Rugby
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England: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Charlie Sharples, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Danny Care, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 Tom Johnson, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Tom Palmer, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 David Paice, 17 David Wilson, 18 Mako Vunipola, 19 Joe Launchbury, 20 Tom Wood, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Owen Farrell, 23 Mike Brown.
Date: Saturday, November 17
Kick-off: 14:30
Venue: Twickenham
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Ashton in for Monye. It's bizarre to have an English management team that can actually make simple decisions like that. Monye destroys my brain cells quicker than any other player.
Replacements: 16 David Paice, 17 David Wilson, 18 Mako Vunipola, 19 Joe Launchbury, 20 Tom Wood, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Owen Farrell, 23 Mike Brown.
Date: Saturday, November 17
Kick-off: 14:30
Venue: Twickenham
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Ashton in for Monye. It's bizarre to have an English management team that can actually make simple decisions like that. Monye destroys my brain cells quicker than any other player.
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Replies: 185
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RM didn't see the Fra v Aus game so how did their scrum get on? Not the best ref if the away team want to try and slip a weak front row under the radar.
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Am I right in saying that the main reason England are such strong favourites here are;
1. They are at home 2. They have a superior scrum (and possibly maul) Are Australia not superior in all other aspects of the game? IF they can survive the scrum battle (and I don't think Marler is as damaging a scrummager as previous English loose heads) then they surely have a real chance? Admittedly I didn't really watch France v Aus so not quite sure where Aus are at. |
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3. This is the worst Aussie team since Skippy was a joey.
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So in what other aspects of the game are Ingerlund superior to these worst ever Wallabies? (we have already mentioned ye olde scrummaging and trundling)
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Scoring points/not conceding points/winning games.
Come on ICBD, starting with the inglorious to defeat to Scot, Aus have been mostly dire since the summer. I think they have only properly turned up perhaps twice in all those games, v SA at home in the 4 nations and in the draw v NZ. Yes I know they beat Wales but that form may not be overly hot. There are numerous reasons why Eng are favs for this game.....of course that doesn't mean they will win, but it is an easy market to price up in advance. |
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Fair points Vis, I just haven't seen much of Australia lately tbh. And England do tend to go well against them.
England as low as 2/7 in places though, that looks very over bet to me. We will know a lot more after the first few scrums. |
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Can see only one winner . Aus have no ball carriers at the minute and the backs that have got them out of many a tight spot , look very poor at the moment .
England really should hammer them by a good 15+ points |
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Summed up well by in hell. Aus can't count on their classy backs to bail out their pack any more because they don't have any classy backs. The team is dominated by poor, out of form Waratahs players who were beaten off the park most weeks in the S15. They've tried to play Beale into form but that hasn't worked either. The Aus scrum was decimated against France and they have no players to clean out rucks in order to secure their own ball.
I don't have any worries about Marler. I think tightheads are the guys who do damage at scrum time and can't think of one destructive loosehead in rugby at the moment bar maybe Tonga'huia. A loosehead's job is to make sure the scrum is steady and then to act like an extra loose forward around the park. Marler ticks a lot of boxes in that regard and has the potential to go right to the top. It's the first big test for Lancaster's team and I expect a similar type of match to that which played out in Paris last weekend. Aus are priced up on past glories. |
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I know what you are saying Dunc, regarding the relative roles of the props, that is certainly conventional wisdom. Sheridan is an example of a loosehead who occasionaly caused Australia few problems though. And then you have to talk about the hooker who typically helps the tighthed by going after the opposition loosehead. Don't know if Youngs is likely to be in the same league as Hartley as a scrummager.
It seems eveyone is in agreement anyway, that the Aussies are awful. |
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Youngs is definitely the potential weak link for Aus to exploit. He's been fast-tracked into the international set-up for reasons unknown to me (he was called into the full squad last season before he'd ever started for Leicester) and couldn't hit a barn door with his throwing in some games this season. David Paice, who has been the outstanding hooker in England for the last five years, is left on the bench. I'm surprised Aus haven't gone with Moore as hooker so that they can target him.
