2016 Six Nations

Pross

crispybug2 wrote:

Italy vs England
England were pretty poor for the first sixty minutes but the substitutions made all the difference and pulled away after the intercept try which seemed to completely deflate the Italians


p.s. Ben Youngs MOTM..........srsly!!

Yep, they were in contention but fell apart after that interception. As a Welshman I'm a bit annoyed that England now have a coach who is picking a thoroughbred instead of cart horses at centre and feel a bit nervous. As for Itoje, I haven't seen him before and hoped he was another over-hyped player but he looks like he could be the real deal. England have got a lot of second row options (assuming they play him there rather than flanker).

Shared the sentiments on MOTM, OK I missed the first 20 minutes but when I saw his name come up it was a bit of a WTF moment!

bendertherobot

Pross wrote:

crispybug2 wrote:

Italy vs England
England were pretty poor for the first sixty minutes but the substitutions made all the difference and pulled away after the intercept try which seemed to completely deflate the Italians


p.s. Ben Youngs MOTM..........srsly!!

Yep, they were in contention but fell apart after that interception. As a Welshman I'm a bit annoyed that England now have a coach who is picking a thoroughbred instead of cart horses at centre and feel a bit nervous. As for Itoje, I haven't seen him before and hoped he was another over-hyped player but he looks like he could be the real deal. England have got a lot of second row options (assuming they play him there rather than flanker).

Shared the sentiments on MOTM, OK I missed the first 20 minutes but when I saw his name come up it was a bit of a WTF moment!

Don't worry, he's still picking Hartley as Captain, and Farrell. One of them will see a red before the tournament is out. Nowell and Brown look shoes in for a yellow. The rest seem likeable enough.

fat_cat

Just watched Rugby Special and Victor Matfield made a very good point about England not having line out options in the back row. Against Ireland and Wales this will be a huge issue. The brave call would be to pick Itoje at 6 assuming that Wood and Croft are out of the frame.

tangled_metal

Victor Matfield really made sense. A great find as a pundit IMHO. The line out call just one of a few that caught my eye.

ddraver

Dabber wrote:

Persevered in watching the France, Ireland match but really hard work to maintain any interest. Decided not to watch Wales, Scotland but later on I weakened and thought I'd dip in to see how it was going. A couple of minutes of Jonathon Davies dulcet tones had me turning off.

He had pretty much abandoned all sense pf Impartiality by the second half eh?

dabber

ddraver wrote:

Dabber wrote:

Persevered in watching the France, Ireland match but really hard work to maintain any interest. Decided not to watch Wales, Scotland but later on I weakened and thought I'd dip in to see how it was going. A couple of minutes of Jonathon Davies dulcet tones had me turning off.

He had pretty much abandoned all sense pf Impartiality by the second half eh?

Yup, that and the sound of his voice just do my head in.

Pross

ddraver wrote:

Dabber wrote:

Persevered in watching the France, Ireland match but really hard work to maintain any interest. Decided not to watch Wales, Scotland but later on I weakened and thought I'd dip in to see how it was going. A couple of minutes of Jonathon Davies dulcet tones had me turning off.

He had pretty much abandoned all sense pf Impartiality by the second half eh?

How many of the BBC pundits are in any way impartial? Jiffy is by no means the worst! Drives me nuts with his 'go wide' shouts though especially when in most cases the ball isn't available.

More to the point, how did the half time section end up being virtually entirely about England rather than reviewing and analysing the first half?

crispybug2

France vs Wales.......... F*ck me that was atrocious!!!

pblakeney

crispybug2 wrote:

France vs Wales.......... F*ck me that was atrocious!!!

Wait till later today......

tangled_metal

Anyone know if the England match is going on iPlayer? Missed it live and got made to turn the voice on whilst watching it on itv+1. Seriously? Amateur singers more important that 6 nations? How'd that work?

kingstonian

Great game by Vunipola, he's such a handful.

Itoje did well too. Such a great prospect, has a strong understanding of the game and the physical attributes needed to be world class.

schlepcycling

Tangled Metal wrote:

Anyone know if the England match is going on iPlayer? Missed it live and got made to turn the voice on whilst watching it on itv+1. Seriously? Amateur singers more important that 6 nations? How'd that work?

It's on the ITV Hub http://www.itv.com/hub/rugby-six-nations-2016/2a4295a0004

Pross

England's to lose now. On current form they should turn Wales over. The standard of the competition seems to be dropping every year (no slight intended to England who, along with Scotland maybe, are certainly an improving team).

ddraver

Pross wrote:

England's to lose now. On current form they should turn Wales over. The standard of the competition seems to be dropping every year (no slight intended to England who, along with Scotland maybe, are certainly an improving team).

It is depressingly poor this year isnt it?

It feels like everyone has been stung after the NH WC Failure and have just retreated into their shells.

France´s idea of creativity at the moment appears to be fermez les yeux and just fling it wildly...

ddraver

I ve never been so angry after a win over Wales.

That last 20 minutes was so poor. You can give it all the "we ve not talked about the world cup" bollocks you like but clearly there is a problem there that needs to be solved. The concern is that I fear that England has just put a sticking plaster over the problem (especially as a grand slam is now reasonably likely) so it can be ignored for another 3 years before standing around scratching our heads wondering why we ve been beaten in the World Cup again!

Someone has got to teach the England camp how to play within the rules and keep their composure if they re going to succeed in anything that counts

Pross

Well I think that shows categorically that Gatland needs to re-think his strategy, they showed once the game was lost that they can play excellent rugby. The pick and drive game has to go now, we have excellent backs who can score from anywhere when playing fast, open rugby. England the best team in the tournament by far but still very nervy when put under pressure, it's just a shame Wales didn't apply any until the last 20 minutes.

