Blood & Mud

Most of what Jim Telfer said was absolutely right

The legendary Jim Telfer has been all over the media this week, doing his bit for international relations as per, by calling England "too arrogant, too pretentious and too condescending" and Wales "lazy".  These comments were a gift on a platter made of boobs for the headline writers, so it is no great surprise that is what the editors jumped on, but most of the rest of what the Scot said was not so controversial.  In fact, it was pretty spot on.

On England,

"England are not as good as they think they are.  They were really up for it against New Zealand, very physical against a tired team. If they had played another five times, the All Blacks would have won them all. You have to retain perspective. In their favour is the coaching team of Stuart Lancaster, Graham Rowntree and Andy Farrell. They will not let that victory go to their heads.

"The players are a different matter, people like Chris Ashton, Danny Care, Ben Youngs and Manu Tuilagi. They are young, very impressionable and they think what they read is all true. There are the makings of a good squad, but it is not good at the moment. Like the English football team, a couple of wins and they think they are world-beaters.

"Unless they are careful they will end up playing in a very English way. Boring. It is all about forward domination, and the irony is that England have some bloody good backs."

Hard to disagree with any of that really.

On Wales,

"Coaching them, playing against and with them, I realised they had reached the top because they were the cream and had not necessarily worked all that hard to get there. Wales do produce very good rugby players."

Up until very recently, when Wales became fitness psychopaths, this was probably fair comment; as anyone who saw the team out bladdered in Cardiff halfway through a tournament could testify.

Tweet

Why not subscribe to Blood and Mud? You can get all our updates fresh in your inbox via email and add us to your favourite feedreader. You can also follow us on Twitter.

Like this this post? Why not like bloodandmud.com on facebook and tell your friends?

Comments

Most of what Jim Telfer said was absolutely right

The legendary Jim Telfer has been all over the media this week, doing his bit for international relations as per, by calling England "too arrogant, too pretentious and too condescending" and Wales "lazy".  These comments were a gift on a platter made of boobs for the headline writers, so it is no great surprise that is what the editors jumped on, but most of the rest of what the Scot said was not so controversial.  In fact, it was pretty spot on.

On England,

"England are not as good as they think they are.  They were really up for it against New Zealand, very physical against a tired team. If they had played another five times, the All Blacks would have won them all. You have to retain perspective. In their favour is the coaching team of Stuart Lancaster, Graham Rowntree and Andy Farrell. They will not let that victory go to their heads.

"The players are a different matter, people like Chris Ashton, Danny Care, Ben Youngs and Manu Tuilagi. They are young, very impressionable and they think what they read is all true. There are the makings of a good squad, but it is not good at the moment. Like the English football team, a couple of wins and they think they are world-beaters.

"Unless they are careful they will end up playing in a very English way. Boring. It is all about forward domination, and the irony is that England have some bloody good backs."

Hard to disagree with any of that really.

On Wales,

"Coaching them, playing against and with them, I realised they had reached the top because they were the cream and had not necessarily worked all that hard to get there. Wales do produce very good rugby players."

Up until very recently, when Wales became fitness psychopaths, this was probably fair comment; as anyone who saw the team out bladdered in Cardiff halfway through a tournament could testify.