StockholmRam

Anyone know owt about Rugby 7s ? Ive enjoyed watching it and been wondering how they pick the squads. Anyone know? 

Are these just specialist 7s players? Ive not recognised any from XV a side union!

I also wondered if you can pick players from both codes union and league. Some of these big powerful impressive players from Fiji look more suitable for league given the size and offloading skills they have. 

Be grateful if we have any 7s experts on this board. 

1 hour ago, Ramarena said:

Very Tricky

Massively Tricky even... 

Im a bigger trip hop fan than you Ramarena.... 

30 minutes ago, David said:

Mine was a windup post to your windup post that was in reply to his windup post

I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me to see me looking back at you...

Enjoying most of it so far. On a months vacation so it doesnt matter if Im up all night.

Mainly following the swimming and boxing and blown away by how good our gymnasts are. When i was a kid it was all Olga Korbet and East Europeans. 

The welsh boxing lass has played international football for Wales ( quite a few caps too), junior world kickboxing champ and now going for olympic gold at boxing. Pretty impressive. 

Doing well team GB. Any table where we are ahead of Ze Germans makes me happy.

4 hours ago, Stive Pesley said:

Average male life expectancy in the UK is 81

I'm 50 , so I've only got about another 7 world cups left ?

6 for me then. 

On 11/07/2021 at 12:30, uttoxram75 said:

He’s won me over. Always thought he was too negative but he has managed this group of players almost perfectly through this tournament.

I was gutted when we lost to Iceland but Southgate has learnt from that, he seems mentally stronger and the players are feeding off that, they trust him, he keeps the fringe players involved , the senior players respect him, for the first time in years there’s no cliques, it’s one team.

Win or lose tonight, he’s the man to take us into the next World Cup without a doubt.

 

Everything you have just said Utch. Perfect man for the job really in terms of man management, player culture, dealing with FA.

I hope we keep learning too. Id have rather lost in extra time throwing the kitchen sink at it and employing the whole attack line than go out on penalties.

The mighty Mariners of Cleethorpes.

My mums hometown. Im related to at least a third of Grimsby. 

Due to a continued fascination with one Johan Cruyff I follow Ajax but not too closely. Love their famous strip. 

22 minutes ago, David said:

Don't believe in second team nonsense, how can you have a second team? It's weird, it's adultery.

Wait till you get a look at my second team young man. 

58 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

Me and a mate were wondering the other day if we'd rather have an England team consistently making the semis/finals of major tournament for a decade or winning one, but going average again for 10 years after?

Think the latter option is more like a decade of hurt. Can't imagine many people saying "we've got knocked out in the group stage again, but at least we won Euro 2020" after failing at Euro 32 in Kazakhstan.

Thats a tough one. Im knocking on in years so id love to see us win something, but I appreciate thats a selfish answer.

If we can say that England builds and builds and develops in the next ten years and then wins everything there is to win... I go with that option.

Similar is Derby. Me personally if you said you can have one FA Cup final win in the next year or two but the caviat is that you wont see the premier league in my life time... Im all for a day out at Wembley and bringing THE cup home.

1 hour ago, MuespachRam said:

That sounds amazing. Yeah unfortunately these days the class of the imported players isn’t quite so high…although we have got to see Joe Cole (who was miles better than anyone on the field), and a certain Wayne Rooney (who was also miles better than anyone on the pitch)  and Tony Pulis and Kenny dalgleish kids are both managers over here.! 

Its only as I got older that I fully appreciate what an experience that was for us young uns. 

I did see an MSL game at Yankee Stadium a few years ago as a guest of former Derby County CEO Tom Glick. That day was way way too hot to be sitting out anywhere watching sport though.

Frank Lampard and Kaka played in that game. Mrs Stockholm came along and was not impressed with The Bronx!, 

5 minutes ago, MuespachRam said:

Yeah people forget that in 5 years we have gone from being the embarrassment of Europe and being beat by Iceland to a World Cup semi final, a nations league semi final and as close to winning the Euros as you can possibly get.

Sir Gareth should be made prime minister, King, Chairman of the FA and The One Show presenter. 

On a side note... I see you have Tampa Bay Rowdies as your photo. I went over to play ” soccer” in New Jersey late 1970s with Ashbourne Junior Rams for a few weeks. We were taken by our hosts to Giants Stadium to watch New York Cosmos play v Minnesota Kicks. Such a fantastic never to be forgotten experience. 

