Rugby Union

[SANTAN]

5 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

I'm beginning to see why you got sacked by moonpig.com

Bravo. 

[frankthetank22]

This thread is hilarious, really cheered me up on a Monday morning, thanks

[SANTAN]

I'll vacate to the politics forum anyway. Congrats on the win. 

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Back to Rugby

The "Covid Six nations" as it will be remembered is wierd for all concerned

Going out to try and perform at top level in  front of a huge stadium with hardly any people in it must be totally disconcerting for any player that's never played for Edinburgh

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

1 hour ago, Stormzy said:

Yes. That's what happens when you have a decade of divisive, grievance based, identity/ Nationalistic politics.

Can you just not be a d1ck over in the politics thread ? Do you have to come on here and be one ?

I'll give you 1/100 that you were spitting nails that Scotland won on Saturday. You're one these yoons who detest anything associated with Scotland.....the flag, Gaelic, history, culture, music, sporting success....because you associate it with the SNP. 

Pretty pathetic. 

[SANTAN]

Just now, Bob Mahelp said:

Can you just not be a d1ck over in the politics thread ? Do you have to come on here and be one ?

I'll give you 1/100 that you were spitting nails that Scotland won on Saturday. You're one these yoons who detest anything associated with Scotland.....the flag, Gaelic, history, culture, music, sporting success....because you associate it with the SNP. 

Pretty pathetic. 

I found out there was a game today, I dont follow rugby. 

You're so wrong on almost everything you've said here but again, I'll leave this thread for the sake of the topic. 

[topcat(The most tip top)]

2 minutes ago, Stormzy said:

I found out there was a game today, I dont follow rugby. 

Location : Scottish Borders

Crikey! You've been taking this isolation business seriously
 

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

4 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

Back to Rugby

The "Covid Six nations" as it will be remembered is wierd for all concerned

Going out to try and perform at top level in  front of a huge stadium with hardly any people in it must be totally disconcerting for any player that's never played for Edinburgh

Back to the rugby. I agree, after my rant. 

It is indeed weird. And that's why we shouldn't be getting too cocky, despite a fantastic performance on Saturday. 

Home advantage has been completely nullified because of the lack of crowds, and I had a wee chuckle about the commentators on Saturday going on about Scotland having a great chance of the championship because we have 3 home games.

An empty Twickenham worked in our favour on Saturday, but an empty Murrayfield could equally work in Wales' favour this coming weekend. 

We have to be careful and not relax just because we're playing in Edinburgh. Wales aren't all that great just now, but they have plenty of players that can hurt us if we're not at our best. 

 

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Just now, Bob Mahelp said:

Back to the rugby. I agree, after my rant. 

It is indeed weird. And that's why we shouldn't be getting too cocky, despite a fantastic performance on Saturday. 

Home advantage has been completely nullified because of the lack of crowds, and I had a wee chuckle about the commentators on Saturday going on about Scotland having a great chance of the championship because we have 3 home games.

An empty Twickenham worked in our favour on Saturday, but an empty Murrayfield could equally work in Wales' favour this coming weekend. 

We have to be careful and not relax just because we're playing in Edinburgh. Wales aren't all that great just now, but they have plenty of players that can hurt us if we're not at our best. 

 

Nonsense 
The time for dour, pessimistic doom mongering is passed, now is the time for hubristic arrogance and myopic optimism.

 

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

Just now, topcat(The most tip top) said:

Nonsense 
The time for dour, pessimistic doom mongering is passed, now is the time for hubristic arrogance and myopic optimism.

 

I'm a Scotland and Aberdeen fan. I'll stick with dour, pessimistic doom mongering for the moment. It's what I'm used to.... 

[topcat(The most tip top)]

1 minute ago, Bob Mahelp said:

I'm a Scotland and Aberdeen fan. I'll stick with dour, pessimistic doom mongering for the moment. It's what I'm used to.... 

I've been watching Hearts for decades

I can do despair and hubristic overoptimism but not dull realism

And frankly why would I want to, There's enough dull realism in dull reality.  

[aDONisSheep]

The thing I liked about it was the attitude.

This team looked like they were absolutely relishing the fight.  Personified IMHO by Finn's kick to Duhan which just failed.  It was early doors and they knew it was a close one, but instead of being angry at missing the opportunity, they had a smile and a giggle.  

This was a performance won by battles up front though.  Scotlands pack were too aggressive and mobile for England's pack (Itoje aside).  I thought the contrast was illustrated by the difference in performances between Billy Vunipola and Matt Fagerson.   Now I'm a big fan of Vunipola, but he couldn't get to grips with the pace of the game yesterday whereas you saw the energy of Fagerson personified in his kick chase efforts and aggressive ball carrying.  

I can't recall a game where the Scotland pack has dominated the England pack so much of the game, not even during the 25-13 game of about 3 years ago.

 

As for criticism of Finn Russell?  I obviously watch a different game.  What I saw was a fly-half that varied the play beautifully and he absolutely bewildered the England back three.  I also saw him organise our defence and be Price's eyes and ears when he was struggling.

Yes he missed a couple of kicks, had one forward (but creative) pass, and got sin-binned, but on the the other side, and off the top of my head I saw him; 

Put a perfect ball through to Maitland from which we nearly scored

Make Hill miss and panic Vunipola into getting a yellow

Make some massive first up tackles

Loft another pinpoint ball for Maitland to compete for (before the try)

Beautiful crossfield kick for Duhan (from which we nearly scored)

Massive clearance from an England lineout

Some beautiful flat passes for the likes of Harris and Redpath to run on to

and my personal favourite...  Absolutely smashed Jonny May into next season

 

He easily outperformed Farrell, Ford, Biggar, Sexton, Burns and probably outperformed Jalibert (who was excellent, but who didn't have to face the pressure of Tom Currie coming at him like an Exocet, trying to break his ribs.