Italy appear to have regressed and are once again the whipping boys of the tournament which is a real shame.

ddraver

Agree with everything except "by far" I'd say equal to a misfiring Wales (and whatever is wrong with Ireland)

The game should have been dead at 60 mins, just boring mauls and penalty kicks

pblakeney

"They must be asking themselves -"Why didn't we play like this from the start?""
What? Play against 14 men? And they get paid to utter such tripe! :evil:

Pross

PBlakeney wrote:

"They must be asking themselves -"Why didn't we play like this from the start?""
What? Play against 14 men? And they get paid to utter such tripe! :evil:

Do you really think Dan Cole would have helped prevent those late tries? If they'd come from the usual Welsh MO of driving round the fringes, mauls or scrums then it would have been a valid reason but they were scored from pretty much first phase.

Pross

ddraver wrote:

Agree with everything except "by far" I'd say equal to a misfiring Wales (and whatever is wrong with Ireland)

The game should have been dead at 60 mins, just boring mauls and penalty kicks

The game was won by then, England were one score too much in front at that stage. I thought England were excellent for those 60 minutes today. They should arguably have scored more tries but opted to continually take the points. I'm still amazed Wales out scored them 3 tries to 1 with the possession and territory stats. It was lovely to see Brown butcher his early chance I have to admit. They do look vulnerable to being attacked by pace though, something I'm hoping France can exploit next week.

pblakeney

Pross wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

"They must be asking themselves -"Why didn't we play like this from the start?""
What? Play against 14 men? And they get paid to utter such tripe! :evil:

Do you really think Dan Cole would have helped prevent those late tries? If they'd come from the usual Welsh MO of driving round the fringes, mauls or scrums then it would have been a valid reason but they were scored from pretty much first phase.

I believe that his presence would have allowed for someone else to cover them.
Or, do you believe that a 15 man England can't cover fast first phase?

Pross

I don't think that, in the instances of the two tries scored while he was off the field, his presence would have made any difference. From memory there were no breakdowns in play in the build up to the tries which is where an outside defender might have got sucked in to cover his space. In plays like those I would suggest that both sets of front rows would be effectively out of the game. I'd have to watch the moves in full again though as my memory of details is useless. A missing player usually becomes a factor after a cafe with phases of tight play deliberately sucking the defenders in to make space.

ddraver

Pross wrote:

ddraver wrote:

Agree with everything except "by far" I'd say equal to a misfiring Wales (and whatever is wrong with Ireland)

The game should have been dead at 60 mins, just boring mauls and penalty kicks

The game was won by then, England were one score too much in front at that stage. I thought England were excellent for those 60 minutes today. They should arguably have scored more tries but opted to continually take the points. I'm still amazed Wales out scored them 3 tries to 1 with the possession and territory stats.

Well exactly, but it came down to a single tackle...one that a lighter player may not have made - thats absurd!

laurentian

I was thrilled with the England win. I Always am when we beat Wales.

The first hour was as good as England have played in 5 or 6 years and I like the way Jones is beginning to make some kind of mark on the team. The black mark against Jones was the (seemingly compulsory) changing of personnel around the hour mark - I can never understand why this happens with a team in the dominant position that England were. Sadly, I guess it has something to do with the telemetry stats. Wholesale changes like that are possibly worth it when you are 15 points down but I am sure it contributed to the Welsh resurgence - which was impressive . . . even if it was against 14 men.

As far as it being a "poor 6 Nations" goes, I would say, so far, England and Scotland would disagree.

crispybug2

Despite this not being a great Six Nations tournament, I'm looking forward to a day of rugby with, hopefully, an England Grand Slam to celebrate.

Also I'm particularly looking forward to my daughters whining about Dad taking over the television and them not being able to watch whatever shite it is that they want to watch......bliss!

Pross

Italy have gone so far backwards in the last two seasons, it's a real shame. I feel so sorry for Parisse, world class for the whole of such a long career but with too few players around to support him. He must know how Ryan Giggs felt!

Anyway, time to get my beret out, eat some garlic and learn the words of the Marseillaise

ddraver

Pross

Well done to England, the most consistent team and certainly moving the right way. They've unearthed a real gem in Itoje too. Fortunately they were able to call on a couple of Pontypool lads, one of whom will presumably be named player of the tournament. Kruis was superb yesterday too.

Hopefully Gatland's comments suggest he's realised Wales need to play whole games like the last quarter against England instead of the battering ram approach but I won't hold my breath! Nice to see Abergavenny RC's George North back at full confidence too.

tangled_metal

Welsh connections among English players. Hmmm! Next you'll bring up the English Vunipolas perhaps.

I think I heard a pundit comment about how people were saying it's been a poor tournament. Then went on to say grand slams are never easily won, they're earnt. Comments like "if it was easy why didn't the others do it".

I reckon it wasn't the best 6 nations but any there's a grand slam that team's done well. Although I saw a figure that the average age in England team is 24, the average age of WC winners is 28. Just how much further can England develop?

BTW I think you'll agree Argentina came on a lot after competing with the big three southern hemisphere sides. I always wonder whether there's an issue in the north if one side dominates then development is stilted by not having the same high level of competition as the SH sides have. PS I'm keen on union but I'm definitely no expert so I am seriously curious about this. Does the NH have problems or is it just cyclical about SH sides dominating?

Alain Quay

why doesn't England get an Aussie football coach as well, and an Aussie PM?