Planet Rugby Forum

Woddy

Where does Palmer and Bellingham fit in now? Do they get into the first team? If they put in a good run of form after injury and a place opens up. But not before, hopefully. Same goes for Saka, Foden, Stones. Even Grealish on current form is hard-placed to get a call. Good play by current players s...

Woddy

Nah, I try to be fairly magnanimous most of the time, but that would be at least a little bit fun. Only for a moment. Remember 1974.. we missed them when they were gone. Now Man City being relegated due to cheating would be fun. Noone missed them... And we had a whole year taking the piss out of th...

Woddy

In my view he shouldn’t… - Scraped through against Waslabies - Would have lost to NZ or SA Maybe, just maybe, he's actually a good coach who picked the best players and that's why the Lions won the series. He made a couple of good picks against very recent form, in Beirne and Curry, to be fair to h...

Woddy

Gag explaining is gag wrecking. Sorry... :lol: At least you didn't add that east Africa, where quite a few slavers originated, is well known for distance runners. I thought about it but refrained on grounds of historical inaccuracy. My impression's always been that the slave catchers/sellers to the...

Woddy

Nah. Sprinters run down by distance runners. I thought the Jamaican thing (might apply to other parts of the Caribbean too?) was simply that most of their forebears were sub-Saharan West Africans, who often have great fast-twitch muscles, that are better for sprinting. Gag explaining is gag wreckin...

Woddy

There's a theory that Jamaicans are magnificent athletes because only the fittest of the fittest survived the slave boats across the Atlantic. Its garbage though. If they were the fittest they wouldnt have been caught by other Africans in the first place. Nah. Sprinters run down by distance runners...

Woddy

I’m struggling to understand how a famine in one generation can ever impact physical characteristics in future generations. Makes some sense in this case. My understanding is that recent detailed research suggests that the those most affected by the famine in Ireland (i.e. died or emigrated) were t...

Woddy

Can anyone provide a summary of what each position in NFL does please. Would look at a formal webpage but fear it might assume US-centric knowledge. Descriptions for a rugby person who has played Madden a fair amount and watches occasional NFL highlights.

Thank you in advance.

Woddy

Of course he dived to avoid the tackle, its a massively long bow to pull to claim otherwise. And of course it should have been called. All in all, Asterix might need to bring some mates with him for this. https://www.europecomics.com/assets/uploads/2020/05/ezgif-6-1a783cb934d8-800px.jpg After the C...

Woddy

If Test 3 is similar to one and two, then it is JGP for me followed by Russell. The better of these two Saturday should take the honors. I don't think that they would win the series if either were not on the pitch and they have both been outstanding. Russell for me. His range of play has been great...

Woddy

So Farrell or Aki, right? Aki clearly deserved to be on the plane out in the first place, so that disqualifies him from an accolade such as this. What we need to identify is someone who has stepped out of the shadows to ensure that the tour party kept its standards right up there, even after the di...

Woddy

You're right, must be an accredited TMA. Probably needs to give unseen attributes to the side that it requires particular journo's to highlight after matches. So Farrell or Aki, right? Aki clearly deserved to be on the plane out in the first place, so that disqualifies him from an accolade such as ...

Woddy

You're right, must be an accredited TMA. Probably needs to give unseen attributes to the side that it requires particular journo's to highlight after matches.

Woddy

Russell was not at his best yesterday, but it is a mark of how far he's come that despite making a couple of poorish mistakes, poor place kicking and lack of flashy moves, he still ran the game efficiently and threw in three momentum shifting kicks for good measure. Plus his much under rated tackli...

Woddy

towny wrote: ↑Sun Jul 27, 2025 9:36 am I'm not a fan of calling back tries and begrudgingly believe that the right decision was made. Rewarding a diving player for a marginal call would have been a hell of a way to finish a game like that.

I will have to settle for the best the Wallabies' performance in years.

Great post

Woddy

Russell passed the ball into touch and also hoofed it out on the full. He’s been good, but yesterday wasn’t nearly as good as first test for him Russell was not at his best yesterday, but it is a mark of how far he's come that despite making a couple of poorish mistakes, poor place kicking and lack...

Woddy

My 23 for the 3rd test, assuming fitness, to win rather than hand test caps around: Genge Sheehan Stuart Itoje McCarthy Beirne Curry Conan JGP Russell Freeman Tui Jones Kinghorn Keenan Porter George Furlong Chessum Morgan Mitchell (and use him) Ringrose Smith M Might have Earls or Pollock in place o...

Woddy

Telegraph was doing so well, starters very well rated, but then this Replacements As a collective they were the Lions’ men of the match. Genge and Stuart took the Australian scrum to the cleaners while Kinghorn added thrust in attack and Farrell the class . 9/10 There’s a permanent glaze for Faz in...

Woddy

To save me scrolling back through the thread, could anyone discern the logic of brining Farrell on for Jones? Nepotism. Jones was poor in the first half, but Faz brought little as expected. The second receiver option was about the only place he was vaguely useful, and even then he stood incredibly ...

