Reply With QuoteEngland completely out of sorts. Missing Vunipolas, Robshaw and Haskell.
Great start to the campaign. Stuart Hogg was immense.Originally Posted by gawkrodger
England completely out of sorts. Missing Vunipolas, Robshaw and Haskell.
Some substitutions seem to have helped. Let's hope it lasts...
Haskell and Teo rescued us a bit there.
A win's a win. Dire performance mind.
All the subs looked good, Daly has a good game.
Itoje didn't seem to work so well at 6 and Youngs played like he's been playing for Leicester
That French side was very physical, but how many tackles did we miss? How many knock ons? handling errors? Horrendous. Farrell had a shocker at 12 missed so many first up tackles, Wood looked out of place. Our subs were great.
Difficult for Youngs to look good for either when the pack is going backwards and getting smashed at the breakdown.
Desert Island Discs today, Sunday, at 11h15 on BBC R4; Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the rugby union referee Nigel Owens.
Wonder what Eddie Jones said at half time? Bet the air was blue!**!
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I'm not a big fan of Rugby Union but I watched both games yesterday. Better side finished second in each case, I was amazed that Scotland came out on top and just as surprised that England scraped home.
It also proves that there's only one statistic that matters!
Paul
Those French lads were a bit on the large side! I think tackles were missed due to the sheer physicality of the French team.
The subs did well, have to agree on that.
Paul
Nae worries, England won playing badly, France lost playing well, 'nuff said.
Very sad news today. Joost van der Westhuizen
RIP.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Probably a relief in his case. 45 is no age at all.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
As an ardent Scotland Rugby fan it was a pleasant change to see us win after playing not so great. Normally we play great and get beaten. Long live winning ugly ;)
somewhat concerned by our hugely inexperienced back row.
Wales have just lost George North, being replaced by Cuthbert
He did no look well against Italy to be fair.
Personally as an England fan, I would have preferred a sick North, compared with a fit Cuthbert to be honest.
As for AndyG predictions.
England will beat Wales - by <10.
Ireland to beat Italy - by lots and get a bonus point.
Scotland vs France is much more difficult. If it was Murryfield I would defo call it for Scotland, however in Paris and just having their arse slapped by England, I think France will try to bully Scotland and will win if they keep their discipline. Its very difficult to call except I will say it will be very close - my view is that if Scotland is leading at half time they will win.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Cuthbert's recent form is very poor .Ford/Farrell should just kick to his wing and see if he can catch it .An indication of the paucity of wings in Wales .Same applies to centres and t/h props .The English should cruise this one .
If I was Eddie, I'd be quite pleased with Cuthbert on the wing!
I'd also, as already mentioned, be having worries about our backrow
Balls.
You'd do better with Tipuric on the wing than Cuthbert in his current form.
I was surprised he was picked for the squad at all tbh.
Hope he proves me wrong though
A lack of faith in untested young players I'd say
Well, Eddie clearly said last week that in his view, players need experience to play at the top level and any game used to 'test' new players was a game lost for the ones in place. Maybe his Welsh counterpart tore a sheet of Jones' book?
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
I agree. Cuthbert is a good player when in form, but he has been out of sorts for a while now. I wonder if it is a lack of confidence.
North is not out yet, late fitness test, there's a chance Stef Evans might replace him instead of Cuthbert, big call but he's been playing well.
My predictions
Wales by 7
France by 10
Ireland by 20
Last edited by dl_griff; 11th February 2017 at 13:28. Reason: typo
North is out, Biggar is fit. Cuthbert starts.
Italy were awful - training session for Ireland. Leg one of my Tripple accumulater complete
Come on you England - swing low sweet chariot
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Ireland will be very happy with that.
That Ringrose try!
The 3rd one? It was great, however at that point the Italians were out on their feet. I think I could have scored that one
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
What a match, England were immense, Wales weren't to bad either. What a great advert for the Six Nations. Come on England
And so it was proven. Cuthbert is a liability. Sooner or later he'll cock up
Last edited by acg; 11th February 2017 at 20:23.
congratulations England, ground out a hard fought Win
thoughts on the game
Cuthbert isn't international class
Itoje isn't world class - yet
Launchbury is
George Ford wont be the Lions 10
You cant have a Lions capt who cant last 50 mins
Webb is nailed on as Lions starting 9
What a wonderful game - congrats to both sides, but especially to England. 16 in a row!
i would have got the spread right, but forget to factor in missed kicks.
