It just doesn't get any better than this !!

[Richard]

we have always got injuries. we should be used to it by now

It's a different thing getting used to injuries and coping with them.

 

[Richard]

Wouldn't you be more likely to get the flame-war you seem to have your heart set on if you posted such messages on a RUGBY website?

This is one of the more off-topic threads in Cricket Chat and specialists, yes.

 

[Richard]

Steds buddy you answered and you deserved to answer and then they say Why fraz Answers . Pathetic Racism aint it

Thing is, FRAZ, it can't be racist if it's England-Australia.
It can be xenophobic, and there are flame-wars (fortunately few here) that originate from xenophobia on the part of both Englishmen and Australians.
However, too much IMO is dismissed as "Anglo-Aussie rivalry", and when you get Indo-Pak or subcontinent-Australia stuff along the same lines it's far more quickly branded as xenophobia\racism.

 

[Richard]

Whats the deal with rugby and cricket. I read a while back that Ponting said they will deal with the Poms in cricket after their rugby win

Aussies don't like losing to England in any of their "big" sports.
No worries, of course, in us losing at Rules Football, because we don't go in for that sort of rubbish.

 

[cricketfan]

Union is not a "big sport" in Australia. it's a very distant last of 4 codes played here. Most people have never even heard of it. It's basically confined to public schools in QLD and NSW with a sprinkling in other states. All the more remarkable the Wallabies can compete at the highest level. Oh and for the uneducated like Richard Australian rules came into being four years before the FA layed down the rules of Soccer and is played in 60+ countries. And yes I'm English!

 

[Richard]

And you presumed that I didn't know that because...?
Nonetheless, FA-rules football is an infinately more popluar game Worldwide.
Union, meanwhile, may not be what you'd describe as "big" but they still tend to do well enough at it (far better than at FA-rules football) to suggest it's big enough!

 

[cricketfan]

The good Soccer players invariably end up playing o'seas the majority in England. Harry Kewell etc. Money talks!

 

[Richard]

Well, obviously.
Don't really see what that has to do with anything, though - if soccer is more popular than rugby-union, it's still very odd that they're so much better at the less popular one.

 

[cricketfan]

Yes i guess it's odd but don't forget Oz beat England in England at Soccer a while back. Now that's odd!

 

[Richard]

Yes, it is, it was a freak and can be dismissed as such!
Everyone pleaded with Sven to put-out a strong team, don't let the Aussies get the better of us in yet another thing. Sven, perhaps not quite understanding fully the nature of Anglo-Aussie sports rivalry, didn't, and look at the result.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Yes, it is, it was a freak and can be dismissed as such!
Everyone pleaded with Sven to put-out a strong team, don't let the Aussies get the better of us in yet another thing. Sven, perhaps not quite understanding fully the nature of Anglo-Aussie sports rivalry, didn't, and look at the result.

We beat the strongest team you could put on the field in the first-half 2-0, the lesser knowns actually fared better in the second at 1-1. I think the players may have taken things a bit lightly actually, underestimating the passion with which the Aussies would be playing even though it was a friendly - we don't get many chances to put a full strength team on the pitch against world-rated opposition.

There's been plently of excuses from your part of the World though since it happened and it's always funny to see the look on an Englishman's face when they come up spouting about the rugby and the soccer is mentioned...

 

[Neil Pickup]

Seeing as I've never ever paid any attention to any england exhibition/warm-up games, I'll prefer to dwell on the last time the respective sides qualified for a World Cup.