The Official English Rugby Thread

[Uncle fester]

Bit of a silly reason to be dumping players from squads.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/ ... dApp_Other
Unless of course Eddie was just looking for an excuse.

[Raggs]

This strikes me from the interview:

I felt a bit let down because not many lads said: ‘Mike didn’t actually really do much. It was instigated by other people.’

“I didn’t feel like anyone really had my back. People were looking after themselves because it was close to a World Cup and I kind of understand that. [But] that wasn’t the reason why I didn’t go to the World Cup. I think it was just easier for Eddie to put it on that.”

----

Maybe it wasn't because they were looking after themselves, but rather they didn't view it the same way.

[Paddington Bear]

Yes Brown's been a bit tedious on this. 'A bloke swung for me out of nowhere' does happen but much less often than those swung for claim.

[sockwithaticket]

Watching Wasps' challenge cup game game and it turns out that Steffon Armitage is still playing pro rugby with Biarritz.

[Margin__Walker]

Definite French team away in Europe vibes, but LI are getting back on the horse by absolutely humping Castres. 40-3 at half time.

Playing some lovely rugby.

[sockwithaticket]

Wasps managed to turn a dominant first half into 32 - 29 in their favour with 10 to go.

[Margin__Walker]

Mad game in Brentford in the end.

Castres scored 24 unanswered points after HT, before LI scored 24 unanswered points of their own in the final ten minutes finish 64 - 27.

Will Joseph came on for the final 10 minutes and had a key role in three tries, including one where he scored from his own 22. He looks a serious player.

[sockwithaticket]

Wasps manage to get their act together in the final 10 and finish strongly, with Barbeary notching his hat trick after nearly managing at the end of the first half. Not the most convincing performance to take into the next round, but a win's a win.

Mad game in Brentford in the end.

Castres scored 24 unanswered points after HT, before LI scored 24 unanswered points of their own in the final ten minutes finish 64 - 27.

Will Joseph came on for the final 10 minutes and had a key role in three tries, including one where he scored from his own 22. He looks a serious player.

Sounds fun!

[Margin__Walker]

Mad game in Brentford in the end.

Castres scored 24 unanswered points after HT, before LI scored 24 unanswered points of their own in the final ten minutes finish 64 - 27.

Will Joseph came on for the final 10 minutes and had a key role in three tries, including one where he scored from his own 22. He looks a serious player.

Sounds fun!

Bits of it were. Also pretty terrifying. Everything went Castres way for the first 25 minutes of the 2nd half to the point where it actually looked like we were going to throw it away.

All's well that ends well. Glad Wasps went through too.

[iarmhí]

Just seen the ref for Bristol v Sale.

My sincerest apologies lads

[Kawazaki]

The Sale team numbers 1 to 9, eight of them are South African.

[Margin__Walker]

Highlights for the LI game



Unfortunately they didn't show the break that led to the Cornish try. Involved Arundell beating a few players in his 22 before feeding Joseph to break downfield to the Castres line.

[sockwithaticket]

The Sale team numbers 1 to 9, eight of them are South African.

[Brazil]

The Sale team numbers 1 to 9, eight of them are South African.

And man of the match was a home grown England prospect, , as were all the other EQPs. And the number would have been less if the Currys, Quirke, Beaumont etc weren't injured.

[Kawazaki]

The Sale team numbers 1 to 9, eight of them are South African.

And man of the match was a home grown England prospect, , as were all the other EQPs. And the number would have been less if the Currys, Quirke, Beaumont etc weren't injured.

It's not a good look. Sale have a great catchment area, they should been churning out EQPs for fun. 7 Saffas in the pack is embarrassing.

[notfatcat]

I wonder if Edward Griffiths had any secretive input at Sale. "We don't need an academy, we have South Africa! Don't let the door hit your arse on the way out, HRHRH."

[ASMO]

Just seen the ref for Bristol v Sale.

My sincerest apologies lads

To be fair, i thought he was ok, he is no Adamson thats for sure

[geordie_6]

Deano stepping down as Falcons DoR, will apparently still be involved in some sort of "consultant" capacity.

[SaintK]

Deano stepping down as Falcons DoR, will apparently still be involved in some sort of "consultant" capacity.

Yep. TRP reported it on Sunday and Telegraph saying he's still going to be involved in recruitment?
He's done a good job there. Will Walder step up or will they bring in ssomeone else?

The Rugby Paper reported over the weekend that Richards was in line to step down to become a part-time consultant at the end of this season and Telegraph Sport understands that he is likely to remain heavily involved in Newcastle’s recruitment.
Speaking on Tuesday lunchtime, Richards explained that he was fleshing out future plans with Semore Kurdi, the Falcons chairman.

https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://w ... ector/

[sockwithaticket]

After a decade in post it's probably time to get a new voice in. Environments get stale and tbh it's been starting to look like he's done as much as he can with them.

