Rugby Union

[All-Star-Par]

Chucked a fiver on 4+ players to take the knee at 1000/1. Great odds thanks to all these privileged egg chasers. 

[Mark Connolly]

41 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

Love when you skip 7 pages of a thread which goes from outright celebration to whatever the f**k is happening now
 

We’re on the verge of creating another hybrid thread following the Scottish Cricket/Orange Walk example

[afca32]

Berghan to Glasgow is slightly strange. Leaves Embra pretty short at tighthead and I'm not convinced Glasgow need him although we'll see who stays and who leaves. I was hoping it would be a back rower or two that moved across.

[Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo]

I’m disgusted nobody did a wee lap of the park in remembrance of Sir Tom. 

[Q0S-RUSH]

52 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

Love when you skip 7 pages of a thread which goes from outright celebration to whatever the f**k is happening now
 

This. What the hell happened. We just witnessed one of the greatest performances from a Scotland rugby team.somethind the All Blacks,and others have never done by totally dominating an England team at Twickenham. Quite disappointing it has turned into this rubbish.

[Newbornbairn]

Townsend's been asked about it -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/rugby-union/55971636

[Mark Connolly]

9 minutes ago, Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo said:

I’m disgusted nobody did a wee lap of the park in remembrance of Sir Tom. 

Pretty sure we did one with the trophy at the end. 

England absolutely have questions to answer though

[diegomarahenry]

Self-loathing Scots meets on-line outrage for the first time. We really can't enjoy anything. It's like a Wee Free penance. 

They did the announcements to about a dozen things they were paying tribute to, during the announcement some folk knelt down, Some more followed once the announcement stopped. I was willing them to kneel to avoid all this shite afterwards. I wasn't sure if they just didn't know when to do it. The officials, the folk either side of them and the folk at the ends of the line all stood. Some of the Scotland players bowed their heads. 

Townsends comments today put a slightly different slant on it though, he backs the players on their decision to kneel or not, so it sounds like a conscious decision by some of the players for one reason or another. 

The press yesterday only asked the one black player why he didn't kneel which was odd, like they were looking for justification to stop it.   

[hearthammer]

11 minutes ago, Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo said:

I’m disgusted nobody did a wee lap of the park in remembrance of Sir Tom. 

Quite a few of the English forwards looked like they were pushing zimmers in the last 15 minutes.  Tribute made.

[come on shire]

Brilliant yesterday. The work ethic and will to win was outstanding. Finn's mercurial but still inconsistent at kicking. We miss Laidlaw here. Duncan Weir's a more consistent kicker but doesn't offer Finn's flair. 

Hoggy was solid. Flair players shouldn't be saddled with captaincy, give it to Mish or Jamie Ritchie and just let Hoggy do his thing. 

As for kneeling, if you don't kneel that doesn't make you racist. I would've knelt personally but I've got a great uncle who went MIA in WW2. I don't wear a poppy but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate him. 

Dragons lost at home to Connacht on Fri night. That was their game in hand over Glasgow. We'll need Edinburgh to do us a favour and beat the Dragons at Murrayfield this Friday night. Simon Berghan's joining. He's a tight head so I reckon Zander's off. 

Barring Luca Sperandio's try Italy were hopeless. England will bounce back with 5 points when the Italians go to Twickers. 

Overall delighted as we've not won at Blofeld's volcano since 1983. 

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

44 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

Self-loathing Scots meets on-line outrage for the first time. We really can't enjoy anything. It's like a Wee Free penance. 

 

Exactly, it's horrendous. 

There are more social media comments this morning about kneeling, racists, and Nicola Sturgeon than there are about an amazing performance. 

Is this the kind of country we've become ? That we can't enjoy a magnificent sporting performance together ? That we've got to be obsessed by pathetic, irrelevant, nothing trivialities ? That we're controlled by hate and bitterness ?

f**k me. 

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

Tbh it looked in real time like some of the players were surprised that others were kneeling. Jamie Ritchie in particular was looking down the line in a what's going on sort of way. Bit strange if they knew there was going to be some sort of recognition but didn't discuss kneeling or not mind you 

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

Also Inverdale tears incoming on the BBC surely

[GordonS]

13 hours ago, Left Back said:

Glory hunting c**t.  Do you realise how many hammerings most of us have seen at Twickenham?  You chip up once and watch us win.  Make me fucking sick...

 

...not really.  Enjoy it pal.  Doesn’t happen often.

You mean it didn't happen often. I think we're rent-free in their heads now. They have a losing record against Scotland over the past four games and the only other country with a winning record against England over their past four games is New Zealand.

I'm looking forward to the geeks analysing why England have a particular problem with us. I suspect it's a combination of a very creative and unpredictable stand off, with a back three that you do not want to kick to.

Imagine going for a tactical kick and having to decide whether you want Hogg, VDM or Maitland running it back at you. 

9 hours ago, Detournement said:

He put one kick into touch and made an arse of the drop goal attempt but that was surely called by the captain and it was a poor pass.  He missed two tricky kicks. 

