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-->For a long time now England's one day side has been pretty average. While the test team looks reasonably good, one never has much confidence when the one dayers arrive.
So it might seem odd then that I felt pretty optimistic as England headed off to India for the 7 game one day series. OK, we were shocking in the Caribbean during the Stanford series but prior to that, in the summer, we had handed a very good South African side a fairly comprehensive beating.
In FourFourTwo magazine this month there is a list of the 100 best footballers of this year. I was staggered to read that Cesc Fabregas was number 12, ahead of players such as Carvalho, Essien, Arshavin, Buffon, Lampard, Senna etc. It is about this year (2008) the year in which Senna was player of the tournament when Spain managed to finally deliver a major trophy. Fabregas of course played a part for Spain (a very good sub appearance v Russia) but he was never a starter until an injury to David Villa and then he was removed after a very dissapointing final display after only 60 minutes.
It was only 5 years ago that England had the best team in the world and our side was littered with world class players. The England Manager, Martin Johnson, was one of them but you could also put Lawrence Dallaglio, Richard Hill, Neil Back, Matt Dawson, Jonny Wilkinson, Will Greenwood and Jason Robinson into that category.
Sir Clive Woodward was lucky to have such resource available to him and his former captain Johnson now finds himself sadly lacking in the world class department. The really sad thing to me, which was so apparent on Saturday when we were destroyed by South Africa, was that we were outplayed in every deparment. They were faster, stronger, bigger, more aggressive and higher skilled.
If you live in England you will know Hayley Holt as the unlucky ball room expert who got lumbered with Mark Foster on Strictly Come Dancing. However, if you come from New Zealand, you will know her as the girlfriend of All Blacks skipper and best player in the world, Richie McCaw.
Here she is in action:
Here's the latest video from Jedi at The Alternative Rugby Commentary. In today's clip he previews the England v All Blacks game on Saturday. It seems he doesn't give us much of a chance.
I fear he might just be right....
This video is fantastic. Prior to the game between Wales and New Zealand on Saturday there had been rumours that Wales would respond to the Haka......and they did.
The Welsh lined up to face the Kiwis and as the Haka finishes, the whole Welsh team remain unmoved, staring at their opponents. There was then a stand off with both teams refusing to move.
The crowd were getting involved and the atmosphere was really building. Finally, when it looked like neither side would back down, the referee had to insist that the game started.
Good on Ryan Jones though, he wasn't going to budge first and in doing so the challenge was laid down.
Unfortunately in the game itself, well though the Welsh played, the ABs were just a bit too good and they won the game fairly easily
If your local pub team took on an international side, below is what would probably happen. Scoring a goal every 3 minutes, Australia whipped American Samoa 31-0. Below are the goals! I don't think Alan Hansen would be too impressed with some of the defending!
Arsenal are having a bit of a rough time of it at the moment. On Saturday they were well beaten by Manchester City 3-0.
With their now ex-skipper William Gallas publicly having a good moan about some of his team mates, Arsene Wenger has got a job on his hands to restore some spirit into this side.
It can't have helped Wenger when Robinho pulls this beautiful chip out of the bag at the weekend. It's a real cracker and very worthy of goal of the weekend.
Before the season started everyone was talking about how this would be Darren Bent's year. Defoe and Berbatov had headed off and he was left as the top striker at Spurs.
He scored a hatful in pre-season and he hasn now followed that up with 9 to date in the premiership. Spurs fans will be hoping he can continue his good form today against Blackburn. Let's hope he does better than last night when he missed a sitter playing for England. Here he is scoring a hattrick earlier this season:
It's never great to lose to the Americans but this must have been an awful sight for the Europeans to endure having just lost The Ryder Cup.
I can only assume that Boo Weekly is pretending to ride a horse! Make your own mind up:
If you're mad about sports and want to write for The Dollop then please get in touch.
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