Wall of Mouths

legendary arrogance in rugby..
mate i doubt it..
we were thrashed by south africa…36-0..
i fully expected us to go out straight away..cause to be honest..
we’ve been pretty crap

even the match we’ve just played was sloppy..
but dues where their owed..
we played well enough to go to the finals..

Lenny wrote:

What a great day for rugby (although it pained me to cheer for england)

Hey Lenny,hope it still pains you (not that much for me unfortunatelly :( ) but,don’t worry everything will be all right next week :D

Opal, you’re saying that the only reason England won was because of French mistakes.
France were making mistakes because England were putting them under serious pressure.
The expectation was too high for France and too low for England.
Nobody has really seemed to realise that England have a decent squad (probably the best of the home nations as Ireland seem to be piss poor) and they can play their own game well.
France tried to play the win by one point game against England last night.
That is England’s best game to play. They will punish when they get the chance.
Wilkinson, although he missed a few kicks last night, does what he does best, kicks the points and gets his team victories.
I’d say he’s the best out half in the world with basic skills. And his tackling was simply immense last night.

England won because of French mistakes, yes. But it was the English that drew the errors out of France.

Fair play to England, and I hope they win the World Cup again this year because it’ll be good for British & Irish rugby if they do!
As for France; like New Zealand and Australia, they choked! :D:D:D

Sorry Holly on my part!

England had a solid defence. Enjoyed seeing Chabal in tears at the end of the match, that image was priceless :D

Lenny - Yeah, a pity,they made too much mistakes ,on which the Boks profited by them.you may have noticed they gave South Africans scrummaging lessons ;) …And I’m quite happy that we’ve been assisting in the rehabiliton of all those fighting phases (scrums,mauls,rucks…),considered as “Has been” in some high places in the IRB,in this world cup,I was afraid that it would have been turned almost into a so-called “Rugby league” game.

Oh damn yeah,you missed a great game.Much better than the one of saturday night,which was almost one between ” Viejas Carne” :D .The Argies tried to pratice a passing game and stopped praticising that “up and under” thingy …in vain,”El Mago” gave saffies 14 points by his mistakes…

And I remind some that the “Lions tour” down under in South Africa will happen in 2009 ;).

i’m probably going to get the typical..’sore loser’ remarks…

but that was a try!!
blatantly a try!!
His leg was up, his knee never crossed the line..the ball was down!!
That was a try!!

Holly,
It wasn’t a try.
The TMO got it right, his foot dragged across the touch line just before he got the ball down.
:(

Also, if it was a try I could see England going on to winning the game!

I’m not a rugby fan but i seemed to miss any action that happened by always being at the bar when they actually did something.. so i’m even less of a fan now but it was a fine excuse to be in a pub at 5am.

Well Lenny what do you make of Flannery’s blatant stamp on Sunday?
The Turnips on the Turnipfans forums are mad!
They’re saying that the guy’s head was in the wrong place at the wrong time and that he should be cited but not punished.
http://rugbydump.blogspot.com/2008/01/jerry-flannery-stamp-on-jul … naire.html

Definitely not pretty, accidental or not, a stamp is a stamp, especially on a guy’s head - so close to his eye…

He’s looking at at least 6 weeks if guilty…

Mmmm yeah ,really not nice what Flannery did to Julien Bonnaire…As I’m not a Clermont’s fan,I won’t be very tough towards Jerry but some of the “Jaunards” (name we usually give them) on their forum are very furious…I heard that “Julian” was ok and hopefully for the French national squad since he’s our current “best Lines out colletor”…Flannery is not only the player cited.Ibanez (for stamping Easterby)and Audebert (for punching Quinlan)will be his “companions”

Lenny -After checking the announcement of the Irish Squad,seems your wish was realized ;) :

Neil Best (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster), Rory Best (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster), Tony BUCKLEY (Shannon/Munster), Leo Cullen (Blackrock College/Leinster), Simon Easterby (Llanelli), Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster), John Hayes (Bruff/Munster), Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster), Jamie Heaslip (Clontarf/Leinster), Marcus Horan (Shannon/Munster), Bernard Jackman (Clontarf/Leinster), Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster), Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster), Johnny O’Connor (Galwegians/Connacht), Mick O’Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster), Malcolm O’Kelly (St Mary’s College/Leinster), Alan Quinlan (Shannon/Munster), David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster).

