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It's said you can tell a Sexton's age by the length of the neck. After a while the neck gets too long and the head just flops to the floor, leaving the poor creature helpless.
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Ireland, not Wales, are now the main Celtic power of rugby (if we didn't know that already)
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It's said you can tell a Sexton's age by the length of the neck. After a while the neck gets too long and the head just flops to the floor, leaving the poor creature helpless.
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can i jump in with a slightly different perspective...isn't it kind of cool there can be genuine debate about how several top teams compare with each other...for a change
I think anyone stating any of those top teams as definitely better than the others, rain hail or shine is dreaming as the RWC is still the only time all of these teams are looking to peak at the same time
But its cool we might legitimately get a different RWC champ next time around
I think anyone stating any of those top teams as definitely better than the others, rain hail or shine is dreaming as the RWC is still the only time all of these teams are looking to peak at the same time
But its cool we might legitimately get a different RWC champ next time around
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Christ on a bike the sheer irony.
Well this thread went well, yup anyone with a brain can see Ireland are better than Wales. I tend to go with opinion that Wales punched well above their weight in the 6 nations for the best part of Gatlands reign. The main factor there is France punched well below rather than any other nation being particularly bamboozled.
For me world rankings are a crock of **** anyone who doesn't have France as their number 1 hasn't watched them play.
The autumn internationals of last year are only indicator of how the SH v NH shakes up, as the Lions always struggle to be more than the sum of their parts and Gatland made some awful decisions/tactics.
So lets looks at them based on their rugby championship finish vs the 6 nations finishers.
4th Argentina: Beat Italy (6th), lost to France (1st) and Ireland (2nd)
3rd South Africa: Beat Wales (5th) & Scotland (4th), Lost to England (3rd)
2nd Australia: Lost to England (3rd), Scotland (4th) and Wales (5th)
1st New Zealand: Beat Italy (6th) and Wales (5th), Lost to Ireland (2nd) and France (1st)
Based on that I think we cane safely say France and Ireland are better than SH teams and we know from 6 nations results they're probably positioned 1 and 2.
Then its a bit of a punch up England/NZ technically 3rd having beaten the SH opposition but it was tight V SA and Scotland beat England and Wales beat Scotland. So you'd probably stick NZ in third.
Then I think its anyone game on a given day Wales lost to Italy & Argentina but beat Scotland who beat England so you'd probably go SA/England at the top end, Scotland in the middle, Wales/Australia & Argentina at the bottom with Italy last. But as noted I wouldn't bet on any of them with any degree of certainty.
Anyway that current form 18months time might show a diffrent reckoning. France definitely of the ascendency with Ireland being a good place and everyone else still trying to work out what the **** their doing.
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I'm not really too comfortable claiming we're better than NZ based on a home win on their end of season tour, in an otherwise unsuccessful season for us.
Like if we come out of our test series with a 2-1 loss I'll be pretty happy and I think it would show we're very evenly matched currently.
Like if we come out of our test series with a 2-1 loss I'll be pretty happy and I think it would show we're very evenly matched currently.
This is a fair and I had considered saying as much but decided a win by more than score was enough for now when compared to win by less than a score.
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Erm haven't you read that Eddie 'RWC is all that matters' Jones has a clear strategy and is making solid progress??
The class of 03 are preparing to be consigned to history.
WP-stormer
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WP-stormer
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U are delusional thinking ireland are even in top 3 in the world.u say Sa are shite yet they beat the all blacks in Nz last year something ireland has never done.top 3 in the world are SA Nz and France in prob that order.but then again this time of year this close to a WC all u Nh fans seem to think ur teams the best.yet every single World Cup u get smashed and proven on the world stage ireland is 5th at best.u slag wales yet ireland hasn't coke close to achieving what wales has in rugby.
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My main point to add, and I know both sides are guilty of this, is that it's extremely lame to call out peoples spelling. Like it's the lamest thing you can do. Especially when half you English bang on about your amazing schools but you yourself can barely form coherent sentences. Glass houses and all that.
That, and so what if someone's English writing isn't great. You know F all about that person whether they have dyslexia or whether English is even their first language. It's like posh English people telling you to pronounce your T's and speak properly. It's lame. Can you understand what the dude is saying, yes. That's all that matters. Having said that the whole be nice to people applies to both sides here.
That, and so what if someone's English writing isn't great. You know F all about that person whether they have dyslexia or whether English is even their first language. It's like posh English people telling you to pronounce your T's and speak properly. It's lame. Can you understand what the dude is saying, yes. That's all that matters. Having said that the whole be nice to people applies to both sides here.
eh there's mistakes and not trying, this is not trying and it makes it is bloody difficult to read
Welsh fans are finally slagging Wales...