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think Big Dunc's analysis is spot on here
would like to get after England as I think that is still a poor XV Lancaster is putting out but this Aus outfit looks even worse-poorest Oz backline I can remember (been following the game since early 90s) wish it was the Argies playing England tomorrow as I'd be all over them at the likely prices... |
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Saw all the French Aus game. Thought France were vv good rather than Australia being terrible (they are by their standards). Australia put together some good phase possession in French territory in first half but couldn't finish. They may well do against England. 2/7 is way too short.
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They're not 2/7 though. As big as 2/5 with BlSq and 1.39 here at present, which equates to approximately 4/11.
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They are 2/7 in places, as stated. Madness.
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At 2/5 I am undecided. I can't get over how lacklustre this Aussie team is and, despite not being at all the finished article, this England side is on the up and lessor England teams have beaten Australia in recent years. If it did get down to 2/7 I would be a layer though, on principle. It's an odd thing at the moment not to be laying England regardless, takes some getting used to.
Australia spent about 10 minutes last week looking like they might be in the match, but then France ground them down until there was nothing left. Currently there's nothing superior about these Aussies - their best possible backline would still be potentially devastating, but this is a shadow of it - their scrum is in trouble as usual and, bar Hooper, they don't have anyone that you would say is performing like a true international. England, maybe for the first time in history, may even have more firepower in the backline. That's an odd thought. |
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That wasn't directed at you, icbd. They're as short as 1/4 with Hills now. If I pick a combined XV here, at a push I would put Palu in ahead of Waldrom, Sharpe ahead of Palmer and Polota Nau over Youngs. After that though...
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Youngs would have to come on after 15 mins when Polota-Nau knocks himself out though.
I would shoe-horn both Robshaw and Hooper into the line-up. Not sure I would bother with Palu, it's been too long since I saw anything impressive from him. Ioane instead, on the basis that it's probably not the wingers fault that the Aussies have been poor. |
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"At a push," I said...
Really, the only reason to go against England here is... because it's England. We've become so accustomed to them serving us sh!t that we expect it. If you break these two teams down and analyse the game rationally, I think it's very hard to make a case for Australia winning this. |
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"Trundling"
I like that. |
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why on earth are the the games at twickenham & murrayfield on at the same time time? you would think one of them could have gone off at 430.
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You would think they would also use more Sundays at this time of year. Annoying when so many games you want to watch go off at once.
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could do but not a fan of sunday games.
unless it is in the NFL. i will be glad when this international nonsense is over & we can get back to some quality pro 12 games  |
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Dragons v Northampton in the LV= cup on Sunday northanlite. Proper stuff for proper fans.....
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Talking of the Dragons game, -10 looks very nice on what looks like as strong a line up as Saints can put out, whereas we have our third choice 10 starting and a lot of first choicers on the bench. And we are on a terrible run
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Aussies shortening up. My take is Aus/Eng is the best way here to oppose the favs.
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These change strips are getting as bad as the football mob. Must be a month's wages to travel to Twickers with your kid and get all the trimmings these days.
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If you can afford to go you can afford to buy all the crap. Tickets are so expensive that most people don't even consider it.
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Do you think that when national anthems are created, the mice use their intelligenciphonic and suck all the brains out of the composer and replace them with chintz and a three piece over stuffed sofa.
I exclude the french and russian anthems from this. What a horrendous rendition of these two anthems - puts you off rugby!!! |
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Superb strength from Marler.
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Are we not playing forward passes from Aus?
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According to that one to Sharpe, NO!
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Scotland 0-3 SA
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I do love to see england tearing them apart !!! They are in yellow today then??
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why are england in this colour !! or am I watching the wrong game??
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Scotland 3-3 SA
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Change of kits appears to be the order of the month. Ireland's change kit was a slightly darker version of their normal one. England have gone for weird and sickly.
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Scotland 3-6 SA
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Why cannot we play in white. A gentleman's sports colour. Instead of the soho tart's strip!!!!No wonder people are turned off our modern versions of a great games such as cricket, football and now rugby.
I have to go for tiffin now and see if the boys have washed the elephants. |
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Interesting decision. When England are in Australia and take a drop they get booed by every Aussie within 20 miles.
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