Gatland piles pressure on England

Since the hosts did the draw I believe it is no surprise England get the best draw.

Yeah, I actually prefer England's schedule in the pool to the others. If they beat Australia and Wales (the biggest of big 'ifs') their last game is against Uruguay and they can leave out the first team to recharge the batteries for the QF. Even if they finish second it's a nice break to have before the Boks. If they lose both well it doesn't matter and I hope the buggers are knackered.

The RC looked full on from all sides but yeah all roads point to the World Cup this year. Based on that Australia have definitely improved in areas they needed to. The warm up games elsewhere are less telling and the fitness programmes would be affecting some. I did think the last Wales Ireland match was very competitive with closer to first choice teams and France looked a different side to the Six Nations. All will be keeping some things close to their chests but England will need to play their first choice side until Uruguay if things have gone their way to develop combinations as where Wales will probably spread the load more from the bench until the England game.

always negative re the Wallabies. How did it being a RWC year make the AB's play poorly in Sydney? Wallabies have improved in the forward pack. Scrum is better than before with the addition of Holmes and Sio meaning reasonable quality is available for 80 mins unlike before. Pocock has not been there for 2 years and is in great form. In the backs Folau is getting better every year. His positional play is excellent now and his kicking game has improved to being competent. Also NH players are available in Giteau and Mitchell who have not been there is years. Surely Gits who has killed it year after year in Europe adds something. Finally the coach is an improvement on previous ones on man management, motivation and the use of the bench. So yes overall the Wallabies are stronger than before.

I just think the build-up to the RWC has dominated and skewed everything including the RC. I'm not having a go at the WBs, but I believe in any other year the Boks win that game in Oz, and the ABs do not play that badly in Sydney. The RWC warm-up games in the NH will tell us very little. Different combinations are being experimented with; teams are at different stages of their build-up; and 1st choice combinations are sometimes pitched against 2nd choice combinations. The aim is to peak in a month's time, not now. You believe that the WBs are a significantly better side than they have been for the previous 4 years (presumably, as England have won 4 of the last 5 games against them and your tipping the WBs and Wales to beat them). You might be right; you might be wrong. We'll find out in a month. Personally, I have a hard time believing that the, mostly, same players from the past 4 years with a few additions (not all of them pulling up trees) have transformed themselves over a few weeks. But, I could be wrong. The great thing is we'll all know soon.

*post

I meant the press rather than message boards and I don't just mean the UK press bigging up England. I suppose it's targeted to their readership but the message boards and forums show that it's not as balanced as a lot would like. Your summing up is on the money though I'd say nearer 33.33% instead of 50% :) Cheika has pulled together a squad as good as he could especially considering the small amount of time he's had to do so. He's selected very well and been fearless to use all the games he's had in charge to find out about the players he has available to him. He probably would have loved a few more games preparation but he couldn't have done more. Getting the experience of the European based players was a masterstroke and the only thing I think he might do is call up Taqele Naiyaravoro as a secret weapon for the later stages. I think Wales and Australia are the most likely teams to get out of the group depending on how much Twickenham will add to England's game. It will be a squeaker though. Look forward to your article.

a wannabe steve hansen

Not a fan of Gatland, I would have thought the Welsh Rugby administration would have found a new coach by now, After the initial period where Gatland managed to win two grandslams and another Six Nations Trophy there hasn't been much at all. I still believe England and Australia know what tey are going to get against Gatland's boys. I see Cuthbert is in the World Cup squad, is he still such a liability on defence?

'Glossing over England's weakneses'? Geez, 80085, I suggest you read some of the comment boards in the UK at the moment. If you believed half of it there is no point England showing up at all for the RWC. Most non-hysterical England fans are pretty much exactly where they were 6 months ago with their analysis. It goes something like this: There's a lot of good young talent in the England team, but this RWC has come at least a year too soon. They lack a settled centre pairing and the balance of the backrow is a source of concern. However, they have a good pack (although the loss of Hartley is a big blow to the lineout) and some dangerous outside backs. They're probably 50-50 to win the pool, but also about 50-50 to not progress out of the pool. If they win the pool they're probably 50-50 to reach the final. I would suspect you'd get about 90% of normal England fans ticking that description. However, I'm synchronizing my watch for the articles in the Roar and elsewhere in the Aussie media (probably start about a week before the first match) saying how the whole of England, players, management, fans and media, or 'talking themselves up' and 'saying the cup is as good as won'. Meanwhile, on the Roar, I'm just about to compose my post to the article titled 'Why the Wallabies WILL win the RWC'.

Works for me, Machooka!!

Infact... lots of jerky

@ Birdy In Aussie slang... he's a try-hard :)

All he's doing is using the French and Welsh victories over these teams to add a bit of pressure publicly as this game does take on more significance for confidence. I'm just pleased he's learned to not do this just before a Wales England game which ends up being more motivational instead. Also, he is capitalizing on there being too much glossing over England's weaknesses in the press going into this world cup and they do have some question marks right now. Experience, untried combinations, selections too late, selections too early.

like :)

Nah; I'm afraid Gatland's 'mind-games' particularly with regard to England have become completely counterproductive. He's tried two major ones in recent times. First, a series of interviews in the week leading up to the game saying that Dylan Hartley couldn't handle the pressure of big games and was a liability. Result? Hartley won man of the match against Wales. Secondly, last year tried to engineer it so England went out on a freezing cold night 10 minutes before Wales appeared. Result? England held their ground, stayed in the tunnel, the team came together and England won. A master of psychological mind-games Gatland isn't. The reaction in England (even in Wales) is to roll the eyes and giggle.

Succinctly put.

Lets hope so. I don't want to wish away the RWC, but I'm excited by a potential Lion's squad for two years time. There's a lot of young talent bubbling up in the British Isles and also plenty who will be at their peaks in two years time as well. It's the toughest tour there is, but I'm strangely optimistic. (Fairly sure that there's plenty of talent bubbling up in NZ too and that there'll be a few ABs reaching their peaks too.)

Agree with everything you've said there. My only caveat is that 2017 is a long way off* - though that coaching team you've named would be a great choice if the Lions were playing next week/month. *still I think Gatland can already be ruled out, hopefully he's back in NZ by then.

He seems to enjoy stirring the pot unnecessarily and IMO isn't actually very good at it anyway. Let's be honest here, the England v Wales game doesn't exactly need any extra 'seasoning' does it? It's going to be tasty with or without comments from Gatland, but I'm sure that the England management would like them to keep coming. Credit to him for winning a series with the Lions, but I really hope that he doesn't get the gig next time. Schmidt, Baxter and Townsend would be a good start IMO.