What a great performance by England. Well done boys, can't beat stuffing the Taff clown shoes in Cardiff. I'm off on an Army reunion in Wales later this month, lovely jubbly. Last count was 28 Englishmen, 2 Welshmen and an Irishman. Should be fun.
No Scots? Good game to watch tonight . It amuses me to see 6'7" union players dismissed by some as public school toffs. They are very fit athletes nowadays. Landlord of my local is a Taff. Was telling me on Wednesday how we would get a stuffing. Wasn't going out this weekend but will have to pop in for a pint or two.
Yep great game. I didnt used to like Union years ago but its got miles better and League has gone down the pipe.
Superb second half from England. Unlucky to be down at half time, they just came out and imposed themselves right from the off in the second half.
Yeah agree with that. Has a shuffty at the other code the night before and it was as boring and predictable as ever. One thing about the BBC coverage, I thought the camera work was all over the place, bit like X-Factor. Every five seconds the camera angles changed from close up's to long shots, to crowds shots, to the bench, up in the gods and so on. ****ing awful BBC.
Don't the majority of, certainly international level players, come from public schools? It's expensive for a kid to do what's required. Well expensive for his parents.
It is no more expensive for a kid to do than rugby league. My lad played Union and it cost no more than it did for him to play for his junior football team. 50% of the medal winners for Team Great Britain in Beijing went to independent schools. There is a reason for them being over represented - these schools spend more time on sports and competitive sport isn't frowned upon like it is in so many state schools. We wonder why fewer kids are playing sport. 30,000 playing fields were lost between 1992 and 2005. Who,was in power then? The party which accuses the other one of selling off playing fields. Both major parties have no real commitment to sport other than being associated with flagship events which the nation get excited about for a coupleof weeks as they sit down and follow them on TV. Then it is forgotten about. The "legacy" of the Olympics has seen a fall in the number of people participating in sport.
Public schools make rugby union their main sport and do everything possible to make it more important than football, at my kids school you couldn't even be considered for the football team unless you were in one of rugby teams.
Which doesn't mean most of the England team went to one. Your kids went to a funny school. Ability was the criterion at my lads' schools. The captain of the local rugby union side worked in the local food factory and lived in a council house. Things are different now that top players are earning good money and it is no longer strictly amateur.
I played it for my school for years and it is a proper team sport where no one can hide. I never saw the mythical heli pad there, though... The level of injuries these days is the biggest concern. If you think it is for toffs, did you hear Fords accent when he was interviewed? Great game and roll on the World Cup m
I'm sure there are people from all sorts of backgrounds playing rugby union, but the majority of the England squad did go to public school.
