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Home Nations Rugby Tours

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liquidfootball2
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Home Nations Rugby Tours

Post by liquidfootball2 »

England, Wales and Ireland touring Australia, New Zealand and South Africa - First tests Saturday

Sky's Will Greenwood gives his thoughts:-

http://www.skysports.com/share/10305586

Interesting he thinks Ford to continue at ten with possibly Farrell at inside centre (and hopefully taking over placekicking duties after Ford's horror show in the win against Wales)

Wales haven't beaten the all-blacks since 1953 and although England won a test last time they toured Australia, they have yet to win at Brisbane in four attempts.

Interesting then to see if the Southern hemisphere is still a league or several ahead of its northern counterparts or whether the gap has narrowed.

Personally i'd say England have a chance of at least one test win but only see comprehensive wins for both the world champions and boks.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

Post by forestfan »

I think the gap is more between NZ and the rest than between south and north - a revitalised England have a chance against the Aussies. Ireland are injury hit and seemingly in decline though, don't fancy their chances in South Africa (though not sure how SA's side has changed since the World Cup, they had a lot of 2007 veterans still hanging around).

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Re: RE: Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

Post by liquidfootball2 »

forestfan wrote:I think the gap is more between NZ and the rest than between south and north - a revitalised England have a chance against the Aussies. Ireland are injury hit and seemingly in decline though, don't fancy their chances in South Africa (though not sure how SA's side has changed since the World Cup, they had a lot of 2007 veterans still hanging around).
Yes Forest I think you're right, New Zealand are pretty much untouchable at the moment, but even after that the other Southern hemisphere sides also looked a class above in the world cup too although nowhere near unbeatable. Scotland went within a whisker (and perhaps a different referee) of beating Australia.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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Will be an interesting series of games I think.

NZ have lost one of the greatest centre partnerships of all time, possibly the greatest stand off of all time and probably the greatest ever 7.

For most teams, losing the most capped hooker and 7 of all time, plus the most capped centre partnership and the player that's scored the most international points of all time would lead to a major period of rebuilding. You get the feeling though that they'll just carry on as usual.

The Boks have lost some legends s well, but Bakkies has already been overshadowed by de Jager and Etzebeth. They'll miss du Preez and probably de Villiers to a lesser extent, but they've got some great young players coming through. Did Habana retire as well? Bismark? Schalk? If not, they'll not be playing at the next world cup but none of them (except Burger) have had the same influence in recent years as in their heyday and you could probably argue that they'll be stronger without them.

Anyway - will be an interesting series, but can't see any of the home nations except England being competitive.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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Bit of a surprise in Eddie Jones' selection

Owen Farrell has deposed George Ford as England's fly-half in Eddie Jones' starting XV for England's first Test against Australia on Saturday.

Farrell makes his first start at fly-half under Jones after switching from inside centre while Ford, who missed six out of seven kicks at goal during the victory over Wales at Twickenham last week, drops to the replacements' bench.

Luther Burrell returns at 12 to pair up with Jonathan Joseph in the centres but there is no place for lock Joe Launchbury as Jones reinstates the Saracens' axis of Maro Itoje and George Kruis, unavailable against the Welsh having played in the Premiership final the previous day.

Harlequins' Marland Yarde retains his place on the wing after a strong performance against Wales and with the pack unchanged, skipper Dylan Hartley will lead out a side with 539 international caps between them. 

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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Pretty well matched teams, apart from the glaring lack of anyone that can compete with Hooper and Pocock. I guess they won't try to compete and Farrell's in the starting 15 at 10 for his accuracy in kicking to the corners as much as Fords dodgy game against wales (not just in the kicking, just looked a bit off all round). Can't afford a sloppy kicking game with Folau on the other team.

Don't think its going to be a game for the faint hearted.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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Great game between Wales and NZ. Wales played well, NZ were a bit sloppy but did what they always do - kept playing right to the end and find a way to win even when they're not playing well.

England Australia now . Probably be able to hear the first collision from here.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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England being pretty comprehensively taken apart so far. They have to score next you feel or its game over

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

Post by hancockjr »

Three times good enough?

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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And a try...

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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hancockjr wrote:Three times good enough?
4 would be better :-)
Game on!

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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Switched over to the cricket when Australia "scored" their third try... looked back a few minutes later and England were leading... :shock:

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

Post by unc.si. »

Wow - what a match.

Itoje MOM?

