Aus won't make it out of the group. Can't scrummage against England/Wales you're in jail. Have won one of last 5 against England teams much worse than one they will face at WC.
I think the draw will make SA play NZ in the semifinal. Which, given how the cricket semifinal went, could make it the grudge match from hell.
Unfortunately, England's rugby team is at least equally unlikeable. In fact, I would personally view them as being much, much more unlikeable, but then I still see the England rugby team as a sign that the class struggle hasn't ended so perhaps my point of view is far from disinterested on the matter.
Check how many of the current team are posh boys. Robshaw maybe? About it.
Very true. And given Wales' recent dominance of Australia (especially in the last 10 encounters) we have absolutely no chance at all.
That's how I see the australian team too.
This is kinda true, but there are still a **** load of fans of the England side who conform to the hooray Henry stereotype and do their team a real disservice - also whilst there might be less Eton/Harrow types in the team, there's still an overwhelming feeling of upper-middle class about them (Youngs, Care, Goode, Cipriani, Wigglesworth, Easter, Haskell, Croft) - certainly the majority still come from Grammar or Private school backgrounds. Allied to this is the fact that England have criticised all-and-sundry over the years for 'poaching' of players and they're probably now the greatest exponents of the poach - even though relatively few of the poaches have really paid off.
Going to a Grammar school doesn't remotely make you a hooray Henry.
I went to a Grammar school and with very few exceptions, the rugby players were typical upper class prigs. The difference being that most of them had been to private prep schools where rugby was the main sport and those that didn't play rugby had gone to generic state primary schools and hadn't played rugby at all.
I'll freely admit I was exaggerating about England being the greates exponents of the poach, but they were certainly the most vocal in the past about how NZ had poached from the Pacific. And it's not as if they've done too badly out of the Pacfic either. All Manu Tuilagi's brothers played for Samoa. Dylan Hartley's a Kiwi (you can keep him though) and Thomas Waldrom stepped off a plane and he could play for the red rose.
Cool I went to a grammar school and most of the rugby players were good at rugby. They were also good at football and cricket. I could count on my hands the people in my school year who had come from a prep primary school
Must be that North/South divide again.