But you pretty much dismiss your opinion by putting France third behind a team they gave right kicking to who came first in the rugby championship.
I also didn't say SA were shite I said they were in the top end of teams that would probably beat each other given half a chance. England are currently **** and yet we beat SA.
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South Africa have NEVER beaten Ireland in a world cup, something Japan has. Fraudulent champions.
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Yeah, it seems like that to you but you're obviously alright at it. If my older brother was to post on here he'd get ridiculed and mocked to oblivion because, and I'm not exaggerating, he has a reading and writing age of an 7-8 year old because he is severely dyslexic. He has to try really, really hard to even write one sentence and even then it'll have mistakes in it. He avoids even reading to his 7 year old son as he struggles so much and he certainly won't come on places like this for fear of being called stupid (even though he's one of the smartest people I know who has played rugby at a very high level)
I just think it's lame and unnecessary. Even if it's just a case of there's no learning disability and it's just someone has had a bad education/life you never know what someone is going through. Play the ball and not the man is all I'm saying. I've done it plenty and no ones perfect but we're all passionate about rugby, that's the main thing. We'd probably all get on in a pub so online shouldn't be any different.
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Agreed with all of the above. BUT when a poster has a go at someone's grammar adding a personal insult, it'll gain this sort of attention.
WP-stormer has come in here, added very little to the discussion, derailed the thread, been nasty and was the first to mention grammar. So fair game in my opinion.
It had been an interesting, and barely touched topic on these boards of comparing two neighbors with a lot of similarities and as many differences in terms of rugby culture and why one has seemingly caught and surpassed the other in the last 10 to 20 years.
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Agreed except I don't think he was the first to mention it and actually his back really got up when it was mentioned. It is basically calling someone stupid which is not cool in my opinion. There's a difference between calling what someone is saying as stupid and then attacking someone's spelling or what have you which is basically saying you're thick. You're not going to get people to listen to you with that kind of engagement.
Agree with what you're saying though and WP Stormer has perhaps not been the best in this exchange either but I also think he seems like an alright guy that loves SA and just has a different opinion. You can say it's biased but then aren't we all.
Hey this is definitely in the you don't know me category.
One, I'm utterly shite at it especially in the grammar functions. I work bloody hard at it (I think I've made about numerouserrors in writing this post), it does come out in some posts as I'm sure many have noted over the years.
Two, I think in my family there are five diagnosed dyslexics including my mother and my sister possibly more I don't about my cousins. My sister is probably on the scale to your brother, she's studying for a degree now and in very accomplished in her field of work (childcare). That's why I can tell the difference between someone who has difficulties and someone not trying. The clear factors are the complete mess of punctuation and that's not using the incorrect punctuation at the right time it not all capitalising stuff like Nh instead of NH or not leaving a space after a period. Dyslexic's don't make those mistakes, they're mistakes from using a digital keyboard and not being arsed to correct them. The other is U and Ur, against most dyslexics won't struggle with shorter words and especially commonly used ones, they certainly won't use the correct your and they might botch the latter letters of word they don't forget it starts with a y though. Like I say I've been deciphering this stuff since I was a kid as probably you have. Lets give people the benefit of the doubt that deserve it not those who don't.
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Love the optimism but I think NZ and France are in a league of their own right now. Ireland right behind them with the other giants trying to remember how to count to 15.
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Actually yeah, I looked back and he didn't mention grammar first, so I'll retract that.
His post history suggest a strong anti-Irish sentiment, I realised yesterday and haven't properly engaged since.
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Yeah that's fine though I'm not sure everything you've said there is quite right but yeah, I guess I don't want to talk about this anymore as people can speak for themselves and it's wildly off topic but I guess I'd just say who cares even if he is just lazy. I can't imagine there's many English lads in here who speak the Queens English and are lazy with their pronunciation but no one is ever going into a pub to say to someone "oi, stop being lazy and talk proper" as long as we can all understand each other that's the main thing imo.
Anyway, I'll let this pointless debate carry on. For the purpose of keeping it on track, all I'll say is that 18 months is still a long time in rugby and it'll be interesting to see if there's any shift a month or so before the WC. For me, currently, my top 4 are
1. France
2. NZ
3. Ireland
4. SA
In 18 months once we appoint Robinson and Rassie as water boy it'll be
1. Wales
2. France
3. NZ
4. Ireland
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