Originally posted by Mat KelleyI believe the English team relies too much on their dominant pack and the kicking of Wilkinson. If their pack's under pressure, Wilkinson is not so confident. If their pack struggles and Wilkinson's not there, they will lose badly.
The All blacks will do well to beat England in their current form, but this can't play big matches or away from home is rubbish. Can't play without Martin Johnston as captain in big matches maybe...
My views and I stand to be corrected. Maybe we'll see in 3 months in Oz.
Re: Crowley...3 sides in the super 12.
Australia has been trying for the last three years to have a fourth side added based in Melbourne (where they have only one league side) but this has been blocked by New Zealand (l am not sure about South Africa) which is a pity cause we would love to have a side based in Melbourne.
You are right that there is an advantage to playing regularly with the same side(s)
Watch the English come good in the world cup -unfortunately
Cheers,
Martin 😀😀😀
Why did it start out as only 3 Aussie sides in the firtst place? Did they reckon that the fourth Aussie side wouldn't be strong enough? I don't really understand it... Not like the Chiefs are really any good, they could easily be excluded from the Super 12 to have 4 Aussie sides in.
There was some talk of expanding the Super 12 into a 14 side competition and then have two 7 team pools, in order to reduce the amount of games. This would mean another SA and Aussie team.
In Melbourne the dominant code is Aussie Rules football (not rugby)
although the world record crowd for a Union game is in Melbourne- Australia-NZ.
Aussie rules is the most watched sport in Australia.
l think at first when the Super 12 was launched they didnt think it would be as popular as it has proven to be...or at least that there would be as much interest from Melbourne for it.
We have a much larger population than NZ so we should definetly be able to support one more team.
l think it comes down to politics..ther Kiwis dont want Australia to have more control by having more teams etc...🙂🙂