Well Dil lets hear it then !!!

Paddy Power current odds:

New Zealand 6/4
England 4/1
South Africa 5/1
Australia 8/1
Ireland 10/1
France 18/1
Wales 20/1
Argentina 66/1
Scotland 100/1
Italy 300/1
Fiji 600/1
Samoa 750/1
Japan 1000/1
Georgia 1000/1
Tonga 1000/1
Canada 1000/1
Romania 2500/1
USA 5000/1
Russia 5000/1
Namibia 5000/1

Lancaster clutching at straws here ...

Lancaster, who described the head coach's job as "brilliant but tough", said injuries and "discipline issues" also affected England's preparations for the tournament.

Centre Manu Tuilagi was suspended by England for assaulting police officers, while hooker Dylan Hartley was withdrawn from the squad after being banned for headbutting an opponent in a Premiership game for Northampton.

Lancaster also blamed the absence of several players on the tour of New Zealand in 2014, when "half the squad was in the Premiership final".


We lost two British Lions in Leigh Halfpenny and Jonathon Davies plus last years Pro 12 player of the year Rhys Webb before the tournament began.

While still seven points behind we had an outside half playing full back , a winger playing centre and a scrum half on the wing.

But you only lost because two thugs were suspended and a few players missed a friendly or two 12 months ago !

Bless him , he's lost the plot ... sack him and fast.

I think we need less home grown players in the England team and more 'foreigners', just like Wales ;-)


M

I like the header of this thread!

England to win Rugby World Cup 2015


Slightly exaggerated.

Couldn't even tie their own boot laces.

If the rules were changed, you would need to find 15 immigrants prepared to play for England in the next world cup.
8-)

Fred: 22 actually :-)

Yes.

But somebody would know if you had 22 immigrants on the pitch!

8-)

A rare web site: What are the basics of rugby union?

Some good questions and some good answers concerning the different simple moves in rugby union.

Only foreigner you need Mike is as coach.

... and our full back calls his mates butt , drinks Brains dark and has survived a bag of chips from Caroline Street (chip shop alley) .... how much more Welsh do you want him to be ? :-)

... and at least I can pronounce his name unlike some of the "English" players who sound about as English as a Samoan sheep herding thug or a Brisbane born pair of Tongan brothers who moved from Australia to Wales when they were kids :-)

And you need to update the odds in post 1 .... think England's odds have drifted a bit.

Attended the Namibia v Georgia game on Wed night and stood in the Namibian kop, must say we did enjoy what was a magnificent fighting performance from the rank outsides Namibia in only losing by only 1 point to the bad tempered and frankly over aggressive and unsporting Georgians.

what a pleasure to read of gatland's support for lancaster ..... sportsmanship, sympathy, support and more may be lacking in the world of the round ball, but fortunately not so in that of the odd shape

Dil; Think I need to update the header as well as odds. Header updated ;-)

Lol Mike (no time soon) would have been more appropriate.

Stan , I enjoyed that match and they would have won except for that stupid penalty they gave away at the end. And if you think they're unsporting have a look at England's Mike Brown interview after they lost to Wales. He didn't even congratulate us !

As shown on BBC Wales :-)

Mike Brown interview.

I'm starting the next RWC thread and will call it ... 2019 Can Wales Retain The Cup

Make for an interesting comparison on actual RWC performance!

Country No. of Clubs Registered players England 1,809 1,990,988 South Africa 1,526 651,146 France 1,798 360,847 Ireland 221 153,080 New Zealand 600 146,893 Japan 1,522 122,368 Sri Lanka 98 103,325 Argentina 420 102,790 United States 2,588 88,151 Italy 784 66,176 Malaysia 300 60,030 Wales 250 50,557 Kenya 60 42,904 Australia 767 42,100 Scotland 251 38,500 Fiji 490 36,030 Canada 309 23,853 Samoa 140 23,372 Madagascar 410 22,540 India 0 22,282 Zimbabwe 17 22,163 Spain 210 20,016 Swaziland 14 18,920 Chile 26 18,755 Thailand 169 17,732 Tunisia 74 16,218 Russia 105 14,519 Belgium 58 14,266 Namibia 27 14,226 Uganda 17 14,110 Germany 108 11,656 Zambia 20 10,200 Brazil 230 10,130 Singapore 24 9,690 Romania 83 9,612 Netherlands 82 8,869 Hong Kong 59 7,525 Morocco 20 7,331 Tonga 82 6,891 Nigeria 17 6,198 Uruguay 23 6,065 Poland 58 5,963 China 15 5,430 Colombia 76 5,414 Botswana 12 5,395 Ivory Coast 14 5,383 Czech Republic 22 5,382 Portugal 46 5,270 Trinidad & Tobago 14 5,060 Georgia 46 4,181 Pakistan 49 4,012 Paraguay 21 3,568 Sweden 41 3,507 Mexico 26 3,454 Senegal 13 3,350 Papua New Guinea 72 3,200 Solomon Islands 48 3,158 Bulgaria 36 3,121 Ukraine 44 2,880 Kazakhstan 12 2,650 Korea 5 2,620 Moldova 7 2,610 Denmark 27 2,606 Vanuatu 12 2,520 Luxembourg 3 2,437 Venezuela 34 2,415 Switzerland 30 2,384 Cook Islands 21 2,258 Hungary 33 2,207 Cayman 4 2,200 Croatia 21 2,142 Jamaica 9 2,090 Chinese Taipei 13 1,800 Austria 26 1,747 Cameroon 32 1,722 Tahiti 18 1,617 Lithuania 16 1,544 Norway 27 1,502 Serbia 12 1,352 Guyana 3 1,324 Philippines 13 1,300 St. Vincent & The Grenadines 6 1,036 Peru 11 950 Guam 3 912 Bosnia & Herzegovina 9 911 Indonesia 16 830 Latvia 16 795 Israel 12 755 Bermuda 8 701 Bahamas 6 635 Malta 7 585 Slovenia 7 480 Mauritius 7 410 Niue Islands 6 405 Finland 11 374 Barbados 6 321 Andorra 2 213 Monaco 2 165

Geez we got 50,557 registered players and 50,527 are injured !

Oi Mike it's a good job your lot didn't have to play Malaysia ... they got more players to choose from than us :-)

Dil: the other 30 not injured are awating their visas ;-)

A lot of players in Sri Lanka

An Englishman walks into a bar.

Usually there's a Scotsman, Welshman & an Irishman in this gag too but they're still at the Rugby World Cup.

Gausie: Good one. Dil will love it !