Team Talk !
An Old man rambling on, but I hope some of these emotions are swirling around the England team hotel this evening!!!.........................
Tomorrow we will pull on the England shirt.
Tomorrow we will be the lucky ones. Out of all the players who have tried to earn it, out of all the people who dream of wearing it, we will be the ones who have the honour of pulling it on.
And tomorrow we must look each other in the eye and know that together we will start to rebuild the honour, the dignity, the esteem that this shirt demands.
I think of the great players, the great men that have worn this shirt, that have given whilst wearing this shirt, that through their actions have created the myth and love that surrounds this shirt. The great names, from the likes of Beaumont, Cotton, Neary, to Winterbottom, Teague, Richards, Dooley, Underwood and Guscott up to the likes of Johnson, Leonard, Back, Dawson and Dallaglio.
These guys strove to give this shirt honour and success every time they wore it.
We have a duty, a debt, to make sure that our team honours their memory, honours the memory of every player who has worn this shirt, and every supporter who has loved this shirt, and we must take on that debt, that responsibility and ensure with every ounce of our being we will do the same.
So look at me now, so that I can see in your eyes that come tomorrow we will all do our job, we will all give our bodies, our minds and our hearts to guarantee that we will instill the pride and dignity that the shirt deserves.
And I want to be able to look at all of you as you peel that shirt back off your body and smile, proud that we have done just that, that you have done just that, and in so doing we have set a new start a new standard, and we can be proud again.
Proud of ourselves, proud of each other and proud that we honoured the shirt as it should be and that we have just laid down a new chapter in it's great history.
So look at me now, look at each other, and understand what we have to do, and understand and trust that when tomorrow comes, we will do it.
16 comments:
or alternatively :
do not be shit!
i mean it, DON'T!
Craig,
well yes, that is the short version!!!
I have to say the irish performance today left a bitter taste in my mouth. Not nearly clinical enough for a team that is looking to win a world cup. If we play like that against the argies we will be in for a thumping. I thought ogaras kicking out of hand was again quite below par by his high standards, and a team with a quality back three would have let that tell a lot more. Thought horgan played quite badly at times aswell. The amount penalties we gave was unacceptable and patterson punished us accordingly. I was not really worried with fifteen minutes to go, as I felt we had dominated the game and knew we could come back. Probably would have kicked to the corner for the first of those last two penalties, but at the end of the day, the guys were confident that they could score twice, so the right decision was made.
I thought that the welsh were very hard done by. Really think Chris White has a few questions to answer, afterall he has the final say as to when the game is over, not some idiot in a box whose only purpose is to judge tries. truth is, I think he wanted Italy to win. The italians in fairness played well and most neutrals I would feel were rooting for italy. At the end of the day I think it will be a great boost for italian rugby, and will make for a more exciting competition in the future. My god in ten years we could be saying the italians with their third grand slam in a row!! I think the welsh can bounce back from this and one definate positive for them is that they have found a great player in james hook. I think he should be put into 10 immediately. Captain Crap looks a bit jaded to me and lacks the confidence which hook is obviously brimming with. Really feel we could see the last of steven jones in this six nations.
Really hope england have their fangs filled to the brim with venom tomorrow and can put the demons to rest and do us a big favour in the process. Bring the arrogant feckers back down to earth and point out to them that they crap into holes in the ground and not proper toilets!!
Leinster Boy,
On monday I am sure I will get time to write down a few thoughts on the Murrayfield game, safe to say though that I have never seen such an inept performance from a Scottish team that seemed to be continually being offered the game!
I have no idea what was wrong with your boys, but talk about from the sublime to the ridiculous!!
Mentally lazy!!
As for Wales, well yes I can quite understand why they hate the English!! Being honest I don't think they would have scored, but White should have known there was no decision to make, as time was up, so get the draw.
It was simple.
The Welsh will be furious, quite rightly, BUT, they must not use the excuse of the referee to deflect from a team that was 20-13 up, wind at their backs and in control.