[Kawazaki]

Deano stepping down as Falcons DoR, will apparently still be involved in some sort of "consultant" capacity.

Yep. TRP reported it on Sunday and Telegraph saying he's still going to be involved in recruitment?
He's done a good job there. Will Walder step up or will they bring in ssomeone else?

The Rugby Paper reported over the weekend that Richards was in line to step down to become a part-time consultant at the end of this season and Telegraph Sport understands that he is likely to remain heavily involved in Newcastle’s recruitment.
Speaking on Tuesday lunchtime, Richards explained that he was fleshing out future plans with Semore Kurdi, the Falcons chairman.

https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://w ... ector/

Maybe he's going to shadow Eddie Jones to take over after the RWC next year?

[Tichtheid]

How far does the shadow reach for Richards for the blood capsule?

Do English rugby fans still think in those terms or is it not given a second thought now?

I was a Richards-as-a-player fan, but that felt like a punch in the face for rugby as a whole.

[LenCohen]

How far does the shadow reach for Richards for the blood capsule?

Do English rugby fans still think in those terms or is it not given a second thought now?

I was a Richards-as-a-player fan, but that felt like a punch in the face for rugby as a whole.

Every team was at it at the time

[Kawazaki]

How far does the shadow reach for Richards for the blood capsule?

Do English rugby fans still think in those terms or is it not given a second thought now?

I was a Richards-as-a-player fan, but that felt like a punch in the face for rugby as a whole.

I like him. I think he'd be a decent England coach. He won everything multiple times with Leicester. He tends to select round pegs for round holes and, despite what he was like as a player, he actually sets his teams up to play rugby that is easy on the eye.

I should add that this is wild speculation!

[sockwithaticket]

How far does the shadow reach for Richards for the blood capsule?

Do English rugby fans still think in those terms or is it not given a second thought now?

I was a Richards-as-a-player fan, but that felt like a punch in the face for rugby as a whole.

I don't really care about that, though I suspect the powers that be may still.

I'm more concerned that he spends an awful lot of time whinging about the officials in the few Falcons post-game interviews I've seen and that he's not half as good a coach these days as some seem to think.

[JM2K6]

How far does the shadow reach for Richards for the blood capsule?

Do English rugby fans still think in those terms or is it not given a second thought now?

I was a Richards-as-a-player fan, but that felt like a punch in the face for rugby as a whole.

He was not on best terms with the RFU long before Bloodgate, then that happened, and since then has turned into a weirdly conspiratorial whinger.

[Happyhooker]

How far does the shadow reach for Richards for the blood capsule?

Do English rugby fans still think in those terms or is it not given a second thought now?

I was a Richards-as-a-player fan, but that felt like a punch in the face for rugby as a whole.

never going to happen

[Tichtheid]

Happyhooker's response has thrown me a bit, but the others allude to what I thought might be the case, overall it's all water under the bridge now.

I like Newcastle and I hope they do well, having top tier teams from Newcastle to Exeter, with midlands, London and west thrown in is good for English rugby, I would think

[Margin__Walker]

He's been at Newcastle a long time. He's had a few seasons where they've done well with limited resources in that time.

Ultimately though there's a lot not going for him for me:

- Bloodgate and not exactly on great terms with the RFU.
- A bit long in the tooth now.
- Despite having decent outside backs, no one in the league has scored fewer points than Newcastle this season
- As JM alludes to, he's become a terrible whinger after a loss lately. May just be perception but he's had more than a few moans about the opposition, ref, anyone but himself etc.

Edit -Certainly not an anti Newcastle thing. Great having them in the league and this is a real opportunity for them to freshen things up a bit with some new ideas.

[petej]

How far does the shadow reach for Richards for the blood capsule?

Do English rugby fans still think in those terms or is it not given a second thought now?

I was a Richards-as-a-player fan, but that felt like a punch in the face for rugby as a whole.

never going to happen

Agree. Richards never got on with the old farts at the RFU. Chucking the Calcutta cup about on Prince's Street probably didn't help.

[Lobby]

There is nothing in of Richards’ recent career as a coach that makes him an obvious candidate to lead the England team.

Newcastle are languishing in the bottom three of the Premiership, and have scored fewer points than any other team. The best they have managed under his direction was an 8th place finish in 2017. They have some good players, but as the others have said, the main takeaway from their games is the alacrity with which he will complain about refereeing decisions and blame them for their inevitable loss.

His main successes with Harlequins and Newcastle were to get them back into the Premiership after relegation. They did less well once back in the Premiership.

