The Rugby Thread
Comments
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Good spot. Shame the officials missed it. Given the situation they have sometimes been a yellow.kingstongraham said:
I think there might have been a little shove here.Dorset_Boy said:
I think Furlong clipped him rather than a cheap Saffa shot.kingstongraham said:Who was it slammed into Biggar in the aftermath of what should have been the red card? That was a yellow on its own.
It was an utter joke for the ref to say Murray landed on his back!
I really feel Rassie's Rant got to the officials who bottled giving reds which without the rant would have been given.
Colby's head on head with Curry has been given as a red regularly during the last English season too, so had to be at least a yellow.
Although the official generally didn't miss much, they made wrong calls on the big decisions.
Gatland needs to shake things up with next week's team.0 -
Well, he's certanly shook it up!
Owen Farrell, Taulupe Faletau, Anthony Watson and Stuart Hogg are out of the squad.
British and Irish Lions:
Williams; Adams, Henshaw, Aki, Van der Merwe; Biggar, Price; Jones, Owens, Furlong, Itoje, A Wyn Jones (c), Lawes, Curry, Conan
Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, Vunipola, Sinckler, Beard, Simmonds, Murray, Russell, Daly
Given his time on the park last Saturday, I'm baffled at the selection of Owens to start although Liam Williams at 15 is a good call for me.Wilier Izoard XP0 -
Not sure about van der Merwe tbh.
Would have loved to see Rees-Zammit given a go from the bench, but never mind. Not to be.0 -
Wiiliams makes sense.
Van de Merwe was the worst of the back 3 but remains. Judy has dropped the wrong winger.
Henshaw has been poor in both tests, Harris has been good when he has payed.
Aki shouldn't be anywhere near this Tour.
Judy has no idea which 9 to start.
Ken Owens was dreadful when he came on last week, though normally a good player.
Not convinced Beard should have made the Tour let alone the 23.
Simmonds is great if the pack are on the front foot, but will they be?
so it is left to Finn Russell to save the series having not played in a month or so.....
A typically bizarre selection from Gatland, so they'll probably run out comfortable winners!
Is it true that Faff is out? (He should have been banned anyway)0 -
Correct . . . no FaffWilier Izoard XP0
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This series has so far been terrible. Probably watch on Saturday but won't be disappointed if I miss it.0
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Gutting loss.
The Lions should have put that game to bed in the first half. Butchering a 2 on 1, penalised 3 times on the Bok 5m line. Saffas getting away with dropping the scrum, particularly in the first half.
Player who should have been in the stands serving a red card ban scores the key try.
If Finn Russell had played in the earlier tests.....
Anti-rugby won the series.
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Horrible series. Nobody winning would have been fair.1
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For the first time ever I’m really not bothered about watching this coming season.0
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The WRU really are a shower of shit. They stopped promotion from the Championship a few years ago. Pontypool won it that season (2016-17) losing only one game. In 2017-18 they won again and completed the season unbeaten.
In 2018-19 the rules were changed and the winner of the league got to play-off for promotion against the team finishing 5th bottom in the Premiership which was being reduced by 4 teams. They won the league unbeaten for a third title and second successive season unbeaten but lost the play-off so missed promotion. For 2019-20 it was announced there would be automatic promotion again. Pontypool were again top and had won all 16 of their games played when Covid forced the league to stop with 10 matches left.
Today the WRU announced that this season, due to start in a few weeks, will be going back to no promotion.
The really annoying part is they only got relegated to the Championship when the WRU decided to cut the Premiership from 16 teams to 10 with criteria being introduced that teams had to meet to be in the highest league. 11 clubs met this so they then used the previous 6 years league finished to determine who went down. Suddenly end of season 'dead rubbers' where fringe players had been given a run out were the determining factor in relegation 6 years later. The club went to the High Court and lost as the judge basically ruled the WRU are free to make up the rules as they go along.1 -
This is a consequence of a professional sport that struggles to sustain itself financially through the usual channels. It would make perfect financial sense for the Premiership in England to ring fence itself too . . .Wilier Izoard XP0
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It makes sense for the clubs that are the right side of the fence but considering there are probably only 3 or 4 club sides that attract the same level of support as Pontypool in the Premiership it is an odd one. Some of the teams in that league probably struggle to attract more than 200 spectators each week.laurentian said:This is a consequence of a professional sport that struggles to sustain itself financially through the usual channels. It would make perfect financial sense for the Premiership in England to ring fence itself too . . .
Being denied promotion when losing one game in over 3.5 seasons of rugby, finishing top in 3 completed seasons and leading the table when the 4th was cancelled is so frustrating. Over that time the record is:
Played 82, won 81, lost 1
Points for 3234, Points against 990
Tries for 483, tries against 122
There can't be many leagues in any sport where a team has been so dominant.
They have also beaten teams in the league above in the Cup in each season, making the semi-final in 2018-19 where they lost by 2 points against the team that has won that league on the last 3 completed seasons.0 -
I don't necessarily agree with the ring-fencing Pross - I just think it makes financial sense (to those the right side of the fence) - I was referring to the English Premiership but I guess the same applies in Wales. Impressive stats from Ponty and therein lies another problem . . . any sport is about the jepoardy - not much of that with one loss in three seasonsPross said:
It makes sense for the clubs that are the right side of the fence but considering there are probably only 3 or 4 club sides that attract the same level of support as Pontypool in the Premiership it is an odd one. Some of the teams in that league probably struggle to attract more than 200 spectators each week.laurentian said:This is a consequence of a professional sport that struggles to sustain itself financially through the usual channels. It would make perfect financial sense for the Premiership in England to ring fence itself too . . .
