They simply don't need to. They have the most able front row in terms of scrummaging ability in the world, yet they keep throwing away the advantage. Had they played it legal on Saturday, Ireland would have been murdered in the scrum... as it was, they got away with it.

Crash Ball monsters who cannot kick or pass properly should not be picked at 12. Both Noon and Tindell are good players, but at 13, not 12. I would throw Tait in at 12 on the summer tour, and even consider Mike Catt or Henry Paul as experienced cover for the World Cup.

Was i the only Englishman wanting the Irish to beat us by more than 31 points...?

Assuming that means that you would prefer Ireland to win the Championship over France then no... I would prefer anyone but Ireland to win.

However, if you were hoping that a sound thrashing would mean a P45 for Andy Robinson, then I think that you would not have been the only one...

I can't stand the French. That was my line of thinking...

I can't stand anyone whose not English tbh.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1235000/images/_1235948_gazz150.jpg

oh yes, debate over  :wink:

Please Tell me that you are Joking about Henry Paul  :shock: ,He cant get in the current Gloucester set up,In his defence Henrys Confidence must have been crushed when the Baldy ex Bath twat dragged him off after 24 minutes last time he played.Totally agree about the crash monsters. Get Perry(Bristol) at 9 and Shane Drahm at 10.We need flair in the centres not hole punchers,Someone like Tait or Simpson Daniel would suit the needs.

Well, I'm not up on current GP form, but when I've seen him play, he has been creative. His confidence is a question of course, and he can play disastrously badly... Munster away in the HC a few years ago springs to mind, although he was playing out of position at Full Back. Still, if England are losing to some cack team in the Quarter Finals as in the last world cup, who are we going to bring on to change things. We need to have some players in the squad who offer something different.

I didn't want the french to win, but when i was watching the England v Ireland game i was with my irish friend so i didn't us to lose that.

But i would have rather the Irish win over the French.

This was a poor quality competition and although it was exciting at times the standard of rugby was occasionally laughable. England against france the best example.

Well done France as they were the best team, but they were nothing special

 :nod: In a way they reminded me of England prior to winning the World Cup,they just seemed to win[apart from against the Sweaties of course:) ] without playing that well,not that i'm saying we were a bad side just that it is a great thing to be able to win without necessarily playing the best most attractive kind of rugby.