Categories
English Rugby’s Six Of The Best - The 90s
16th January 2009
|
It’s the same format as other “Six of the Best” series: six England wins, introduced by a player of the period, in this case Rob Andrew, with about 12 minutes of highlights from each, and then one ‘bonus’ game. The games are: 1991: England 21, France 19: the one where France score the miracle length of the pitch try started by Blanco from behind his try line, but England still win the Grand Slam thanks to their forwards. 1992: England 24, Wales 0: a dull game, but England win the Grand Slam 1994: South Africa 15, England 32: England pull off an unlikely and unique win in South Africa. The days when Ben Clarke and Tim Rodber made a lethal backrow and Rob Andrew played his socks off. Quiz trivia: name the England fullback (answer at foot of review) 1995 (the bonus game) England 24, Scotland 0. Yes, it’s a Grandslam decider but eight Rob Andrew kicks does not a thrill a minute highlights package make 1995 England 25 - Australia 22. The World Cup quarterfinal with the Rob Andrew drop goal to win. 1997 England 26 - New Zealand 26. This is a classic. One of the best matches at Twickenham ever. The first time Clive Woodward showed what he might be able to achieve: new era with Dallaglio, Hill and Greenwood. The first time England really exploded from all corners of the pitch. Unbelievable try by David Rees, outfoxing Lomu. What happened to him? New Zealand come back, but England hang on for a draw. 1998 England 13 - South Africa 7. England win, but a dull match. A real shame they miss out the 1990 season entirely: England lost at Murrayfield but the win in Paris was one of their best ever performances. Even in these winning matches, too often you see the problems: England backs simply could not pass as well as any other international team (and still can’t). Carling and Guscott and Underwood were all great runners, but none of them could pass properly. So you will be getting frustrated as well as inspired by memories of England wins. A classic example of that is the 1995 win against Scotland, ground out by a solid pack performance, but that’s all. Still, a good DVD to dig out if England should end up losing to Italy in this year’s Six Nations. PS Fullback in South Africa in 1994: Paul Hull |
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.