England's World Cup Pool

[Lizard]

Coles' head situation seems bad - repeated exercise induced headaches with no known specific injury to begin with.

Read's body is generally breaking down so an extended break might see him right (repeated head issues aside).

[Banquo]

Coles' head situation seems bad - repeated exercise induced headaches with no known specific injury to begin with.

Read's body is generally breaking down so an extended break might see him right (repeated head issues aside).

That's a great shame, two absolutely top players; wish em all the best.

[Eugene Wrayburn]

Coles' head situation seems bad - repeated exercise induced headaches with no known specific injury to begin with.

Read's body is generally breaking down so an extended break might see him right (repeated head issues aside).

That's a great shame, two absolutely top players; wish em all the best.

Aye. That sounds like Coles may be done, or at least benefit from a full year out doing nothing at all which at his age and with the ruthlessness of NZ rugby may see him having to come north.

[Timbo]

On similar lines, I see Charlie Ngatai has just had a recurrence of concussion symptoms after just 1 game back. Not looking good for him.

[Lizard]

On the positive side, at least this demonstrates that the issue is being taken seriously

[Puja]

On the positive side, at least this demonstrates that the issue is being taken seriously

Or maybe not seriously enough if you've got a selection of players getting to this serious point all at once. I can only think of one player who had similar problems in England and that was Mike Brown (who took about 6 months off and is now fine). Is the culture still about trying to rush people back in in NZ or is it about trying to scramble to be ready for the Lions? Or is it just a rotten run of luck?

Puja

[Mellsblue]

On the positive side, at least this demonstrates that the issue is being taken seriously

Or maybe not seriously enough if you've got a selection of players getting to this serious point all at once. I can only think of one player who had similar problems in England and that was Mike Brown (who took about 6 months off and is now fine). Is the culture still about trying to rush people back in in NZ or is it about trying to scramble to be ready for the Lions? Or is it just a rotten run of luck?

Puja

I wouldn't going throwing eggs at others glass houses. There has been too many incidents in just the Prem that have been pretty reprehensible, Glos and Sale spring immediately to mind.

It's an area where seemingly everyone is behind the curve. Players through to administrators.

[Puja]

On the positive side, at least this demonstrates that the issue is being taken seriously

Or maybe not seriously enough if you've got a selection of players getting to this serious point all at once. I can only think of one player who had similar problems in England and that was Mike Brown (who took about 6 months off and is now fine). Is the culture still about trying to rush people back in in NZ or is it about trying to scramble to be ready for the Lions? Or is it just a rotten run of luck?

Puja

I wouldn't going throwing eggs at others glass houses. There has been too many incidents in just the Prem that have been pretty reprehensible, Glos and Sale spring immediately to mind.

It's an area where seemingly everyone is behind the curve. Players through to administrators.

I wasn't meaning to imply that we were massively superior than the rest of the world, just to note that the number of serious symptoms in NZ seem to be higher than elsewhere.

As you said, our lot are definitely not handling it properly either, but we don't seem to have people with the symptoms like Coles and Ngatai, and Read before them.

Puja

[Mellsblue]

Or maybe not seriously enough if you've got a selection of players getting to this serious point all at once. I can only think of one player who had similar problems in England and that was Mike Brown (who took about 6 months off and is now fine). Is the culture still about trying to rush people back in in NZ or is it about trying to scramble to be ready for the Lions? Or is it just a rotten run of luck?

Puja

I wouldn't going throwing eggs at others glass houses. There has been too many incidents in just the Prem that have been pretty reprehensible, Glos and Sale spring immediately to mind.

It's an area where seemingly everyone is behind the curve. Players through to administrators.

I wasn't meaning to imply that we were massively superior than the rest of the world, just to note that the number of serious symptoms in NZ seem to be higher than elsewhere.

As you said, our lot are definitely not handling it properly either, but we don't seem to have people with the symptoms like Coles and Ngatai, and Read before them.

Puja

There have numerous NH players retire prematurely recently due to concussion issues.

[Puja]

I wouldn't going throwing eggs at others glass houses. There has been too many incidents in just the Prem that have been pretty reprehensible, Glos and Sale spring immediately to mind.

It's an area where seemingly everyone is behind the curve. Players through to administrators.

I wasn't meaning to imply that we were massively superior than the rest of the world, just to note that the number of serious symptoms in NZ seem to be higher than elsewhere.

