Losing with dignity
Very disappointed with David Strettle. He hasn’t stopped bellyaching about not being given the try and two of his comments border on extreme whinging. The epoitome of the whinging pom!
“the strange thing for me was that I was hoping the touch judge might have seen it because our physio was standing next to him and he says it was grounded.”
Get real son. You don’t expect your team Physio to say the opposite. Is he really suggesting that the Touch Judge should have asked the team Physio?
“If its inconclusive you have to go with the attacking team.”
Since when? If its inconclusive its no try. PERIOD. You could argue Walsh should have gone back for the penalty but he did the same to Wales 6 minutes earlier when he indicated a penalty and then 1 minute later allowed England to clear the line without ever saying “advantage over”. Grow up.
Strettle - you demean your team’s great performance and you shame the famous shirt you are wearing. This isn’t football so lets just grow up and move on. You lost.
Are we watching the same game?
It never ceases to amaze me how “professional” journalists or pundits can watch the same game or group of players and can rate players poles apart. Take the epic England v Wales encounter at Twickenham last Saturday. A fabulous game kept both sets of supporters interested and it wouldn’t be these two teams without some element of controversy at the end.
I bought several newspapers on Sunday to read the relevant reports and see how other people viewed the game. The range of ratings on certain players truly astounds me. Lets pick out a few examples:
Rhys Priestland – he had a shocking game in my eyes a 5 at best. Lets see the ratings:
Wales on Sunday (Delme Parfitt) 5
Sunday Times (Stephen Jones) 5
Sunday Telegraph (Paul Ackford) 7
Sun on Sunday (Steven Howard) 2
An average <5 from 4 columnists. 7 from Ackford? You have to be kidding.
Geoff Parling – Debut start in English 2nd row. Didn’t look anything special for me. 6 at best.
Sunday Times (Stephen Jones) 6
Sunday Telegraph (Paul Ackford) 8
Sun on Sunday (Steven Howard) 8
Average of 7.33 from 3 columnists although Jones looks about right to me.
Ian Evans – Welsh 2nd Row. Probably had his best game – worth an 8 for me.
Wales on Sunday (Delme Parfitt) 8
Sunday Times (Stephen Jones) 9
Sunday Telegraph (Paul Ackford) 6
Sun on Sunday (Steven Howard) 7
Real range – average of 4 columnists here of 7.5. Again Ackford looks out of touch.
Sam Warburton – deservedly man of the match. A definite 9.
Wales on Sunday (Delme Parfitt) 7
Sunday Times (Stephen Jones) 7
Sunday Telegraph (Paul Ackford) 9
Sun on Sunday (Steven Howard) 8
Average of 7.75 – not bad consensus.
Chris Robshaw – England Captain. I thought he played okay but was completely outclassed by Warburton. A 6 from me.
Sunday Times (Stephen Jones) 8
Sunday Telegraph (Paul Ackford) 6
Sun on Sunday (Steven Howard) 5
Average of 6.3 sounds about right. Again how Stephen Jones can rate him above Warburton is truly astounding. Was he watching the game?
Conclusion – we all see what we want to see and our national preferences will always play a part. For me I was just delighted to see a close game played in the right spirit on the pitch. No punching, no foul play, just a good tight game of rugby and that can only be good for all of us.
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