Yep, that’s the only option, and (no offence by the way – and not an anti-English comment) I would love it if we did, but lets put it this way, after looking at both sides recent performances I won’t be rushing down to the bookies to put anything on it !!!

Gutted !!! 🙁

Thanks Sky High.

But if we win tomorrow and you beat us next week then you’ll be playing the French in the Quarters. Winner Pool B (our group) plays runner up Pool A (NZ and France group).

Runner up Pool B plays winner Pool A, so it would be us that plays the All Blacks…..:eek:

We’ll just have to wait and see…..I’ve lost count of the number of times the form book has been thrown out the window on a Scotland / England clash !!

I was at that game in Cardiff 4 years ago. The place was ‘Kiwi City’ before the match, but swathed in seas of blue after !! Heck of a fightback from the French.

Today was a different matter. You can’t give a team like the All Blacks a 3 try lead in the first 20 minutes and expect to come back from that. Reckon that’s one demon exorcised for them then !

England, clinical performance – much improved and sailed past a Romanian team that we ( Scotland) found hard work. Looked well drilled and quick ball played dividends.

Argentina tomorrow for us – this will most probably be the make or break game for us with regard to getting through to the quarter finals. FIngers crossed for a good performance !!

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…… and the in-flight meal consisted of a barley sugar sweet. 😉

Don’t knock the Barley Sugar. Probably tastier than what I was served on my flight from Schipol to Kiev the other week. The McDonalds generation finally hits in-flight catering….yep, you guessed it, a cheeseburger !!!

Great performance from the Irish pack.

Bit of a battering for the Fijiians though……

Thanks for the link Sky-High, interesting indeed.

Brian Moore has certainly matured as a journalist and commentator in recent years ( rumours that the Scottish Tourist Board were planning on appointing the ‘Pit-Bull’ as an ambassador 15 years ago turned out to be wholly unfounded !!!) , and I find myself by and large agreeing with his comments.

The opportunity for smaller Rugby Playing Nations to face their more established and more experienced rivals has to be increased to allow thenm to improve. I remember the learning curve that we went through in the mid to late eighties when we finally got promoted into Division One (back in the days when Division one was the top flight) and found ourselves coming face to face week-in week-out with established teams, many of them sporting full Scottish internationals. We took a couple of real pastings, but as the season wore on, we improved, survived and went on from there.

It is a similar concept to what Brian Moore alludes to in his column…The Scotland v Georgia was a case in point. Although the Georgians played to their strengths, Scotland, though not dazzling in any one department had them beaten in most areas of the game. A bit more tactical awareness from the Georgians and it could have been a bit different…

For nations like Georgia, Namibia and the like, meeting the ‘Big Guns’ once every 4 years is not enough. Italy were the proverbial whipping boys when they entered the 6 Nations ( apart from beating Scotland in their first meeting – ouch – I was there ), but are now capable on their day of providing good opposition to any of the home nations.

Well, as you might guess from my username and signature that rugby is my game, and happy to say that I still take a run out when ever I can at the age of 43.

Not going to bother going down the ‘played by the posh’ route, but suffice to say, over 25 years of being involved in senior rugby I’ve played the game with people from all walks of life. We are a team, we play for each other, we don’t give a fig where we come from, who Daddy was or how much we earn.

Anyway, getting back on topic, I am currently sitting in a remote part of the Ukraine looking after a drilling rig. No TV out here, but am managing to get the games on an internet streamimng site. Been a couple of decent games so far, and interesting to see the closing in the gap between the lower of the established nations, and the top end of what was previosly seen as also rans.

Looking forward also to Scotland trying to find a way of crossing the whitewash a bit more often as well……we fair dragged it out against Romania and Georgia !!!

Here’s hoping for an entertaining tournament all round !!