Six Nations 2017

narbs

bendertherobot wrote:

Sexton took one for the team. Good penalty well spotted. Barnes was pretty excellent last night.

Wales were strong. Wales ARE strong. It's not a game plan that has any real future but it can work on its day.

As entertaining as beating the Irish is, it's another layer of paper over deep cracks. They're still playing one-up bosh, no-one's running any interesting decoy lines and if anything happens to Webb we're screwed.

Garry H

narbs wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

Sexton took one for the team. Good penalty well spotted. Barnes was pretty excellent last night.

Wales were strong. Wales ARE strong. It's not a game plan that has any real future but it can work on its day.

As entertaining as beating the Irish is, it's another layer of paper over deep cracks. They're still playing one-up bosh, no-one's running any interesting decoy lines and if anything happens to Webb we're screwed.

Interesting stat at the start yesterday; Wales have only introduced three new players since the last WC

bendertherobot

Garry H wrote:

narbs wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

Sexton took one for the team. Good penalty well spotted. Barnes was pretty excellent last night.

Wales were strong. Wales ARE strong. It's not a game plan that has any real future but it can work on its day.

As entertaining as beating the Irish is, it's another layer of paper over deep cracks. They're still playing one-up bosh, no-one's running any interesting decoy lines and if anything happens to Webb we're screwed.

Interesting stat at the start yesterday; Wales have only introduced three new players since the last WC

And each of those are pretty much token replacements for a few minutes.

Pross

Hardly surprising given the lack of strength in depth you get when you only have 4 professional teams to pick from in Wales and a policy of limiting how many you can select from outside of that pool (or puddle would probably be a better description). With the Dragons current problems it might end being even smaller soon.

I'm a big critic of Wales one dimensional tactics but actually thought they mixed it up more yesterday which resulted in North being involved. We're still miles away from that NZ way of playing where they just keep the ball alive and off the ground though. It was nice to see proper scrummaging last night though, can't remember the last time I saw no collapses in an international game.

Italy showing signs of improving again, just a shame about their defence.

Pross

How small does Dallaglio look next to Hamilton and

Pross

This tip tackle rule has got out of control. If you make a tackle and end up losing your own footing how can anyone expect you to bring the other player safely to ground? People need to look back at Umaga on O'Driscoll to see what a dangerous tackle is.

Pross

Scotland seem to have decided that tackling in the centre channels is optional this week. What a difference 2 weeks can make, they are dire this week.

bendertherobot

Men v boys today. They've had some poor luck but this is going to be a big score. Rare nowadays to win the Championship this weekend.

crispybug2

bendertherobot wrote:

Men v boys today. They've had some poor luck but this is going to be a big score. Rare nowadays to win the Championship this weekend.

Except England won it last season with a round to spare as well

bendertherobot

crispybug2 wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

Men v boys today. They've had some poor luck but this is going to be a big score. Rare nowadays to win the Championship this weekend.

Except England won it last season with a round to spare as well

That doesn't make it any less rare :oops:

motogull

So England send Scotland home to think again. Again.

narbs

Well, Iain Robertson will be happy at least.

bendertherobot

narbs wrote:

Well, Iain Robertson will be happy at least.

Something something monkeys. Something something rhymes with belcher.

narbs

bendertherobot wrote:

narbs wrote:

Well, Iain Robertson will be happy at least.

Something something monkeys. Something something rhymes with belcher.

Ah, what a thread that was. Up there with Sta's mother in law

Garry H

bendertherobot wrote:

narbs wrote:

Well, Iain Robertson will be happy at least.

Something something monkeys. Something something rhymes with belcher.

The Scottish Eddie Butler. What a c***.

Alain Quay

narbs wrote:

Well, Iain Robertson will be happy at least.

Can't stand his commentary

crispybug2

Billy Vunipola restored to the England line up

Connor Murray out injured from the Ireland line up

Could be the most important line up changes this weekend.

crispybug2

The France vs Wales match has been utterly dreadful so far

dabber

crispybug2 wrote:

The France vs Wales match has been utterly dreadful so far

Just turned over to this about 15 minutes ago... Fred Karno's Circus....

