The Churchill Cup

[Feicarsinn]

The Churchill Cup kicked off in Colorado on saturday with impressive wins for Canada and the US over Uruguay and Russia respectively. The other teams taking part are The England Saxons and France "A", who must surely be the favourites to take the trophey home.

Who do you think will win? Can the supposed minnows keep up with the big boys? Discuss!

Round 1 Results
USA 39 - 22 Russia
Canada 48 - 6 Uruguay

 

[munstermuffin]

Watched it last night and well it was a poor standard which means it'll easily be a Saxons vs France A final.

 

[roscommon guy]

Russia were outstanding last night and will improve in the years to come and the USA are also improving strongly. The Saxon's might find it hard against them. And Canada are starting to live again after a few poor years. IMO the minnow nations are improving quickly thanks to the 7's.
Look the USA,Canada and Russia have better svens teams than Ireland, Scotland, France and possably Wales.
Leinster have keep the Russian full back .

 

[coonor]

Imagine if Ireland were in the competetion, we wouldn't have team for the summer tour.

 

[alexrugby]

Last Churchill Cup was bad for Georgia, Tim lane decided to make some experiments and this trial converted in a 3 step loss in world rankings from Stable 13th to 16th

Later we managed to rise, Logically

 

[CDN_Rugby]

Despite the scoreline, Canada played like crap. It really should have been 70-6, but Canada had no finish. Keep in mind too, it was Canada's first test since last Autumn, so I guess a bit of rust was expected.

While I may be biased, I think Canada does have the stuff to beat France A, but everything will need to click for that to happen. If Canada can fix their scrum problems and ramp up the intensity another notch, they could catch a tired France A squad napping. I think a lot of bigger nations write off Canada, but if any of the minnow nations in the Churchill Cup have a chance at making the Cup Final, its Canada. With that being said, I expect a narrow lose to France A, but wouldn't be suprised if Canada won either.

 

[roscommon guy]

I agree with you CDN RUGBY Canada becoming strong again thanks to the 7s

 

[Duckdee]

England Saxons vs Russia

15 Nick Abendanon (Bath Rugby)
14 James Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester Rugby)
13 Jon Clarke (Northampton Saints)
12 Anthony Allen (Leicester Tigers)
11 Tom Varndell (London Wasps)
10 Stephen Myler (Northampton Saints)
9 Micky Young (Newcastle Falcons)
1 Nick Wood (Gloucester Rugby)
2 Rob Vickers (Newcastle Falcons)
3 Duncan Bell (Bath Rugby)
4 Graham Kitchener (Worcester Warriors)
5 George Skivington (London Wasps)
6 Tom Wood (Worcester Warriors)
7 Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints)
8 Luke Narraway (Gloucester Rugby)

Replacements
16 Andy ***terrell (Leeds Carnegie)
17 Alex Corbiserio (London Irish)
18 Nathan Catt (Bath Rugby)
19 Kearnan Myall (Leeds Carnegie)
20 Andy Saull (Saracens)
21 Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints)
22 Alex Goode (Saracens)

 

[Feicarsinn]

I remember seeing Russia get absolutely demolished by Scotland "A" in the nations cup last year. Can't see it being any different this time around.That's a pretty decent Saxons team.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Is Phil Dowson still playing this match now that he's been called up to the main England squad?

 

[Duckdee]

Is Phil Dowson still playing this match now that he's been called up to the main England squad?

Good call. Just checked BBC, Andy Saull starts, AN Other on the bench.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Saxons 21 - 3 Russia
17minutes in

 

[SelimNiai]

No links please!

Sorry.

Actually some of these Russians have some talent, like the scrum half and 13. Decent players.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Already watching on there

21 - 6 now
Big break in play now, is there an injury? Got the sound off as my girlfriends got big brother on....


12-9 now, England need to stop giving away penalties, Russia are just kicking everything as they know they're not going to get a try anytime soon, and are whittling down the gap

 

[Feicarsinn]

The Russian wing (14) is a Leinster boy, Vasily Artemyev.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

28 - 14 at HT, russian conversion hits the post to leave english 2 converted tries away, instead of 1 and a bit
The russian FH is pretty handy, his kickings been solid, the ones he's missed have hit the post or just grazed it

 

[[email protected]]

How short is that Russian scrum half?

 

[TRF_Cymro]

England looking good, but face losing momentum because of silly penalties.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

49 - 17 FT
Good performance, Russia had a couple of decent players/breaks, but really we gifted them most of the points with silly penalties,
good match though/good day at the ball park for England teams today

 

[MunsterMan]

Ireland should really have a Churchill cup team We didn't send one aparently because we wan't to build depth by bringing a larger panel to the SH. Why not do that and have a Churchill Cup team to build even more depth?

1. Brett Wilinson (Connacht)
2. Andy Kyriacou (Ulster)
3. Mike Ross (Leinster)
4. Ryan Caldwell (Ulster)
5. Bob Casey (London Irish) CAPTAIN
6. Peter O'Mahony (Munster)
7. David Pollock (Ulster)
8. James Coughlan (Munster)

9. Isaac Boss (Leinster)
10. Ian Keatley (Connacht)
11. Danny Barnes (Munster)
12. Ian Whitten (Ulster)
13. Eoin O'Malley (Leinster)
14. Fionn Carr (Connacht)
15. Denis Hurley (Munster)

16. Denis Fogarty (Munster)
17. John Andress (Harlequins)
18. Trevor Hogan (Leinster)
19. Willie Faloon (Leinster)
20. Paul O'Donohoe (Leinster)
21. Ian Humphreys (Ulster)
22. David Kearney (Leinster)

Nigel Brady, Declan Fitzpatrick, Billy Holland, TJ Anderson, Kyle Tonetti and Keith Mathews in the extended squad.

Good enough to send IMO