Englands woeful season continues. Forget the roar of the 3 Lions, it’s more like the snore as they whimper out of the Nations League finals. The campaign started with a really poor display against Iceland. A 1-0 win was enough to get the points, thanks to a penalty in the 89th minute from Raheem Sterling. With Kyle Walker red carded 20 minutes earlier it looked like England had managed to pick up the first win. Then a yellow card for Joe Gomez and a penalty was awarded to Iceland in the 93rd minute. A really poor spot kick by Birkir Bjarnason however, saved Englands blushes.
England came from behind to win 2-1 to overcome the world’s top-ranked team. This was only Belgium’s first loss since November 2018, a pretty solid record that has survived 2 years. England enjoyed this victory, thanks to a penalty in the 39th minute by Marcus Rashford which cancelled out an earlier penalty scored by Romelu Lukaku. A deflected shot by Mason Mount in the 64th minute was enough to secure a well deserved win.
Harry Maguire’s early red card set the tone for the match. Denmark beat England at Wembley thanks to a penalty score by Christian Eriksen after a dubiously awarded spot kick. This was his 34th goal for Denmark on his 100th appearance, was one to remember. England went on to prevent any further goals, but a second red came after the final whistle, this time for Reece James.
From their last 50 competitive internationals at home, this was only the third defeat. What it meant though was England sat in third in the table with only the group winners going to progress. This was a game England needed to win and the fans expected, especially after the 0-0 in September in the reverse fixture.
For those who watched on Sunday 15th November, the reality of how good ( or not ) England are, came home. A back 5 formation clearly didn’t work, as the scoreline showed after 24 minutes and the team were 2 goals down. Plenty of possession but didn’t do much with it. Yes it can be argued that injuries had meant changes, but the same seems to apply to all teams currently. Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish stood out in this fixture, having a good game and looking sharp with the ball. Sadly for him and the rest of the nation, Youri Tielemans and Dries Mertens scoring the 2 goals really knocked the wind out of the sails of the England team. Belgium’s 2-0 win over England was also Roberto Martínez’s 50th match as their coach and his 39th victory. Drawing 7 and losing just 4, this squad look like going places still and at 7/2 to lift the trophy could be one to consider. A handful of bookies have them joint favourite alongside France and you can get 5/2 on them both.
England host Iceland in their final yet unimportant Nations League match. Stuck in the third spot out of 4 teams is woeful. Iceland are rooted bottom and the match on Wednesday evening will give one of 2 outcomes. England go and thrash the minnows or Iceland play like they have never played before and draw or even win against England. Either way though, it really is a no win match for England. Playing for pride you’d stick with the strongest squad possible or do you give some of the fringe players a more central role and let them earn caps by starting this match. I’m sure that there will be a group of Premier League managers who’d rather have their players rested and no risk injury.
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Yes you did read this correctly. With the bookies predicting a thrashing of the Argentinians, this was a surprise scoreline at the final whistle.
Mario Ledesma the former Argentine hooker and now head coach really did pull a rabbit out from the hat this weekend. With 33 previous attempts going back to 1976, they had never beaten the All Blacks. Looking back to July 2019 saw them lose to the New Zealanders by just 4 points, in a close game that was seen by many as one of the best performances by the Pumas. Prior to that, the closest they’d come to a victory was an impressive 21-21 draw in 1985.
With an international break of 13 months due to Covid and canceled fixtures, the Pumas had obviously used this time effectively. With Nicolas Sanchez the fly half being fit and ready for this fixture, he proved this point by scoring all the points for the Argentinian side. His converted try and six penalties putting him out there on the world stage
How much of an impact and difference did the recruiting of former Australia and Leinster coach Michael Cheika have in revamping the Pumas? This might be answered in the next few internationals, to show this wasn’t just a one off fluke. To go to Sydney and beat the All Blacks 25 to 15 is no easy task for any team. What is even more surprising though is this result follows on from the loss the week before in Brisbane against Australia, who scraped a win by 2 points in a 24 – 22 final score. Interestingly the Wallabies’ Kiwi coach Dave Rennie was a former Chiefs coach as was his opposing coach Ian Foster.
