england or france? who would you want???

flynninio

i know i getting ahead of myself but i trying to get wales out of my head for few hrs. if we were to win would we want england as we always do well in general against them and how sweet it would be to knock them out - or france who we are piss poor against more often than not but also be nice to finally putting one over them?

nerves are behind this thread as i can't concentrate on anything this week only the possible outcomes against the welsh. think i need some meds soon

pat_mas

Don't worry about this one, it'll be France and you can expect the semi to be very physical !!!

walshb

France are our bogey team. Even when not at their best they always seem to unnerve us. We have a mental block against them. Give me England every day.

killwill

I want to play England if we get that far.
Whilst France have been below par they will turn it on against us like they always seem to do.
If we are up against the English, well they have been quite poor too. Plus we will have everyone bar the Aussies rooting for us.

Rickwellwood

England all day long

flynninio

agreed i guess england been best for us but if we lose i guarantee i be screaming my head off for france to win .

BoardsMember

No brainer. England. They hate playing us. We hate playing France.

flynninio

be sweet watching ferris and haskell going at each other again. I think he is more annoying than ashton tbh. He just seems like a numbskull and his reactions after national anthem is finished is so staged for the camera's its unreal. glad lurch dropped him for france game to take him down a peg or 2.

wetherspoons up the road be good craic for ireland v england to in a semi final.

it would be so bloody nice to beat france to though and finally put to be bed this psycholigical power they have over us.

davegrohl48

I think Wales/Ireland would have a better chance of beating France. Just from watching England/France so far. France have never been at as low an ebb and I feel any step up in standard will not be all that substantial.
They did well against us in the warmup as we can only unleash our all out terror upfront game when there is something on the line. It makes no sense for us to commit big style upfront in a warmup game when yer typical injury rate is 1 - 2 injuries per game. If we bring the forward assault France as a team won't be able to handle it.

walshb

Are you anti capital letters?;)

bamboozle

France are more dangerous and if they play like they can they can beat anyone NZ included, England are very beatable, they are p1ssing off the ref's and media everywhere they go and would be a great scalp.

leggit

I'd much prefer rather England than our bogey team France.

thomond2006

England, no question.

flynninio

walshb wrote: »

Are you anti capital letters?;)

as the virgin mary one said "come again"?

istabrac77

This post should be blocked until 7.45am on Saturday. We are giving ourselves such bad luck.

[Jackass]

England.

France have better players, are unpredictable, and assuming they beat the English, they will have found some form and momentum, and I can assure you a French team playing Ireland for a place in the world cup final is a very dangerous team and they will be seriously up for it. Our track record against the French is terrible also and they have the measure of us it seems.

England are a team we know inside out and know exactly what to expect, England are as predictable as France are unpredictable and we seem to have their number in a complete reverse of fortunes. England hate playing us and we're their bogy team as much as France are ours.

Plus, it would be far more satisfying to beat England and to give the finger to Martin Johnson once again. If only we could sub Mary McAleese on for the final quarter.

Piliger

I don't actually believe that France have better players or are any better. However the Irish players have consistently shown an inferiority complex when playing France, and I would expect nothing less to happen in the WC.

England !

pynchy

This thread is perhaps a bit of a bad omen...

...but England would be much better to meet in the final simply because it would so much more satisfying and the Irish team and fans would be so00 pumped.

walshb

Piliger wrote: »

I don't actually believe that France have better players or are any better. However the Irish players have consistently shown an inferiority complex when playing France, and I would expect nothing less to happen in the WC.

England !

I agree. I think our lads are every bit as good as theirs. They just seem to rise to the occasion a little better. Pull out the big plays and drive it home that bit better. They are BIGGER players, in the sens that they are mentally that bit more confident.

Podge_irl

England, by several orders of magnitude. I wouldn't really care how poorly France are playing, I'd never want Ireland to face them. Ireland just go to pot against them

sdanseo

England. Ireland and the French, in most sports, is just a bad combination.

wixfjord

[Jackass] wrote: »

England.

France have better players, are unpredictable, and assuming they beat the English, they will have found some form and momentum, and I can assure you a French team playing Ireland for a place in the world cup final is a very dangerous team and they will be seriously up for it. Our track record against the French is terrible also and they have the measure of us it seems.