I have decided France will win tomorrow by 9.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
England thrashed at the breakdown - 8-2 turnovers!! Shows how much we miss Bill and Haskell (starting). Lucky escape for England. As usual, Wales turn up against England. I have lost more hair watching that one.
Plus side our replacement front row looks better then our starting one! Bodes well.
Dont forget who England had missing today. But hopefully Mako will be ready for Scotland. Not totally convinced by Hughes.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Agree, Otje seems more effective at the breakdown when playing at lock? he was amazig there last year. Kruis is generally very good with turn overs.
Well they turned up for the first 70 mins 😉
What a game! My Elliot Daly mancrush continues! I nearly cracked the windows with my shouts when he scored.
Best Wales have played in a long time. If we're winning against teams playing well when only hitting about 70% of our level things are looking good. Just need to crank the levels up a bit, especially for Ireland. I'm feeling positive about chances of the Grand Slam now.
T'eo was great when he came on, Launchbury was fantastic, Haskell put in a good shift once he was on the pitch, Farrell and Ford were decent
oh, and I thought Moriaty was excellent for Wales (even if he clearly should have been yellow carded for that late tackle on Farrell) and don't quite understand why he was taken off when he was.
- - - Updated - - -
oh, and as a Wasps fan it was great to see the Wasps lads all play well
and in non-6N news
Oh dear Sarries!
Kind of nervous about tomorrows game in Paris - the pack of the scots might struggle with the pure grunt of the frogs. The England Wales game today was a triumph for attacking rugby. Great match.
I've just been watching some of the Brisbane Tens - great fun - Never watched ten-a-side before, but definetly something I'd like to see more of
Leicester have just confirmed they;ve bagged Ford for next season
One thing that surprised me watching the 6 nations is the way the scrum halves get away with 'feeding' the scrum! I thought this was solely a Rugby League thing, where the scrum is used as a way to restart the game quickly and feeding into the second row happens all the time. Watched the France/Scotland game and both sides seemed to be blatantly 'feeding' their own feet. I thought the scrum was sacrosanct to Rugby Union and I`m surprised to see this; from what I could see the hookers were playing no part in striking for the ball.
Scrums take far too long and help a side run the clock down. Ideally, the clock should stop till the ball goes in and the side who've won the ball should have 5 seconds to get it out unless the scrum is within the 20 metre line. That would do away with a lot of the penalties and messing around, whilst still retaining the possibility of a pushover try.
Paul
Disagree with you Paul. The scrum is a battle that is part and parcel of the game. It is true that it is not always spectacular but the amount of strength a team can leave in a scrum where it is dominated will have a significant impact on the rest of the game. Those 5 seconds are not needed. Plus, unenforceable as the ref could not time it.
Regarding the feeding as others have said it is probably a lesser evil, saving many restarted scrums. The ball cannot be stolen anymore but a strong scrum will still break the other 8, even if they have the ball.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
If you want a (relatively) straight put-in at the scrum, get the referee to do it.
...and if you want to speed up the game, the easiest way would be for World Rugby to standardise the kicking tee & have the ref carry it on a clip on his waist. They'd have to give eighteen months notice, I suppose.
______
Jim.
I laughed (not entirely safe for work)
https://youtu.be/EvhHGPCo6X4
Laidlaw out for the rest of the 6N. Scotland collectively swears
Yeah, a bit of a blow. Ali Price is a good SH but he's too young and inexperienced to be a captain, especially of the national team.
Jonny Gray would a good choice in my opinion but losing Laidlaw is a huge loss.
^^^ and yet a great number at Glaws feel we're better without him starting!
Sarries losing two in a row! That doesn't happen often (though good to see Mako have a good game back - should hopefully be good to go for the rest of the 6N)
Tigers turn up for once. Huge difference having Veianu and Petersen back...
What a brilliant Friday night! Had to watch via paddy power as i'm away with work, but what a performance from Glaws (proper Jeykll & Hyde stuff after last weeks thumping at Tiggers) - now we just have to figure out how to play that well every week!
Posting Permissions