I've seen some porkers crowbarred into a Union shirt in my time. But tonight was pure Hogzilla.

[iSooey![/i

As for the SHOCKER which was Match Fixers vs Samoa - was this the first game in which more passes were dropped than caught?

It's bad enough that England's style would be too conservative even for Phil Larder. But it's all those other THINGS which added together make them about as likeable as Scorpio running up and down the school bus in [iDirty Harry[/i screaming [i"The wheels on the bus go round and round. Sing dammit!!"[/i

It's like they were created in some kind of perfect storm of villainy.

Even before they enter the field the milk in your tea has been curdled by John Inverdale's sleaze. And when the cameras do pan away for the odd bit of respite you are treated to the Windsor Chuckle Brothers who are DEFINITELY NOT NAZIS even though they like dressing up like them (oh and grandad actually WAS ONE - along with his two brothers).

England lost it after Burgess went off.......coincidence?

Thought I'd watch a Union game for the first time in a very long time. The hype and the match are a million miles apart. How the people spending upwards of 300 queens heads to sit through that is criminal.

Indeed, I can watch RU, but what an awful game it was. Commentator's were saying it 'lived up to the hype', no it didn't. Scoreline was close, that was the only reason I left it on. 2nd half, Wales backs were so much better than ours, even allowing for their injuries/players missing.

I think it didn't help. But the truth is England were practically BEGGING Wales to sucker-punch them.

From the very beginning they'd set their stall out to play the "England Way" - which means cynically exploiting any and every opportunity to exhilarate the crowd with free-flowing kicking.

England are the zen masters at the science of extracting penalties and strangling the life out of a game once they've nosed ahead.

It was EMBARRASSING listening to purported Union "experts" wax lyrical about "Head Down" Farrell's "engine", "tackling" and "bravery" whilst those piddling little attributes usually associated with the position of Fly Half worldwide ("talent", "class", "style"icon_wink.gif went completely unmentioned.

Even with England ten points ahead you just knew they were only thinking about choking the breath out of Wales like Darth Vader.

Burgess probably shouldn't have gone off. But putting Farrell into the centres was arguably an even bigger blunder - compounded by the fact that the newly arrived playmaker (George Ford) had nowhere near enough time to acclimatize to the game sufficiently whereby he became a threat.

CORRECTION - Half Brothers

Different dads.......their mums relationships, well their's another RU connection there.

Talk like that can seriously affect your car's braking performance. Besides, aren't all royal brothers half brothers?

Classy piece in rlThe Telegraphrl

The journo, Paul Hayward, is getting ripped to pieces on Twitter and fully deserved.

Saw the last 3-4 minutes of this game and that was 3-4 minutes too many. Crikey.
Why didn't England go for goal to level it? Did they not see the Leeds game last night

No it's ok if their mother sleeps win other guys providing they're England RU captains......a Muslim though, that's a different matter.

Was pleased for Sam that he was picked for his first start in a full Union international. Of course, to say he is head and shoulders as a rugby player above his posh/fat boy etc mates is an understatement showing my lack of vocabulary.

As we know, the only thing we can take from Union is how they do hype and marketing. But the game itself? Don't say I didn't,t warn you in the OP.

Talking of the hype, and even though Sam was barely warmed up, he would have been quietly pleased how he smashed that Roberts (twice) and North in the three tackles he was called upon to do on them.

Then they take Sam off when winning with 20 mins to go. The defence then opens up like the Red Sea and they bottle it and lose. You got to laugh & scratch your head as to who all these people are that take in the hype and turn up at these Union matches.

Speaking for myself, I'm hoping Sam comes home soon (whether it's here or Oz) so we can stop having to watch this stuff.

I agree, plus the fact that when the Welsh were losing players left right and centre, Lancaster decided to make IMO a raft of totally unnecessary changes instead of being ruthless

Anyone would think RU was a free flowing end to end game the way it's reported. Last night's game was pretty much decided by how many penalties were given away and how many of them were kicked. In fact pretty much every International RU game is decided this way. How many sports do you know where the outcome solely relies on penalties during actual game time?

I also watched the earlier Middle 8s game between Bradford and Halifax and saw more attacking flair in that one game than what will be on show for the whole of the RU world cup. If some of those Twickers hooray Henrys saw that many tries in a game it'd blow their minds. But then are the majority really that bothered? Or is it just about being seen at an event with a royal presence? ITV made sure there was plenty of opiate for the masses with their constant panning to the young royals.

After spending the afternoon in the company of Professor Tony Collins prior to watching both of yesterday's oval ball games, I have even more disdain for the supposedly 'superior' code.

The unfortunate part of all this is how good the coverage, sponsorship and income is.
I admit to being jealous of rugby union for that.

If I was running RL, rather than get upset about it, I'd copy as much of the coverage as possible.