We still haven't learnt have we ? We were cruising, only one team in it for 60 minutes. Wales were nowhere. Then we self destruct...

Agreed... But on the other hand this is a young squad in transition, with only 4 games under the new boss. We have won every game so far, have the best attack, best defence and we've just become the first team to win the 6 nations with a game to spare.

Clearly lots to work on before we worry NZ, but if we can do all the above at this stage and have an understanding about where we need to improve, then I can't help but feel confident for the future.

The 3 D's in Rugby win you games. Defence, Discipline, Decision making. At the moment we're good in the first one and not good in the other two. That needs to change.

Completely agree. Discipline has been a major problem for a long time, we ALWAYS give away too many stupid penalties.

We could go a long way towards sorting out your 3rd 'D' by starting Danny Care in place of Youngs. Youngs slows down every attack and doesn't see Ford screaming for the ball until the opportunity is missed.

I see Manu is in the training squad. I can't see him playing (maybe last 20?), but he gives the Welsh something else to think about.

Can't believe we lost to England. T20 and ODI's will be different though.

...

Another good day for England. Finely balanced when we went 5 down but an excellent last session.

Amla looks lost as captain.

Casino Royale was excellent. Spectre felt like I was watching the longest advert I'd ever seen. Not because of the product placements, just the feel of the film.

There was a bond themed martini ad before the film started (bond escaping from bad guys, hot girl accidentally swept along while water skiing, etc), which was just making fun of all old the bond clichés. Right from the very first scene the film felt just like that martini ad.

Watched Spectre last weekend, thought it was terrible.

He's just let himself and the team down massively. They should all be busting their guts to try to avoid the whitewash and he's just made things even harder.

Another average performance from the England attack. I bet youvraj would have had them all out at least 10 mins earlier.

Good decision not to enforce the follow on. This is still a batting wicket. We should be posting a lead well in advance of 500 with a good 2 days to get them out.

Very sad news. The forum will be a poorer place without him.

Agreed. In isolation, with a different title, that film might have been just about alright. As it is, it completely missed the entire point of the book and replaced it with Will Smith and a hand grenade.

Is the ai actually real this year?

Completely ruined the game for me last year, once I realised that I was racing against the clock and not the other cars on the track

Did anyone see the Panorama or similar programme a few months back about the effective slave labour of the Indian workforce in Dubai? One of the sites (and labour camps) shown was for the First Group and I they showed that Owen video against the reality of life for the workers there.

Forgot to mention - I like the look of Dragon Age:origins - has anyone played it - what do you think?

Good but it's very story driven so it isn't shouting at me to keep replaying it now that I've played through 1.5 times. The story is pretty long though, made up of several very long 'levels'. You get to choose the order that you do each part of the story in and there are a few optional extras (hidden bosses etc) but thats about it as far as freedom goes.

Made by Bioware and does feel quite a lot like a fantasy version of Mass Effect.

Interesting how people think body mass and fitness are the same thing, they aint.

Interesting how people think Benni seems to rely on his fitness as a footballer, he doesn't.

Benni is overweight and unfit and has been since the beginning of last season. All players rely on their fitness. If he was fitter he would be able to run faster and for longer and would be a more effective player. He hasn't spent his whole career ambling around at walking pace, he used to be pretty quick.

Yes but does he score goals when he plays?

Usually, if we get a penalty.

All the exercise you do and you still put on weight.

How does he do it? Coming back from the summer break way out of condition is one thing. To get fat again during the season when he is training for a few hours every day and then playing at weekends must take the eating habits of a typical resident of half-ton hospital.

I'm with philipl on this one. Getting yourself in a lot of debt isn't so bad as long as your earnings stay at the expected levels. If they dropped dramatically - United could be in trouble.

While we'd feel the strain - the fact we've only a small level of debt is a big bonus.

Who'd want to buy United if it looked like the bubble had burst?

In many ways - I think it would improve football - money has/is ruining the game.

No one would need to buy united. The banks would move in and take what is theirs and then they wold asset strip until the club was profitable and then either run it at a profit or sell it on.

Blackburn rovers would have lost a huge chunk of our income, and would have to sell all of our big earners and would probably end up relegated with less funds than any other town club in the championship.

The TV bubble bursting would cost united more money in absolute terms, but they are a lot farther away from relegation than we are and they are not currently "punching above their weight". Without TV revenue we could not compete with any of the city clubs.

Without the tv revenue we could not break even in the premier league. With their worldwide fanbase (which would shrink a bit) and crowds, united could, even if it meant a couple of seasons outside of the champions league.

What happens if the football bubble bursts like the property one seems to have done?

If people get sick of the lack of competition, and interest in watching on tele dies, this could also lead to a substantial drop in income.

Maybe then United would be screwed!

So would we!

So they don't deny the bias and agree that their presenters are ######?

The TV will alway be biased towrds the top clubs..if we were a top club I've no doubt they would kiss our arse too...

I really don't remeber much arse kissing the last time we were. The media's opinion seemed more like "jumped up little club who bought the league". I really don't remember all that much fuss being made, as soon as the title was won we were forgotten about.

Having now watched it I completely agree with the observations.

The three on show last night rivalled the 3 stooges for comedy genius. We expect it of Lawrence and sometimes of Lineker BUT Mr Shearer appeared to have joined them last night.

There was nothing about the fact that Rovers battled heroically it was all about Manures near misses and Brads goalkeeping skills.

Shearer has always been like that, never misses a chance to put us down. I think he's either a bit bitter that he never won a trophy after leaving us to progress, or about the reaction he got from some of the fans when he returned to Ewood.

Andy Johnson is still paying for a reputation he picked up at Palace. He has also been caught out at Everton, particularly in his early days. He now suffers from the same problem as Ronaldo i.e. many of his legitimate claims are waved away. This isn't particularly "fair" on Moyles because he had no influence over AJ at Palace, but I think this is certainly a big factor.

AJ does spend a lot of time on the ground, and he is known to go down - shall we say - easily. He is reaping what he sowed a long time ago, whether that is Everton's fault or not.

And you could say that we deserve all of the dodgy yellow and red cards that we get because we were a bit rough about 3yrs ago...