The Rugby U Internationals 12/13

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

...season starts off to watch Wales Argentina second half i hope ...

going to be an interesting season methinks

[aeolium]

I stopped watching after an awful first half, calum. Not surprised that Argentina have gone ahead - it's going to be a long, tough season for Wales this year and it could be England's year in the Six Nations...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

alas i enjoyed watching the Pumas score tries against the Welsh, and England against Fiji .. i fear you are right tho aeolium, Scotland were fairly good against the All Blacks but still gave away over fifty points and Ireland do not look the side they were ... but many stars out injured but the French had a very strong win over Australia ...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

oh dear Scotland were dire, and Wales have just committed the impertinence of scoring against the All Blacks

[Nick Armstrong]

Are our Welsh contingent glued to the Australian game at the moment?

On a trip (the first for maybe 20 years) to Cardiff this week, I was struck by how wonderfully central the Millennium Stadium is, it seems just over the road from the main station. A much more inviting and exciting prospect than trailing out of the centre of London to Twickenham (ditto Wembley, for the round ball version)

[Nick Armstrong]

Ohh..... they were doing so well at 78'....

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

England 38 New Zealand 21

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Matt Dawson Former England rugby international

"I can see this being maybe the greatest England victory, ever, at Twickenham. Nothing is springing to mind where they have annihilated the world's best team as they have today.

"England harried, hounded and were just relentless. They said to New Zealand 'we will tackle you wherever you go and then we'll pinch the ball and see if we can live off scraps'. New Zealand cracked.

"I think I have been to every single England game at Twickenham since I was 14. This was by far the best game I've seen. It's the best performance by an England side considering the opposition and considering what this team has been through, particularly over the last two weeks. Absolutely magnificent - it was an absolutely astonishing performance to win by 17 points."

on bbc sport site

[amateur51]

Well done England, a magnificent performance as Matt Mr Understatement Dawson suggests

I was gutted for Wales but it was a close run thing. All-in-all a good weekend for the Northern hemisphere teams, just not perfect.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i saw the second half of the Welsh game Ams and candidly neither side was that on form, Ozzies nicked it at the end but the Reds had been rather slow around the ruck and oddly less combative ... but a good work out for the six nations eh?

[aeolium]

The Wallabies were there for the taking but Wales just didn't take their chances. Sad but they are just missing too many key players at the moment especially in the scrum. Good to see that England thrashed the All-Blacks. I was out yesterday but will watch the highlights today around lunchtime. England must now be favourites for the 6-Nations.

[AmpH]

A very fine win for England. They played with great committment right from the start and didn't allow the AB's to settle at all, who, as a result were uncharacteristically sloppy. It wasn't perfect though, with missed tackles leading to the two tries conceded at the start of the second half, but the response to score three tries was magnificent when the game was really in the balance - that says a lot about the mental strength of the team.

This is still very much a developing team though and mistakes will inevitably be made along the way. It takes years to develop a really good team, which is why some of the recent criticism has imv been over the top - Sir Clive W for example should know better - remember it was he who took an inexperienced team down to Australia in 1998 and lost 76 - 0 ! Imagine the furore if that happened now !

I thought the captain, Chris Robshaw, conducted himself with great dignity this week in the face of considerable personal criticism and produced a magnificent performance yesterday. He has certainly grown as a captain throughout this Autumn series.

Nice to see the ' Leicester Lip ' having to eat some humble pie today .......

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/england/9716812/England-v-New-Zealand-so-many-positives-to-take-from-one-of-the-all-time-great-Twickenham-performances.html

Can't wait for the 6 Nations.