Woddy

To save me scrolling back through the thread, could anyone discern the logic of brining Farrell on for Jones? Because he didn't want to put Mitchell there. Why take Jones off? He was playing well and looking fitter than Aki, who would have been a better swap for Faz, if he really had to come on.

Woddy

To save me scrolling back through the thread, could anyone discern the logic of brining Farrell on for Jones?

Woddy

Flintoff was a bowler of great balls and for vital wickets. Hardly ever ran through a side. He and Stokes (latter as skipper) would have been great together. Freddie opening/first change, Stokes 2md change; and batting 5/6 respectively. Must find an article on the England seam bowling quartet of 200...

Woddy

If we're picking players purely on peak, then although I like a specialist wicketkeeper I'll take the Summer of Bairstow over Stewart, Russell, or anyone else - whatever failings he had behind the sticks his batting form of that summer more than made up for it. Not sure who we're dropping to pick F...

Woddy

I don't really get the current furore over over rates. One of the major reasons why fewer balls are bowled in a day is because more happens with each ball: they get hit, people run around after them, collect them from the stands etc. That takes longer than tapping it halfway back up the pitch or lea...

Woddy

My all time England XI from my lifetime of watching cricket (mid 70s) Gooch Cook Gower Root Pietersen Stewart (wk) Botham Stokes Broad Andersen Underwood 6 bat and 2 all rounders protect the tail England and Welsh XI except no Welsh in your team! No Flintoff? Mine would cover the same period. I'd h...

Woddy

For the Tour historians: has there ever been a tour where all the stages were contiguous, so started where they finished the day before? Also, from the maps above, it looks like the entire is within France this year. Is that correct and, if so, must be the first time for a while? This year is entir...

Woddy

Big Boy Pant's on.

Woddy

For the Tour historians: has there ever been a tour where all the stages were contiguous, so started where they finished the day before?

Also, from the maps above, it looks like the entire is within France this year. Is that correct and, if so, must be the first time for a while?

Woddy

Enzedder wrote: ↑Wed Jul 23, 2025 11:13 pm 20 overs of spin and still only 83 overs bowled.

Stokes needs a banning. 3 ashes tests oughta do it.

How did England drop so far behind the rate? Commentary in the morning suggested that England were ahead of it.

Woddy

England should be disappointed, having decided to bowl first. The ball moved around and there were a few anxious moments for Jaiswal and Rahul, but they've hardly had to trouble the skin of their teeth.

Woddy

Solid start from India.

Woddy

Grandpa wrote: ↑Wed Jul 23, 2025 10:38 am
Hawk97 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 23, 2025 10:35 am Stokes is unstoppable at the toss
It's a talent

India have lost 14 on the trot, according to cricinfo. Don't have time to work out the chances of that.

Woddy

Jesus these guys are losers. They’re in a tight test series against a quality opponent and they’re thinking about Australia? Maybe if they focused on core skills over how nice or mean they are, they might get a few more notches in the W column… I also agree with this. Wish they and the media would ...

Woddy

I agree with him... he has a valid point... if India had done it... I think one of Indian openers would have been impaled with a stump... One of the few times I have thought England were taking the piss... I might have thought he wasn't talking out of his backside if it weren't for his on field mas...

Woddy

Some proper Crimewatch faces in that England team - Kelly foremost among them. Fortunately they’re all rug munchers I'm sure there is a dribbling around the box joke in there somewhere if someone can be bothered to conjure one. only if not tongue in cheek. A Kit-Kat she wanted, ... Well played to t...

Woddy

Jones butchering an easy try on Saturday is one of the dumbest things I've seen at that level in a while, so not sure I'd say he had a great game. Garry isn't exactly clinical with ball in hand though, given 10/12/13 combo I'd stick with Jones. I'd keep the same starting XV but, especially with M S...

Woddy

How so? It was widely agreed that Ringrose was the test starter until the HIA ruled him out. Jones replaced him and did fine, but wasn't particularly amazing. There's a decision to be (or more likely has been) made, it could go either way. Jones had a great game in a test match on Saturday. Ringer ...

Woddy

Since I've been watching, second only to Back. Might even be better, honestly, IMO. He's more destructive. Both Currys are better than Back imo, though he played a different role (closer to Ben C's) as fetcher & scragger so comparisons are hard to make. We forget that Moody sometimes pushed Back ou...

Woddy

Yes. What the f-ck happened? They just seemed to get so f-cking beuracratic and technical about it and then blamed "scrums" in general. When was the last time anyone saw a push-over try? FFS. I'm making myself triggered. Mind you, people who don't play just don't get it. I even got told by a league...

Woddy

It's not what many want to hear but I'm guessing Borthwick will be keeping an eye on the Fin Smith-Farrell 10-12 axis for the Lions in midweek. Potentially. He'd be a fool not to. An inform playing well farrell is a massive player for england if used right. In the current england era the idea of Fa...

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