ENG vs FRA - Match Thread - Team announcement, Chat & Banter etc...

[HERSH]

First topic message reminder :

Last 10 meetings

26 Feb 2011 England 17 - 9 France
20 Mar 2010 France 12 - 10 England
15 Mar 2009 England 34 - 10 France
23 Feb 2008 France 13 - 24 England
13 Oct 2007 France 9 - 14 England -RWC
18 Aug 2007 France 22 - 9 England
11 Aug 2007 England 15 - 21 France
11 Mar 2007 England 26 - 18 France
12 Mar 2006 France 31 - 6 England
13 Feb 2005 England 17 - 18 France

ENGLAND - 5 Wins - FRANCE - 5 Wins

England

1 Matt Stevens
2 Steve Thompson
3 Dan Cole
4 Louis Deacon
5 Tom Palmer
6 Tom Croft
7 Lewis Moody
8 Nick Easter
9 Ben Youngs
10 Jonny Wilkinson
11 Mark Cueto
12 Toby Flood
13 Manu Tuilagi
14 Chris Ashton
15 Ben Foden

Replacements

16 Dylan Hartley
17 Alex Corbisiero
18 Courtney Lawes
19 Simon Shaw
20 James Haskell
21 Richard Wigglesworth
22 Matt Banahan



France

1 Jean-Baptiste Poux
2 William Servat
3 Nicolas Mas
4 Pascal Pape
5 Lionel Nallet
6 Thierry Dusautoir
7 Julien Bonnaire
8 Imanol Harinordoquy
9 Dimitri Yachvili
10 Morgan Parra
11 Alexis Palisson
12 Maxime Mermoz
13 Aurélien Rougerie
14 Vincent Clerc
15 Maxime Médard

Replacements

16 Dimitri Szarzewski
17 Fabien Barcella
18 Julien Pierre
19 Louis Picamoles
20 Francois Trinh-Duc
21 David Marty
22 Cédric Heymans

[tomhughesnice]

"Educated" people. Typical English arrogance.

I was born in New Plymouth.

Thomas Waldrom was born in Upper Hutt. But he's English.

Urm you seem to spend most of your life on these forums reminding us that players such as Thomas Waldrom are from New Zealand so shouldnt play for England.. But now he's English???? Make your mind up.

[Geordie]

"Teams have worked out how to play England. You spoil their ball,frustate them and rack up the points when the penalties come.."

And yet bar Ireland in the 6n..no team has done that....

[englandglory4ever]

Yeah and GG never explains why Samoan, Tongan and Fijian players end up playing for NZ. Some such as Jones do go back to their roots eventually and help their real countrymen. Pity GG is so one-eyed it makes him look irrelevant.

[tomhughesnice]

Thats how I read the situation anyway, rather than just taking one line of the interview out of context then abussing people for not having read the whole story.

When have I abussed or abused people? Do you understand what that word means? Please look it up and you will realise my comments do not amount to abuse.

Perhaps you mean 'corrected', or 'educated' people? But we are not talking about people anyway... just you.

OK so in this case you have resorted to attacking the poster rather debating the subject again? And bought up the old " ah he made a spelling mistake therefor I can invalidate his entire argument" card. The two lowest forms of internet arguing.
The tone and content of your initial post was antagonistic and insulting, I took it as a written attack or abuse. That the content of it was incorrect on top led me to repsond by refutting the claim and presenting evidence to back up my argument. Get over it and stop trying to pick a fight.
Talk about the topic in hand rather than just quoting the bit of my post where i chided you for your needless aggression.

Really??? Are you this sensitive to being corrected on something? You stated I abused(Abussed) you and I merely stated you do not understand what Abuse means. So it wasnt your spelling mistake that invalidated your argument, even after spelling correction it didnt make sense.

Now im antagonistic, insulting and agressive? Your the one saying this stuff and your saying im trying to pick up a fight. This forums are for debating, if everyone agreed whats the point?

Overall my point is that if Tindall hadnt been injured he would have been picked this week.


