Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:00 pm  

It's bad enough that England's style would be too conservative even for Phil Larder. But it's all those other THINGS which added together make them about as likeable as Scorpio running up and down the school bus in Dirty Harry screaming "The wheels on the bus go round and round. Sing dammit!!"

It's like they were created in some kind of perfect storm of villainy.

Even before they enter the field the milk in your tea has been curdled by John Inverdale's sleaze. And when the cameras do pan away for the odd bit of respite you are treated to the Windsor Chuckle Brothers who are DEFINITELY NOT NAZIS even though they like dressing up like them (oh and grandad actually WAS ONE - along with his two brothers).

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:05 pm  

England lost it after Burgess went off.......coincidence?

Thought I'd watch a Union game for the first time in a very long time. The hype and the match are a million miles apart. How the people spending upwards of 300 queens heads to sit through that is criminal.

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:54 pm  

Hessle rover wrote:

England lost it after Burgess went off.......coincidence?

Thought I'd watch a Union game for the first time in a very long time. The hype and the match are a million miles apart. How the people spending upwards of 300 queens heads to sit through that is criminal.

Indeed, I can watch RU, but what an awful game it was. Commentator's were saying it 'lived up to the hype', no it didn't. Scoreline was close, that was the only reason I left it on. 2nd half, Wales backs were so much better than ours, even allowing for their injuries/players missing.

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:57 pm  

Hessle rover wrote:

England lost it after Burgess went off.......coincidence?

I think it didn't help. But the truth is England were practically BEGGING Wales to sucker-punch them.

From the very beginning they'd set their stall out to play the "England Way" - which means cynically exploiting any and every opportunity to exhilarate the crowd with free-flowing kicking.

England are the zen masters at the science of extracting penalties and strangling the life out of a game once they've nosed ahead.

It was EMBARRASSING listening to purported Union "experts" wax lyrical about "Head Down" Farrell's "engine", "tackling" and "bravery" whilst those piddling little attributes usually associated with the position of Fly Half worldwide ("talent", "class", "style") went completely unmentioned.

Even with England ten points ahead you just knew they were only thinking about choking the breath out of Wales like Darth Vader.

Burgess probably shouldn't have gone off. But putting Farrell into the centres was arguably an even bigger blunder - compounded by the fact that the newly arrived playmaker (George Ford) had nowhere near enough time to acclimatize to the game sufficiently whereby he became a threat.

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:27 pm  

Mugwump wrote:

And when the cameras do pan away for the odd bit of respite you are treated to the Windsor Chuckle Brothers who are DEFINITELY NOT NAZIS even though they like dressing up like them

CORRECTION - Half Brothers

Different dads.......their mums relationships, well their's another RU connection there.

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:48 pm  

ThePrinter wrote:

CORRECTION - Half-Brothers

Talk like that can seriously affect your car's braking performance. Besides, aren't all royal brothers half brothers?

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Sun Sep 27, 2015 12:07 am  

Classy piece in The Telegraph The journo, Paul Hayward, is getting ripped to pieces on Twitter and fully deserved. Saw the last 3-4 minutes of this game and that was 3-4 minutes too many. Crikey. Why didn't England go for goal to level it? Did they not see the Leeds game last night

Classy piece in The Telegraph The journo, Paul Hayward, is getting ripped to pieces on Twitter and fully deserved. Saw the last 3-4 minutes of this game and that was 3-4 minutes too many. Crikey. Why didn't England go for goal to level it? Did they not see the Leeds game last night

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Sun Sep 27, 2015 12:30 am  

loiner81 wrote: Classy piece in The Telegraph The journo, Paul Hayward, is getting ripped to pieces on Twitter and fully deserved. Saw the last 3-4 minutes of this game and that was 3-4 minutes too many. Crikey. Why didn't England go for goal to level it? Did they not see the Leeds game last night Especially since England are to passing and scoring what pie-eaters are to progress and human evolution.

loiner81 wrote: Classy piece in The Telegraph The journo, Paul Hayward, is getting ripped to pieces on Twitter and fully deserved. Saw the last 3-4 minutes of this game and that was 3-4 minutes too many. Crikey. Why didn't England go for goal to level it? Did they not see the Leeds game last night Especially since England are to passing and scoring what pie-eaters are to progress and human evolution.

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Sun Sep 27, 2015 12:41 am  

Mugwump wrote:

Talk like that can seriously affect your car's braking performance. Besides, aren't all royal brothers half brothers?

No it's ok if their mother sleeps win other guys providing they're England RU captains......a Muslim though, that's a different matter.

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Sun Sep 27, 2015 4:22 am  

Was pleased for Sam that he was picked for his first start in a full Union international. Of course, to say he is head and shoulders as a rugby player above his posh/fat boy etc mates is an understatement showing my lack of vocabulary.

As we know, the only thing we can take from Union is how they do hype and marketing. But the game itself? Don't say I didn't,t warn you in the OP.

Talking of the hype, and even though Sam was barely warmed up, he would have been quietly pleased how he smashed that Roberts (twice) and North in the three tackles he was called upon to do on them.

Then they take Sam off when winning with 20 mins to go. The defence then opens up like the Red Sea and they bottle it and lose. You got to laugh & scratch your head as to who all these people are that take in the hype and turn up at these Union matches.

Speaking for myself, I'm hoping Sam comes home soon (whether it's here or Oz) so we can stop having to watch this stuff.