The Rugby Thread

[Cormack74]

Blimey

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2023/10/10/marcus-smith-sprinting-england-world-cup-daley-thompson/

Wing Henry Arundell has the fastest top-end speed within the England World Cup squad, yet in terms of raw acceleration (measured over 10 metres) Marcus Smith is the quickest, according to sprint coach Jonas Dodoo, who worked with the England team over 12 weeks this summer.

Not only does Dodoo confirm Smith as the fastest off the mark but his acceleration ranks at the “very high end” in his database of hundreds of athletes from rugby, football and the NFL. At Harlequins, Smith’s personal best 10-metre sprint time is 1.78 seconds. For context – and it is far from an exact comparison – Usain Bolt’s first 10 metres of his 2008 Olympic 100 metres final was measured at 1.85 seconds.

[Cormack74]

Wayne Barnes is your ref Nev.

I'm not a fan of his, but he does control games (even when he's getting things wrong ).

[Irishnev]

Yeah I tho k England will beat Fiji, then the other three are harder to call.

The nerves you had about playing us are more justified for this weekend, if any team has been going under the radar it’s the All Blacks.

It’s New Zealand in a World Cup, what more is there to say, they are like Brazil in football…… always in the mix for a World Cup. It’s not their best side but that doesn’t make them bad plus they’ve got a lot of injured guys back

If we get a relatively clean bill of health with injuries then we can beat them. We’ve won 3 of the last 4 and we seem to be getting better game on game. The first half vs ye was the best we played since the third test vs them last year. We’ve yet to put together a full 80 mins.

It will be fierce and I’ve no doubt Joe S will have an inside track on how to beat us. I know we can win but again we need a lot to go our way. If we play our best then I don’t think they can beat us but let’s see

[Buzzo]

Yeah I tho k England will beat Fiji, then the other three are harder to call.

The nerves you had about playing us are more justified for this weekend, if any team has been going under the radar it’s the All Blacks.

[Irishnev]

Let’s see vs France or SA, I fully expect ye to beat Fiji

[Cormack74]

Although of course England will have to start turning up and Borthwick will have to make some 'proper' selection decisions and pick on merit if we are to be one of them.

Persevering with Farrell whether at 10 or 12 is all well and good if this was the world cup of loyalty, but it's not and whilst England aren't going to win the tournament, they would have a far better chance of making it to the semis (where France can put another 60 points on us ) with more pragmatic thinking.

Care / Ford (or Smith) / Tuilagi / Lawrence isn't the worst backline we've ever fielded (although what possessed Borthwick to go for May when Watson was ruled out heaven only knows when there is plenty of future talent to pick from).

Someone like Adam Radwan could have destroyed tired defences on warm French days / nights in the last 20 minutes of these games.

Anyway back to Farrell

Apparently the reason he was timed out on the 'shot' clock was because he was still arguing with the referee after the clock had started.

Now I'm not a generally a fan of Andrew Brace, but I think he actually had one of his better games and for Farrell to forego 3 points in a tight game because he was basically haranguing Brace was unforgivable.

Hopefully once our WC journey is over, Borthwick will be brave enough to clear the decks and start the process of a proper re-build using our 'exciting' players as the template.

But I won't hold my breath . . .

[Cormack74]

Northern Hemisphere teams top all groups - thats gotta be a 1st ??

Could be 4 NH teams making up the semis.

That would have been worth a pre tournament punt. Wonder what the odds were?

[Irishnev]

Third time- 87, 2007 and now. First time they’ve lost to Portugal tho. Further reiterates the farce that is this draw.

[bacon]

Third time- 87, 2007 and now. First time they’ve lost to Portugal tho. Further reiterates the farce that is this draw.

Northern Hemisphere teams top all groups - thats gotta be a 1st ??

[Buzzo]

Congrats to Fiji making the Qtr finals - is it the 1st time they done that ?

Third time- 87, 2007 and now. First time they’ve lost to Portugal tho. Further reiterates the farce that is this draw.

[bacon]

Fiji make the 1/4 finals with a losing bonus point to Portugal

Portugal win their first ever WC match.

Congrats to Fiji making the Qtr finals - is it the 1st time they done that ?

[Buzzo]

Fiji make the 1/4 finals with a losing bonus point to Portugal

Portugal win their first ever WC match.

[Buzzo]

Fiji making hard work of beating Portugal could throw the Aussies a life line.

[Zapater]

What a try from Argentina. Charging down the drop attempt with his face is about the best thing I've seen in some time!

[Buzzo]

Ugh got one of my England supporter mates getting all chirpy on WhatsApp.

**** sake

The world could do with more Rich and Cormack style England supporters.