Bugger me, but sorry, I was raised under the fear of a Nuclear Winter. MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTIOJ!!!! I was led to believe that should I ever hear the phrase on television, “…Russians about to breach the American lines…” then it was really time to duck and cover. Mushroom cloud. All over, red rover.
RED DAWN!!!
But no. The Cold War Rematch did not really deliver to the level of other so-called ‘Minnow Match-ups’ that RWC2011 has coughed up so far. To be fair I think the Russians need to come back to another World Cup to get it. Somewhere in Russia lurks a line-out dominance that was embarrassingly absent tonight, they just lacked the polish of a Top 20 nation ... it will come.
USA: Well, they showed real pace and munter-ability, but it does not get any easier for them either in this pool. Are they the most populous nation to appear at RWC? I think they are. But I expect better frankly - this ‘sleeping giant’ bullshit needs to grow legs. They have pace, they have power, they have sheer bloody determination in the likes of Clever, but they will not really sprout into the Top 10 unless they knuckle down and do it ugly to begin with. They can’t Wham Bam Super Bowl it to the Rugby World Cup knockout stages without playing Test rugby. Hyper Power maybe but baby steps in Test Rugby.
Reposted with correct team now - I was enjoying a leetle too much of the sponsor’s product earlier. Hic.
2 comments:
"I expect better frankly - this ‘sleeping giant’ bullshit needs to grow legs."
Having emigrated to the US from Wales, it is incredibly frustrating to see all the potential, yet none of the results.
We have athletes up the wazoo in the US. Dan Lyle was the first American to really succeed in Europe, and he was a former American Football player in college. Todd Clever is a really good athlete, too.
To succeed in rugby at the high level, you have to have really good #9 and #10 play-and that's a problem because just being a good athlete is not good enough. you hve to grow up with the game and "think" the game-plus you have to have the kicking skills. That's the area where USA rugby is very, very weak.
I'll take a win over the Russians, but they are really improving.
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