England/Scotlan sports teams

[BrainsTracy]

Why is that when England win they are somehow unworthy and Scotland are in someway hard done by and therefore singled out for praise. If England lose they get berated as rubbish if they win their opponenets get praised and England still get berated as rubbish? So a team that plays below par but still manages to win against one that has never got past the knockout stages despite having chances against both Argentina and England and they fail but It's England that gets attacked. Scottish sympathisers please explain your reasoning.

[anneasquith]

passion/pride

[Harry-Wragg]

Arksided - it's a complete mystery to me why the English don't understand why they are so disliked - how about arrogance, conceit, contempt, insolence, condescension etc etc?

[Arksided]

Yeah suppose your right Harry, those other home nation teams are funny aren't they ;-)

[pa___ul3]

yeah Arksided, let the little countries cheer on who they want once they're back home in their stone huts shovelling horse manure to heat the place! I know I'm the only person who's ever said that but someone's got to back up Harry's theory!

[Harry-Wragg]

Stone huts? horse manure? - LUXURY

[Duncer]

As an Ulsterman living in Scotland I love the use of the excuse, "arrogance" when used to explain their hatred of the English. Naked racism is often closer to the bone, and didn't little Scotland talk of winning the World Cup before they left?

I have no beef with any of the competing countries but suspect anyone from up here, (Northern hemisphere) who has designs on victory is deluded.

[Harry-Wragg]

Aye, and BrainsTracy couldn't be bothered spelling 'Scotland' correctly - I rest my bahookie

[anneasquith]

lol...............watch your behind doesnt get skelped !

[Harry-Wragg]

Duncer - I didn't say 'hated', I said 'disliked'.

[jno]

as Carrust says, dwarf-throwing does play a part. Other teams just don't seem to devote as much effort to making themselves look like idiots off the field as England do. Even their captain HRH Tindall behaves like a wally. Professional sportsmen ought to know how to keep themselves out of the headlines. (Quite apart from little onfield occurrences like ball-tampering.) If Scotland carried on like that, I suspect they'd attract sneers too.

[pa___ul3]

Duncer, not looking to get political, although the question obviously has some political connotations... what's the general concensus on it being a combined Irish team? I've often wondered.

[anneasquith]

a past english rugby player ( cant recall his name )was on tv today, stating the behaviour of the english rugby team in NZ has been deplorable,

[annie0000]

Scotland has a population which is much less than the population of London, so they are applauded for batting above their weight when compared to England

[emmie]

I am neither for nor against Scotland. But the great debate over sporting prowess is nothing compared to the endless battles fought between England and Scotland in the long distant past, and i firmly believe that is at the heart of the so called dislike of England and the English. However having visited Scotland numerous time, i can say they are a generous, kind people, and i have the utmost regard for those i met. But when in England the Scots display a Braveheart mentality, no one but the Scots are brave, and the English are devils, and having listened most patiently while these debates raged between my Scottish friends, i kindly reminded them that they were enjoying the fruits of England, living, working and earning their crusts here, and if Scotland was so wondeful a place, suggested they perhaps should return to the land of their birth, as that seemed preferable from their perspective. Most just hurrumphed and got on with supping their English ale, followed by the obligatory English pork pie.
Rich47, i hope you don't take offence, as none is intended.

[Arksided]

"if Scotland win a major trophy" there's no need to take the P!ss.

[notasyoungasiwas]

em I absolutely loved that !

[flip_flop]

anne000 said "Scotland has a population which is much less than the population of London, so they are applauded for batting above their weight when compared to England"

Population of Scotland - 5.3m
Population of New Zealand - 4.4m

I don't think we can use population as an argument given the best in the world at the moment, and the probable winners, have a population almost 1m less than Scotland.

[DTCwordfan]

as one who lived in Scotland for a few years, they are a lovely people one on one and very generous with their time and all the rest. As a nation coming together for football or rugby they are the biggest pain in the sphincter and I enjoy it when they come up short, against anybody but the French.

The feeling is probably mutual.

The England rugby team have under-performed, period, some notable exceptions and as to last Saturday it was only with the efforts of Tugiali (sp) Armitage and when Easter came on to actually run straight at the Picts without dropping the ball that we got some motion and the claw-back of what could have been an embarrassing deficit.

Ireland Italy was a corker of a match and well done the Irish, the front five, esp O'Connell were superb and that first try a gem but all credit to the Azzuri for their fight until the last Q. Wales also demolished Fiji impressively and the match up of the Daffs versus the Guinness drinkers is a mouth-watering prospect. I hope that it is a real gem of a match. England France = the battle of the duffers and the French look at 9s and 10s......their decision in the last three minutes to go for the push try and not the penalty was completely inexplicable and what bozos when they just needed one point to assure their qualification. Rank amateurism.

[annie0000]

flip flop, that's true, but we are talking about Scotland v England here (Pop of London 7.7m). You will also find that a good proportion of the NZ population is from Scottish ancestry :o)
Plus, New Zealand are all about the Rugby, Scotland participates to a reasonable level in many other sports. Rugby is mainly catered for in the Borders and in Private schools in the rest of the country - that is slowly changing, but it's not a big sport in much of Scotland.