EDIT - KRD, just chill a little folks

[mystiroakey]

didnt MJ suggest(i read it somewhere) that tindall feeling 'sore' and missing some training wasnt the only reason he wasnt playing.

but i dont think he was suggesting it was tactical- he may have implied that it was to do with the offfield antics blah blah,

[Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler]

didnt MJ suggest(i read it somewhere) that tindall feeling 'sore' and missing some training wasnt the only reason he wasnt playing

Yes , the quote i pointed to twice...but lets not go there again please

[englandglory4ever]

"Yes , the quote i pointed to twice...but lets not go there again please"

Shouldn't we all be able to 'go' where we like? Isn't that the point of a debating 'room'?

[Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler]

"Yes , the quote i pointed to twice...but lets not go there again please"

Shouldn't we all be able to 'go' where we like? Isn't that the point of a debating 'room'?

Fine I was just trying to walk away calmly, if you want to get dragged into a silly spat with Tom go ahead be my guest.....

[mystiroakey]

hey dude chill. I was just replying to a point that was made in the post above me

[englandglory4ever]

"Fine I was just trying to walk away calmly, if you want to get dragged into a silly spat with Tom go ahead be my guest....."

Why say that? I have no issue with what Tom is saying! It looks like it is you with the 'issue' mate.

[mystiroakey]

this is nuts lol. lets all have a war!!

[englandglory4ever]

FIIIIGHT!!!! (spoken like a loud war cry)

[mystiroakey]

[TheGreyGhost]

"Educated" people. Typical English arrogance.

I was born in New Plymouth.

Thomas Waldrom was born in Upper Hutt. But he's English.

Urm you seem to spend most of your life on these forums reminding us that players such as Thomas Waldrom are from New Zealand so shouldnt play for England.. But now he's English???? Make your mind up.

It's called irony chaps, calm down. You can't have it both ways either.

[TheGreyGhost]

Yeah and GG never explains why Samoan, Tongan and Fijian players end up playing for NZ. Some such as Jones do go back to their roots eventually and help their real countrymen. Pity GG is so one-eyed it makes him look irrelevant.

You'll find that it's actually that NZ players play for Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. In Samoa's case you'll find it's just about all of them. In Tonga's case the coach is an ex-AB Kiwi.

[Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler]

"Educated" people. Typical English arrogance.

I was born in New Plymouth.

Thomas Waldrom was born in Upper Hutt. But he's English.

Urm you seem to spend most of your life on these forums reminding us that players such as Thomas Waldrom are from New Zealand so shouldnt play for England.. But now he's English???? Make your mind up.

It's called irony chaps, calm down. You can't have it both ways either.

I can have it any way I like thankyou very much ( no matter what the samoan public may have to say about it) this is an open debate forum .....

[mystiroakey]

Yeah and GG never explains why Samoan, Tongan and Fijian players end up playing for NZ. Some such as Jones do go back to their roots eventually and help their real countrymen. Pity GG is so one-eyed it makes him look irrelevant.

You'll find that it's actually that NZ players play for Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. In Samoa's case you'll find it's just about all of them. In Tonga's case the coach is an ex-AB Kiwi.

ermm. and yet you still use somoan,tongan and figian players- yes the 3 also use NZ players- but and this is the truth of it- NZ get the pick of the best!!!!. As a kiwi your not really entitled to have a go at other countries as you use the system as you please yourselfs..

[englandglory4ever]

Yeah and GG never explains why Samoan, Tongan and Fijian players end up playing for NZ. Some such as Jones do go back to their roots eventually and help their real countrymen. Pity GG is so one-eyed it makes him look irrelevant.

You'll find that it's actually that NZ players play for Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. In Samoa's case you'll find it's just about all of them. In Tonga's case the coach is an ex-AB Kiwi.

This is so ridiculously funny I can hardly type. GG refuses to accept that overseas people play for NZ. He probably thinks his poo doesn't stink too!

[Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler]

"Fine I was just trying to walk away calmly, if you want to get dragged into a silly spat with Tom go ahead be my guest....."

Why say that? I have no issue with what Tom is saying! It looks like it is you with the 'issue' mate.

Good lord man ...I made the initial "lets not go there" because the topic had alreayd been covered and just turned into a circular argument about nothing, you took offense to (rather bizzarely especially as it wasnt even addressed to you) which I repsonded by saying fine go ahead and talk about it then .....Im not sure where the aggression is coming from here?
My issue is with posters flying off the handle over nothing rather than trying to have a sensible debate or having some chummy banter and making funnies.

Can we have a kiss now please?

[TheGreyGhost]

So.

We got all the way to the Quarterfinals without England fans piping up about NZ poaching pacific islanders.

