Wales. Steady as she goes

"The facts have changed", Rishi Sunak

And your 9.31mins of highlights of the most boring Palace game in history was better?

I'm a blind man, i'm a blind man, now my room is cold,
When a blind man cries, Lord, he feels it from his soul.
[Link]

England brought back Farrell, he took the kicks instead of Ford - who had been the best out half in the cup more or less. He gets timed out. He misses one, he doesn't really work in the centre because he's an outhalf. England play really badly but there's barely any discussion. I think they have to make the choice to drop Farrell altogether.
The whole competition is starting to feel like a foregone conclusion - France or Ireland. Basically France as they've paid for it.

Edited by ASCPFC (09 Oct 2023 11.38am)

Red and Blue Army!

I agree, orient away one Sunday morning in 1982 has to be the worst

Tend to agree with you, Badger, but I thought the tournament took a big step towards redeeming itself last night.

Flicking through the channels I came across Fiji v. Portugal and thought I might as well take a look. And I'm glad I did.

Two teams playing entertaining - albeit error-strewn - rugby; rarely more than a couple of points separating the sides; a fantastic finale; and the underdogs, who I gather had literally never won a single World Cup match, coming out on top. I admit to a bit of dampness in my eyes as I watched the Portuguese after the final whistle: I can't recall ever in my very long life witnessing such unbridled happiness after a sporting victory. I'm not sure I'll watch England's next match.

The main and obvious problem is Rugby hasn't particularly spread to any degree, mainly in funding. There are countries no more than semi pro playing it - with amateur set ups. To compound this, the bigger sides are starting to shrink.
Club rugby in trouble in England. The home nations (except Ireland) struggling to maintain the system they have. Even Wales having issues.
Rugby Union being killed off in Australia - mainly by Rugby League - which is a more profitable and better match day experience and miles clearer rules. And Australia are one of the big sides.
Even in New Zealand, rugby is fine but still losing numbers to cricket and football.
South Africa are struggling with an unsafe environment for home and club games. Hence want to move to Europe - their players all over the world. The unsaid part - do their players really want to live there?
All the island nations ripped off by everyone else. Their players usually poached along with corruption and lack of funding.
Argentina - obviously a massively minority sport.

Then you come to France and Ireland. Both receiving large amounts of government and private funding. France have dealt with the club v country debate for now. The future may not be the same.
Ireland - transferred in half a team when they couldn't produce their own. Awash with funding from fair means or foul. Rugby is actually based in Ireland - a lesser known fact. Only have three provinces, maybe four, to fund. With only a certain number of players getting the most expensive coaching. The team has been built for a few years. Underage doing well know. Growing in popularity by the day.
Really, only Ireland are bucking the trend. And France have with the current model that could be ripped up at any moment.
This is not a level playing field and I don't fancy the authorities to sort it.
When Ireland won against South Africa - over half the squad were, quite literally, transferred in from abroad. South Africa calling them the "All Greens". Scotland have something like fifteen foreign players.
South Africa were all from South Africa. It doesn't take a f***ing genius to see the problem there. It's worse than the England cricket team when Pietersen was about.

Red and Blue Army!