Would make me sick to see the RWC go to another NH side, however i really don’t think we have much to fear from the poms. My concerns lie with the unpredictable French, and the very complete Irish side.

If we can’t take this world cup, then I would hope the Wallabies or the AB’s do the business. In that order.

England number of players vs New Zealnd number of players … England has 5 times more

England vs New Zealand …. played 29 lost 22

Choker

Last time Saffas played a Wales team that played this bad they won by 78 points, that was a Saffas B team. Wales are farking with your minds in any case, they basically checked out your gameplan, your falling for that. Can bring on other players, one like the other, all whitesy pants. Eng, if they try to dominate with forwards come WC, will not closely make it against Saffas, ABs, AUs, Ireland and France, simply no dominance nor the the ball to do it (remember pocession figures pasttests). take your backline this weekend, remove half the pocession they had, get the point?
3 guys in your A team were playing against us earlier this year in any case, including key positions like Johnny Wil who still look pretty average, was it really that much of a C team?

Think France will be a ave test this coming weekend, but will clarify a bit more.

Hatton who? Never even heard of him.

Lewis Hamilton to win the F1 Championship
England to win the Rugby World Cup
Hatton to knock out Mayweather

You know it.

I see your point about SA’s players but thats on paper. Gameplan-wise the Boks have offered little outside of forward dominance. They won’t have this to rely on against England.

Crucially, the Boks don’t have much going on in their backline. England will by gametime and they have Wilkinson’s boot.

Don’t be so sure.

However, in the past year or two, England’s World Champion status has taken on the appearance of a cruel joke. That’s why it’s good to see them bouncing back in time for RWC2007, so that they can at least be competitive in losing their title.

Chances of England beating South Africa in the pool match? Well, how many players do England have who are the best in their position in the world? Zero. South Africa? Schalk, Victor, FdP, Bakkies, Habanero… a good argument could be made for Smit, Os and Percy as well. And these guys have been playing together for years now, and they’re properly rested (an unusual occurrence in SA rugby).

If the SA/England match is close, that will only be because the Bokke tend to play up or down to the standard of their opposition. If SA keep thir foot on the acceleterator for a full 80 minutes, this will be a comfortable win.

NZ are chokers.

Game over.

Shorter posts please … we all saw the game
England ar boring

No reply to 528???
Is this where you stand?

Last season Wilkinson got a bit of mileage back under his belt, and having managed to survive the summer ordeal against the Springboks, he has now, touch wood, got over his unlucky run of injuries. He looks fit, confident and back in the groove as one of the greatest match-winners the game has seen – and he must have given France coach Bernard Laporte plenty of food for thought ahead of Saturday’s encounter at Twickenham.

I would be surprised if Laporte arrived with a side that he did not think could do well. France may have won the Six Nations title but they got a shock when they lost to England at Twickenham and after watching England demolish Wales yesterday, Laporte knows that if he fields a weakened side, he could be seriously embarrassed.

As with England, the French need to get some early momentum in these games and, as hosts, they must get the country behind them before their World Cup opener against Argentina. They are not great Six Nations champions but they made one significant advance in terms of finding a decent half-back partnership in Pierre Mignoni and David Skrela.

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With the exceptions of the veteran hooker and captain, Raphael Ibanez, and the combative Sebastien Chabal, the French pack is a little short of star quality. Ibanez has been phenomenal in the twilight of his career at Wasps, while Chabal will always stand up to be counted. Both are inspirational players – and they will need to be, because the rest of the French pack is not the ferocious beast it used to be.

As a result, the French may have to rely on their backs in this World Cup – and also against England on Saturday – if they are to make a serious bid for glory. This is no bad thing because there is a massive amount of talent in a back-line that includes Aurelien Rougerie, Christophe Dominici, Vincent Clerc, Cedric Heymans, Yannick Jauzion, Florian Fritz and Damien Traille. There is nothing that England showed in the backs against Wales that will have the French holding their breath.

The acid test for France is whether their smaller, lighter pack can win enough ball. But if they do get parity, then England had better watch out. Laporte’s biggest problem is what to do with Frederic Michalak, the enigma of French rugby. He may have the magic to confuse defences but he can also end up confusing his own team. He has so much talent but struggles to dominate a game when he is at fly-half. His ideal position is probably scum-half, although it’s a bit late in the day to play him there, and he’s not a patch on Mignoni.

However, he could provide a spark from the bench if France ever need to go for all-out attack – but, for me, he would not be a starter against teams such as England and Argentina. Michalak has always been billed as France’s answer to Wilkinson but it is a no-contest. One of the things that must have filled Wilkinson with confidence was the way the giant English pack took it to the Welsh, with Nick Easter’s power at close quarters reminiscent of his boss at Harlequins, and one of my old teammates, Dean Richards.

The way England dominated the forward exchanges yesterday, Jonny must have thought he was playing behind the 2003 World Cup pack all over again. In fact, they are not as dynamic or as mobile as that outfit but they have very strong similarities to the England pack that I played behind in the early 1990s.

In other words, they tend to keep a lot of possession to themselves, and not let it out to the backs as much as they should. However, it’s difficult to quibble when they are putting the volume of points on the board that they successfully did at Twickenham yesterday.

The result was that the backs did not see much ball for the first 25 minutes, and the first time it actually moved right down the line was at the start of the second half. However, when it was given a bit of air, the English backs showed more life than they have for years – and I was pleased that it was Wilkinson’s little jink and inside pass to set up the try for Steve Borthwick that carried England clear.

Outside Wilkinson, Andy Farrell grew in confidence as the game went on. To begin with he played as if he was a man under the microscope, hanging on to the ball in contact to make sure he did not give away possession, rather than chancing his arm and throwing the clever off-loads that made him a rugby league legend. I would love to see Farrell making half-breaks, and players such as David Strettle, Jason Robinson and Dan Hipkiss getting on the end of them.

Farrell showed that he can carry the ball up and take heavy contact – talking of which, it was notable that Wilkinson, who is the best defender at fly-half I have ever seen, was hurling himself into everything again.

At scrum-half, Shaun Perry looked a lot sharper for having lost about a stone in weight, but the fact is that England still need to clear the ball from the breakdown much more quickly. Elsewhere, Hipkiss made a good debut at outside-centre. He is one of the straightest runners in the England game, and his low centre of gravity and the strength of his leg drive make him a very hard player to stop.

England need to find someone to fill the No 13 shirt and on this evidence, Dan could be the man. I would like to see him get another run against the French and hopefully get a bit more ball.

So you have been at a “I love John Howard” convention

Serious injury, he can’t train. Moody and Worsley are able deputies tho.

Big and physical..but ened up being runed off the park by faster smaller forward pack.

France will seriously test the pace of the English pack.

anyway. whats happened to Richard Hill?