Not since August 2011 have the All Blacks lost 2 matches on the bounce. I wonder what odds you can get on the next game being a third defeat? Now that really would be a kick in the proverbials for sure.
South Africa and England, proudly sit first and second respectively. With New Zealand in third place, which is the lowest spot that they have been since 2003, things are looking a little rocky!
Argentina faces Australia next playing at the McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle NSW. Then they have the return fixture against New Zealand. The same venue hosts the Tri Nations Round 5 fixture between Argentina v New Zealand, which will be played on Saturday 28 November 2020. Can the Pumas do the double over the All Blacks? One thing for sure, New Zealand coach Ian Foster will need to see a huge improvement or he could be looking at being replaced. It was only 11 months ago we were informed that “Ian Foster, the All Blacks assistant coach, has been named as Steve Hansen’s successor as head coach of New Zealand’s national rugby team”. The shoes were there to be filled and as Hansen had been so successful, it needed someone of quality to take this position.
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So the stage is set for the belated last match of the Six Nations. A fairly sedate scoreline at half time saw England up by 5-10. Following a yellow card for Jonny Hill, then Italy try-scorer Jake Polledri picked up one of his own. As half time approached, there could have and it could be said should have been a penalty try for England.
Whatever Eddie Jones said in the changing room at half time certainly was a massive kick up the arse. The second half kicked off and England scored a try in the first minute. Youngs offering out a sublime dummy pass from the base of a ruck, then going himself to get over the line for the first try of the second half.
Scrum-half Ben Youngs celebrated his 100th England cap in style, picking up Man Of The Match and scoring two tries too. Hooker, Jamie George found time to pop over for a try on his 50th cap too. Tom Curry and Henry Slade both added to the points tally, each running in a try each. Farrell slotting 3 conversions out of 5 possible chances, combined with a penalty added to the scoreline and points difference tally.
There were some good passages of play from England, especially in the second half when they looked more determined and with it. The team talk at half time must have stirred them, and Maro Itoje was prominent in the second period of play.
Both teams still have a chance to win the Six Nations, although France needs a huge upset as they need a bonus point win and a margin greater than 32 points.
Ireland will steal the title with a bonus-point win or if they don’t score four tries but still win by seven points or more.
An ideal scoreline from an English perspective would be France 18 – Ireland 18, but hey we can hope and dream.
I’m going to grab a beer or 2 and watch with anticipation this final game of the series and see if England can capture the title again. I don’t think the All Blacks will be looking over their shoulders just yet at the Northern Hemisphere teams for the next world cup. This reinforced by them hammering Australia, at home in Sydney, today in the Bledisloe Cup. The Australia 5 New Zealand 43 scoreline didn’t speak volumes, it positively shouted from the rooftops. The half time score of 0-26 was certainly a warning as to how potent the All Blacks squad still is.
This is the 18th consecutive year that New Zealand won the Bledisloe Cup. Pretty impressive I’m sure you’ll agree.
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You’ve heard of Black Friday, yeah? The name that was given to the shopping day after Thanksgiving in the USA. More recently they’ve added Cyber Monday where the electronics and electricals are sold cheap. Well, the good news is you can buy plenty of Christmas gifts and birthday presents earlier in the year.
One way to find out is to ask your friend; “Alexa, when is Prime Day?” Prime Day is the middle of July, so for 2019, these dates fall on 15th & 16th July. What most people don’t understand is there are also offers available beforehand. These Pre-prime deals are also available just for Prime Members. You can even use the search engines, just type in ‘ when is prime day and hopefully the correct answer comes back.
Prime Day starts with signing up for AmazonPrime, believe it or not. Yes, it really is that simple. Just sign up!
