England squad

Backs:

M Brown (Harlequins) - It's between him and Tait for full back. Go Mike!

P Sackey (Wasps) - Will start, fine by me.

D Strettle (Harlequins) - Should start. I'd have preferred JSD on form and fitness until yesterday.

T Ojo (London Irish) - Bolter. I would have put him in the Saxons and taken Varndell

M Tait (Newcastle) - Full back, I reckon.

M Tindall (Gloucester) - Rather him than Noon

J Noon (Newcastle) - What has this man done to get in the England team? He is playing for a club side that is shipping points by the half century and only looks good for England against teams that are playing teribly themselves (e.g. Ireland)

T Flood (Newcastle) - Prejudice points me to pick him over Barkley. But I'd still rather have seen Geraghty there.

O Barkley (Bath) - Boooo!!!! Like his forwards equivalent, Worsley, he'll get to 60 caps and we'll still be wondering if he can bring his club form to the international game.

D Cipriani (Wasps) - Will start

C Hodgson (Sale Sharks) - An interesting vote of confidence.

R Wigglesworth (Sale Sharks) - Man in possession.

P Richards (London Irish) - Don't rate him.

D Care (Harlequins) - Yay!

Forwards:

A Sheridan (Sale Sharks) - Starter. Just keep the punches under control!

T Payne (Wasps - Backup.

M Stevens (Bath) - Should start

J Hobson (Bristol) - Backup

L Mears (Bath) - Should Start

D Hartley (Northampton) - I'd take him for the experience and get him a good chunk of a GP season under his belt before he's picked

D Paice (London Irish) - Backup

S Borthwick (Bath, capt) - Fair enough

B Kay (Leicester) - If he starts over Kennedy it will be a triumph of past form (i.e. 2002) over what he's shown since then

N Kennedy (London Irish) - Should start

T Palmer (Wasps) - Backup

T Croft (Leicester) - I wouldn't start him but I would have him on the bench

J Haskell (Wasps) - Starter at 6

J Worsley (Wasps) - What the hell is he doing there? It can only be for the experience his haul of mediocrity brings because he isn't there for anything else he's doing

M Lipman (Bath) - Should start at 7

T Rees (Wasps) - Backup to Lipman if we need to change the style

N Easter (Harlequins) - Should start at 8 if his knee holds up

L Narraway (Gloucester) - Can vary things if Easter breaks down or isn't working.

All in all, a decent squad, albeit with a few players I think are very much past their sell by date - Worsley and Kay being the notables. Also a bit concerned that the wingers other than Sackey are either not fully match or have no experience of internationals - to go from an end of season high note (Ojo) to facing the All Blacks is a big leap. I also find Varndell's exclusion a bit odd given his performance over the season rather than in the last month.

I think I know why Johnson's gone for Mike Brown - place kicking aside, he's very much like Jonno's old Leicester (and sometime England) teammate Tim Stimpson. Brawny, cuts great lines from full back, tackles well, has a huge boot and a nose for the try line. Although given Squeaky's coaching this, I expect to see Tait at 15 (no bad thing in itself).

Very pleased that we've also got our entire back row (less Hala'ufia who, unsurprisingly isn't avaiable for selection and Volley, who's retiring) in either the full or "A" squad.

No one's reading it, but FUCKING PLAY OFFS! FUCKING HELL! "Oooh, the players are all knackered, how can we help them? I know, we'll tack extra games on at the end of the season and get them all injured!"

Cipriani ***********************SQUEAMISH SPOILER LINK ALERT, NOT THAT ANYONE'S READING THIS THREAD*************************

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/index.jhtml

Fuck's sake, JSD, Cipriani, Lipman off injured, Mears, Stevens who the fuck else?

A folorn voice in the wind cried - "Wales squad" though no-one answered him...

Wales squad for their summer tour South Africa:
Backs: Morgan Stoddart, Andrew Bishop, Jamie Roberts, Shane Williams, Tom James, Mark Jones, Sonny Parker, Tom Shanklin, Stephen Jones, James Hook, Andy Williams, Warren Fury, Gareth Cooper.

Forwards: Ryan Jones (Captain), Dafydd Jones, Jonathan Thomas, Gareth Delve, Bradley Davies, Ian Evans, Alun-Wyn Jones, Ian Gough, Duncan Jones, Gethin Jenkins, Rhys Thomas, Adam Jones, Matthew Rees.

There's a small possibility that I may get a ticket for the first England test. Maybe.

Hurrah! Gareth Cooper is back! What price Wales being one point up in the last minute, and then Cooper kicking it into his own arse, thus allowing the Boks to go the length of the field and score.

Heh, judging by some of his performances for Glaws this season, he's lucky he's last man standing.

