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sebster wrote:
No, I was saying it was weird that we produce an internationally competitive team, considering that no-one here plays the game. Producing world class athletes is, to a large extent, a numbers game, you need a lot of kids playing as juniors to give yourself good odds of producing enough quality senior players. Hardly anyone here plays Rugby Union.
I get what you were saying. My point is that the dominant sports in AU (AU Football, Rugby League, and to some extent Soccer) are close enough to Union ball that the changeover isn't difficult. Basically, you guys already have the right kind of athletes, so its just a matter of a good scouting program (not really hard given the potential for travel in Union) and learning the rules.
sebster wrote:
And yeah, when it came to everyone sitting around trying to figure out what was going on, it was all about the specifics of penalisation. Trying to figure out who infringed who in a scrum remains a mystery.
I've played Union for 7 years, and I still don't always know.
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
sebster wrote:South Africa will almost definitely overtake us as they post improved results, but that's not happened yet.
Actually it has, they overtook you after the december series in australia, then went again after the defeat in Sa.
Not true, South Africa had to win the series three zip to win the series, and we beat them in the last test. At the end of the series we still held the number 1 spot, and South Africa needed the series win at home to overtake us.
Yes England have had a recent lull, but before the 06/07 ashes we sat comfortably in the number 2 spot for a long time. And I wont agree that the rankings refelct how good a side we have at the moment. And I wont agree that the english cricket side are a "second rate" team, which was the point I was originally responding to.
England were second for a period of time, true. But I'm not sure you can characterise their current position as a lull, when before their time in second place they were much lower ranked for a long period. It makes more sense to me to say that England had a period of time when they were uncharacteristically higly ranked. I'm not saying that to bag England, but because English cricket has underperformed given the quality of many of their squads.
But, I will agree with you that English cricket and English sport in general is stronger than most people will give them credit for.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
dogma wrote:I get what you were saying. My point is that the dominant sports in AU (AU Football, Rugby League, and to some extent Soccer) are close enough to Union ball that the changeover isn't difficult. Basically, you guys already have the right kind of athletes, so its just a matter of a good scouting program (not really hard given the potential for travel in Union) and learning the rules.
Ah, okay. Fair point then, that probably does explain a lot of it.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2009/05/31 03:59:05
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Sebster wrote:But I'm not sure you can characterise their current position as a lull,
Their current position is strong, I'm talking about the past two years before the recent uprisal. I'll doubt australia will find it so easy up against Anderson's bowling and Colingwood's fielding on english pitches this summer.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2009/05/31 20:01:56
Sebster wrote:But I'm not sure you can characterise their current position as a lull,
Their current position is strong, I'm talking about the past two years before the recent uprisal. I'll doubt australia will find it so easy up against Anderson's bowling and Colingwood's fielding on english pitches this summer.
Yeah, Anderson looks a strong bowler in English conditions, though I’m not as convinced about the support bowlers. What’s happened to Sidebottom?
Again, though, it isn’t the quality in the list but their performances. Sure, you just thrashed the West Indies but they’re a rabble. Before that you played the West Indies away and lost the series, in comparison Australia thrashed them while winning every match played there.
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
sebster wrote:Yeah, Anderson looks a strong bowler in English conditions, though I’m not as convinced about the support bowlers. What’s happened to Sidebottom?
Again, though, it isn’t the quality in the list but their performances. Sure, you just thrashed the West Indies but they’re a rabble. Before that you played the West Indies away and lost the series, in comparison Australia thrashed them while winning every match played there.
I don't think you can really take the west indies tour at face value, considering the shitstorm which was going on off the pitch at the time in the england camp.
Sidebottom hasn't looked fit for a while now. Other than that, hope is there for flintoff and from the matches I have been going to recently on our pitches I doubt spinners will play much of a role anyway.