There are some great savings to be had, some good savings and there are also a few quite average discounts. Keep in mind though, these are being offered with the free delivery, so that is an extra bonus.
There are other advantages with Prime, we really enjoy the video and tv services. There’s great viewing with some Prime Original series, which are only available to watch as a Prime customer.
We covered the tv and film aspect here briefly, but there are plenty of great series, shows, and films. Literally, something for all the family to enjoy.
I bet you weren’t aware of this? Well, you can watch 20 Premier League games live & exclusive on Prime Video this December. No better way to recover from the Christmas Day festivities, than spend a day watching all the Boxing Day Premiership games. Now might be the time to grab the new TV you’ve been promising yourself and get sat down to enjoy great viewing.
Never experienced this service? Get your Free Trial of Prime Video Here and you can enjoy the following;
Enjoy unlimited streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows
Watch anywhere, anytime with unlimited access throughout the UK
Download movies and TV to their mobile or tablet to watch offline
Watch Amazon Originals in HDR on living room devices
Watch exclusive hit TV shows before they air on British TV
Get unlimited, FREE One-Day Delivery on millions of items
Borrow books from a choice of over 500,000 titles from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library
Secure unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Listen to over 2 million songs on Prime Music
It’s enough to make The Fat Lad as happy as a pig in muck.
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The combined salaries of the 1,693 women playing in the top seven football leagues add up to $41.6m, slightly less than the $41.7m salary paid to Neymar. This is according to the Economist. The American females who play soccer are the top of their game, so to speak. The Stars and Stripes who are the national team, representing… Yes, you’ve guessed it, the USA. Now they are more successful than their male counterparts in the game of soccer. In fact, they’re the most successful side in the history of women’s football. As we are here in June 2019, they’ve already won the World Cup three times. Not forgetting the Olympic games, where they’ve also claimed Olympic gold four times. Compare that with the men’s team, whose best result has been third place in the 1930 World Cup. More recent years have seen them struggle in group stages and even to qualify.
An interesting article in the WSJ confirmed that the female sport in the States is more popular than the males. Between 2016 and 2018 women’s games generated about $50.8m in revenue. These numbers are based on ticket sales, keep in mind. The men took in about $49.9m, so slightly less. Despite the female sport being more popular, the players are paid considerably less. A research study showed that; If each team were to play 20 friendlies over the course of a year and win them all, the women would receive $99,000 whereas the men would net $263,320 which is a huge difference.
There’s nothing more disheartening than having a passion and a natural skill, but not being able to make it pay to be a living wage. Do I think a woman should be earning $50million a year to kick a football around? Not a hope. Do I think a guy should be paid that? Again, not a chance. So was it any real surprise that United States women’s team marked International Women’s Day on March 8th by filing a class-action suit against their employer, the United States Soccer Federation (ussf)? In a word – NO. The fact the females have been much more successful highlighted how unfair this was. The suit alleged that differences in pay and employment conditions between the women’s and men’s team violate the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any interest in women’s soccer. It’s not for any sexist reason, it’s just of zero interest to me. I’m not even going to go down the avenue of who should/ should not play sport. It doesn’t matter which team, which country or anything like that. IT IS NOT OF INTEREST TO ME.
Neither is men playing cricket. In fact, I have no interest in tennis, cricket, snooker, athletics or the vast majority of sports / so-called sports. The only possible time these would raise an eyebrow is if I was betting on these events.
Women Soccer players should be paid more, especially those in the USA. Looking at the success they have had in the past and no doubt can continue with in the future. The fact that the men’s game is nowhere near as successful as the women soccer teams, nor even as popular, says a lot. me watching these sport on TV, it’ll never happen. The sexist side of me can reveal I don’t even watch womens beach volleyball, nor did I used to watch topless darts or womens wrestling. There’s enough crap on tv as it is, so my viewing time doesn’t need to be cluttered with these less appealing events.
