England (archive)
- 大象传媒 Sport Rugby
- 23 Oct 07, 09:01 AM
Hang out the bunting, strike up the band, Tom and Ben are home.
Not quite in a jet draped with flags, awaiting a press corps and tumult of fans, more in a campervan, on a ferry, still wearing those flip-flops. And that vest. Probably.
So here's a best of Fordyce & Dirs, in photos and links to remind you of the past seven weeks' adventure.
You can check out all of .
Continue reading "Now That's What I Call Tom and Ben (in photos)"
- Ben Dirs
- 22 Oct 07, 01:08 PM
Paris, Sunday - My mother phoned me this morning and asked me what I want for dinner on Monday night.
Mrs Dirs is a quality cook, but that鈥檚 not what I wanted to hear the morning after England played in a . This trip is over. Make mine a roast or I think I鈥檒l start crying.
My initial reaction to England鈥檚 defeat was pretty childish: 鈥渂othered鈥. Like most of the England fans still partying at 6am on Sunday morning, I was just happy to be there.
Continue reading "Best job in the world"
- Mark Orlovac
- 22 Oct 07, 07:23 AM
Waterloo station/ a cross channel ferry, Monday - As a final parting World Cup gift, myself, Tom and Ben (remember them?) thought we'd dish out a few prizes from the last seven weeks. First prize goes to all of you, obviously, for reading and joining in and making the blog what it is.
But after you lot, there have been some outstanding, and not so clever, achievements. Here's just a few. Let's call them "The Bloggys". (See if you can spot who wrote which ones!)
Continue reading "The Bloggys"
- Mark Orlovac
- 21 Oct 07, 07:06 PM
Paris 鈥 I doubt whether planning for the future of the England team was foremost in the minds of the bleary-eyed fans I saw wandering around the streets of Paris this morning.
After all the partying and heartbreak that accompanied Saturday鈥檚 simply getting home was as far ahead as these weary souls were prepared to look.
But as journalists gathered for player interviews in the bowels of the Stade de France late on Saturday night, some were already looking to next year鈥檚 .
Continue reading "Where do England go now?"
- Rob Hodgetts
- 21 Oct 07, 06:38 PM
London - England's World Cup final brings to the end another era and there will be a new-look side when the team take on Wales in the Six Nations opener on 2 February.
Not wholesale changes, maybe, but has already retired, while others could follow in the coming months. Brian Ashton - or whoever is the coach by then - will have free rein to start again with his selection.
We asked you earlier on Mark Orlovac's blog from Paris to send in your ideas of England's Six Nations starting XV.
From a very rough survey of about 20 replies, we've compiled the following composite England side.
Continue reading "Picking an England team"
- Ben Dirs
- 20 Oct 07, 11:09 PM
Paris - Hello all. I watched the final alongside my colleague Mark Orlovac at the Stade de France and rated the South African players. "Orlo" was in charge of England. Here's how we scored them.
Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts.
Continue reading "England v South Africa ratings"
- Mark Orlovac
- 19 Oct 07, 05:32 PM
Paris - For a man supposedly not comfortable with the media spotlight, England coach Brian Ashton played a blinder on Friday.
In Friday's final news conference before in Saturday鈥檚 World Cup final, Ashton did not look like a man just 80 minutes of rugby away from writing his name in the history books.
He was calm, funny and relaxed, and dare I say it, could he have even been playing a few mind games ahead of the ?
Continue reading "Mind games, James Bond and Gordon Brown"
- Alastair Eykyn
- 18 Oct 07, 01:33 PM
Jon Snow does it. . And now we are doing it too.
forced us onto two wheels across Paris today, and what a liberating experience it was.
A thwarted attempt to board the only line alleged to be running dictated a breathless half hour time-trial along the River Seine, to hear from the Springboks for the last time before the big kick-off.
For the princely sum of a single Euro each, on which postmen used to wobble through leafy English villages, in days gone by.
Continue reading "Pedal power saves the day"
- Mark Orlovac
- 17 Oct 07, 05:26 PM
Paris 鈥 Luckily, I hadn鈥檛 finished my "England call on Hipkiss" feature for today.