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

Post by liquidfootball2 »

England have just become a force to be reckoned with, yes they're easily the best of the northern hemisphere but this was opposition a class above a pretty ordinary six nations - a long way to go still but getting there
Last edited by liquidfootball2 on 11 Jun 2016, 13:10, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: RE: Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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unc.si. wrote:Wow - what a match.

Itoje MOM?
James Haskell particularly impressive for me

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Re: RE: Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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liquidfootball2 wrote:
unc.si. wrote:Wow - what a match.

Itoje MOM?
James Haskell particularly impressive for me
He was indeed.

I always think that he shouldn't be playing - surely we can find a better 7, and then every now and then he comes up with a performance like that.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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Ireland have won in South Africa 20-26 despite having a man less for most of the match

Great day for the Northern hemisphere with big wins for England and Ireland.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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Massive blow for the Wallabies as Pocock injured and sidelined for the series.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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In stark contrast to England and Ireland's successful starts to their southern hemisphere tours, Wales' tour of New Zealand suffered the latest heavy blow as they went down 40-7 to Waikato Chiefs at FMG Stadium Waikato on Tuesday.

Wales were outscored by the Chiefs six tries to one, and are now left to pick up the pieces ahead of their second Test against the All Blacks this Saturday.

Although Wales left out most of their test side this was a much understrength chiefs team who also didn't play any of their all-blacks players.

A real humiliation and an embarrassment according to Scott Quinell and Warren Gatland said

We were second best by a long way.

“It probably answered a few questions in terms of players who have been knocking on our door in terms of why they wanted an opportunity at Test match level.

“We have spoken about what was good from the first 60 minutes last weekend and talked about going about the last 80.

“There will be a lot of changes for Saturday. There were a lot of fringe players out there against the Chiefs trying to put a hand up and make a statement.

“Unfortunately that didn’t happen.”

Warren Gatland, Wales head coach

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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Wales have a real problem with strength in depth.Touring party squad players should still be good enough to compete with club / provincial sides.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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Something seems to be in the water for English rugby at the moment with the under-20s also in the world cup semis and both senior sides winning away in the southern hemisphere

The second string England Saxons completed their tour of South Africa with another win.

South Africa 'A' 26 England Saxons 29

Series result 0-2

Excellent from the second string to win an away series against their Springbok counterparts.

The Saxons were 26-8 down in the second half but recovered late on to win 26-29

I think it'll be very tough for the senior side tomorrow as the Wallabies are bound to be fired up for this and seem to be risking all on a quick running game, replacing their injured number 8 with a flanker.

Should be a tough task but you never know.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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Well they've really replaced a 7 who's playing at 8 with another 7, so it's a similar setup albeit Pocock is about 10kg heavier than his replacement.
Definitely going to be a tough game though.

Ireland may well feel a Springbok backlash and NZ are only going to get better after last weeks scrappy display so I'd still fancy England as the best bet for a home nation win.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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Damn.

Wales playing pretty well and NZ still looking rusty, but give them a half chance...

Fancy Wales to stay in this for a while, but worry that NZ will run away with it in the last 20.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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Come on Wales. Still in it.

Wales looking the better team, Kiwi's not clicking. Long way to go yet though.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

Post by unc.si. »

Well Wales were good for 50 minutes. Thought they might get to 60 in with a chance.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

Post by Moist von Lipwig »

And breathe...

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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Australia 7 England 23

Wow England the world's second ranked team, massive series win - English rugby in a good place and must aim even higher.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

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What happened to Ireland? - only watched the first half

HT SA 3 Ireland 19

FT SA 32 Ireland 26

Thought they'd clinched the series too

So that one now goes to a decider in Port Elizabeth.

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

Post by Spinynorman »

liquidfootball2 wrote:Australia 7 England 23

Wow England the world's second ranked team, massive series win - English rugby in a good place and must aim even higher.
That win looked seriously painful to achieve. :shock:

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Re: Home Nations Rugby Tours

Post by liquidfootball2 »

Spinynorman wrote:
That win looked seriously painful to achieve. :shock:

Yes really attritional, after last week we showed we could defend too, the scrums kept collapsing and it negated one of our main strengths. History made though, winning the series in their own backyard is massive.

I thought they were all heroic in defence but looking ahead Mike Brown dropped a few high balls and at times also missed opportunities to clear his lines, so Jones may possibly make a change with Alex Goode getting his chance for the final test.
Last edited by liquidfootball2 on 18 Jun 2016, 21:21, edited 1 time in total.

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