Rugby & stuff

[santa claus]

In all seriousness, why are England performing so badly in the 6 nations? Is it like the 1966 soccer world cup syndrome with successive England teams feeling all they have to do to win is turn up (but then promptly lose)?

Let's make this more inclusive. Why are British teams and sports people so crap? Where did it all go wrong? More to the point, how can we get back in the driving seat?

I'm fed up of brilliant Australians, talented Americans, determined Germans and the French. We are losing out all the time. I've had a gutfull .

[DR]

Because in the World Cup we were underdogs and the team had nothing to prove - now we do.

We should have culled Ashton and started with a young squad - we have older guys who come out after half time and really are feeling it.

We need to make some positive moves and bloody hell letting Shaun Edwards go to wales was nothing but stupidity.

[santa claus]

Could eugenics help?

[MadduckUK]

i really dont think this has anything to do with denim

[santa claus]

. Wonder why noone wants to talk about the rugby?

[MadduckUK]

because no-one actually likes rugby when the world cups not on?

[santa claus]

Yeah, somethin' like that I suppose .

[pollaxe]

I love Rugby and think it's a far superior game to football and many other forms of ball-bothering.

Anyway, I don't know why British teams are rubbish. They are. They lack consistency and at times seem to lack technical skills. Not just at Rugby, either. I get utterly depressed by it but when I start talking about it most people will break down along nationalist lines and start defending their own teams. Or just accept that we are bobbins.

I remember telling a mate of mine a few years ago that I thought Italy would be a force to be reckoned with given 5 years and I think they're starting to make progress towards that. He ridiculed me at the time, cheeky little monkey.

Otherwise, I can't speak for any other British team but I agree with DR - there should've been a major change after the World Cup - rumour had it that Martin Johnson was poised to come in if Ashton got the heave-ho. The latter had little or nothing to do with England's cup successes in my view.

Anyway, I've stopped watching the internationals for the time being. Too depressing .

[ACiD303]

Anyway, I don't know why British teams are rubbish.

Because it's a bawbags sport played by gentleman.

Conversely, football's a gentlemen's sport played by bawbags

[santa claus]

Yep fair points. BUT, what can we do about it? It's a matter of national pride after all; these aren't just 'games' no matter how we console ourselves. Our national football performance is poor probably because skill levels are watered down by all the non-British players in the league. It has to be time to limit them so's we can bring on home grown athletes.

All this Irish/Scots/English/Welsh bickering should stop too. It's so small-minded. We are multi-cultural and that's that. I don't want to beat any of the home teams. I want the home teams to beat the rest of the World.

Are we physically starting to look second-rate?