En-ger-lund

[Tal]

Is it worse to be knocked out of a World Cup by Wales at rugby, Bangladesh at cricket or Costa Rica at football?

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[Rubbish2407]

Seeing as Wales are ranked higher than you in the Rugby I guess it's one of the other two.

And we're actually ranked higher than you in Football as well. Not bad for three Million people. What's England's excuse?

[TightEnd]

the rugby because it was at home, though beaten by two very good sides

the cricket can happen, plenty of variance in the short formats. any top ten side can beat any other

we were already out before we played costa rica. the national team gets marginalised by the focus on the premier league, so was inevitable despite the media ra-ra before hand 


all three have/had structural problems in coaching, domestic game structure and selection that contributed

[TightEnd]

Seeing as Wales are ranked higher than you in the Rugby I guess it's one of the other two.

And we're actually ranked higher than you in Football as well. Not bad for three Million people. What's England's excuse?

the virulent anti-English stuff from various other countries whenever England get beaten is extremely tiresome, i have to say

perhaps if the English matched the rabid nonsense emanating from others, they'd get more fired up...

[DungBeetle]

the rugby because it was at home, though beaten by two very good sides

the cricket can happen, plenty of variance in the short formats. any top ten side can beat any other

we were already out before we played costa rica. the national team gets marginalised by the focus on the premier league, so was inevitable despite the media ra-ra before hand 


all three have/had structural problems in coaching, domestic game structure and selection that contributed

The ODI cricket WC under Moores was dreadful.  All that embarrassing stuff about "need to look at the data" when their batsmen had imploded (again).    I think that was the worst out of the three for me, simply because the coach came across as so utterly idiotic.

[mondatoo]

Seeing as Wales are ranked higher than you in the Rugby I guess it's one of the other two.

And we're actually ranked higher than you in Football as well. Not bad for three Million people. What's England's excuse?

I was going to start a thread regarding this they other day, quite obv the rankings are a joke, and both Wales and England are overrated re the rankings.

But which team realistically will have better prospects next Summer in the Euro's, England I'd say are literally drawing dead and can not win, Wales obv very very unlikely also, but the fact they do have one legit World Class Star in the team means they could always provide a shock, think I'd have more hope as a Welshman than an Englishman next Summer.

That's assuming Bale isn't injured for the rest of the qualifiers otherwise you won't even make it 

[horseplayer]

Seeing as Wales are ranked higher than you in the Rugby I guess it's one of the other two.

And we're actually ranked higher than you in Football as well. Not bad for three Million people. What's England's excuse?

we still think we rule the world

[mondatoo]

Seeing as Wales are ranked higher than you in the Rugby I guess it's one of the other two.

And we're actually ranked higher than you in Football as well. Not bad for three Million people. What's England's excuse?

we still think we rule the world

Eh ?

[Rubbish2407]

Seeing as Wales are ranked higher than you in the Rugby I guess it's one of the other two.

And we're actually ranked higher than you in Football as well. Not bad for three Million people. What's England's excuse?

the virulent anti-English stuff from various other countries whenever England get beaten is extremely tiresome, i have to say

perhaps if the English matched the rabid nonsense emanating from others, they'd get more fired up...

Actually Tighty I think you will find that Tal's opening line about how little old Wales managed to beat mighty England is the offensive line and extremely tiresome for the rest of the World. Unless Bangladesh and Costa Rica have suddenly shot up the rankings to be second only to the greatest team over the last eight years then why is losing to Wales such a shock? It's not as if England have ever achieved anything under Lancaster? Grand slams? No. Have they even won the six Nations under him?

And what is extremely tiresome is all the press saying that the World Cup will be less of a spectacle without En-ger-lund there. Why? You're not good enough so why would the rest of the World want to watch you play? John Inverdale is the epitomy of all that is wrong with the English Media. "So Ireland v Italy is poised on a knife edge. Now Sir Clive, where do England go from here". Who cares? Not the Irish or the Italians forced to watch ITV and not the rest of the World looking forward to the quarter finals.