England are a team we know inside out and know exactly what to expect, England are as predictable as France are unpredictable and we seem to have their number in a complete reverse of fortunes. England hate playing us and we're their bogy team as much as France are ours.

Plus, it would be far more satisfying to beat England and to give the finger to Martin Johnson once again. If only we could sub Mary McAleese on for the final quarter.

A solid Ulster hooker replacement with leadership skills to have on the bench should Rory get injured. Savvy.

Dangerous Man

I'd absolutely prefer to have England. Our record against France is just too bad; a number of posters have aleady mentioned that France are our bogey team, or that we have an inferiority complex against them. We seem to consistently under-perform against them and luck has a nasty way of conspiring against us too.

I will however, play Devil's advocate, just for a moment. France right now are a rag-tag unit; the word is that there is serious disharmony in the camp - morale is low and the defeat to Tonga has humiliated them. According to a report in the IT today, they look like a team who don't want to be there anymore.

Now, if France could somehow get past what is a fairly pedestrian English outfit, it might be good for us. If we play France and squeeze them out to the same degree that we did Australia - we could very well put a cricket score on them. Deny them any serious attacking options, sap their will, and then roll over them. They are psychologically fragile right now and who knows, maybe if we could start well against them it would break them.

The only problem with this, and it's a huge problem, is that a win against England, their old enemy, will likely reinvigorate them. If they can find it within themselves to overcome their current adversity and beat their biggest rival it will be an immense fillip. They will be within one game of a world cup final and might start believing again. Which, for us, would be quite bad. Quite bad indeed.

No - I don't fancy the above scenario - so let us face England instead. At least with them, we have a better idea as to what we can expect. It doesn't mean we'll beat them, England are an excellent WC side but facing them does remove that element of unpredictability that the French bring.

Oh - I almost forgot. We have to play Wales first... :D

sydthebeat

England.. just for the pleasure of having the opportunity to beat them..

but i think France will beat england anyway.
(and i dont want to tempt fate.... beating Wales will do for me right now!!!)

Gijoe

England. That is all

Third_Echelon

walshb wrote: »

France are our bogey team. Even when not at their best they always seem to unnerve us. We have a mental block against them. Give me England every day.

BoardsMember wrote: »

No brainer. England. They hate playing us. We hate playing France.

+1 to that!

Celly Smunt

england in windy conditions.

Fireball07

As everyone else has said, England.

If France do beat England, they'll have a found a bit of form and no matter how badly they've been playing...we have a psychological disadvantage there. We can beat them, but we're more likely to beat England simply because we've done it before.

England are no great shakes and aren't in great form. We know we can beat them. But Wales first, of course.

13th Floor Elevator

I don't understand the question. There is only Wales!

Wales! Wales! Wales!

Wales should be the only team on every Irish supporters mind!

Cormic

Without doubt I would prefer England. We are always able to up our game for them.

andrewdcs

Thread reported for tempting fate!

Wouldn't mind, but we NEVER play well against France, whatever happened against England at least we'd give ourselves a chance, hard to forget the shellacking we gave ourselves in Australia in 03. It was a "French like" first half performance from us, in a bad way. That and every other time we play France. We'd have 4 (?) GS if we didn't constantly lose to them in tragi-comedic circumstances, beating England Wales Scotland Italy home and away for ages.... damn you France!

Anyway think about Wales. Wales, GRRR wales. What is that a kind of endangered fish? A big dumb, delicious fish... grrrrrr.

tolosenc

Needs poll.

And capital letters from OP.

But yeah, should Ireland beat Wales, there is no reason for anyone to do anything other than cheer for England half an hour after that.

wixfjord

walshb wrote: »

France are our bogey team. Even when not at their best they always seem to unnerve us. We have a mental block against them. Give me England every day.

Enough of your anti Irish poormouth sentiment! You're like George Hook!

twinytwo

The way i see it, england are frances kryptonite, france are ours. Id take england for 2 reasons,

1- It wouldnt get better than knocking them out of the world cup. Beating england never gets old.

2 Just to see the outrage of the english press... everything from we gave the english team food posioning to ferris is on roids etc etc

tolosenc

twinytwo wrote: »

The way i see it, england are frances kryptonite, france are ours.

And we're England's.

Like a love triangle.