Pross

WT actual F was that? To be honest I didn't care who won as the game was dire but had I been Barnes I'd have looked to penalise France at the first opportunity after being taken for a mug by the French doctor like that. After that he seemed determined that France would win so may as well have given a penalty try at the first opportunity and saved 20 minutes of everyone's lives. Even Moore was saying the French were going up first on some of those scrums when Wales were penalised.

Oh well, second bottom in the table may finally make the WRU realise there's need for a change at the top. Must be half time in England v Ireland by now lol

secretsqirrel

Pross wrote:

WT actual F was that? To be honest I didn't care who won as the game was dire but had I been Barnes I'd have looked to penalise France at the first opportunity after being taken for a mug by the French doctor like that. After that he seemed determined that France would win so may as well have given a penalty try at the first opportunity and saved 20 minutes of everyone's lives. Even Moore was saying the French were going up first on some of those scrums when Wales were penalised.

Oh well, second bottom in the table may finally make the WRU realise there's need for a change at the top. Must be half time in England v Ireland by now lol

+1
Not sure I want anymore 6 Nations today. No stomach for it.

pblakeney

Pross wrote:

...After that he seemed determined that France would win so may as well have given a penalty try at the first opportunity and saved 20 minutes of everyone's lives...

I actually told the wife before the 80 minute mark the the French were playing for a penalty try.
Could have saved 20 minutes of our lives.

ddraver

Well a bit of a damp fizzle to the last weekend. That farce in Paris and then a pretty drab final match (though drab because the Ireland defence was outstanding)

England so poor I'm not actually disappointed they lost...

crispybug2

Not a vintage Six Nations but England were deserved champions, Ireland were by the better team today, their back row were absolutely outstanding so no complaints about the result

The end of France vs Wales was farcical but I don't see what else Wayne Barnes (who was the outstanding ref of the tournament) could've done except award France a penalty try some ten/fifteen minutes earlier!!

Scotland have improved....a bit and Italy were shockingly awful!!

Pross

I'll never understand what goes on in the scrum but Moore seemed adamant the French were the ones popping up in several of the final scrums and that Barnes got it wrong.

Who knows but the laws caused a lot of the problems - HIAs have been brought in to protect players so seeing the French blatantly abuse them to replace a prop that had been struggling was gamesmanship going too far. I'd also stop the scrum being a penalty option or only allow it once given the mess it has become at international level (something I find odd is that the supposed best players in the world can't manage this when semi-pro players complete virtually all their scrums!).

motogull

A very anticlimactic end to the championship. Classic Ireland tactics saw them prevail. Lions tour next!

bendertherobot

Pross wrote:

I'll never understand what goes on in the scrum but Moore seemed adamant the French were the ones popping up in several of the final scrums and that Barnes got it wrong.

Who knows but the laws caused a lot of the problems - HIAs have been brought in to protect players so seeing the French blatantly abuse them to replace a prop that had been struggling was gamesmanship going too far. I'd also stop the scrum being a penalty option or only allow it once given the mess it has become at international level (something I find odd is that the supposed best players in the world can't manage this when semi-pro players complete virtually all their scrums!).

It's easy for Moore. He sits there, as a front row forward, and calls it with no sanction for being wrong.

The popping up is a non issue for me. The ref interprets the scrum as he sees it. The HIA appears to be a shameful bit of cheating though and must merit a follow up.

vimfuego

They can't even stop the farcical feeding of the ball into the second row of the scrum rather than the middle, so why worry about all the other technicalities & interpretations....?

tangled_metal

Didn't one pundit or retired player once said removing or reducing scrums in rugby is one solution. I know someone on here said that because they're unable or unwilling to referee the scrum well but In seem to remember hearing or reading it somewhere else.

laurentian

Ireland were deserved winners in Dublin but England were never out of touching distance and would have been worthy grand slammers if they had managed to breach the defence for a converted try in the last 20 minutes.

If.

A few weeks ago, a few folk were on here, quite rightly, commenting on England's naivity when faced with the non-ruck situation against Italy. I would venture that most 6N sides would have had the same issue in dealing with that but that's by-the-by. England were so, so much more naive on Saturday evening. Having taken the initial Irish onslaught in the first half and obviously making hay when they kept the ball in hand why TF did they contrive to kick away possession at the rate at which they did? Obvious, fundamental and wrong. Oh, and if you must kick the ball away, try not to kick it to Mr Sexton . . . he's better at that than you.

England disappointing but a good Irish performance