Being denied promotion when losing one game in over 3.5 seasons of rugby, finishing top in 3 completed seasons and leading the table when the 4th was cancelled is so frustrating. Over that time the record is:
Played 82, won 81, lost 1
Points for 3234, Points against 990
Tries for 483, tries against 122
There can't be many leagues in any sport where a team has been so dominant.
They have also beaten teams in the league above in the Cup in each season, making the semi-final in 2018-19 where they lost by 2 points against the team that has won that league on the last 3 completed seasons.Wilier Izoard XP0 -
Expected thrashing for a threadbare and undercooked Wales against the All Blacks. All Blacks just better at everything and ran wild in the final quarter. The Welsh set piece was dire and needs looking at before the next few matches. AWJ looks like he'll miss the rest of the series.
The positives were few and far between but Basham looks like he's going to be a star, Wainwright and McNichol had decent games.
All Blacks as ever got the benefit of a few review decisions, it felt like the ref was determined to find reasons to be lenient with them.1 -
I didn't watch all of it, but the mitigating factor in the yellow card before half time was that the Welsh player had bounced off one all black with a no arms tackle before hitting his head on a second all black with a no arms tackle.
Was a no contest really, glad I watched the cricket before putting it on.0 -
Yeah, thought both players should have had a yellow, second 'tackle' could easily have been red as Moriarty had been that low for long enough for him to have adjust. Penalising Adams for being in the air too soon when J Barrett jumped up and took him out was an odd one and not giving a yellow for the most blatant deliberate knock on I can remember was a bit annoying. The All Blacks are enough of a handful without referees seeming to be afraid to rigourously apply the laws against them.kingstongraham said:I didn't watch all of it, but the mitigating factor in the yellow card before half time was that the Welsh player had bounced off one all black with a no arms tackle before hitting his head on a second all black with a no arms tackle.
Was a no contest really, glad I watched the cricket before putting it on.
Wales really fell apart when the All Blacks had an unassailable lead and were able to properly open up. Gifting them an internet try in the first few minutes is a bad idea too.0 -
Pretty much how I would summerise the game, too.Pross said:Expected thrashing for a threadbare and undercooked Wales against the All Blacks. All Blacks just better at everything and ran wild in the final quarter. The Welsh set piece was dire and needs looking at before the next few matches. AWJ looks like he'll miss the rest of the series.
The positives were few and far between but Basham looks like he's going to be a star, Wainwright and McNichol had decent games.
All Blacks as ever got the benefit of a few review decisions, it felt like the ref was determined to find reasons to be lenient with them.
Besides getting the benefit of the dodgy review decisions, there were also a couple of plain wrong ones as well.
We were guessing on Friday night it would be 50 points, given Wales's selection restrictions.
Still, at least the WRU pocketed an extra few million for the now compulsory, extra fixture.
With potentially a couple of long term injuries to add to the extensive list, it's lucky that we only have to play SA, next weekend...................."Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
Cracking Ireland vs New Zealand game and a great win for the Irish.
Eddie's love child really stiffles England, but a comfortable win.0 -
I liked the interview with Lowe afterwards "growing up I always wanted to be an all black, but once I realised I wasn't good enough, it's great to beat them" (or words to that effect)Dorset_Boy said:Cracking Ireland vs New Zealand game and a great win for the Irish.
Eddie's love child really stiffles England, but a comfortable win.0 -
Yeah I can see where your coming from there... I'd have to agreeddraver said:Well, always better to beat the Aussies than lose but.... This is a tough watch 😴😴😴
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Australia had a nightmare. Never looked like scoring, and even that scoreline let's them off the hook.
Hope they play like that against Wales.0 -
I've just endured the England vs Aussie game.
The most influential person in the ground was the video ref and the second was the ref.
Exactly the same in the Scotland vs SA game.
Micro managing to the extent they did yesterday ruins continuity.
Couple this with an error every couple of phases and it became like watching American football.
Thank God we had the Ireland vs NZ game to ease the tedium.
(Wales vs Fiji will probably be even worse on both these counts.)"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
Good to see a TMO sticking to their guns to get the correct decision on that red card. Ref was all set to bottle it and mitigate down to a yellow. "Are you all in agreement?" to which the TMO effectively said "no, what the hell were you looking at?".
Wales really need to scrap their rule about players playing in Wales, if your reserves are so low that Cuthbert is being recalled after 4 years there isn't strength in depth.0 -
Boy, didn't I call it. TMO sorts out the ref and patchwork (playing 3 openside flankers against Fiji of all teams) Wales supplying a sackful of errors.blazing_saddles said:I've just endured the England vs Aussie game.
The most influential person in the ground was the video ref and the second was the ref.
Exactly the same in the Scotland vs SA game.
Micro managing to the extent they did yesterday ruins continuity.
Couple this with an error every couple of phases and it became like watching American football.
Thank God we had the Ireland vs NZ game to ease the tedium.
(Wales vs Fiji will probably be even worse on both these counts.)
"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
Not even finding space with an extra man. Fiji down to 13 now and a Scrum V under the posts.0
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Being a man short in the pack forced the back row to get their heads down allowing Hardy to take advantage around the fringes and give Wales an undeserved lead with 1 minute to half time.0
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Numbers telling now leading to LRZ getting a try. Decent break by Cuthbert to be fair. May be disallowed though.0
