Re: Rugby Union
 

A good job done for England but that's all. Given that he's picked pretty much the same people as Lancaster, I hope Jones has something special up his sleeve to get them to play to their full potential. If not, he's going to look like an expensive mistake.

Re: Rugby Union
 

Good couple of games today with Scotland and England winning. England though are not only leading the table but are the only team capable of a Grand Slam :D

Re: Rugby Union
 

Yes this is certainly a improvement from the disaster of the World Cup and long may it continue.

Re: Rugby Union
 

Bring on the Taffs and we will see if England have improved.

Re: Rugby Union
 

You mean the Taffs who were held to a draw by the team England just beat as well as not having very convincing wins. Still March 12th will tell

Re: Rugby Union
 

Well my Birthday is on that date so one is hoping to celebrate with a English win as well.:)

Re: Rugby Union
 

Great win for England in France, with 3 tries, none conceded and in spite of the penalty count.

Six Nations Grand Slam Winners 2016!

ENGLAND


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35821697

Some credit ought to go to Stuart Lancaster who created that squad and is a very decent, unassuming guy. I wish him well for the future. :clap:

Re: Rugby Union
 

Well done England as its good to have some success after so many painful moments in these last few years.

Re: Rugby Union
 

Often the difference between success and 'failure' comes down to very small margins. I'm just glad that we've kept scoring tries and if we can reduce the penalty count the future looks very good. :D

Re: Rugby Union
 

A lot of sport is down to the mental approach in my opinion.

Re: Rugby Union
 

That's a fact. Mental strength was what won us the 2003 RWC, we played fairly poorly throughout but stayed calm, refused to give up and be beaten. The last plays of the final demonstrated it perfectly. France had nothing to lose last night and were always going to throw the kitchen sink at us. As expected they rose to the challenge and played their best rugby of the tournament yet we still scored 3 tries against them and leaked none. A great win and a vital step if England are going to carry on and challenge the best teams in the world.

Re: Rugby Union
 

A great win (28-39) for England today v. Australia Brisbane. It started very badly but they kept calm, made good decisions at the right time and ran in 3 great tries to get a rare win in Australia - the first ever in Brisbane.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/36505323

Brief highlights here for anyone who's interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZXIbr-3G10

Re: Rugby Union
 

Yes its a excellent win for us and we certainly have improved under the new antipodean coach that's for sure..

Re: Rugby Union
 

A historic win for England today!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/rugby-union/36443157

England's first ever series win in Australia. I think the main things Jones has given them are self belief and grit.

The Saxons squad has also just won their series in South Africa.

Couldn't have wished for more from our lads!

:clap: :clap: :clap:

Re: Rugby Union
 

A absolutely wonderful achievement.

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.

Re: Rugby Union
 

Shame Wales fluffed it, terrible error right at the end but 2 great matches this weekend, much better when it's close and hard and well fought. England were expected to win but only just did it. I would have liked to see Wales and Scotland both win (and Italy) just to upset things a bit.

Re: Rugby Union
 

Over the years England have lost a good few games having been pretty much in control and then let things slip in a mad few minutes of one sort or another. At the end of the day it's results which go in the record books and for any team to be considered great they have to not only be able to win when they're playing well but also grind out victories when they're not. That's exactly what New Zealand have done over the years and it's that mentality which far more often than not sees them through.

Great rugby isn't just about flowing passes and magical tries, it's also about many other less obvious and not quite so 'attractive' elements of the game all of which contribute to the whole and either create or deny the opportunities for tries but don't often get the recognition they deserve.

I'm delighted with where England are right now and the measure of their progress towards 'greatness' will be how they respond when their winning streak finally comes to an end.

Re: Rugby Union
 

Another win 36-15 #17 on the trot. Haven't seen any if it yet but judging by the scoreline throughout the match, either it's not been good from England for large parts of the game or Italy have played much better. Maybe it's a bit of both.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/rugby-union/38322055

Anyway, a win's a win and on they go but I reckon there must have been a lot of harsh words exchanged at half time. It'd be great for the 6 Nations if Italy could just up their level consistently and start winning a few matches.

Re: Rugby Union
 

11 min to go and it was 17-15. Bit too close for comfort.

Re: Rugby Union
 

England were very poor in the first half but thankfully improved in the second half.

Re: Rugby Union
 

From what I've seen/read so far, Italy's tactics of refusing to ruck were very unusual and threw the English into confusion for a good while.

Re: Rugby Union
 

England equal world wins record of 18 straight & retain title.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/rugby-union/38321006

Re: Rugby Union
 

Yep, a great win for England and not much more could have been expected of them today. Whatever else happens now we've won the 2017 Six Nations with a game to spare and equalled a great world record in the process.

Well done lads!

:clap: :clap: :clap:


ENGLAND - 2017 SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONS

Re: Rugby Union
 

Is it true Nicola Sturgeon has asked for the England Scotland game to be replayed as she didn't like the result?

Re: Rugby Union
 

Well done to Saracens for winning the 2017 European Rugby Champions Cup and congratulations to Clermont Auvergne for making a real match of it. Credit to both teams, I hope they enjoy a really great night out. :clap:

Re: Rugby Union
 

Great to see England beat a good Barbarians side 28-14 yesterday with a team which combined some old hands and a good few younger players, including 18 year old man of the match Tom Curry. England have serious strength in depth and the future's looking very bright IMHO.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-uni...score-updates/

Re: Rugby Union
 

Great game of rugby today as an England side packed with inexperienced players (11 of them uncapped, 5 with less than 30 caps between them) beat Argentina at the death after some scintillating rugby by both sides. Ups and downs, great tries and some real heart by England after going 2 scores behind with not long to go. Mistakes yes, perfect no but a really exciting game and credit to both teams. :clap:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/40206158

Re: Rugby Union
 

Really nice seeing a England side that unlike the football side you can always expect them to give it 100%.:)