2015 Rugby World Cup **Potential spoilers**

[GrumpyGregry]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/international/rugby-world-cup-2015-forget-stuart-lancaster-the-three-who-should-go-are-a6681046.html

Could have written it myself....

 

[GrumpyGregry]

The citing commissioner has acted where the 4 match officials failed and Wales now face a marginally easier task.

Hopefully England will treat the amateur minnows of Uruguay with some respect/dignity and not run in a stack of pointless points against them.

 

[martint235]

The review of the RWC would appear to be already hamstrung. Ritchie's role will not be part of the review nor will whether to select foreign based players. And following the leaks after the 2011 review, the players are reluctant to be involved.

So what will we learn?

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

England prepare for the Quarter Finals

 

[Aperitif]

The review of the RWC would appear to be already hamstrung. Ritchie's role will not be part of the review nor will whether to select foreign based players. And following the leaks after the 2011 review, the players are reluctant to be involved.

So what will we learn?

We will learn that Mr Ritchie is used to running big corporate love-ins while only being concerned about the competition and the competitors. Alliegance to England XV and its shortcomings is a 'nothing to do with me, guv' person...as long as the tournament is a success, and the numbers £1 to £15 + add up, he has done his job.
Wimbledon was a success story for him. No particular England emphasis there - more the further modernisation and elevating of a sport to 'ooh I must go there' experience.(Cliff Richard singing - not part of his brief either...) Although the World Cup is slightly different, he and 'his team' have excelled, I reckon. Debbie Jevan's book, (when it eventually arrives ) might offer an alternative view of the executive workings.
Once the World Cup is a distant memory, I suspect there may be a sort out, "upstairs". It's about time Rob Andrew moved to Toulon...
But well played Romania, and I will try and watch Georgia v Namibia this evening...there have already been some fine displays of will, skill and power. I'm still hoping for a France v Australia final.

 

[Aperitif]

following the leaks after the 2011 review

This 'performance review' will be tightly controlled...
Drip...drip...drip.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

This 'performance review' will be tightly controlled...
Drip...drip...drip.

Everyone wants to slap Cipriani though.

 

[Fubar]

Really good post - I have to say some of the comments that passed was as "banter" from current and former players didn't help their cause I.e. Burgess, Cipriani, etc.

Could have written it myself...

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/bl...d-rate-australia-rugby-world-cup-graham-henry

 

[GrumpyGregry]

We could start another thread. My predictions

The tournament will make a handsome profit for the RFU
The tournament will be declared a success and a magnificent advertisement for the sport.
Lancaster's contract term will be honoured and he will be shifted to another role, probably around the B team or player development
He will leave that role within a year and thence will go and coach a second tier country
Catt and Farrell will get paid off
Rowntree will walk
Andrew will refuse to do the decent thing and will end up getting sacked
Another makeweight ex-player with out-of-date notions about the professional game, that the blazers can push around, will be appointed to the role of England supremo.
The RFU will insist on appointing another English* coach rather than looking south where the real talent is. Of course if they appoint Shaun Edwards I'm applauding loudly.

*Dean Richards anyone?

 

[Large]

We're still waiting for the RFU to reveal who leaked the 2011RWC review.

 

[martint235]

Everyone wants to slap Cipriani though.

Really? Or do you mean in the establishment? Leaving out the one player we have with an ounce of imagination was criminal to me

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Really? Or do you mean in the establishment? Leaving out the one player we have with an ounce of imagination was criminal to me

Never mind the Armitage brothers, Nick Abendanon and indeed anyone else who plays in France or elsewhere. Before the tournament, the All Blacks coach was saying that it was simply insane not to include at Steffon Armitage in the squad.

Imagine the Welsh football team saying that they weren't going to select Gareth Bale because he plays in Spain...

 

[BrumJim]

Really? Or do you mean in the establishment? Leaving out the one player we have with an ounce of imagination was criminal to me

In what is very much a team game, a player who has a history of upsetting people in the squad, who tends to leak more points that he generates (even if he generates more than anyone else) and who is likely to get hit by a bus at any moment, is more of a liability than an asset. A truly great team will put everything on the line for each other. Rugby is a brutal game, and even more so at test level. Any player that routinely upsets that is unlikely to be part of a cup-winning squad.

 

[martint235]

We have a team where the team ethic is everything. They will do almost anything for each other. The one thing they seem incapable of doing is looking up and playing what's in front of them rather than what was on the training field. Australia find a use, albeit often from the bench, for the likes of Beale and Cooper why can we not do the same with Cipriani?

 

[BrumJim]

As above. Beale and Cooper can play for the team, and don't leak points.

I think the impact of the substitutes has been a weak point for England.