As you said, our lot are definitely not handling it properly either, but we don't seem to have people with the symptoms like Coles and Ngatai, and Read before them.

Puja

There have numerous NH players retire prematurely recently due to concussion issues.

True. Maybe we're just skipping the step of "worrying problems" and jumping straight to running them permanently into the ground instead. Sounds about right.

Puja

[Danno]

And North will probably be the next victim. I truly fear that one more bonk to the bonce and he's done unless his club and country start looking after him properly. Right now I give him a season, assuming he survives the Lions.

[Scrumhead]

Tonga now confirmed after Fiji's win over Samoa.

Our group will be:

England
France
Argentina
Tonga
USA

[Raggs]

All down to fixtures as to how much rotation we can do.

[Scrumhead]

Yep. Argentina are always a different prospect in the World Cup and Tonga and USA will be much more competitive than a team like Uruguay for example.

[JellyHead]

In a different tac so sorry if this is inappropriate for this thread. I'm seriously contemplating going. I've never been to a world cup, I'm not in the supporters club and don 't belong to a local club. Any advice on the best way to go about it. I'm going with a friend who has been to Japan on business 10s of times so have some knowledge of Japan.

[Doorzetbornandbred]

In a different tac so sorry if this is inappropriate for this thread. I'm seriously contemplating going. I've never been to a world cup, I'm not in the supporters club and don 't belong to a local club. Any advice on the best way to go about it. I'm going with a friend who has been to Japan on business 10s of times so have some knowledge of Japan.

Webby a Welsh fella who posted on here(not sure if he still is tbh) lives in Japan hed be the best person to help you out. I'll message him on FB and get him to post on here for you if hes not already.

[JellyHead]

Cheers fella.

[Scrumhead]

Does anyone here know anything about the USA side?

The only players I know are MacGinty, Manoa, Wyles and the young hooker at Worcester Taufete'e.

Todd Clever would be the other one, but I read that he's retired.

[Puja]

Does anyone here know anything about the USA side?

The only players I know are MacGinty, Manoa, Wyles and the young hooker at Worcester Taufete'e.

Todd Clever would be the other one, but I read that he's retired.

The USA are in a state of flux due to their union not being able to organise a piss-up in a brewery. They've qualified as Americas 1, but that's mostly because Canada are winning the incompetence-off between their respective administrators. They've managed to screw up and shut down what was a relatively promising professional league (that was responsible for producing Taufe'ete in its one season of existence), they hired John Mitchell to coach their international side who decided the job wasn't important enough for him to leave South Africa for and thus telecommuted, and they've mostly bimbled about with little in the way of direction of strategy.

Now, they have got a new nascent pro league starting up next year, there are rumours that Mike Ford is going to be the new national coach (he's currently due to coach one of the new pro clubs), and they could be a better prospect at RWC when they get their far-flung talents all in one place. I doubt it, but with the US, as always, there is potential, even if it doesn't look likely to ever be tapped.

It would be ideal to have them second or third game for a rest, I think, as they're going to be the weakest.

Puja

[Puja]

Tonga now confirmed after Fiji's win over Samoa.

Our group will be:

England
France
Argentina
Tonga
USA

I'm actually relatively pleased by getting Tonga. I mean, they're no pushovers and they beat Samoa fair and square, but I'd still rather face them out of the three options.

Puja

[Stom]

Tonga now confirmed after Fiji's win over Samoa.

Our group will be:

England
France
Argentina
Tonga
USA

I'm actually relatively pleased by getting Tonga. I mean, they're no pushovers and they beat Samoa fair and square, but I'd still rather face them out of the three options.

Puja

I do think part of that is remembering Samoa teams of the past, though...

[Puja]

Tonga now confirmed after Fiji's win over Samoa.

Our group will be:

England
France
Argentina
Tonga
USA

I'm actually relatively pleased by getting Tonga. I mean, they're no pushovers and they beat Samoa fair and square, but I'd still rather face them out of the three options.

Puja

I do think part of that is remembering Samoa teams of the past, though...

Granted. And given that we were just speaking of unions who are an active handbrake on their sides...

Even so, Samoa tend to raise their game for the RWC and do get better access to their diaspora then. Plus Tonga have the smallest player pool available to them. I feel Tonga are operating somewhere near their best at the moment and Samoa somewhere near their worst and it was still a close game between them.

Could (and probably will) be proven wrong in a couple of years. I think we can all agree that we're just glad not to get Fiji.

Puja