So the semi final line up for the Rugby World Cup is complete and does not include England. Yesterday's defeat against France was all the more disappointing as we never really competed save for a late surge after the damage had already been done. Typically as South Africa were knocked out this morning Peter De Villiers stood down as coach straight away where as for England Rob Andrew is going to conduct a report. Saying that I'm not sure if Martin Johnson should go or not which is probably as big an indictment of the team than any knee jerk reaction. Certainly the team underperformed and the coach takes responsibility for that especially as the team made more headlines off the pitch rather than on it. After a decent 6 Nations campaign the team appear to have gone backwards and what looked a good squad on paper have failed to deliver.
The young, exciting players have not blended with the old guard who were supposed to lend an authoritarian air with the latter looking past it but still preferred to the youngsters in the pecking order. Hopefully the missed kicks of Wilkinson should not take the gloss of his career too much as we should build for he next tournament now without him as well as saying thanks and goodbye to Steve Thompson, Mike Tindall, Simon Shaw and probably Lewis Moody.
For all that England's preparations were hardly helped by the usual shenanigans at the RFU with infighting leaving them without a permanent chairman, chief executive and performance director despite what acting head Martyn Thomas claims. A lack of leadership at the top filters down to a lack of leadership in the squad where a tour manager should have ensured the players behaved themselves during the down time. This all helps engender a lack of focus which if isolated may not have been a problem if the team were still performing on the pitch. However, England topped their group without looking particularly impressive and other excuses can be found such as Danny Care's injury or Courtney Lawes being banned for the first few matches these are the sort of mishaps that affect every team (New Zealand will no doubt more Dan Carter more than we the second choice scrum half). Similarly the theory that the midfield had not had time to gel as it was being constantly tinkered with is valid but not unique as France's player turnover can testify.
France actually are reminiscent of England in the last tournament who got to the final despite themselves as the sheer force of will of the senior players dragged them into that showdown with South Africa where their limitations were exposed. Likewise despite Lievremont's eccentricities France have enough class to put a decent run together but can come unstuck at any time. You get the impression that Johnson was hoping for more of the same from England's class of 2011 but those old heads were 4 years older and his reliance on them and the use of forward play deprived the likes of Ashton and Foden from having much chance of running with the ball.
One of the things that may save Johnson is if this is viewed as a work in progress and he may be allowed the opportunity to build the new team as the older players make way. The lack of any obvious replacement makes his position fairly secure as we prefer to appoint Englishmen and the RFU's obsession with Clive Woodward blinds them from any other potential candidates. As has oft been mentioned - the job that Shaun Edwards has done coaching the Welsh squad makes it a crime that England have not tried harder to recruit him to their coaching set up. All questions that Rob Andrew will surely address in his much anticipated review.
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Bethany's speech development continues to progress as she has taken to repeating words we say to her when the mood suits her. Obviously some words are more distinct than others and when she is in a playful mood she'll point to an object wanting to know it's name and then repeating what was said. Her memory already seems better than mine as she now knows how to operate my parent's CD player after they demonstrated the sliding double door on the front of it to her. The other day she started playing with our traditional CD player and pressed eject after switching it on. I thought nothing of it at the time until yesterday when she had hold of a free CD that came with the paper. Noticing that she only had the sleeve I asked her what she had done with the disc only for her to point to the CD player and say "There". I replied "Yes, that's where it goes but where is it?" only for her to repeat herself. After a quick look and not seeing it I switched the CD player on and opened it up only to find the missing disc inside as she had told me.
As if to emphasise the point, this morning round my parents whilst we were otherwise engaged we suddenly heard the song with her name start playing and noticed she had switched their CD player on and was dancing to her tune.
The young, exciting players have not blended with the old guard who were supposed to lend an authoritarian air with the latter looking past it but still preferred to the youngsters in the pecking order. Hopefully the missed kicks of Wilkinson should not take the gloss of his career too much as we should build for he next tournament now without him as well as saying thanks and goodbye to Steve Thompson, Mike Tindall, Simon Shaw and probably Lewis Moody.
For all that England's preparations were hardly helped by the usual shenanigans at the RFU with infighting leaving them without a permanent chairman, chief executive and performance director despite what acting head Martyn Thomas claims. A lack of leadership at the top filters down to a lack of leadership in the squad where a tour manager should have ensured the players behaved themselves during the down time. This all helps engender a lack of focus which if isolated may not have been a problem if the team were still performing on the pitch. However, England topped their group without looking particularly impressive and other excuses can be found such as Danny Care's injury or Courtney Lawes being banned for the first few matches these are the sort of mishaps that affect every team (New Zealand will no doubt more Dan Carter more than we the second choice scrum half). Similarly the theory that the midfield had not had time to gel as it was being constantly tinkered with is valid but not unique as France's player turnover can testify.
France actually are reminiscent of England in the last tournament who got to the final despite themselves as the sheer force of will of the senior players dragged them into that showdown with South Africa where their limitations were exposed. Likewise despite Lievremont's eccentricities France have enough class to put a decent run together but can come unstuck at any time. You get the impression that Johnson was hoping for more of the same from England's class of 2011 but those old heads were 4 years older and his reliance on them and the use of forward play deprived the likes of Ashton and Foden from having much chance of running with the ball.
One of the things that may save Johnson is if this is viewed as a work in progress and he may be allowed the opportunity to build the new team as the older players make way. The lack of any obvious replacement makes his position fairly secure as we prefer to appoint Englishmen and the RFU's obsession with Clive Woodward blinds them from any other potential candidates. As has oft been mentioned - the job that Shaun Edwards has done coaching the Welsh squad makes it a crime that England have not tried harder to recruit him to their coaching set up. All questions that Rob Andrew will surely address in his much anticipated review.
~ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ~
Bethany's speech development continues to progress as she has taken to repeating words we say to her when the mood suits her. Obviously some words are more distinct than others and when she is in a playful mood she'll point to an object wanting to know it's name and then repeating what was said. Her memory already seems better than mine as she now knows how to operate my parent's CD player after they demonstrated the sliding double door on the front of it to her. The other day she started playing with our traditional CD player and pressed eject after switching it on. I thought nothing of it at the time until yesterday when she had hold of a free CD that came with the paper. Noticing that she only had the sleeve I asked her what she had done with the disc only for her to point to the CD player and say "There". I replied "Yes, that's where it goes but where is it?" only for her to repeat herself. After a quick look and not seeing it I switched the CD player on and opened it up only to find the missing disc inside as she had told me.
As if to emphasise the point, this morning round my parents whilst we were otherwise engaged we suddenly heard the song with her name start playing and noticed she had switched their CD player on and was dancing to her tune.
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