 

I've seen that said about the drop goal attempt but the real point is, once the opportunity passed, he needed to keep the ball and head for the safety of his forwards. Once he'd been shut down he should have realised the chance was gone, but he tried to force it. If England had gone up the park and scored we'd be having a different discussion today. But I wouldn't change that about Finn, you have to accept the bitter with the better.

3 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

Scotland has had what, two or three black players ever?  I’m not really surprised there are so many of them removed from reality.  That being said, it’s not really up to me to take offence at their myopia.  

 

I can only think of one - Joe Ansbro.

FWIW, Scotland have capped 1,115 players.

3 hours ago, Detournement said:

The Knee is an empty gesture. It's nothing to do with serious anti racism. 

Three non white players including the only player of colour on the Scotland team chose not to take it. I don't think it's because they are racist. 

Do you just aim for edgy takes and hope they come off?

Taking the knee is a very good way of demonstrating to racists that we're not on their side. Racists really believe that they're thinking what we're thinking but are too afraid to say, so it's important to let them know they're wrong.

Now that taking the knee is a thing, it sends a stronger message not to take the knee than to do it, and that's what was wrong yesterday.

[jamamafegan]

Clap for the NHS/Take the knee/Wear a poppy - all social media generated faux offence 

This is an interesting take on it and I think you may have a point. I’m one of the people sitting here tutting at Scotland players not taking the knee. However I’m also one of those people who doesn’t wear a poppy and laughs at the gammon poppy merchants who get angry when they see someone on TV not wearing one. What’s the difference? I don’t wear a poppy, I don’t clap for the NHS. I didn’t join in on “blackout Tuesday” on social media either. Does that mean that I don’t give a shit about any of those things? Of course it doesn’t. I just choose to observe and think about these things in a different way. I don’t think the Scotland players are racists. Perhaps they too believe it’s an empty gesture.

[GordonS]

Anyway, Wales v Ireland. These are usually really good, tight, competitive, see-saw matches and they're one of the many great things about the 6N. I think a Welsh win is better for us, but that might boost their confidence so maybe not. Really looking forward to this one.

[GordonS]

4 minutes ago, jamamafegan said:

 

This is an interesting take on it and I think you may have a point. I’m one of the people sitting here tutting at Scotland players not taking the knee. However I’m also one of those people who doesn’t wear a poppy and laughs at the gammon poppy merchants who get angry when they see someone on TV not wearing one. What’s the difference? I don’t wear a poppy, I don’t clap for the NHS. I didn’t join in on “blackout Tuesday” on social media either. Does that mean that I don’t give a shit about any of those things? Of course it doesn’t. I just choose to observe and think about these things in a different way. I don’t think the Scotland players are racists. Perhaps they too believe it’s an empty gesture.

 

I don't think they are either. Well, some might be but I doubt they all are. But I don't think they care enough about racism either. I think that, if they did, they would have done the one tiny thing asked of them to show solidarity with victims of racism. There's really not much we can do in our lives against racism and they had that chance in front of millions of people. 

They're free to make their choice and I'm free to draw my own conclusions from their choices.

And I doubt any of them took any informed advice on taking a knee before deciding not to do it. 

[diegomarahenry]

Listening to Townsends interview again, they were told there would be tributes to NHS staff, 3 former players that died, victims of the Corona virus, Sir Tom and black lives matters. Essentially a minute to pay tribute to all. So you are essentially paying tribute to 5 separate things with one action. 

 

[GAD]

3 minutes ago, GordonS said:

I don't think they are either. Well, some might be but I doubt they all are. But I don't think they care enough about racism either. I think that, if they did, they would have done the one tiny thing asked of them to show solidarity with victims of racism. There's really not much we can do in our lives against racism and they had that chance in front of millions of people. 

They're free to make their choice and I'm free to draw my own conclusions from their choices.

And I doubt any of them took any informed advice on taking a knee before deciding not to do it. 

It doesn't sound like they discussed it at all to be honest, some of them didn't seem to realise what was going on. Also, there may not have been many black players to play for Scotland (Ansbro and Marfo only ones I can think off the top of my head), but all those players play with black or minority players at their club every week.

It'll be interesting to see what the reaction is next week now if they all do take a knee.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

18 minutes ago, jamamafegan said:

 

This is an interesting take on it and I think you may have a point. I’m one of the people sitting here tutting at Scotland players not taking the knee. However I’m also one of those people who doesn’t wear a poppy and laughs at the gammon poppy merchants who get angry when they see someone on TV not wearing one. What’s the difference? I don’t wear a poppy, I don’t clap for the NHS. I didn’t join in on “blackout Tuesday” on social media either. Does that mean that I don’t give a shit about any of those things? Of course it doesn’t. I just choose to observe and think about these things in a different way. I don’t think the Scotland players are racists. Perhaps they too believe it’s an empty gesture.

 

One similarity with these things is that if people are compelled to do make a gesture then the gesture itself is rendered meaningless for everyone.