He only lasted a year at Grenoble after very disappointing results.

His first few years at Leicester were undoubtedly fantastic, winning the premiership title five times in a row, and the Heineken Cup twice, but the last successful season was in 2002, twenty years ago.

You add in all of the other baggage (bloodgate, his difficult relationship with the RFU and other rugby authorities, and his near constant whinging) and you can see why the RFU would never consider him for the National team.

[ASMO]

There is nothing in of Richards’ recent career as a coach that makes him an obvious candidate to lead the England team.

Newcastle are languishing in the bottom three of the Premiership, and have scored fewer points than any other team. The best they have managed under his direction was an 8th place finish in 2017. They have some good players, but as the others have said, the main takeaway from their games is the alacrity with which he will complain about refereeing decisions and blame them for their inevitable loss.

His main successes with Harlequins and Newcastle were to get them back into the Premiership after relegation. They did less well once back in the Premiership.

He only lasted a year at Grenoble after very disappointing results.

His first few years at Leicester were undoubtedly fantastic, winning the premiership title five times in a row, and the Heineken Cup twice, but the last successful season was in 2002, twenty years ago.

You add in all of the other baggage (bloodgate, his difficult relationship with the RFU and other rugby authorities, and his near constant whinging) and you can see why the RFU would never consider him for the National team.

Lack of success and winning things seems to be a strong qualification for becoming England coach.

Jones won fuck all as a coach, Johnson too and Lancaster as well.

[JM2K6]

There is nothing in of Richards’ recent career as a coach that makes him an obvious candidate to lead the England team.

Newcastle are languishing in the bottom three of the Premiership, and have scored fewer points than any other team. The best they have managed under his direction was an 8th place finish in 2017. They have some good players, but as the others have said, the main takeaway from their games is the alacrity with which he will complain about refereeing decisions and blame them for their inevitable loss.

His main successes with Harlequins and Newcastle were to get them back into the Premiership after relegation. They did less well once back in the Premiership.

He only lasted a year at Grenoble after very disappointing results.

His first few years at Leicester were undoubtedly fantastic, winning the premiership title five times in a row, and the Heineken Cup twice, but the last successful season was in 2002, twenty years ago.

You add in all of the other baggage (bloodgate, his difficult relationship with the RFU and other rugby authorities, and his near constant whinging) and you can see why the RFU would never consider him for the National team.

Lack of success and winning things seems to be a strong qualification for becoming England coach.

Jones won fuck all as a coach, Johnson too and Lancaster as well.

I mean if you want to get really reductive about what "winning" means, then yes, Jones never won the world cup as a head coach. He did win titles with the Brumbies, took an unfavoured Aussie team to a world cup final (and extra time) having rolled the ABs in the semi, won the Tri Nations, won the Bledisloe twice, was part of the world cup winning Springbok setup in 2007, won the Japan league as a coach, gave Japan their first ever European away wins, their first win over Wales, a win over SA at a world cup(!) with three wins in the pool stages...

He was a successful coach who also won some things. He also had rough areas on his record. Miles away from Johnson and Lancaster though and that's one of the reasons he was hired in the first place - his history as a coach.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

Woodward didn't come into the job with a bulging trophy cabinet behind him.

Not sure fwiw Richards has become anymore inclined to whinge, he has always liked a good moan, perhaps having lost the highly effective carry back threats out wide of Goneva and Sinoti, and having lost the quality Wilson added to the pack he's just losing that little bit more and can't fathom how to use the talent he does have alongside the overall more prosaic makeup of their squad

[Kawazaki]

There is nothing in of Richards’ recent career as a coach that makes him an obvious candidate to lead the England team.

Newcastle are languishing in the bottom three of the Premiership, and have scored fewer points than any other team. The best they have managed under his direction was an 8th place finish in 2017. They have some good players, but as the others have said, the main takeaway from their games is the alacrity with which he will complain about refereeing decisions and blame them for their inevitable loss.

His main successes with Harlequins and Newcastle were to get them back into the Premiership after relegation. They did less well once back in the Premiership.

He only lasted a year at Grenoble after very disappointing results.

His first few years at Leicester were undoubtedly fantastic, winning the premiership title five times in a row, and the Heineken Cup twice, but the last successful season was in 2002, twenty years ago.

You add in all of the other baggage (bloodgate, his difficult relationship with the RFU and other rugby authorities, and his near constant whinging) and you can see why the RFU would never consider him for the National team.

Lack of success and winning things seems to be a strong qualification for becoming England coach.

Jones won fuck all as a coach, Johnson too and Lancaster as well.

