RWC: Pre-game analysis of Australia v England

[BoredShirtless]

England are shithouse. We'll send the Poms packing and crying through our water tight defense and the tackle busting runs of Mortlock and Turqiri and the rejuvinated Larkham to their mommies and daddies! Aussie Aussie Aussie!

[Companion Cube]

England are shithouse. We'll send the Poms packing and crying through our water tight defense and the tackle busting runs of Mortlock and Turqiri and the rejuvinated Larkham to their mommies and daddies! Aussie Aussie Aussie!

I always thought you were German.

And anyway, you colonial scum don't stand a chance.

Ingerlaaand, Ingerlaaand...

[weemadando]

My pregame analysis (assuming dry weather)...

First half will be fairly close and probably end with England 2-6 points infront, but with probably no ground scores, instead relying on Australia's sloppy play to get Johnny "chickenshit" Wilkinson lots of kicks. Australia will contest well at scrums and rucks, and lineouts will be fairly impressive.

Australia should focus on getting the ball wide quickly and keeping on the ground - playing our own game and not getting drawn into the poms style.


Second half will be a brutal slog of Australia hammering the British line, and Britain kicking for field position. Should be fairly impressive.


Overall - I'm picking Australia (out of sentiment) and also the fact that its a home game and they have been ever so slowly improving... But only by an amazingly slim margin.

[BoredShirtless]

Nah, Australia were very tidy against NZ and I don't think they'll go backwards from that. There form leading up to that game was a reflection of their lack of confidence, not skills. Now that their confidence is up, they should be tidy.

Yes, Johnny Wilkinson will be a huge problem for us. To contain him, don't give away penatlies, and ESPECIALLY in our half! PLEASE be tidy or Wilkinson WILL kill us!

I agree with your point about keeping the ball on the ground, but not with spreading it wide asap: the Australians are great at close in plays because they're so good at supporting the runner, spreading it only when they see an overlap. And Larkham has GOT to run the ball up; his probing runs with the ball out confuses people so he HAS to continue that.

So who will win? England were crap against France but it was raining so England will be tons better. But if Australia plays as well as they did against NZ, England will lose by 5 points.

[Zac Naloen]

So who will win? England were crap against France but it was raining so England will be tons better

i seem to remember someone saying that would be a close game, and even though we played crap, we still beat them by a fair margin.
but i agree, the rain really affected both sides play... i guess england are just more used to wet weather

[BoredShirtless]

i seem to remember someone saying that would be a close game, and even though we played crap, we still beat them by a fair margin.
but i agree, the rain really affected both sides play... i guess england are just more used to wet weather

The thing is, France plays a flashier type of game then England. Flashy == high risk. So with a wet ball, high risk == more dropped balls and that's why they suffered more then England did. Based on their group games and Ireland, I'd hate to think what they would have done to you if it was dry

[Zac Naloen]

still lost probably