Rule Britannia! (Great afternoon at the pub!)

[AlexB]

Big screen sports at the pub today (happy days!)

England vs. Australia (rugby union)
Result - England 26 Australia 16

England vs. Argentina (football/soccer)
Result - England 3 Argentina 2

Great Britain vs. New Zealand (rugby league)
Result - England (plus a couple of Brits) 38 New Zealand 12

Now, if the Dolphins win tomorrow, and Liv Tyler was to phone me up to declare her undying love for me, this would be the perfect weekend :D

[Schmidty]

Big screen sports at the pub today (happy days!)

England vs. Australia (rugby union)
Result - England 26 Australia 16

England vs. Argentina (football/soccer)
Result - England 3 Argentina 2

Great Britain vs. New Zealand (rugby league)
Result - England (plus a couple of Brits) 38 New Zealand 12

Now, if the Dolphins win tomorrow, and Liv Tyler was to phone me up to declare her undying love for me, this would be the perfect weekend :D

Sounds like an amazing day to me. I hope to go to a real English pub someday, although that would require flying over the ocean, which scares me to death.

[Critch]

That's it, build yourself up.

It'll make it all the funnier when New Zealand get their hands on the English Rubgy team next saturday, when the soccer team fails in Germany, and when Australia knocks the rugby league team out of the tri-nations. (I had to look the rugby league one up :) )

[AlexB]

That's it, build yourself up.

It'll make it all the funnier when New Zealand get their hands on the English Rubgy team next saturday, when the soccer team fails in Germany, and when Australia knocks the rugby league team out of the tri-nations. (I had to look the rugby league one up :) )

I'm living for the moment! You're almost certainly right on the two rugby ones... probably right for the WC as well, but if we can get ourselves going like today, you never know - we certainly shouldn't be frightened of anybody if we play like we did, but in truth we could just as easily lost...

[bhlloy]

After seeing New Zealand completely destroy my Welsh team, and seeing mostly their backups (in name anyway) put up 45 on Ireland today, I must say I'm much more hopeful of England keeping the score down against the All Blacks. Their front row looks pretty dominant, they have a solid lineout and NZ will have to respect the wingers, especially Cueto who looks very dangerous.

I can't see England getting anywhere near winning but I reckon 24-10 sounds about right. And as a Wales fan that pains me to mention :)

[SirFozzie]

You forgot the English cricketers somehow taking 6 wickets in Pakistan on a perfect batting pitch.. England have a real chance if they can bowl out the remaining Pakistani bowlers cheaply.

[Easy Mac]

How could anyone forget that.

[Critch]

I can't see England getting anywhere near winning but I reckon 24-10 sounds about right. And as a Wales fan that pains me to mention :)

I wouldn't like to see it either, but after the way the British Lions were beaten up on the tour I'd like to see somebody knock the All Blacks down a peg or two.
I know South Africa have beaten them since then, but I don't like them either :)

Maybe the All Blacks will destroy England, then Scotland will save the pride of the northern hemisphere by beating them at Murrayfield? Ok, that won't happen.

[bhlloy]

Maybe the All Blacks will destroy England, then Scotland will save the pride of the northern hemisphere by beating them at Murrayfield? Ok, that won't happen.

I'd love to say stranger things have happened, but after the result against Argentina today Scotland will be doing well to keep the margin of victory under 50 I'm afraid.

Oh, and while we are on Rugby - Wales just keep getting killed by injuries. Cockbain is now out of the SA and AUS games and the 6 nations, and he's the best back row we have. That's on top of the six British Lions who were already out. It's just sad because I would have love to have seen that six nations winning side play against the best side in the world. I'm not kidding myself they would have won, but it would have been a hell of an attacking game.

[kiwiLB57]

I'd love to say stranger things have happened, but after the result against Argentina today Scotland will be doing well to keep the margin of victory under 50 I'm afraid.

Oh, and while we are on Rugby - Wales just keep getting killed by injuries. Cockbain is now out of the SA and AUS games and the 6 nations, and he's the best back row we have. That's on top of the six British Lions who were already out. It's just sad because I would have love to have seen that six nations winning side play against the best side in the world. I'm not kidding myself they would have won, but it would have been a hell of an attacking game.

It is a shame that Wales were missing some key players. After the game last year between Wales and the All Blacks where we scraped home with the one point win the whole country was nervous here. With Wales being the Six Nation champions and having contributed some excellent performers on the Lions tour (when old fish face Woodward would give them a run that it) we were fair crapping ourselves. Particularly with the lads only having a week or two together to gel. I watched the Welsh / NZ game with a Welsh mate of mine here in Auckland and he took it as well as could be expected. But after the debacle against Fiji (which I also watched with him) he was inconsolable.

As for the English, we are so pleased that they thrashed Australia. And now we have to slaughter them anyway!!! I am thinking 35 - 14.

As for country pubs in England, I can thoroughly recommend:

The Cross Keys (http://www.wheathampstead.net/cross-keys/)
Gustard Wood, Wheathampstead
Herts AL4 8LA
Tel 01582 832165

(holy crap, a rugby thread!!! woohoo)

[3ric]

The Argentina game was amazing to watch. They played their hearts out, like they were playing in the World Cup final. Best "friendly" game I can recall seeing.

[bhlloy]

The Fiji game was not altogether unpredictable. Apart from showing we do not have a lot of strength in depth. We didn't have any of our English or French club team players (another five gone) so to play that poorly wasn't the end of the world. We really only had 3 or 4 guys who are legitimately starters, and some pretty weak players at some key positions (scrum half, full back) Plus if it wasn't for some bad handling errors we still would have scored 25-30.

South Africa I think will beat us comfortably, and then we really have to beat the Aussies otherwise some people will start to panic. I can't see it happening with the injuries we have, but it will probably be close.