It was a refreshing couple of weeks.

[Guest]

bit suprised to see wilko and flood both starting, i would have liked to see flood 10, and hape 12

[Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler]

FIIIIGHT!!!! (spoken like a loud war cry)

[Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler]

So.

We got all the way to the Quarterfinals without England fans piping up about NZ poaching pacific islanders.

It was a refreshing couple of weeks.

Hey at least its not new zleand poaching south sea islanders.

I notice you couldnt wait that long to have a pop at England poaching kiwis and other fruits though

[mystiroakey]

So.

We got all the way to the Quarterfinals without England fans piping up about NZ poaching pacific islanders.

It was a refreshing couple of weeks.

GG pal it wouldnt have been brought up, but if you wanna be hypocritical and bring up england poaching- what the heck to you expect!!!!!

[TheGreyGhost]

My personal opinion is that it doesn't matter too much who you play at 12 once you start Wilkinson at 10. You know they're not going to get much time on the ball. I'm wondering in MJ is trying to repeat the 2003 effect, taking the pressure of Wilkinson by giving him a kicking and distributing option outside to cover his lack of tactical kicking nous and distribution skills.

To me, it just seems to create a defensive weakness in this permutation and remove a direct ball carrying option. The forecast is for dry weather, and this seems to indicate a lot of kicking will be going on.

I bet France wish they had their giant ball carrying midfield options available, because this would be ripe to be exploited.

[englandglory4ever]

Sorry Seabiscuit I'm over you now. My sights are on GG. He never fails to cause a stir. Trouble is I like stirring sometimes.

[mystiroakey]

seabiscuit you need to calm down- have a biscuit and a cup of tea.

by the way - why is there a and no rose or 3 lions. thats surely racist

[Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler]

seabiscuit you need to calm down- have a biscuit and a cup of tea.

by the way - why is there a and no rose or 3 lions. thats surely racist

No samaon gumshield either, im off to vent my anger on twitter ... this is the holocaust

[Ozzy3213]

[Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler]

My personal opinion is that it doesn't matter too much who you play at 12 once you start Wilkinson at 10. You know they're not going to get much time on the ball. I'm wondering in MJ is trying to repeat the 2003 effect, taking the pressure of Wilkinson by giving him a kicking and distributing option outside to cover his lack of tactical kicking nous and distribution skills.

To me, it just seems to create a defensive weakness in this permutation and remove a direct ball carrying option. The forecast is for dry weather, and this seems to indicate a lot of kicking will be going on.

I bet France wish they had their giant ball carrying midfield options available, because this would be ripe to be exploited.

Yeah but then if that wre the case he probably wouldnt have made the selection and we'd be having poached kiwi fruit for pudding

[TheGreyGhost]

Anway, England should walk it. NZ dismantled France with ease, and Tonga just ran over them.

Have France become a Tier 2 rugby nation?

Only a supreme lack of composure could cost England this game. A choke, if you will.

[mystiroakey]

seabiscuit you need to calm down- have a biscuit and a cup of tea.

by the way - why is there a and no rose or 3 lions. thats surely racist

No samaon gumshield either, im off to vent my anger on twitter ... this is the holocaust

lol


what there is a rose-- ar sorry i apoligiose but no thistle poor scots

[TheGreyGhost]

There's no Scotland either, so it's probably fair enough.

They do have the patronising icon though, so they're well set for patronising BBC comedy coverage anyway.

[mystiroakey]

i am also surprised we dont have a clover leaf- thats normally a must on every forum

[Metal Tiger]

So.

We got all the way to the Quarterfinals without England fans piping up about NZ poaching pacific islanders.

It was a refreshing couple of weeks.

Naaaah... pretty sure I saw someone bring it up last week.

I certainly don't count Waldrum as being an Englishman. But he has legitimate English ancestry under the IRB rules and can choose who he represents.

[Metal Tiger]

Anway, England should walk it. NZ dismantled France with ease, and Tonga just ran over them.

Have France become a Tier 2 rugby nation?

Only a supreme lack of composure could cost England this game. A choke, if you will.

Careful now GG... England will do well to make the final and are by no means heir apparant to the rugby throne.... that label belongs to another team... who never quite seem to get there!

Who could that be?

