First Blog

This is my first blog but I will try to get into the topic without appearing too amateurish. The first blog is about rugby, really about the English rugby team.

Firstly England are not a team of bad players. They are a team of good players playing badly. The side has players capable of getting in most sides in the world, so why the problems.

Firstly tempo is a problem the side is just playing too slowly the pieces are in the right place but everything seems to happen at a very slow rate. Tempo in rugby is dictated by three people on the field the No 8, scrum half and the fly half. Since 2003 England has struggled to get these three right. The retirement to the dance floor of Dawson and big Lol to the wasps boardroom has been a hard void to fill but the collapse in fitness of Jonny Wilkinson has been the real key to the lack of pace in the England game. Harry Ellis, Shaun Perry etc have tried to cover the number nine spot. Flood, Cipriani and Goode have all tried and been found wanting at the 10 position. Nick Easter has been a rock at 8 but with all that change around him he has struggled to impose himself.

This leads onto to the second problem. patterns. More than any other game rugby relies on its patterns whether it is the the rhythm of the scrum. The movement of the jumpers in the lineout or the moves in the backline. Without consistency in selection none of these work.

The third problem is the openside flanker position nobody has come close to competing with the southern hemisphere openside tyros since Neil Back finished. McCaw, Smith and Burger have been simply better at being nastier, meaner and generally more hostile on the ground than anything the English have to throw at them Rees looks promising but just seems to nice to be hated by other teams in the same way that Neil Back was hated by the opposition.

So that is it for my first blog all is not lost in the England camp they do have the potential to be great and anyone who admired Martin Johnson as a player most hope that he succeeds as a manager.