Quote:
Originally Posted by Scottish_Republican
Watched the England Wales game the other day. England walked it with a huge scoreline. A bit of a shock for me, as I thought South Wales was the only place that could rival northern England in these islands for league, but I suppose they have some catching up to do.
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I think it's a case of England being the strongest they have been for a long time and Wales being the weakest they have been for a long time. Something like 10 welsh players were under 22 and a fair few un-capped, they were also missing a fair few of their best players like Dyer, Summers and Dean.
England are easily second favorites to win the WC behind hosts Australia. They have put together a great squad, their foward pack is In my opinion the best on show, a solid backline and Pryce and Burrow are a greta half combo. Also just on the Northern England part of your post, that is quickly changing aswell, I believe it was 3 born and bred Londoners who played against Wales.
Wales are very much in a re-building phase and it is quite handy for them having Celtic Crusaders in Super League as that will help development. Last year their two best players (arguably) Lee Briers and Iestyn Harris both retired from Internationals after they failed to beat Scotland on aggregate score after 2 games.
Scotland and Ireland are both stronger than Wales at the moment and it has shown because Wales missed the WC which was a suprise considering they were semi-finalists in the last 2 WC's.