And Tal, if you were fishing then you caught a whopper. WP.

[mulhuzz]

Losing at home to a Welsh C team is a shock. Like it or not, Wales fans.

[Doobs]

Seeing as Wales are ranked higher than you in the Rugby I guess it's one of the other two.

And we're actually ranked higher than you in Football as well. Not bad for three Million people. What's England's excuse?

I was going to start a thread regarding this they other day, quite obv the rankings are a joke, and both Wales and England are overrated re the rankings.

But which team realistically will have better prospects next Summer in the Euro's, England I'd say are literally drawing dead and can not win, Wales obv very very unlikely also, but the fact they do have one legit World Class Star in the team means they could always provide a shock, think I'd have more hope as a Welshman than an Englishman next Summer.

That's assuming Bale isn't injured for the rest of the qualifiers otherwise you won't even make it 

Literally drawing dead?  Carlisle drew with Liverpool the other day and the gap between us and Germany is a lot less than the gap between us and Germany is way less than the gap between those two.  One off games can and do produce upsets, other wise betting would be very straight forward. For instance, Bradford City recently got to the league cup final, and we are, and were, a lot worse than Sunderland.

I don't think the rankings are "obviously a joke" either.  Of course the randomness I referred to above can produce odd results, but they simply reflect the performances of England and Wales over recent history.  

I think your view of England is common though, so instead of getting terrible value like you always used to when backing England, you can actually find some decent prices.  

FWIW I have backed England, Wales and Belgium for next year's Euros, all above the current best prices.  

I think Bangladesh is likely worse off the top of my head.  Suspect that must have been bigger than 3/1 (which was the Wales vs Endgland price I think) though can't be sure.

[Rubbish2407]

Losing at home to a Welsh C team is a shock. Like it or not, Wales fans.

Not if you continue to pick your own C teams.

Nick Abendanon
Manu Tuilagi
Dylan Hartley
Steffon Armitage
Luther Burrell

All five should be starting and if Lancaster could have grown a pair he would have insisted that they were in the squad. Michael Cheika knew that he needed the likes of Matt Giteau and he insured the Australian Rugby Union allowed him to pick who he wanted.

As for the Football, our ranking is a joke but if we keep on wining then we have to go up not down. To be above the likes of Holland, Italy and France is a fallacy as we would surely struggle against those sides.

[Tal]

Mr Rubbish, you're wide of the mark.

The nation seems to have gone mad this week. We lost to two teams ranked higher than us. Whilst we should have beaten Wales from the position we were in and whilst there are clearly substantial issues to address on and off the field, it's highly questionable as to whether it's as bad as the other two recent, English sporting examples I gave.

Hence, I started a thread to gauge opinion. Nothing more, nothing less.


To address Tighty's point, England drew with Costa Rica, having already been eliminated, but Costa Rica finished top of the group at our (perceived) expense.

[Doobs]

Losing at home to a Welsh C team is a shock. Like it or not, Wales fans.

A shock is now defined as an event that happens 25% of the time?

[Rubbish2407]

Mr Rubbish, you're wide of the mark.

The nation seems to have gone mad this week. We lost to two teams ranked higher than us. Whilst we should have beaten Wales from the position we were in and whilst there are clearly substantial issues to address on and off the field, it's highly questionable as to whether it's as bad as the other two recent, English sporting examples I gave.

Hence, I started a thread to gauge opinion. Nothing more, nothing less.


To address Tighty's point, England drew with Costa Rica, having already been eliminated, but Costa Rica finished top of the group at our (perceived) expense.

Highly questionable?

Surely, seeing as Australia are ranked below Wales, you should have asked - "Is it worse to be knocked out of a World Cup by Australia at rugby, Bangladesh at cricket or Costa Rica at football"?