Rugby World Cup

[Ed P]

Shame that England lost so convincingly. However at least both Wales and England can now console themselves a little that each in turn played better against South Africa, and New Zealand respectively. However, when all is said and done, winning is the only  thing that matters, and England seemed to fold (like their scrum) when Sinckler was injured.

I guess the hoped-for bounce in the Nation’s spirits has fallen a little flat.😪

[PlaneMan]

I’ve literally just finished watching it.

I was in the gym when it was on live and annoying boring, real life stuff to do before I could watch it.

England just weren’t in it.

If you let SA play the way they want, they are almost unbeatable. Wales found that out last week, I’m amazed England didn’t learn from our defeat.

At least Wales got the Grand Slam this year……….. 😋

[Dave Rice]

Yes it was disappointing. Any team should be able to lose 1 player to injury and not lose a game because of it. I think we just couldn’t handle their style of play no matter how much homework we did. But the scrums were awful.

Still at least we got to the winners final and we showed Wales how to beat the All Blacks on the way. I’m amazed Wales didn’t learn from our success 😉.

Not that long to the Six Nations 😀 I wonder what Ireland and Scotland will be doing to improve their lot? I just hope the French don’t wake up to how good they could be.

Nolan, if you’re physically up to it we ought to go to a match. Not Wales vs England though (I think that’s at Twickers anyway). I can only watch them from behind the sofa 😮

[PlaneMan]

Dave, I’d love to go to a match but my physical issues are a factor, not as much as they used to be though. Going to the gym 6 days a week has helped a lot.

At the moment it’s my autism and related issues that are holding me back. Not been to any rugby game for decades but it’s on my list of goals. The Integrated Autism Service has helped me achieve things I honestly wouldn’t have considered even contemplating before I went there.

I need to do a Cardiff match first, then a Blues match and so on.

 

 

[Dave Rice]

I understand Nolan. The cauldron of the Principality would I imagine be extremely intense.

[D-Dan]

I was desperately hoping for a Wales v England final. Leanne, being Welsh and passionate about rugby, and I would have had some storming disagreements 🙂

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[Bob Williams]

Perhaps, Dan, domestic peace is best served by Wales and England not meeting in the final! 😋😚My Welsh ancestry, was always reinforced as a child by my granddad: he was 2 generations away, but remained a fierce champion of Wales. My missus also has Welsh ancestry, her mum being a Griffiths. We both feel torn whenever any sports match between the two nations takes place, but at least torn in the same way.

Wife’s (very Welsh) aunt Gwenn was a little put out when we first met her together: “A Williams and a Griffiths? Oh damn, can that work?” Eventually she was convinced and we got along famously, until she passed away at 95. Lovely lady, family sang “Cwm Rhondda” at her passing – written by a 17th century William Williams, naturally. I managed some of it, harking back to granddad’s teaching. The effect of some singing the English and some the Welsh, had to be heard to be believed… Fortunately it ended peacefully!

Eddie Jones says he is not sure why England lost:   https://tinyurl.com/y32mud3c

Maybe this will help explain it to him:   https://tinyurl.com/y2oryfpn

 

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

Bob, funnily enough I understand those torn loyalties. We lived in New Zealand for a number of years, and my elder son went to Wellington High School and played in various year groups for his school. Not only did he make a lot of good friends he was coached during this time by All Black players (They do this to help raise their next generation of players, and rotate through all the player positions over the winter terms). As a result he was completely torn during the England game and would not cheer for either.

Incidentally his training made me understand why this nation of 3 million or so is so darned good at sport. Not only was he coached by the best, but every day during the school year he and the other team members used to have to run up and down a 400 foot high steep hill that backs onto Wellington harbour They finished off with a hard session of weight training. He put on so much heavy muscle mass that in UK terms he would have been ranked as obese for his age!

[Bob Williams]

Might come as a surprise Ed, but I was almost born a Kiwi. In the late 1920’s my mother’s paternal cousin Lizzie married and the couple left for a farm in NZ. They had a very large acreage, drained, developed and worked around half of it until early 1939, when they wrote to my parents to ask if they wanted to come over and take the other half, with a house included. Dad was all for it, so too my then schoolboy brothers. The maternal grandmother I never knew, was very ill and mam would not leave the UK. Dad had always wanted to be a farmer instead of a miner all his working life. He never appeared to be bitter after War broke out, grandma passed away on the evening of September 3rd 1939 and put paid to that dream, but now and then over the years he would say to me “You should have been born a Kiwi.” in mam’s hearing. I loved my life growing up in a Nottinghamshire village, but the area of the North Island where the farm was then, would have been open and relatively empty: what a glorious place to live! Then in the Army I met a lad from the area who told me more about it; how he used to ride to school on an old mare, picking up two more kids at other farms on the way.

We never know where life will take us I guess.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

We all liked living in New Zealand, the only real downsides were its distance from ageing parents, and regular earthquakes of 6+ or so. We regretted having to leave what Kiwis refer to as God’s Own.

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