He won't thank me for recalling this, but Steve Borthwick's past dealings in Italy do not encourage optimism for this afternoon. In his (brief) period as England captain many years ago, his team performed miserably in Rome, ekeing out a slender win against an Italian side a lot less impressive than today's. But in a deeply unconvincing post-match interview he lavished praise on England's "great performance".
He was shown the door shortly after, by Martin Johnson (IIRC), a man who knew what a great performance was.
I've never been convinced by Borthwick, his "technical knowledge" and that winning season at Leicester notwithstanding. This afternoon looks ominously like Italy's great chance to register their first ever Victory against England.
ND
6 comments:
It's a simple matter. England's rugby has almost always been a combination of (i) thud and blunder, and (ii) the boot.
However they've been kicking badly, not produced enough thud, and not forced enough blunders by their opponents.
Scotland giving France a good thrashing and Italy beating England wasn't on my radar at the start of the tournament, that's for sure.
Pity the Scots let France in at the end for the bonus.
As a Wales supporter, I'm hoping Italy will still be hung over next weekend and that England can bounce back against les grenouilles. If you can subdue France in the first 15 minutes and get a score, the crowd can get on their backs and they struggle - not happened for a while. But if they get a couple of scores early on they can put any side to the sword.
Good prediction btw
OT but the US destroyed an Iranian desalination plant, a very foolish precedent to set. IIRC the whole Middle East area depends on some 50 or 60 desalination plants - zap them and heap big problems ensue.
And so it came to pass.
Dull weather, dull newspapers, not much to laugh at at all.
Do I detect Donald is getting bored with the Iran venture? Images of American and Israeli troops riding into Tehran on tanks draped in pretty girls welcoming the conquering heroes do not come easily to mind.
Best leave the job to the Israelis, their hearts are in the job. By the time our ships get there it will be time to come home. Very wise, Rachel would be annoyed if one went to the bottom.
A thought comes to mind 'why didn't we leave it alone'. Iran is/was a bug easily squashed any time and the High Tollers do a good job of rendering the country completely unimportant. No realistic nuclear threat, they just played at it. Sure they did a bit of s&*t stirring but that kept the TLA's in a job. Donald got involved - for electoral funding reasons. Reasons that might not wash come election time.
Rumour is that Donald may be off to South America for another bang-n-go opportunity. Now what may come after that? 'Bout time Greenland got another visit.
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