Re: Rugby Union
 

.... and meantime England U20's have destroyed South Africa 39-17, scoring some terrific tries to reach the final of the 2016 World Rugby U20 Championship.

Brief highlights here for anyone who's interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-gZ902cy7E

:)

Re: Rugby Union
 

Immense!!! England have completed a historic 3-0 test series victory against Australia winning by 44 points to 40. So pleased for the team - with the series already won and the Wallabies hurting bad, this was always going to be a huge task and once again they've risen to it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/36627112

Dame Edna Everage, Kylie Minogue, Rupert Murdoch, Mrs Mangel, Prisoners of Cell Block H, Skippy the bush kangaroo - your boys took a hell of a beating!!!

:D


Well done to the lads out there - they've done us proud!

:clap: :clap: :clap:

Re: Rugby Union
 

Absolutely wonderful.:tu:

Re: Rugby Union
 

... and to cap iot all England have just won the 2016 World U20 Championship Final, beating Ireland 45-21.

Stupendous results from the senior squad, England Saxons (winning 2-0 in South Africa) and now this. Looking very good indeed!

Re: Rugby Union
 

Sadly Lancaster was never up to the job because in top level sport now you need someone with world experience who can handle any situation and make tough decisions and can get the players to play to their full potential and England seem to have found the right man to do that job.

Re: Rugby Union
 

I think it's called 'killer instinct' - maybe Lancaster was just a bit too nice and a bit too loyal but he wasn't a million miles away with his squad as we saw when we trounced New Zealand not that long ago. If you loom back over recent years, England lost a lot of important games they let slip from comfortable positions by panicking and lack of discipline. That's probably the biggest thing which has changed in Australia.

Re: Rugby Union
 

England 37 - South Africa 21.


Another good win for a much depleted England against southern Hemisphere opposition after the terrific 3-0 series win in Australia. We're lucky to have strength in depth but SA aren't what they were so it'll be interesting to see how we get on in the rest of our games.

Re: Rugby Union
 

Yes it was another excellent win by England as my thoughts are we have always had some great talent in this country but since Sir Clive we never had a top class coach until we appointed Eddie Jones and since then the results have improved significantly as its the small bits that count as they can be the difference between winning and losing.

Re: Rugby Union
 

England win again beating Argentina 27-14 this time after going down to 14 men after only 5 minutes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38082135

They've probably gained more from that victory in terms of determination and fighting spirit than they've done in a very long time. Great teams grind out wins even when they don't play well and although they're not yet great by any means, if this carries on England are well on the way up. Looking forward to the highlights later unless of course the Beeb carries on where it left off last week and ruins them with yet more amateurish commentary.

Re: Rugby Union
 

... and England beat a much improved Australia team again to end the year unbeaten.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/rugby-union/37916202

Jones has clearly managed to engender some real mental strength in this side and with a lot of first choices to come back from injury, the future's looking better than it has for a long time. Well done to all of them!

:clap: :clap: :clap:

Re: Rugby Union
 

England equal their record of 14 wins in a row.:clap:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/rugby-union/37916202

Re: Rugby Union
 

Just watched the highlights and it was a good tough game which makes it all the more pleasing to win. I'm hearing a few Aussie fans making excuses about it being down to the end of a long tough season for the Wallabies. Well so it was for England when they headed down under and won 3-0 last summer after their self destruction in the RWC. What was their excuse then? ;)

England fans really couldn't have asked for more after the RWC debacle when their mental attitude and leadership was found severely wanting. No they're clearly not yet on a par with NZ for whom RU has so long been a religion, but they are heading in the right direction and that has to be good for the sport as a whole.

I'll be very pleasantly surprised if the winning run continues for much longer but I don't think losing will have the same damaging effect on this unit as it might have had on others. I feel it may just spur them on to even bigger things and that's the sign of greatness.

Re: Rugby Union
 

Another win for England today to make in 2 from 2 in this years 6 Nations and 16 in a row now. Who'd have thought that this time last year? :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38920444

Whatever else happens they've shown themselves able to tough it out and play great rugby for the full 80 minutes.

Re: Rugby Union
 

It was certainly a very tough exciting match as Wales are a very difficult team to beat on their own patch so its nice to have two wins out of two so far and with Italy up next its looking pretty good.

Re: Rugby Union
 

6 Nations recap.

Week 1

Scotland 27 - 22 Ireland
England 19 - 16 France
Italy 7 - 33 Wales

Week 2

Italy 10 - 63 Ireland
Wales 16 - 21 England
France 22 - 16 Scotland

Table

1. England, 8 points, 0 bonus, 8 total, +8 diff.
2. Ireland, 4 points, 2 bonus, 6 total, +48 diff.
3. Wales, 4 points, 1 bonus, 5 total, +21 diff.
4. France, 4 points, 1 bonus, 5 total, +3 diff.
5. Scotland, 4 points, 1 bonus, 5 total, -1 diff.
6. Italy, 0 points, 0 bonus, 0 total, -79 diff.