Who is this Bruce chap you speak of Cletus???

Why in gods name would anyone watch that crap? its cricket season, i was at the pub having a little punt on the gee gees & lo & behold, the RL wasn't even on, everyone was watching the cricket, to tell you the truth son, there is very, very little interest in this farce

I just can't wait for it to end so there is no threat of injury & i can look forward to next season when the real footy starts

Or they thought the job was done with 8 mins left and started to mentally clock off.

I opened the Times this morning expecting a decent write up.

Just 3 short paragraphs side snippets. Loads about union and cricket.

To be fair we'd lost Hodgson and Lockers, so it's hardly a surprise the players were blowing at the end. The bias from some of the media in the Sth hemisphere is ridiculous, especially in the Australian TV coverage. Kimmorley et al are a joke.

with 7mins to go and 20-0 up there wasnt any pressure!!

maybe clocked off/got tired/great tongan last effort/miracle after that but left themselves too much to do in the end.

England are battered, bruised and exhausted now.. will give it a good go for the first 30mins next week then it will all take its toll and aussies will run loose i think

You don't know much about sport psychology do you?
Ask any sportsperson, even at the lower grades but more so at the top end of the pile and pretty much all of them will say they don't really notice the crowd when they are engaged in what they are doing.

Sure when you're standing having a breather you'll hear it and see it but it's just noise, it's not intimidating per-se but if you're not used to the noise and/or the occasion it can effect you, not in an intimidating way but it can make you realise the enormity of the occasion, that is usually down to lack of experience/simple mental discipline.
Once you're in the thick of it you're too focused on what you are doing (or should be) to acknowledge the crowd at all.