To be fair to Rob Andrew his comments about McCaw and the scrum were a response to jibes by Henry about England's "passive" scrummaging (whatever the hell that is) and play at the breakdown.
Equally his "lack of understanding of what northern-hemisphere rugby is about and what our players have to go through" comment was in response to a NZ press article labelling England as "frauds" - with all due respect to the NZ playing schedule, I'm afraid that a 16 game (at most) Super 14 season plus a handful of tour games and the Tri Nations doesn't come close to the 10 month week-on-week grind that English international players currently endure.
That said, I'd much prefer it if the England (and indeed the NZ)management would just keep quiet and get on with the job in hand (although Brian Ashton did adopt this approach and look how far it got him).
As for the rape allegations - I guess until the police have concluded their investigations there's not much Andrew or anyone else can do or say other than what's already been said (innocent until...etc etc) but for there to have been any sort of incident - consensual or otherwise - in the middle of a tour is hardly a ringing endorsement of the English squad's discipline.
I'm pretty sure Johnno wouldn't have let it happen and would hope that the players involved are disciplined accordingly.
1 comment:
Hi Ferdy
Calm down!
To be fair to Rob Andrew his comments about McCaw and the scrum were a response to jibes by Henry about England's "passive" scrummaging (whatever the hell that is) and play at the breakdown.
Equally his "lack of understanding of what northern-hemisphere rugby is about and what our players have to go through" comment was in response to a NZ press article labelling England as "frauds" - with all due respect to the NZ playing schedule, I'm afraid that a 16 game (at most) Super 14 season plus a handful of tour games and the Tri Nations doesn't come close to the 10 month week-on-week grind that English international players currently endure.
That said, I'd much prefer it if the England (and indeed the NZ)management would just keep quiet and get on with the job in hand (although Brian Ashton did adopt this approach and look how far it got him).
As for the rape allegations - I guess until the police have concluded their investigations there's not much Andrew or anyone else can do or say other than what's already been said (innocent until...etc etc) but for there to have been any sort of incident - consensual or otherwise - in the middle of a tour is hardly a ringing endorsement of the English squad's discipline.
I'm pretty sure Johnno wouldn't have let it happen and would hope that the players involved are disciplined accordingly.
PS - Hooray Henries? !!!
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