Cosmos had Kaiser Franz, Carlos Alberto, Neeskins, Dennis Tuart, Steve Hunt, Chinaglia, Werner Roth playing for them. Pele was injured but at the game.

For Minnesota was one Frederick Charles George.

We also got to meet Eusabio. 

I remember years later someone saying ” look...theres Paul Green or Ted McMinn or Paul Blades and me thinking...yeah right”.

Happy enough in Stockholm.

The night we lost to mighty football nation Iceland was up there as one of the ones that hurt the most. My social media exploded with people guffawing for hours and days at the laughing stock that had become England national football team. I hurt really badly about that... I remember thinking that I just would like for England to compete at least to a decent level given the players at our disposal. Not too much to ask surely. And remember this happened not so long ago. 

Since then under Gareth Southgate we have come on leaps and bounds. We have indeed competed to a good level in all competitions and brought in some fantastic players to watch. Our junior International football going great too so I hope there are more youngsters like Mount, Saka, Foden to come through. 

Also, the whole atmosphere and culture around the England camp is enjoyable and its a pleasure to watch these young lads on interviews etc. 

Sure we can debate the plan, style, systems and penalty takers for months... but if you had told me the day after the Iceland debacle that I was about to watch a world cup semi final and european championship final with England in them, well, I would have snapped your hand off. 

I suspect and hope there is a competetive national team for the next decade. 

And my Swedish mates try to tell me that cricket is a minority sport.

Summer arrived in Sweden... we skipped spring. So sun is out...Euros ( and my completely irrational thought that England can win something) just around the corner. Cricket is on...Lions Tour and Olympics. Sports wise whats not to love.

Sad I cant come back to England yet. Was really hoping Sweden might be on the green list but that seems some way off. Miss my family and cant wait to see them. 

No predictions from me regarding how far England can go. Its a rough looking passage if we actually win our group. Another of those daft tournament set ups where its most likely better to come 2nd... 

I made the mistake of watching Croatia last night. 1-1 draw and they were bleedin awful... i knew i shouldnt watch. Now im all ” surely they cant be that bad” suckered in. 

Id love to beat Scotland 300 - 0. You watch Marshall turn into Gordon McBanks for this one v England. 

Southgate looks to have picked a very fast and attacking squad. I hope therefore he has the courage to exploit his players obvious talents... 

Italy... dark horse. 

17 hours ago, Nuwtfly said:

It is a shame there was not an opportunity to be consulted on it, whether that be a vote or something. I would suspect that the vast majority of this forum would have likely supported what all these other fan groups have come together to support. 

We would have agreed, eventually, after a 500 page thread discussion... 

If it is Andy Appleby again then it will be with a totally different support cast. His crew that were employed by GSE to run DCFC have all moved on. 

Tom Glick is CEO at Carolina Panthers

Mal Brannigan is CEO at Wigan Athletic

John Vicars retired but still around Derby area

Tim Hinchy heads USA Olympic swimming team 

12 hours ago, uttoxram75 said:

100k fine suspended pending the filing of correct accounts.

I was thinking far worse than that Utch. More like, we all have to go and live in Burslem for 2 years. 

Oh thats classy. 

The irony of Derby supporters in 20/21 season being disappointed at a tv series ending... my oh my. 

It was utter pants though. 

Kelly Reilly... how can anyone not enjoy looking at her. 

34 minutes ago, Bob The Badger said:

I was watching Line of Duty with the missus last night and she turned to me and said 'Kelly MacDonald really isn't a very good actress, but I really like her in things'

I almost spilled my Horlicks with surprise because I have been thinking the exact same thing.

Similarly, Harrison Ford is a terrible actor but I love him in stuff.

Sean Connery was dreadful a lot of the time but his charisma oozed all over the floor.

And I don't think Claire Danes is very good at all, but I like her in Homeland.

What about you?

 

I think Bob and Mrs Badger should go and wash their mouths out with soap regarding Kelly Macdonalds acting ability... 

Agree on the rest though. 

Cant see Rotherham winning two. They maybe could get a point or all 3 v Luton. 

So, our saving grace could be that both us and Wednesday are so hopeless we might get a point. 

A horror of a season. Utter tripe. Cracks have been papered over too long. 

14 hours ago, cstand said:

OMG Eddie you smashed out the ball park on that one.

See, this is why I learned to point at stuff and say ” I will have one of those miduck”. 

Works a treat. 

2 quid in the bank... does this mean we will be buying Conor Sammon again ?