Unforgivable to lose from there.
As for tomorrow.............I am off to sleep well!!!!!!!!!
Wales have got nothing to complain about. Ten seconds to go and what was happening? James Hook chin wagging with the ref with no Wales Captain or man in authority in sight. Why else did Wales opt to kick for touch?!
Leave such decisions to the least experienced member of the team and this kind of thing will happen. Hook will learn from his experience and won't be so silly ever again!
Also my message to England is: live a little, throw the ball out wide, do some running, have some fun!
So long as you bloody win of course!
Both matches served as a minder of the importance of leadership. Too many of the Irish senior players seemed to be just going through the motions, O'Driscoll only seemed to get animated late in the second half and O'connell seemed quiet apart from a couple of runs.
As Peter said, where was the Welsh captain at the death.
Grand Slam to wooden spoon not a great record for a coaching CV.
Will (or anyone who cares to answer),
I only got into rugby during my 1st year at Uni and now consider myself fully converted. Luckily for me we won the RWC that year so I had a nice introduction to rugby. However, since then I've only seen an england side slipping further down hill.
So what I want to know is: how good were we, really?
Put it into context for me, the AB are the best team I've seen play in the last year so what would be your prediction for a match between the England team that won the RWC in their prime vs todays AB.
I've debated this with friends and opinions split.
Cheers,
Dan
Look back to Will's blog post "You Decide!!" with the YouTube video comparing the Soccer world cup with the RWC 2003.
Specifically, look at the RWC 2003 sequence. The answers you seek are contained within that sequence.
If you look at the England forwards then at every tackle, ruck and maul in 2003, they were far more aggressive, focused and mean. They fought for the ball and caused so much disruption and turnover grief for Australia.
The only reason why guys like Richie McCaw are so good at turnover is because you let them do it. If you watch England vs New Zealand 2006, you see that Richie McCaw has more or less free reign at the ruck to do whatever he damn well wants and that wouldn't have happened in 2003. By the time he tried to do anything, he would have been buried in white shirts.
My opinion is that England would have won because they had the tighter defence and a more aggressive and physical pack than the 2007 All Blacks.
Well Will I think they were listerning to you!
Great performance, and I'd venture to say there is plenty more to come. Eliminate some of the ,istakes don't give the opposition so many kicls at goal and they will be a tough team to beat.
Well done England
*dancing in dublin*!!!!
*dancing in Aberdeen*!!!
I opened the window just after full time and yelled "I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS! ENGLAND WON AND I! AM! ENGLISH!"
To which some Aberdonian replied:
"Aye! And I'm fucking Mary Queen of Scots! Now fuck off wit'ye english gob-shite!"
Classic!
my word, it was nice to see an England team and not just a group of good club players all dressed in similar kit ambling around the place. At last the youth and future got to play on the big occassion and even if we had lost, it seems we may be about to start preparing for the future. Mike Catt also proves he is still a fantastic player years ahead of his time. I am now going to imbibe a lot of brown booze, lose monday but come up smiling on tuesday!! Looking forward to Cardiff!!
Thankyou England, from an expat, in France for the last 17 years suffering from french wins.
Looking forward to the Podcast have you got a timepiece for Ieuan?
Yeah! Don't forget to keep telling him how much time he has left!
Dear All,
very much lloking forward to the podcast, especially as Ieuan owes Zinny and I five pounds each!! But we will not gloat!!
Think we might need a little bell going off at regular intervals to remind us how much time we do have left!! He is going to hate it!!
Dan,
in answer to your question, the England team in 2003 were the best in the World without a doubt. There is not a lot more you can say, we might have been closer to our peak at the beginning of the year, but we were still the best in Sydney, and that's what counts. As for the AB's we will see. If they do win this time, I am not sure you can ever compare, but for what it is worth, despite their greater talent in the backs, our pack of 2003 would have killed them!!
As for England yesterday, great to see. WE played, we played at pace, took chances, and the young guns were brilliant!! Good feeling.
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