So it looks like USA play England on July 2nd, Holland play Sweden the day after that. Both semi-finals are played at the Stade de Lyon. The 6th of June is the playoff for the third place and the final will be played on 7th July at the Stade de Lyon. Who will win the competition and lift the trophy? Who cares? As an Englishman, I’d prefer it to be England, but trust me I’m not going to be shedding any tears if England win or lose.
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Manchester United’s Paul Pogba, 26, will receive a £3.78m loyalty bonus from the club on 1 July. Hey, that’s a nice bonus for doing not a lot. What makes it even funnier is the French midfielder being on record as saying it “could be a good time to move elsewhere”
Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes players (who already earn obscene amounts) earn bonuses for winning things. Now, I’m not sure where this bonus for Pogba arises from, but as he’s won sod all this season with his club…. The mind boggles.
Ever touch, kick or run he gets booed and shouted at when he returns to Anfield.
His departure from Anfield was bad-tempered, with the Sterling ( under the guidance of his agent Aidy Ward ) opting to reject the Reds’ offer of a new contract, saying he wanted to join Manuel Pellegrini’s Manchester City side instead. With Liverpool missing the Premiership by a whisker, then Louis Suarez moving to Barcelona, thus splitting up the SAS partnership of Sturridge and Suarez, the pressure was on Sterling to step up to the mark. He failed, he didn’t produce what it was thought he could do/ would do.
Aidy Ward, gave an infamous radio interview which was another part in his loathing by Liverpool fans. Here he stated that his client wouldn’t accept a deal, even one that was worth £900,000 a week.
Sterling then told Liverpool manager at the time, Brendan Rogers; he had no desire at all to travel to the Far East and Australia for the pre-season tour. Now forgive me if I am wrong, but did his contract state he could pick and choose which matches he played in? I doubt it.
Sicknote Sterling
So in early July, Raheem Sicknote failed to report to training supposedly due to illness.
Selling him in the £49m move to City, which at the time actually made him the most expensive English player in history was a profitable move.
He arrived as the replacement for Fernando Torres, who had been sold to Chelsea for a then club record £50m. Torres made it public knowledge he wanted the move to Stamford Bridge. Another player who decided to make it public he wanted to move to Spain, to Barca. This then came about after rumours of him refusing to play for the Reds.
The same Reds, who defended him when he was accused of racially abusing Manchester Utd player Patrice Evra. Luis Suarez was found guilty of misconduct charges for racially abusing Evra in a game played 15 October 2011. The club and felow players stood by him, even training in matching t-shirts, to show solidarity.
Luis Suarez, when not suspended for biting opponents, had fired in 82 goals and recorded 47 assists in 133 games for Liverpool. Norwich City feared him, as it was hattrick after hat-trick against the Canaries. Yes, he’s gone on to do well at Barcelona but his antics in the recent Champions League semi-finals against Liverpool have put him on the list of loathed former players.
His overreactions in the first leg after his first goal then the over the top celebrations for the other 2 goals, kinda showed the guy for what he is.
I guess his promise not to celebrate at Anfield in front of the home fans, was one he well and truly kept. Thanks to the 4-0 thrashing of Barcelona in the second leg, it was Champions League Final, the next stop. We all know the outcome there, don’t we?
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Straight from the horses mouth, amazing tips that sting the bookies.
Actually, we are telling a bit of a fib there, after all, horses don’t talk, do they?
I mean come on, if the horse was talking you’d not bother racing it, you’d have it on Britains Got Talent.
Getting value for money, moving away from the 1/5 shot in a 4 horse jumps race. Do you really want to put £50 to make £10 profit and hope that one of the other horses doesn’t bring your very short priced favourite down?
Back to the serious stuff though. If the big money is on at Cheltenham for the National Hunt season and at Royal Ascot for the flat, where is the smart money going? Think of the Class 3, 4 & 5 races being held week in, week out at the minor meetings. Tracks that only serious race fans even know how to get to. You know what I’m saying here. This is the real insider info.
