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Ideas to improve the standard of rugby in the NH
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<blockquote data-quote="Feicarsinn" data-source="post: 514923" data-attributes="member: 22777"><p>I'm not sure how much I buy into this massive divide stuff. I know SH posters will go on about the fact that they've won far more World Cups, but it's a pretty irrelevant statistic considering that we concern ourselves with the present and not the relative strengths of the two provinces back in 1987. What we can base our opinions on is the recent set of international tours and possibly the World Cup 9 months ago. It's pretty clear that the SH is ahead, but not by all that much.</p><p> </p><p>In the World Cup Ireland were able to turn over Australia, Wales were extremely competitive against South Africa, England beat Argentina and a French side in turmoil lost by a point to the All Blacks in Auckland. On that evidence there isn't a massive gap in standards between the two hemispheres.</p><p></p><p>In the recent set of tours Wales lost their series in Australia, but a look at the score lines in the games indicates how close they were. Indeed, they will no doubt feel that they left the last two games behind. In terms of talent I don't think there's that much between the two sides at all and home advantage eventually swung in for the Aussies. Oh, and the Welsh are massive bottlers. </p><p></p><p>England got a draw in South Africa and two relatively close losses. Certainly none of those results would shame any side in world rugby. What makes this more impressive in a sense is that this England side is neither a particularly impressive one nor the best they could put out. They'll be disappointed not to come away with a win, but the were competitive.</p><p></p><p>Ireland obviously got blown out of the water, but Ireland's problems are something for another day and certainly not representative of Northern hemisphere rugby as a whole. It's probably not best to go into the Argentina tours either, considering that they didn't put out anything near a full strength squad. Scotland managed a win in Australia too.</p><p></p><p>On the evidence of that I'd say the gap isn't so wide as to necessitate a radical overhaul of the way rugby is played in the NH. As has been said earlier in the thread, it's under age coaching that needs work and we are starting to see the benefits of the increased efforts in that field. At the U20 World Cup Northern Hemisphere sides were extremely competitive, notably Ireland and Wales. Lots of reason for optimism here.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Feicarsinn, post: 514923, member: 22777"] I'm not sure how much I buy into this massive divide stuff. I know SH posters will go on about the fact that they've won far more World Cups, but it's a pretty irrelevant statistic considering that we concern ourselves with the present and not the relative strengths of the two provinces back in 1987. What we can base our opinions on is the recent set of international tours and possibly the World Cup 9 months ago. It's pretty clear that the SH is ahead, but not by all that much. In the World Cup Ireland were able to turn over Australia, Wales were extremely competitive against South Africa, England beat Argentina and a French side in turmoil lost by a point to the All Blacks in Auckland. On that evidence there isn't a massive gap in standards between the two hemispheres. In the recent set of tours Wales lost their series in Australia, but a look at the score lines in the games indicates how close they were. Indeed, they will no doubt feel that they left the last two games behind. In terms of talent I don't think there's that much between the two sides at all and home advantage eventually swung in for the Aussies. Oh, and the Welsh are massive bottlers. England got a draw in South Africa and two relatively close losses. Certainly none of those results would shame any side in world rugby. What makes this more impressive in a sense is that this England side is neither a particularly impressive one nor the best they could put out. They'll be disappointed not to come away with a win, but the were competitive. Ireland obviously got blown out of the water, but Ireland's problems are something for another day and certainly not representative of Northern hemisphere rugby as a whole. It's probably not best to go into the Argentina tours either, considering that they didn't put out anything near a full strength squad. Scotland managed a win in Australia too. On the evidence of that I'd say the gap isn't so wide as to necessitate a radical overhaul of the way rugby is played in the NH. As has been said earlier in the thread, it's under age coaching that needs work and we are starting to see the benefits of the increased efforts in that field. At the U20 World Cup Northern Hemisphere sides were extremely competitive, notably Ireland and Wales. Lots of reason for optimism here. [/QUOTE]
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