Tuesday 19 March 2013

Rugby round-up


Now the Six Nations is over It’s time to review the  progress that Stuart Lancaster has made since the autumn internationals.  When he inherited the job in 2012 everything was broken, selection, moral, coaching team and the support at Twickenham.  With some dogged performances in 2012 we clawed our way back from the precipice.  In the autumn we miss-fired in the first three games and then it all changed. 

It all started with that win in November against the All Blacks.  From out of the blue we beat the world champions with style and guile.  Not since 2002 had we lifted the Cook Cup so this was an important event.  The question on everyone’s lips was “were the All Blacks over cooked or were England the masters of the Universe”?





After the excitement died down I compared the match statistic of the All Blacks game with those from the match we lost against the Springboks and surprise, surprise there wasn’t much to choose between the two.  This should have told me something!



At the start of the Six Nations France went to war in Mali, I recalled a terrible English season in 1983 following the Falklands war and wondered if there was any correlation between Rugby performance and armed conflict



Watching France and England shuffle their team around to accommodate their “best players” I was acutely aware that playing out of position in Rugby and life can be a miserable business



Before the final weekend’s show down in Cardiff I pontificated on the chances of and England win and our relative strength and weaknesses – what did I know!



Just before the game I looked at the special relationship England has with its closes neighbours

Why would you dislike England Rugby and its supporters?


Finally, after THAT GAME I looked at where it all went wrong and what needs to be done now


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