BBC Radio 5 has already started their pre-match chat. Matt Dawson acknowledged that Twickenham has been like a morgue over the past twop years as a result of England's dire 'rugby'. Can't help but think that the make up of the crowd doesn't exactly help the atmosphere either.
I'll go 7 minutes before the the first rendition of swing low starts.

The presenter has just announced that Shontayne Hape once played for the '[iAll Blacks rugby league side[/i'.

We stopped calling them the Professional All Blacks a while back now. lol

Of course, since we adopted Kiwis in 1939, union has tried to pinch it for the NZ national rugby union army team.

Original

& rugby union - don't mix well...

Today I'll go with:

Ireland by 3
Kiwi union side by 15
Australia by 6

Enjoy Cats...

I'd go with extracting my pubes with pliers before watching all of those games.

Won't be watching as I'm off out into the mountains for the day.


[url=http://www.rugby365.com/all_news/nbc/japan/news/2659121.htmThe same Japan who were tonked by Samoa recently. Kikutani, Leitch, Robins and Tupuailai, cracking Japanese names those.[/url

[url=http://www.cornish-pirates.com/news_10-11/statement_05-11-10.htmCornish Pirates feeling the pinch. There are plenty of 'hollow' clubs outside the top division.[/url

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/welsh/9162717.stmThree of Wales' autumn matches have unsold tickets, says the Welsh Rugby Union - with more than 21,000 spare seats on Saturday against Australia.[/url

Why was there a game between two foreign teams on BBC 2 prime time?



Only 35,000 (exactly 35,000? ... really?) for the Ireland v South Africa game today.

All the doom and gloom surrounding England's performances in the 4 Nations got me wondering. Have Ireland or Scotland EVER beaten the All Blacks?
Wasn't yesterday the ninth (9th!) game in succession England ru have lost against the All Blacks ?

Yes, but this was the one where all the excuses were going to stop.

No, never... and Engalnd have beaten them 6 times out 34 game and Wales a massive 3 times out of 27!

Still, as someone has already posted in this thread "International RL isn't a great product. Why is there a comp every year? It should be Four Nations every four years, World Cup every four years. Then we can expand our core product, the club game."

No like Union eh?

I watched All Blacks V England today (Sky+ it) and I must say I did enjoy watching it.

I like watching Australia/NZ RU as they play exciting rugby all round - however I wouldn't watch England v Scotland/Wales/Ireland as I do find those games painfully boring.

SA can be ok to watch though.

Partly because Ireland draws on players from North and South of the border for the RU team so it represents a percentage of the UK population so is not a foreign team.

I watched most of that game (was interested in SBW playing as well as the other League converts)

What strikes me most about Union is how the rules stifle the best teams and bring the teams much closer – the All Blacks were so superior to the English team it was untrue and yet the score line ended up pretty close. As far as I can see that is because the rules at the breakdown make it very difficult to develop structured attacking plays

What I would say is that if those two teams were playing League, the All Blacks would have won by 50+... Union must be such a frustrating game to play if you are a talented rugby player