[TheGreyGhost]

G'wan, you should walk in there. Misfiring France this week, and one of the celts next week, who are playing their final this week. Surely England are the only team on that side of the draw with any genuine aspiration to a final?

It's time to stop the self effacing carry on, it's endearing and all, but a little disingenuous.

[englandglory4ever]

"It's time to stop the self effacing carry on, it's endearing and all, but a little disingenuous."

If we did stop the self-effing thing we would be labelled arrogant, etc. and anyway we don't want to sound like those over-blown Welshmen do we? If you listen to them they have Bill in their trophy cabinet already. I suspect Ireland will have something to say about that though.

[TheGreyGhost]

Get in there son. You didn't build an empire that spanned half the globe by eyeing the Spanish and the Dutch cautiously and declaring you'd be happy if you could get a small colony set up on the Isle of Mann, assuming nobody minded.

Call it as you see it. The celts have no tournament credentials and neither have the grafting spirit to make the final even a competition.

[andy powells minder]

Get in there son. You didn't build an empire that spanned half the globe by eyeing the Spanish and the Dutch cautiously and declaring you'd be happy if you could get a small colony set up on the Isle of Mann, assuming nobody minded.

Call it as you see it. The celts have no tournament credentials and neither have the grafting spirit to make the final even a competition.

[RubyGuby]

[andy powells minder]

[Mad for Chelsea]

"It's time to stop the self effacing carry on, it's endearing and all, but a little disingenuous."

If we did stop the self-effing thing we would be labelled arrogant, etc. and anyway we don't want to sound like those over-blown Welshmen do we? If you listen to them they have Bill in their trophy cabinet already. I suspect Ireland will have something to say about that though.

You're actually both right (my gosh, TGG is right, and they're no flying pigs outside my window ). Looking at the draw, England should make the final, and if they don't they'll have under-performed. However, I am now going to be slated by my Celt friends on here as a typical arrogant Englishman, and reminded that Wales and Ireland have superior form (despite Wales actually having lost a match). The truth of it though is that I'm French. Not sure what the English are worried about TBH, we've been utter pants so far, and it's unlikely to improve IMO.

[englandglory4ever]

The two skinny wins against the Argies and the jocks has made us keep our powder dry for the minute. Can't crow too much after those games.

[andy powells minder]

"It's time to stop the self effacing carry on, it's endearing and all, but a little disingenuous."

If we did stop the self-effing thing we would be labelled arrogant, etc. and anyway we don't want to sound like those over-blown Welshmen do we? If you listen to them they have Bill in their trophy cabinet already. I suspect Ireland will have something to say about that though.

You're actually both right (my gosh, TGG is right, and they're no flying pigs outside my window ). Looking at the draw, England should make the final, and if they don't they'll have under-performed. However, I am now going to be slated by my Celt friends on here as a typical arrogant Englishman, and reminded that Wales and Ireland have superior form (despite Wales actually having lost a match). The truth of it though is that I'm French. Not sure what the English are worried about TBH, we've been utter pants so far, and it's unlikely to improve IMO.

In the words of that 80's classic "the only way is up"

[RubyGuby]

[andy powells minder]

Same to you sir +1

[englandglory4ever]

What are all those hands and flying pigs about?

[Mad for Chelsea]

"It's time to stop the self effacing carry on, it's endearing and all, but a little disingenuous."

If we did stop the self-effing thing we would be labelled arrogant, etc. and anyway we don't want to sound like those over-blown Welshmen do we? If you listen to them they have Bill in their trophy cabinet already. I suspect Ireland will have something to say about that though.

You're actually both right (my gosh, TGG is right, and they're no flying pigs outside my window ). Looking at the draw, England should make the final, and if they don't they'll have under-performed. However, I am now going to be slated by my Celt friends on here as a typical arrogant Englishman, and reminded that Wales and Ireland have superior form (despite Wales actually having lost a match). The truth of it though is that I'm French. Not sure what the English are worried about TBH, we've been utter pants so far, and it's unlikely to improve IMO.

In the words of that 80's classic "the only way is up"

You forgot to add the bit "unless you're coached by a madman called Marc Lièvremont, in which case the only way is even further down"...

[RubyGuby]

What are all those hands and flying pigs about?

They are reference to Wilko, Flood and Easter and the world class number 8 Haskell - Something to do with when will England beat France - when I see pigs flying

[Sponsored content]