Jess16

A sportsperson never wastes time speculating about the next round before getting there. Let's just beat Wales first

decisions

One game at a time, I can't handle the stress!

Quint2010

Ireland>England>France>Ireland..

RonBo88

On Saturday morning if Ireland beat Wales, and England beat France , I will def pee my pants with excitement.

mossyc123

France have beaten us in 11 of the last 12 games.

England have only beaten us in 2 of the last 9 games.

Would be nice to get over the psychological block we have had against France since the '03 World Cup Quarter but realistically we have a much better chance of beating England.

Now that i've had my say... lock this thread asap!

CatFromHue

mossyc123 wrote: »

Would be nice to get over the psychological block we have had against France since the '03 World Cup Quarter but realistically we have a much better chance of beating England.

I think the psychological aspect of its over inflated.

In the 2010 6 nations the teams were:

Rob Kearney; Tommy Bowe, Brian O'Driscoll (capt), Gordon D'Arcy, Keith Earls; Ronan O'Gara, Tomas O'Leary; Cian Healy, Jerry Flannery, John Hayes, Leo Cullen, Paul O'Connell, Stephen Ferris, David Wallace, Jamie Heaslip.

Clement Poitrenaud; Vincent Clerc, Mathieu Bastareaud, Yannick Jauzion, Alexis Palisson; Francois Trinh-Duc, Morgan Parra; Thomas Domingo, William Servat, Nicolas Mas, Lionel Nallet, Pascal Pape, Thierry Dusautoir (capt), Fulgence Ouedraogo, Imanol Harinordoquy.

They had a much stronger front row, their half backs and centres were stronger, and in Clerc they had the best winger on the pitch. The second and back rows were equal enough. They also had a more attacking full back.

Last year the teams were:

Fitzgerald, Mcfadden, BOD, Darcy, Earls, Sexton, TOL, Healy, Ross, Best, POC, DOC, SOB, Ferris, and Heaslip

Poiterenut, Huget, Rougerie, Trailli, Medard, Trinh Duc, Parra, Doingo, Servat, Mas, Pierre, Nallet, Dusatoir, Bonnaire, Harinodoquay

Their team for this was better than ours and we had guys off form too.

Steffano2002

As a Frenchman, I am touched by the respect you pay our national rugby team!

But can't you see the disarray it has been in since Marc Lièvremont took over? We've had 652 different 9/10 combinations and we're still trying new ones now, at the bloody RWC, with Parra now playing 10!!!

Our team is a joke and you can tell even the players have absolutely no interest and just want to go home...

England will beat France on Saturday. Easily. But if, by some miracle, we win, Ireland will destroy us in the semis!

And anyway, as Irish rugby fans you shouldn't be worried about the semis. Wales is the big obstacle to your aspirations of making it to the final.

Good luck tomorrow and THANK YOU for showing us how rugby is supposed to be played in this RWC!

LFC5Times

Would rather England as whatever it is about the French they have beaten us most of the times over the last few years while our record is better against England in that period.

pynchy

Steffano2002 wrote: »

As a Frenchman, I am touched by the respect you pay our national rugby team!

But can't you see the disarray it has been in since Marc Lièvremont took over? We've had 652 different 9/10 combinations and we're still trying new ones now, at the bloody RWC, with Parra now playing 10!!!

Our team is a joke and you can tell even the players have absolutely no interest and just want to go home...

England will beat France on Saturday. Easily. But if, by some miracle, we win, Ireland will destroy us in the semis!

And anyway, as Irish rugby fans you shouldn't be worried about the semis. Wales is the big obstacle to your aspirations of making it to the final.

Good luck tomorrow and THANK YOU for showing us how rugby is supposed to be played in this RWC!

Agreed.

You guys are very unlucky and its kinda seems like there is something missing from the world cup without France doing something spectacular, which you may very well do yet!

But sorry id still prefer to beat england in the semis... again this is a big no no and the hardest match yet is Saturday.

norrie rugger

killwill wrote: »

Plus we will have everyone bar the Aussies rooting for us.

Do not be naive.



Even the Aussies dislike the English enough, to still root for us

dr ro

doesn't matter.

eyeball kid

Would much prefer to get England if we get to the semi. France just seem to
be our bogey team.
It would be too easy to imagine Clerc scoring a try in the dying minutes to give
France a victory

eyeball kid

Whoops. Double post