I’ll tell you a little story here about getting top quality info straight from the yard or the owners. An example of this was a horse called Dinkum Diamond. I was given the horse on a Friday, told it was running next week at Salisbury. I was advised to lump on this, as soon as the bookies had a price and take the best odds guaranteed price. The word I was given was ‘ this is one of the best horses Henry Candy has ever worked with’.
This horse went out to Salisbury and won easily. It was then revealed to me it was already entered into Group races for the future. I then got a call advising me of the second outing and again to take the best price. Second time out, second win. You get my drift here?
This is advice from people who know their stuff, make their money from horse racing.
Value Betting Is Profitable
Anyway, I’ve found this group of people who are former owners and very, very well connected. Last season April – October 2018, to give you an idea of this service, they achieved just shy of £4000 from around 5 or 6 bets per week. Imagine turning £1k to £10k twice in the last 3 years!
That’s not too shabby as anyone with half a brain would agree. Want more information? Then this is the link for you.
Actually, with these types of returns, forget chicken and go for steak. As I’m writing this at 10am 16th June 2019, I’ve got to show you this;
Poet’s Dawn wins….BOG @ 9/1 at York in the 16.40 Ice Co Supporting Macmillan Handicap race, yesterday. Members on this service were given one piece of advice, 1 tip and that was to get on this horse
Their words were; “Now a maturing 4yo, he should be competitive again of this mark and the choice of stable jock David Allan.
There’s a best 9/1 with Betfair and FOUR PAYING SLOTS this morning.”
Now winning by 2 lengths, beating the favourite into third, with a 15/2 starting price isn’t a bad result. Obviously, the early birds who took the 9/1 were even happier.
Now, let’s use some common sense here. These are not going to be the horses that win every race, as with all tipping services there will be losers. What we see here is the bigger odds mean that you get a better return. Had you had a £50 win bet and taken the 9/1, just think how many £50 bets at evens or 6/4 you’d need to be placing to get the same profits.
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After what can only be described as one of the all-time comebacks in the semi-final against the mighty Barcelona, Liverpool were in their second Champions League final on the bounce. After they were outplayed and outclassed last season by the impressive Real Madrid, it was fate that this final would be played in Madrid, but between 2 English clubs.
Spurs had managed their own magical semi-final night against Ajax, just 24 hours after the heroics of Liverpool at Anfield. Along with Arsenal and Chelsea fighting out the Europa League final the week before, history was made as all 4 finalists in these two competitions, came from the same country.
Liverpool were looking to make up for the disappointment of going unbeaten except for the one defeat in the Premiership, but still only coming second. This was the opportunity to get some silverware back to Anfield. The kings of Europe for a sixth time would appease fans, who had thought the premier title as theirs this time around.
Interesting Fact; Trent Alexander-Arnold (20 years 237 days), the Liverpool right back, is the first ever player aged under 21 to start in consecutive Champions League finals.
Without doubt, the bookies favourites were Liverpool who finished the Premiership on 97 points ( Spurs who were 4th, managed 71 ) and an impressive goal difference of 67 goals. This was second only to Manchester City.
What proved to be an eventful start saw a penalty awarded to Liverpool for hand ball in the box. Mo Salah scored from the spot, his goal times at 1 minute 48 seconds. The only faster goal was when Paolo Maldini scored in under a minute (00:50) for AC Milan versus Liverpool in 2005.
From here on the game was rather drab, Liverpool uncharacteristically looking nervous and out of sorts. Both teams were guilty of conceding possession. Shaky clearances and bad passes were aplenty by both teams.
The game rolled on, Spurs with 65% of the possession were unable to make use of this. They managed 16 shots all game with just half on target. Liverpool mustered 14 shots, but a poor return of 3 being on target said plenty about this fixture. Neither team looked dominant enough to make this a one way event. Liverpool were unsettled and the single goal margin left them open to the counter-attack possibility.