The fact that I had even started thinking about writing it shows that for the umpteenth time over the last few weeks, I have been pretty presumptuous about this England team.
that Dan Hipkiss, the strong-running Leicester outside centre, would be named in the side for Saturday鈥檚 World Cup final against South Africa following the cruel injury to wing .
Continue reading "Cueto gets the nod"
- Ben Dirs
- 17 Oct 07, 11:17 AM
Paris - 鈥淐apture the atmosphere in Paris,鈥 cry the emails from the bosses back in Blighty.
Well, on the Wednesday before play in the World Cup final, is as Paris always is.
Lots of pretty women smoking and nibbling on croissants, lots of big-haired men looking magnificent in expensive sports jackets and shades. And not a Zulu-era Red Coat in sight.
Continue reading "France, je t'aime"
- Mark Orlovac
- 16 Oct 07, 05:20 PM
Paris 鈥 It has been quite a strange experience being around the camp over the last couple of weeks.
You would have thought that as the has progressed through the knock-out rounds, the tension would have increased. Now they could just be good , but I haven't seen any evidence of it.
England, written off and dismissed, are on the verge of becoming the first side to retain the but are not feeling the weight of expectation that maybe and did.
Continue reading "England locks ready for battle"
- John Beattie
- 16 Oct 07, 03:29 PM
I know, I know, it might seem a crazy idea, but I鈥檇 like all Scots, Welsh, Irish, French and Italians to support England in the rugby World Cup final. What do you think?
Aaargh, stop throwing bricks at me and let me put forward my logic.
You see, when I was a wee boy growing up in , the UK seemed a long way away. But it also struck me that all of us in the Northern Hemisphere are quite like each other. For instance, you can鈥檛 say that someone a mile north of the is markedly different from someone a mile south of it.
Continue reading "Why all six nations should back England"
- Rob Hodgetts
- 16 Oct 07, 12:43 PM
London - Has England鈥檚 emergence in the World Cup final caught you by surprise? No, of course not, you cry. I always had faith.
But did you back your convictions by leaving the diary empty for 2000BST on Saturday, 20 October 2007? (If you are South African, you may have done just that)
Continue reading "Party or pooper?"
- Tom Fordyce
- 16 Oct 07, 12:16 PM
The outskirts of Paris, Tuesday - 鈥淐onfidence,鈥 sang Elvis - 鈥淭here's no job too immense when you've got confidence.鈥
While was a hero to most, he never meant squit to me. But, as I鈥檝e strolled around in the last few days, the words of the be鈥檘uiffed porker have rung in my ears time and time again.
If there鈥檚 a Springboks fan out there who isn鈥檛 completely and utterly 100% certain that his side will win the World Cup on Saturday night, I鈥檝e yet to meet them.
Continue reading "From Cape Town and Dover they came..."
- Mark Orlovac
- 15 Oct 07, 05:10 PM
Paris 鈥 To be honest it wasn't that much of a surprise.
England fans feared the worst when wing Josh Lewsey gingerly limped off the field at the half-time whistle of Saturday鈥檚 semi-final .
And earlier today it was confirmed that a hamstring strain has robbed the Wasps flyer of a chance of playing in his
Continue reading "England ponder Lewsey replacement"
- Ben Dirs
- 14 Oct 07, 11:55 PM
Paris - Big sporting occasions can mess with people's minds. On Saturday night, as my brains were being blown out by the , I found myself making the sign of the cross and I very nearly cried.
When I tell you that I鈥檓 not sure I believe in God and that I blub about once every 10 years, usually when watching , you get some idea of the mind-bending atmosphere that was swirling round the Stade de France as England beat the World Cup hosts.
The scenes after the final whistle will live long in the memory: French fans disappearing from the ground as quickly as bath water being sucked down a plughole; England fans roaring along to Wonderwall; the tears of Sebastien Chabal.
Continue reading "Ugly win a thing of beauty"
- Mark Orlovac
- 14 Oct 07, 04:51 PM
Paris - The headlines said it all.
