What a month this has been!! 11week rest debate, Clubs vs Country Row once again and Central Contracts looming on the horizon. As my Grandmother would say, 'It will all end in tears' Regardless if you are a Club or Country person this must be a nightmare for those England players who just want to play rugby. Whatever the outcome let us all hope it does not get too messy and the game does not suffer.

Now for the good new - Brian Ashton, who manages both the Junior and Senior National Academies, will now coach England A this season. This is the best bit of news I have heard all September. We wish you good luck Brian.

Ed kicked our month off with a look at the England defence. England Rugby - An aggressive defence is the logical step forward among other things outlined by our NEW Columnist Ed Budge. Ed looks in detail at the current England set up and by his reckoning Larder needs to go! Wow read on folks... Eng Rugby Defence needed

And our Patrick looked England's Fixtures up to 2007 - England's World Cup 2007 campaign has to start now. With two years to go before our attempt to defend the World Cup, Unofficial England Rugby takes a look at who the team will face before the championship... England Fixtures

And wor Jonny came in for some ribbing by the EastTerrace crew -England and Newcastle Falcons star Jonny Wilkinson's loss of lady luck has given the writers at TheEastTerrace the ammunition for the following spoof Jonny Wilkinson and Lady Luck confirm end of relationship

And our Claire looked at the Scottish Model of rugby - The discussions about the future of the game in England are again in full flight. The RFU are now pressing for a move towards central contracts. Scottish Rugby - A View

And our England Sevens squad was announced by coach Mike Friday. He is looking forward to an exciting season in which they will be aiming to wrestle the IRB Sevens crown from New Zealand for the first time, but also secure gold at the Commonwealth Games in March. Friday has named two squads - a core squad of nine players who are available to play in all eight IRB Sevens tournaments and to be put forward for selection for the Commonwealth Games, and a wider squad of 29 players who are available to play in a minimum of four tournaments during the season.

England Sevens Core Squad:
Simon Amor, Gloucester
James Bailey, Gloucester
Danny Care, Leeds Tykes
Will Matthews, Gloucester
Anthony Roques, Exeter Chiefs
Ben Russell, Saracens
Mathew Tait, Newcastle Falcons
Andy Vilk, Northampton Saints
Ben Gollings, Sunnybank (Australia)

More information here

Also the members of the England Rugby Supporters Club wasted no time booking their seats to watch England take on Samoa at Twickenham when 5,000 extra tickets went on priority sale last weekend.

The 23,500 adult members of England’s official fan club snapped up all 5,000 tickets in just three days. Last season one in four adult supporters received a pair of international tickets through the Club ticket ballots. In the past three years ERSC members have bought a total of 60,448 match tickets.

The tickets became available after some clubs and schools decided not to take their full allocation and were offered exclusively to ERSC members.

The tickets come on top of the initial ERSC members’ allocation for all three Investec matches which were drawn through in last week’s online ballot.

For more information or to join ERSC - England's official fan club - check out www.rfu.com/ersc or call 0870 2401642

A reminder of the up and coming Autumn Internationals as well as the fixtures for next year's RBS Six Nations Championship

England 6n Fixtures 2006

Unofficial England Message Board

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