England vs Argentina

[Mike]

I was at The Theatre of Dreams yesterday watching England vs Argentina. The stadium was very very good, the seats were amazing and despite over 45000 people being in the stadium we had a very close up view of the players. I was also impressed by the speed everyone could get out afterwards.

Shame the game was rather unadventurous with England constantly kicking for territory rather than taking the game to the Argentineans. Eventually the crowd became bored with this and slow clapped until they started playing proper rugby, it then got much better. The last try was amazing.

Cueto managed to get in front of the ball and showed us his foot balling skills by booting the ball up field, he was blocked (deliberately) and prevented from chasing the ball down but D Armitage managed to score a try anyway! The referee was generally ignoring some rather shady tackles and moves by the Argentineans including clothes-lines and deliberate blocking.

We came away with a win too which is good to see 37-15 was the final score. Hopefully this will also establish Old Trafford as a venue for the 2015 World Cup (England are currently bidding for the rights to hold the tournament in the country and we need more stadiums than Twickenham!).

[mr_e]

It may be partly to do with the good seats we had, but it really didn't seem that big a stadium once you got inside. Pretty well-designed as far as I can tell. And the tickets had cool holograms on them.

Am in agreement with Mike on the game itself: maybe too much kicking, but it was interspersed with some moments of brilliance. Not enough running with the ball going on. I was surprised at the amount of drop-goals that went over, but I don't think James is any more fond of Goode.

The streaking was an excellent effort (made it to the centre circle thanks to the decoy running), let down by the fact it was a bloke.

[Chrissie]

I thought the game was pretty good considering the Argentinians had a few injuries and key members of the forward pack are away on Lions duty, step forward Mr Sheridan, touch, pause, engage!

Importantly the scoreboard did feature some tries so at least it wasn't all about the penalties and drop-goals as some Eng games turn out, of course the dry weather conditions did help altho it was frickin freezing in the stands owing to the slightly dubious cold wind, origin of which answers on a postcard because me and Mr Riley were a bit baffled as the stands seemed pretty enclosed. The Armitage try was indeed a corker...the streaker was not! Altho he did get the biggest cheer of the match despite having the smallest ***** of all the blokes on the pitch, except maybe the referee?! Was surprised that he got completely naked top AND bottom, thought it would just be a trouser dropping exercise, and the stewards left him out there for ages before even getting onto the pitch themselves.

Anyhoo, good times!

[Mike]

We lost the return game in Argentina. Oh dear. 24-22 to Argentina.

[Mike]

They are playing again tomorrow. I like these games as Argentina is very passionate about the game!

[Mike]

Well it was a heart stopping match for all the wrong reasons. I never imagined we would play so badly and be given a run for our money to that extent. England need to improve and quickly.

Other than that it was good to see everyone. Even Sir Nick managed to attend. Amazing!

[Chrissie]

An unconvincing win but a win none the less.

Next up...All Blacks, but in the words of Irving Berlin, methinks "there may be trouble ahead"?!

[Andy]

An unconvincing win but a win none the less.

Next up...All Blacks, but in the words of Irving Berlin, methinks "there may be trouble ahead"?!

May? There WILL be trouble ahead. According to an article I read in The Times, the All Blacks are definitely up for it and want to crush us.

[Mike]

On the flip side of the coin don't we want to Crush the All Blacks? Now that would be an amazing rugby game.

Unfortunately I am not free for the Rugby this weekend. . . . I have a clash, it is very bad planning I know.

[BarcelonAl]

I too am clashed once again for the rugby this weekend (stupid family meal in Cannock...what have my cousins done to deserve being dragged down from Lancashire? ).

I can however foresee an absolute mauling on the cards...ah well, it's still early days for Johnson's team and we are suffering a lot of injuries at the moment.

[Andy]

Not a bad game overall. England showed a lot of effort but the All Blacks threatened. I got the feeling that if Dan Carter had put on his kicking boots and Siivuvatu (or however you spell it) had been playing in a World Cup match, i.e. a game that really mattered, then the margin of their victory could have been more.

My top man - Shaw. 36, back from an injury but still class.

[stimpsonslostson]

SCOTLAND 9!!- AUSTRALIA 8!!!

Awesome defensive display from Scotland... it went right down to the last kick!

[Andy]

Yeah, that was a bloody good game. The drop kick on 76 mins was fantastic, the last-gasp try and then missed conversion was heart-stopping stuff. Well done, Scotland, my Grandad would be proud.

[Mike]

I have the Wales and the Scotland games saved so will be watching them tomorrow! Woot!