I mean if you want to get really reductive about what "winning" means, then yes, Jones never won the world cup as a head coach. He did win titles with the Brumbies, took an unfavoured Aussie team to a world cup final (and extra time) having rolled the ABs in the semi, won the Tri Nations, won the Bledisloe twice, was part of the world cup winning Springbok setup in 2007, won the Japan league as a coach, gave Japan their first ever European away wins, their first win over Wales, a win over SA at a world cup(!) with three wins in the pool stages...

He was a successful coach who also won some things. He also had rough areas on his record. Miles away from Johnson and Lancaster though and that's one of the reasons he was hired in the first place - his history as a coach.

Yeah, but that was all 20 years ago. Under the 'you can't include Dean Richards' Leicester hegemony years because they were 20 years ago' rule you can't use those Jones achievements either.

[Kawazaki]

I know this is all wild speculation but if Richards did replace Jones, he wouldn't be anything like Jones based on how he's managed to date. He would effectively be the England DoR which is exactly what England need! Richards would hire a head coach under his role as the DoR to do the actual coaching.

[Paddington Bear]

Lack of success and winning things seems to be a strong qualification for becoming England coach.

Jones won fuck all as a coach, Johnson too and Lancaster as well.

I mean if you want to get really reductive about what "winning" means, then yes, Jones never won the world cup as a head coach. He did win titles with the Brumbies, took an unfavoured Aussie team to a world cup final (and extra time) having rolled the ABs in the semi, won the Tri Nations, won the Bledisloe twice, was part of the world cup winning Springbok setup in 2007, won the Japan league as a coach, gave Japan their first ever European away wins, their first win over Wales, a win over SA at a world cup(!) with three wins in the pool stages...

He was a successful coach who also won some things. He also had rough areas on his record. Miles away from Johnson and Lancaster though and that's one of the reasons he was hired in the first place - his history as a coach.

Yeah, but that was all 20 years ago. Under the 'you can't include Dean Richards' Leicester hegemony years because they were 20 years ago' rule you can't use those Jones achievements either.

Aside from what he has won over the last decade, sure.

Richards strikes me as someone who has been in the same place too long and the stress and strain of running a weaker club like Newcastle has got to him - hence the whinging. Hopefully he picks up a role elsewhere.

[JM2K6]

Lack of success and winning things seems to be a strong qualification for becoming England coach.

Jones won fuck all as a coach, Johnson too and Lancaster as well.

I mean if you want to get really reductive about what "winning" means, then yes, Jones never won the world cup as a head coach. He did win titles with the Brumbies, took an unfavoured Aussie team to a world cup final (and extra time) having rolled the ABs in the semi, won the Tri Nations, won the Bledisloe twice, was part of the world cup winning Springbok setup in 2007, won the Japan league as a coach, gave Japan their first ever European away wins, their first win over Wales, a win over SA at a world cup(!) with three wins in the pool stages...

He was a successful coach who also won some things. He also had rough areas on his record. Miles away from Johnson and Lancaster though and that's one of the reasons he was hired in the first place - his history as a coach.

Yeah, but that was all 20 years ago. Under the 'you can't include Dean Richards' Leicester hegemony years because they were 20 years ago' rule you can't use those Jones achievements either.

It wasn't all 20 years ago. He was the assistant for the Saffer world cup win in 2007. He won shit with Suntory (yes, I know) in 2011 and 2012. He was doing great things as Japan coach from 2013-2015. Then he took over England.

[sockwithaticket]

There is nothing in of Richards’ recent career as a coach that makes him an obvious candidate to lead the England team.

Newcastle are languishing in the bottom three of the Premiership, and have scored fewer points than any other team. The best they have managed under his direction was an 8th place finish in 2017. They have some good players, but as the others have said, the main takeaway from their games is the alacrity with which he will complain about refereeing decisions and blame them for their inevitable loss.

His main successes with Harlequins and Newcastle were to get them back into the Premiership after relegation. They did less well once back in the Premiership.

He only lasted a year at Grenoble after very disappointing results.

His first few years at Leicester were undoubtedly fantastic, winning the premiership title five times in a row, and the Heineken Cup twice, but the last successful season was in 2002, twenty years ago.

You add in all of the other baggage (bloodgate, his difficult relationship with the RFU and other rugby authorities, and his near constant whinging) and you can see why the RFU would never consider him for the National team.

They actually made the playoffs in the 17/18 season, however they were relegated the next season. Fun fact, as trash as Worcester are, Falcons have been relegated more often (twice vs. once) in the last decade.

[sockwithaticket]

Glaws - Worcester's cancelled fixture has finally seen a points decision made. 20 - 0 to Glaws, 5 table points. Probably what was expected apparently the 'reasoned decision' will be out next week, this is just a headline announcement.