Reply With QuoteMy nephew just posted the video on fb, very similar indeed. The pots and kettles were rather black on Saturday it seems.Originally Posted by Pitfitter
Owen Farrell did the same or very similar in a game against Edinburgh several years ago, ref had been speaking to Greg Laidlaw, GL turns away and ref blows play on, water carriers still on pitch, players out of position, so OF punts the ball to the right winger, try.
Trying to find YouTube footage.
My nephew just posted the video on fb, very similar indeed. The pots and kettles were rather black on Saturday it seems.
Merci arbitre
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England were much improved today.
Italy flattered Wales, they were poor and Wales were clinical.
Tomorrow’s games should be a cracker.
It’s amazing what happens when you try to win a game by passing, eh?
The hyperbole over Wales is laughable. France are rightly favourites for next weeks game in Paris.
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England showed much more today - more flair more character more discipline and more cutting edge. Deserved the win.
Looking forward to a lively feisty fastpaced game tomorrow.
It was a great win for England but France were really impressive and are worthy favourites for WC 2023. It was a fantastic game for the neutral. I agree with earlier comment - France will be too strong for Wales next Saturday.
Excellent game yesterday - perhaps the match of the tournament this year. France were very good which actually seemed to lift England’s game and more importantly their ambition. No complaint about the referee yesterday - consistent, which is all most fans want to see.
As for the Wales Italy game. I turned over after 20 minutes. Italy seem to be going backwards.
Should be a good one today, but I fancy Ireland to over power the Scots.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
I fear for Ireland next Saturday, that England team will take them out at the root.
If they lose to Scotland today the realistic wooden spoon beckons. I hope that Stockdale plays, he can make a difference when he is on his A game.
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This game was Scotland’s for the taking but their line out is a shambles
Well I predicted we’d lose it 48 mins ago. Ok we came back into it but we didn’t deserve to win. 6 lost line outs out of 7 is terrible. Well done Ireland
They lack belief. I used to think it was a few key players, Laidlaw for example, however having watched over the years, from McGeechan to Townsend, I now think it’s more systematic.
I honestly believe Scotland need to look outside Scotland and get a decent coach. Townsend wasn’t really that good as a player and is not very good as a coach. France will put them to the sword.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Good away win for Ireland. I thought the final score slightly flattered Scotland but they did show glimpses of what they can do for the last try.
Also nice to see the ref on his arse...:-)
After a year of dreadful international rugby dominated by box kicking, this weekend has resulted in 2 fantastic enjoyable games.
Scotland were ill disciplined and their drill let them down, you can’t win a game of rugby If you can’t win your own line out, they lost 6 from 8.
Scotland are dangerous in broken play and Watson is close to the best open side in the world but first phase ball is not guaranteed. That really hurts them.
Bring on Eng V Ire next week. It will be close
It wasn’t even that good, if you can’t get the ball to the middle at least try one to the front? no plan B when trying pick n go, ref allowed Ireland to come in at the side repeatedly at the breakdown, but no excuses needed really, we were second best.
Easy win for Ireland today. Worst England team I’ve seen for many a year.
Should teams be practising playing Wales with 14 men as that seems to be what you end up playing them with.
Yet again a referee taking centre stage and changing a game.
Sensational end to that game.
I didn’t see the game but I just had a quick look online and if I’ve read it right it’s Wales that actually had the least amount of players on the field at the end of the game having two players sin binned.
England were truly awful
Thats modern Rugby, if the Ref spots shoulder charging into peoples faces then good riddens to them....
Correct, 14 French, 13 Welsh for the last ten minutes or so. Heck of a game, can't complain at the result, or the refereeing which was the best I've seen in a long time. Come on Scotland!!!!! Haggis n' neeps for tea next weekend ;)
Indeed. It's strange people complaining that Wales play 14 men, the 15th shouldn't have broken the rules then, simple. In this case it was actually eye gouging which truly deserves the red.
Constant penalty infringements 5m from the try line got 2 Welsh players yellow cards(probably should have been 3).
To be fair the angle they showed the eye gouge at the end of the game did look more deliberate than it first appeared.
I don't think you could characterise that as a shoulder charge to the head - Aki was very unlucky there. But this is what we're going to have to go through if we want to remove hits to heads. On the other hand, I wonder if we'll see more tacklers knocked out, and end up back at square one.
This French team has the potential to be the best in the world, they have decent strength and depth. I think they will be too much for Scotland, it will be close but I think France will nick it.
Wales like England need to get rid of some of the ‘old’ heads, there is lots of talent out there who will be hungry for the caps.
This is the worst England team I have ever seen, it’s amazing that the same team got to the World Cup final and ground out victory in the Autumn Championship, I have no idea what is going on inside the camp but there is no leadership on the park and lots of players seem to be going through the motions, sticking to the game play religiously unable to adapt. There is the real prospect of a lions tour without any England players. Not one of the team would make my starting 15.
Absolutely. From a Lions team a few months ago that consisted of 12 English, a Scot,aWelshand an Irish (tokenism) to no English representatives....(well one token one May,Watson or Curry).
Worth pointing out that a large proportion if the England team has played zero domestic rugby. Needs factoring in.
Itoje, Curry, Farrell walk into the Lions starting XV
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Agree with all your points.
France, whenever they turned it on yesterday looked unstoppable, and were definitely the best team of the tournament, even if we (Wales) do come out on top after next weeks result.
Some of the young talent coming through is indeed very impressive, but is there enough of it available from a small player pool to make a squad for Wales? Not sure regarding England, not as limited numberswise but the same probably applies.