鈥淩ageant鈥 (infuriating) and 鈥淯ne Frustration Infinie鈥 (you can guess what that one means) screamed the press as France awoke after another draining evening with the realisation that for them, their .
The French inquest into the events that occurred at the Stade de France was already underway in earnest, with many supporters questioning why Lionel Beauxis was taken off so early in the second half.
Continue reading "England in the final mood"
- Tom Fordyce
- 14 Oct 07, 12:17 AM
Paris, early hours of Sunday morning - Words - you fail me. Legs - you can鈥檛 hold me. Liver - stand by me.
I鈥檓 dreaming. I must be. Except in dreams I鈥檝e never thrown myself into the arms of a bug-eyed, bawling Benjamin Dirs while bellowing myself bandy and thumping myself on the legs like a banjaxed Keith Moon.
Continue reading "England in dreamland"
- Mark Orlovac
- 12 Oct 07, 05:31 PM
Paris 鈥 I鈥檒l have to be honest here, I woke up this morning with butterflies in my stomach. It did not take me long to work out the reason why.
After all the hype and build-up, we are just over 24 hours away from Saturday鈥檚 massive clash between .
The anticipation is building.
Continue reading "England calm before storm"
- Tom Fordyce
- 12 Oct 07, 07:43 AM
The outskirts of Paris, Friday - Just one day to go now until .
Gulp.
Right now, Ben and I are incapable of doing almost anything except run round in ever-decreasing circles, squeaking in schoolgirl fashion before collapsing to the ground like a pair of over-dramatic old luvvies.
Continue reading "Quelque chose pour le weekend?"
- Mark Orlovac
- 10 Oct 07, 06:40 PM
Paris 鈥 Make a note of the date. It has been quite a momentous day for those of a persuasion.
For the first time in almost two years, an England head coach has been able to keep the same starting XV for successive games.
It is an incredible statistic and highlights how injuries and muddled thinking have disrupted the reigning champions over the last few years.
Continue reading "England stick with winning formula"
- Mark Orlovac
- 9 Oct 07, 04:12 PM
Paris 鈥 鈥溾, sang Bobby McFerrin in his 1988 number one hit of the same name.
Jut in case you are too young to know, McFerrin鈥檚 song was the most inanely cheery pop song I can remember and is still as infectious now as it was then.
But I would put my house on betting that this particular ditty will not be on any of the mp3 players used by the England pack out here in France. You see, they're not called the "Grumpy Old Men" for nothing.
Continue reading "Grumpy England look for improvement"
- Ben Dirs
- 9 Oct 07, 01:21 PM
Aix-en-Provence 鈥 Tommy and I set sail from Marseille on Monday afternoon like a couple of battered sailors fleeing a storm and have now weighed anchor in the calmer waters of .
Thousands of others will have done the same and will now be cowering under duvets all over the globe, still struggling to come to terms with the weekend they鈥檝e just experienced.
There will never be another two days like it. Apart from next and , that is.
Continue reading "The journey to Paris begins..."
- Alastair Hignell
- 8 Oct 07, 04:37 PM
Paris - It is not true that the first word a French child learns to utter is 鈥渘on鈥. It just feels like it.
The petty bureaucracy for which the host country is infamous has, it seems, become even more of an art form.
The stadium entrance you used yesterday, you can鈥檛 use today. You鈥榬e not allowed to take this lift - even though it鈥檚 the only one that will take you to the press conference. You mustn鈥檛 go through that door - even if your accreditation allows you to be on the other side of it.
You can buy a soft drink in the media centre, but not a sandwich - even though the two are stacked next door to each other in the cooling cabinet.
Continue reading "The word is 'non'"
- Tom Fordyce
- 8 Oct 07, 12:00 PM
Marseille, Monday morning - There鈥檚 no two ways about it 鈥 that was without doubt the greatest sporting weekend I鈥檝e ever been involved in.
Marseille this weekend has been a city drenched in beer, tension, disbelief, sorrow, happiness and wild, wide-eyed celebration.
Even now, with the streets finally emptying of campervans, sleeping fans and plastic pint pots, you can still almost feel the excitement bouncing off the sticky pavements.
Continue reading "Sweet and sour memories of Marseille"
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