What was reassuring though was the investment in the best goalkeeper and also the best centreback in the Premiership in the shapes of Alisson in goal and Virgil van Dijk in the defence, gave Liverpool fans that bit of extra confidence in the outcome. Alisson was called into action several times later on in the second half. With Spurs bringing on semi-final hero Lucas Moura the pressure against the Reds stepped up. Finally in the 87th minute though, Divock Origi scored from a corner to put the game to bed and ease the nerves around the ground.
Interesting Fact; This was the first ever Champions League final without a single card shown.
It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t sexy but it was an important win for Jurgen Klopp and the team
With the 2020 final being held 30 May at the Atatürk Olimpiyat Stadı, Istanbul could we see Liverpool making their 3rd consecutive appearance? Who can forget the last time they played in a Champions League Final in Instanbul? Before that though, the reality is a Liverpool vs Chelsea Super Cup also played in Istanbul
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Not many teams go on and score 97 points and don’t win the title.
Not many teams will ever lose just a single league game in a season, but still not win the title.
As a Reds fan though, it gutted me that that is exactly what happened to us. At Christmas we were top and clear and the general feeling was that this was Liverpools season, title number 19 ( first Premiership ) and long overdue. The disappointment of 4th place in the previous season, then losing to Real Madrid in the Champions League final meant a bare season for the Liverpool faithful. This season there was that feeling of things had turned the corner.
While the top 2 teams were miles ahead of the chasing pack, it was Man City who on the final day of the season took top spot to add to their League and FA Cup haul.
Last season saw Mohamed Salah pip Harry Kane to the Golden Boot with an impressive 32 goals. This season Salah was slow off the mark again, but never found his stride as he did the season before. This season though Liverpool duo Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah (who were joined on 22 goals by Arsenal player Pierre-Emerick Aubameyan) shared the Golden Boot in a 3way tie.
Alisson claimed the 2018/19 Golden Glove award after keeping his 21st clean sheet of the season. This highlighted his value and the price tag which raised eyebrows at the time, is justified.
The PFA Player of the year was another Liverpool success. Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah was the winner for 2017-18 with Virgil van Dijk winning this season.
The Liverpool goalkeeper shut out Wolverhampton Wanderers in his side’s 2-0 win on the final day to win the Golden Gloves award and rounded off his incredible season with a clean sheet in the Champions League. Conceding just 22 goals, the £66.8 million (€72.5 million) fee was worth every penny.
With Sturridge and Moreno leaving over the summer, fresh blood will need to be signed. With a series of upcoming fixtures including playing Napoli in a friendly at Murrayfield on 28 July, then facing Chelsea in the first all-English Uefa Super Cup on 14 August in Istanbul.
Liverpool vs Chelsea Super Cup will be one of the first fixtures to see both teams new signings in a competitive fixture. Chelsea winning the Europa and Liverpool finishing as Champions League winners will prove to be an interesting fixture.
The Reds also play in the Community Shield ( sometime early August ) against Premier League champions Manchester City – at Wembley and also travel to Qatar in December to compete at Fifa’s Club World Cup. This means Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool will be in seven competitions next season, hence the need for fresh players to be signed.
It’s taken a week to get my head around this fixture. What on paper should have been such a one-sided affair, became nothing like it. When people talk about something being a ‘game of 2 halves’ they should cite this match as the example to use. Watching England running in a point a minute for the first half hour, 31-0 didn’t bode well for the Scots. Reminders of the 61-21 thrashing in 2017 were no doubt in the minds of the kilted following. The World Cup opponents would be watching this game to assess how good England are and see if Scotland have improved at all. The final score of this game was something nobody would have dreamed of, especially after the half hour mark. I’d expect the bookmakers had a really good day thanks to this scoreline.
England were my choice to lift this cup this season. First round they went to Dublin on 2nd Feb and demolished the Irish in their own backyard. Leading 10-17 at half time, England had played well enough to gain the upper hand. The final score of 20-32 with the bonus point for scoring 4 tries ( May, Daly and Slade with a couple ) sent the warning out to the other teams, that England were coming for them.