Tommy Bowe (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster), Girvan Dempsey (Terenure College/Leinster), Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster), Gavin Duffy (Galwegians/Connacht), Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College/Leinster), Shane Horgan (Boyne/Leinster), Robert Kearney (UCD/Leinster), Geordan Murphy (Leicester), Brian O’Driscoll (UCD/Leinster), Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster), Eoin Reddan (Wasps), Jonathan Sexton (St Mary’s College/Leinster), Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster), Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster), Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)

Not considered due to injury:Simon Best (Belfast Harlequins), Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster), Paul O’Connell (Young Munster/Munster)

Well,I think he should be given a ban just for the “principle” cos’I think it’s an Unacceptable gesture even tough it’s an accident,he should have looked down to see that he wasn’t stamping the right guy…About the length of his ban,if you tell me it’s currenlty six weeks,let’s do it ,but if he ‘s not a recidivist (that’s an arugment for the Munster’s Lawyer)and if,I think he should have down that right after the end of the game,he apologized to “Julian” by writing him a letter or so, he can get the length of his eventual to be reduced for the least…Cos it happens that the “victim” brings his support to his attacker…For Ibanez stamp,though I watched the game Wasps/Llanelli,it wasn’t the fact that stroke me (I didn’t see it…) the most since it’s was a great game from the Wasps…For Audebert punch,it’s a current situation :A guy punched you or held your shirt in the back of the ref,you punched him back (a french default I know :D ),which is not really smart from you since the ref assistant
saw you…

For the forthcoming six nations tournament, about French chances for winning it…To be honest with you,I won’t mind if we played a poor tournament this year cos’ we have a new coach (Marc Lievremont ),the philosophy of whom is radically different from La Binocle’s one (la binocle in French means glasses and it’s the name we give Bernard Laporte sometimes since he’s wearing some,but it’s not a nice for him :D ),who has the will to make play the boys a different kind of game,less predictable with more improvisations than Laporte’s strategies,which were really limited I admit,by the way he should read what Michalak said about him on a french newspaper before leaving Toulouse to join The Natal Sharks,South Africa…That is called in french “To cut someone’s short” :D…So Yeah about France’s chance,I think Marc will test some new players and some new ways of playing so I guess we may lose some games (at home or outside) because of those testings ;don’t get me wrong,I’ll be happy if we realise the big Slam but I wouldn’t mind if we got the “wooden spoon” (don’t know if you also use that term for the nation who reached the last position of the tournament :D )…

Oh you’re coming to Paris for France-Ireland this year ? We could go and get drunk at “Rue de la Soif” before the game :D ,a place in Paris known by Rugby fans worlwide ;) .

Ah Colin,don’t be so Pessimistic!!!!But seems that Keith Wood agrees with you about EOS…But I think it’s up to the Players to put pressure on Federation in order to sack the coach cos he’ll be the head coach during 10 year,which is too much long IMHO…They can threat the IRFU by choosing to play in England or France,in clubs who’ll be able to offer more money Than the Irish Provinces…But don’t take that to heart too much just enjoy the tournament and the last day of Pool Games of the H-cup.

Oh BTW,Audebert(also cited for stamping ROG),Flannery and Ibanez are cited the next 24th of January…So I guess none will miss the games this wd…There’s no chance for Audebert to be in the French national Squad,Ibanez retired so there’s only Flannery who can fear a six week length ban and therefore he’ll have chance to miss the 6 nations…

I think Matt Williams will be in the frame for Ireland if he does a good job with Ulster over the next 2 seasons.

As for a player revolt Evilbeast, BOD and some other Ladyboys (Leinster players) are loyal to EOS, as is Simon Easterbunny.
Ulster players have little representation, and other players from different sides can fill in there, so EOS has nothing to worry about in terms of an Ulster revolt. Same goes with Connacht.
EOS is a Munster man, and with the combination of Ireland’s starting XV usually the Munster pack with the Leinster backs (with a few changes) I don’t see a Munster revolt.
The Wasps vs. Munster game will determine our scrum half for the opening game vs. Italy.

Yeah, I think that’s one of the problems Isaac Boss from Ulster is facing - the pack is going backwards.
Although Peter Stringer in Munster and Eoin Reddan in Wasps both have two really good packs which are constantly going forward, and in a way these packs glorify the scrum half a bit.

However, Reddan truly is a quality player, simply offers so much more than Stringer and Boss. He should be our first choice. You’ll see his talent at the base of the rucks, breaking away, and more.
What does Peter Stringer do at the back of the rucks? - Waves his arms about, and when he eventually gets a pass away it’s either too high or too low.
And Isaac Boss from the back of a ruck? - He takes a couple of steps, sidesteps in to try and break the line and gets tackled / turned over.
Reddan is our only real option at scrum half - Paul Marshall will be ready in a few years.