As for England, no way are their woes down to the skillset of the players, many or most are obviously world class. It can only be the management/coaching at fault. Either EJ has lost the changing room and the press hasn't caught a whiff of it, or his style is so dictatorial that a player dare not deviate from 'the plan' (note the use of the singular rather than plural). Indeed, the Lions could well have very few if any English players based on what we have seen, which would have been unthinkable even weeks ago.
Yes that is correct, why were they selected for the squad? You should pick the players in form not the players who had form. It was the players choice to stay at Sarries; ok COVID has played it’s part but there are other players in the championship not getting picked for international duty why should they?
I think the other home nations have players who fill the spots you mention. They would not be missed on current form.
Curry over Watson, don’t think so
Zammitt over May? Zammitt proved he was quicker
Farrell would not make my England team
Itoje - fantastic player but other locks have played better and not given away penalties.
I am a life long England fan but there are fundamental issues in the squad and management at the moment.
Last edited by Sinnlover; 21st March 2021 at 09:17.
Perhaps EJ has been too loyal to some underperforming players? Simplistically (and based on the world cup), a back row of Curry, Underhill and Simmonds (Dombrandt?), behind an engine room of Itoje and Launchbury, lots of class front rows (Marler). A surfeit of world class wings (Nowell to come back). So for me, the main problem areas are 9, 10 and 12.
Totally agree
Youngs is pedestrian at best, always has been, Care when selected at least offered quick service and a bit of zip around the ruck, would like to see Smith at 10 he is on top form as is Dombrant although I think Simmons would get the nod at the moment.
Farrell is a large part of the problem for me currently, nothing is getting out past him, he wants to play fly half wearing 12, Laurence got virtually no ball yesterday. Marchant would be a better option for me (no I don’t think the entire team should be Quin’s)
The young guy from Wasps - Odogwu is a real talent what harm would giving him a start do? Could not be any worse than the incumbents.
Last edited by Sinnlover; 21st March 2021 at 09:49.
And 15. Daly had one of his least-worst games of recent times, and he was only there out of necessity, but other full-backs are available.
Quite why Eddie Jones, having declared after the 2019 World Cup that "most of this squad don't have another World Cup in them", or words to that effect, persists on picking the same squad, when there is a golden opportunity to start building for the next World Cup, I don't know. The Simmonds brothers, with Alex Dombrandt as an option at No 8 being a case in point, Harry Randall (although currently injured) is a Danny Care-esque scrum half who can make things happen, Marcus Smith is a potential world-class fly-half. Play them in the Six Nations, build a squad around them for the next World Cup, instead of playing a team moulded around the turgid Ben Youngs and Owen Farrell.
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You mean the Sarries players? Why were they selected then?
Farrell is no where near the best 10 or 12 in England let alone available to the Lions. It wouldn’t be a shock if he wasn’t picked for the squad.
Itoje is a penalty liability at the moment though his talents undeniable so he’s far from a shoe in. Curry’s got great form so if he stays fit then he’ll be close it there are so many great back row options available to Gatland some of whom haven’t played in the 6 Nations this season.
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If you consider both sexton and bigger are on the plane, Farrell is going to struggle to make the squad, is he a 10 or a 12? He just doesn't do anything, his best aspect is his kicking and tackling but not enough to force his way in, Finn Russell should make it for the chaos factor, losing 15mins to go, throw him on...
May will go, can't think of too many others in the backs, back row is highly competitive as is second row, but with AWJ likely to be captain it makes it even harder.. think England's penalty count will count against their players, having watched wales last night, hard to argue them not providing most of the lions
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From my (green tinted) perspective, I honestly don't believe Wales were ever going to beat us except that we were down a man for 60+ minutes. On the other hand, I don't think we would have gone to Paris and all but beaten France as Wales did last night, which was a great performance.
As a fellow green , Wales got lucky against us, but they have got better and better and apart from the French doing what the French do it could have been a perfect 6 nations for Wales.
Let's face it, no one would be surprised if France lose to Scotland by a big score - French being French - brilliant but flawed
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There you go
Sinkler Owens, furlong, AWJ, beirne, faletau vunipola,watson, Murray, sexton, may, Davies, north, zammit, hogg
Can faletau play at 6, curry will be close
Can Sinkler play on other side?
Hogg struggles under high ball
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So coming back to the title of this thread, dismissing the obvious (Italy) does this mean England got the wooden spoon?
Finn Russell has been the stand out player for me throughout. Just exudes class and brings that surprise factor where out of nothing he just explodes and creates something. He’s been a joy to watch.
Probably. England deserve it although ironically will end up being the only team to defeat France
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The crunch will always be le crunch. Even more so in Twickenham.
In more ways than one I think this defeat was good for France, as yesterday’s victory will be: they will learn from it.
Whether they will have recovered next Friday is another matter...
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Yep I would say they did
Their performance against Italy was the least impressive out of all the others in the competition
I think Scotland have shown enough to suggest that the game v France won’t be an automatic win for France...
I sort of agree, Finn can be great at times but Scotland will not improve whilst he is playing, position, territory, possession, points wins tests matches, you need to play under a structure.
Finn is incapable of this, he can score tries from his own half, Scotland still loses
It's a mindset the French used to have, everyone second team, entertainment but never threatening the leaders
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Russell is flaky, and a liability.
Did you watch the European Champions Cup Final?
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One bad game does not a bad player make. He was the best player on the pitch in 3 of the 4 games Scotland played this year. Just my view ofc
Yes fair enough I should have said of all the teams to play France so far
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If it was one bad game, then fair enough. But it isn't:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/...peful-19126569
Scroll down to about half way. And bear in mind that these comments, and mine, relate to the biggest game in European club rugby.
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That’s the same game you mentioned above. I think he is more consistently good than you are giving him credit for.
Regarding being a Lion the match instructions to him would be crystal clear and it could well be that it would curb his flair. Whether that’s good or bad would depend on the match I guess.
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