The next round saw France battered 44-8 at Twickenham, another bonus point win with Jonny May scoring 3 tries for himself.
The 23rd Feb saw the England machine ground to a halt and beaten by the Welsh in Cardiff. Wales scored 21 points to Englands 13, so not even a losing bonus point in this match. This was not what the punters were expecting, as we reported here. After Wales had scraped home by 5 points against France in the first round, they had improved significantly to play England.
Against Italy, service was resumed. An impressive 31-7 half time lead meant the win was on the cards. Tries rained in from George, May, Tuilagi (2), Shields (2), Kruis, Robson and the final score of 57-14 meant the points difference was expanding further in the table.
Sat 16th March 2019 was the day that could have proved a game changer. Ireland had to win against Wales in Cardiff, not impossible but wouldn’t be easy. England just needed to beat Scotland and England would win the Guinness 6 Nations. So Wales decided that they didn’t like this, and Ireland were their next victim. Ireland looked clueless as we discussed here.
England set off out of the blocks like a bat out of hell, once again storming into a 31-7 lead by the break.
First game was at home against Italy. A Half time lead of 12-3 didn’t give much indication which way the match was going to end. The final score of 33-20 and a bonus win with tries from Kinghorn (3), Hogg and Harris made for a good start to the campaign, however the second half score of 21-17 showed a weakness in their second half defences. The following week saw Ireland visit Murrayfield. A close first half was too close to call at 10-12, but the second period saw Ireland come away with a deserved win at 13-22. France next in Paris, with an average looking French team looking to bounce back. The first half was quite evenly balanced, 10-3 to France at half time. The second half saw French fans happier as they won 27-10, the bonus point for 4 tries much needed.
Wales at home and the low scoring game saw Wales run out winners 11-18, the Scots holding Wales to just 3 points in the second half. The HT score of 6-15, indicating this was going to be quite a close game. No doubt Englands 57-14 demolition of Italy will have caused concern in the Scotland camp.
So the Calcutta Cup, Scotland at the home of England rugby and it’s half time and the score is 31-7…..
I am not sure what happened here. You have a powerful team such as England 31-7 up, coming back out of the dressing room and the stadium are expecting them to follow up and run another 10, 20 or 30 points past the hapless Scots. Well let me say, this was NOT the case. The wheels fell off the England bandwagon, the ideas faded, they looked void of concepts and ideas. Play making decisions were lacking, there was one team in this half who wanted to win, were determined to score and they were in Blue shirts.
As Scotland ran in an amazing 38 unanswered points at the ground they had not won for over 25 years since 1983, there was a sudden astonishment as to what people were seeing here. England were well and truly battered, both physically and mentally. 
The belief here that England could throw away a game like this was slowly becoming a reality as Scotland racked up points, after points after points and took the lead. With the clock ticking down, Eddie Jones and the England staff looked shell shocked. On the Scotland staff faces, a wry smile was seen from Gregor Townsend on a couple of occasions at least. It was George Ford who came to England’s rescue, running in the final try to save the blushes. Finn Russell for Scotland was outstanding but the whole Scotland team must be applauded for the second half recovery. Scotland may have not had a great six nations, but they retained the Calcutta Cup, so have the bragging rights that they at least picked up a trophy this time around.
From an English perspective, with the World Cup coming up, this has to be a worry that you can concede 38 points in 40 minutes to end up in a losing position. There will be few countries who will go behind against England by 25-30 points after the first half as it is, but those who do should not be allowed back into the game like this.
Scotland faces Ireland in the World Cup, and also the hosts Japan, Samoa and Russia. Based on this Calcutta Cup performance, there’ll be no team in the group to worry them.
For more information including upcoming fixtures, please go to www.sixnationsrugby.com and we’d like to thank them for borrowing their photo above.
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