Two things; What's the bloody point of these summer tours? Everyone up here's knackered and the Sanzar teams just use them as a bit of practice prior to the Tri-Nations. Secondly, when did this play-off bollocks come to the Guiness premiership?? If I was a Gloucester fan I'd be suicidal or finding out who was responsible.

QUOTE:
What's the bloody point of these summer tours?

Money.

QUOTE:
Secondly, when did this play-off bollocks come to the Guiness premiership??

A few years ago. For money. It's why everyone hates Wasps with a passion. The cunts have never finished top of the League but contrive to cuntishly win the bloody thing all the time like the band of cunts they are.

It completely negates the point of a league. If it was just a round robin type thing like S14 that has always been a precursor to the playoffs, it wouldn't be so bad. The problem is they brought in the playoffs after several years of having a proper "You finish top, you're champions" league to make more money, all the while bitching about player burnout because they played too many matches. And every season someone gets broken. Last season it was Harry Ellis, this season, Cipriani. It's supposed to compensate teams for losing international players during the league program, but you end up with situations like this year where third are playing fourth for the right to be crowned "Champions". Bloody stupid. You can fuck about for half a season, scrape into the top four and then be on top of the pile by dint of a couple of wins whilst the team that's led all season and finished top just has to slip up once and their whole season's achievement is in the shitter.

Hmm, suspected as much. Re the Down under summer tour, do they really make any money? How much does it cost to send what's left of the Northern Hemisphere teams and their entourage to Oz, NZ or SA? Do the locals really care and do Sky Sports really make it worthwhile? I'd have thought that after the England shambles in 1998 teams might have just waited for the arrival of the SANZAR teams 3months later.

FUCKING BASTARD BACKSPACE TAKING ME BACK A PAGE AND WIPING MY FUCKING POST BEFORE I'VE HAD A FUCKING CHANCE TO POST THE FUCKER! BASTARD!

Anyway, Jerry Collins. I thought it was odd he converted the 'Canes last minute consolation try but in light of his retirement, it's exactly what clubs let their retiring forwards do for a laugh at the end of a season (unless they're John Eales).

Collins is supposedly angling for "a big money move up North". Any takers?

Toulon appears to be the destination of choice for the pension boosting All Black crowd.

Toulon huh? Unsurprising given the amount of S12 refugees playing in France not to mention he'd probably be happiest amongst a pack of French psychopaths.

Back to topic, it looks like a fairly strong Scotland side going to Argentina this summer. We will lose both tests, at least one of them heavily. Interesting to see Chris Paterson returning to Edinburgh after five minutes at Gloucester, must find out about that one.

He never got the game time at 10, which is what he really wanted so he could secure the Scotland fly half jersey for himself. However, he couldn't oust Lamb and so picked up a load of splinters. But he did score a cracking try against Bath (I think) just after he came on. Everyone else was foundering in the mud, he got the ball in his own half and miraculously found the pace that we all thought injury had robbed him of and burned in from about 70 yards.

Ireland vs. Barbarians tonight. Quins' own Mike Ross at tighthead! Yay! Mind you, he's bloody knackered, he started 29 matches for us this season and I think he was substituted about twice. For a prop, that's amazing (and it shows how much he's rated above the rest of the Quins propping department). Ireland and Wales could do worse than look to him and Ceri Jones.

England team to face Barbarians:

M Brown (Harlequins)
T Ojo (London Irish)
M Tait (Newcastle)
T Flood (Newcastle)
D Strettle (Harlequins)

C Hodgson (Sale Sharks)
R Wigglesworth (Sale)

N Lloyd (Saracens)
D Paice (London Irish)
J Hobson (Bristol)
C Jones (Sale Sharks)
N Kennedy (London Irish)
L Narraway (Gloucester)
W Skinner (Harlequins)
N Easter (Harlequins, captain). (YAY! STUFF YOU, PLANET RUGBY!)

Replacements:

D Hartley (Northampton)
D Wilson (Newcastle)
S Hooper (Leeds)
T Guest (Harlequins)
D Care (Harlequins)
P Richards (London Irish)
U Monye (Harlequins).

BUT -

Narraway out of position.

No Danny Care starting. Lunacy. What can Hodgson need to know about Wigglesworth that playing alongside him week in, week out for Sale hasn't taught him? At some point, Care and Hodgson will be pairing up against the All Blacks and I'd far rather they got an easy 80 against the Barbarians than shake hands whilst the All Blacks thunder towards them.

Flood starts, no Allen. Richards! Grrr!

Otherwise happy enough.

Bugger.

Wales are shit. Sack Gatland!!!111eleven

Anyway, not suprised really, didn't stay up to watch it as drunk too much beer while watching the Ireland game and slept through my alarm clock.

Thought Nonu and Smith played well for the AB's, weather considering. I've always had a bit of a thing for Smith. Irish lineout, and Dan Carter, were mostly shithouse.

NZ by 20, SA by 25, Argentina by 10, and Awstralia by 15 next week.