If we can't appreciate having the most gifted 10 in world rugby then there really is no hope for us.

Special mention to Maitland, who I thought had his best game in years.

Finally my man of the match would have been 'Duhan VDM"  It was like having a third centre (and a crash ball one at that) and you've got to love someone that carries Mark Wilson over the line with them for a try.  That having been said, you wouldn't get much argument from me if you picked any one from Hogg, Gray, Watson, M Fagerson, Turner etc, they were all absolutely magnificent.  

I almost blubbed at the end!

Yours

aDONis

[Newbornbairn]

1 hour ago, Bob Mahelp said:

Back to the rugby. I agree, after my rant. 

It is indeed weird. And that's why we shouldn't be getting too cocky, despite a fantastic performance on Saturday. 

Home advantage has been completely nullified because of the lack of crowds, and I had a wee chuckle about the commentators on Saturday going on about Scotland having a great chance of the championship because we have 3 home games.

An empty Twickenham worked in our favour on Saturday, but an empty Murrayfield could equally work in Wales' favour this coming weekend. 

We have to be careful and not relax just because we're playing in Edinburgh. Wales aren't all that great just now, but they have plenty of players that can hurt us if we're not at our best. 

 

Just a thought, throwing an idea out there, so to speak. We know crowds of people aren't allowed into stadiums, but how about crowds of sheep? That would really distract the Welsh. 

[topcat(The most tip top)]

18 minutes ago, NewBornBairn said:

Just a thought, throwing an idea out there, so to speak. We know crowds of people aren't allowed into stadiums, but how about crowds of sheep? That would really distract the Welsh. 

A cunning plan but you've forgotten that a lot of the Scottish team come from the Borders

[Newbornbairn]

11 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

A cunning plan but you've forgotten that a lot of the Scottish team come from the Borders

Damn 

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

1 hour ago, aDONisSheep said:

The thing I liked about it was the attitude.

This team looked like they were absolutely relishing the fight.  Personified IMHO by Finn's kick to Duhan which just failed.  It was early doors and they knew it was a close one, but instead of being angry at missing the opportunity, they had a smile and a giggle.  

This was a performance won by battles up front though.  Scotlands pack were too aggressive and mobile for England's pack (Itoje aside).  I thought the contrast was illustrated by the difference in performances between Billy Vunipola and Matt Fagerson.   Now I'm a big fan of Vunipola, but he couldn't get to grips with the pace of the game yesterday whereas you saw the energy of Fagerson personified in his kick chase efforts and aggressive ball carrying.  

I can't recall a game where the Scotland pack has dominated the England pack so much of the game, not even during the 25-13 game of about 3 years ago.

 

As for criticism of Finn Russell?  I obviously watch a different game.  What I saw was a fly-half that varied the play beautifully and he absolutely bewildered the England back three.  I also saw him organise our defence and be Price's eyes and ears when he was struggling.

Yes he missed a couple of kicks, had one forward (but creative) pass, and got sin-binned, but on the the other side, and off the top of my head I saw him; 

Put a perfect ball through to Maitland from which we nearly scored

Make Hill miss and panic Vunipola into getting a yellow

Make some massive first up tackles

Loft another pinpoint ball for Maitland to compete for (before the try)

Beautiful crossfield kick for Duhan (from which we nearly scored)

Massive clearance from an England lineout

Some beautiful flat passes for the likes of Harris and Redpath to run on to

and my personal favourite...  Absolutely smashed Jonny May into next season

 

He easily outperformed Farrell, Ford, Biggar, Sexton, Burns and probably outperformed Jalibert (who was excellent, but who didn't have to face the pressure of Tom Currie coming at him like an Exocet, trying to break his ribs.

If we can't appreciate having the most gifted 10 in world rugby then there really is no hope for us.

Special mention to Maitland, who I thought had his best game in years.

Finally my man of the match would have been 'Duhan VDM"  It was like having a third centre (and a crash ball one at that) and you've got to love someone that carries Mark Wilson over the line with them for a try.  That having been said, you wouldn't get much argument from me if you picked any one from Hogg, Gray, Watson, M Fagerson, Turner etc, they were all absolutely magnificent.  

I almost blubbed at the end!

Yours

aDONis

So much to agree with here. The aggression and mobility of the pack maybe the most important facet. One of my frustrations about the rebuild since the world cup is we have fronted up really well physically but not kept the ball well enough or made use of our pack's mobility against bigger teams. Saturday saw a lot more variation in the point of attack carrying and less one out runners standing still. England couldn't strike back in the way Ireland did in the autumn because they'd made all the tackles and been run around the park.

Duhan is absolutely a game changer. Not just as a now undoubted finisher at test level (although I doubt we'll ever see him do one of those dive in the corner efforts) but as that crash ball coming off his wing that we've missed for a long time. A much better Sean Lamont really.

For Wales I'd be targeting a bonus point win but not assuming we'll get one. They have the players to hurt us if we're not on it but if we match that physicality and game management and just have a bit more patience and composure in the 22 we could turn them over

[Left Back]

11 minutes ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

So much to agree with here. The aggression and mobility of the pack maybe the most important facet. One of my frustrations about the rebuild since the world cup is we have fronted up really well physically but not kept the ball well enough or made use of our pack's mobility against bigger teams. Saturday saw a lot more variation in the point of attack carrying and less one out runners standing still. England couldn't strike back in the way Ireland did in the autumn because they'd made all the tackles and been run around the park.

Duhan is absolutely a game changer. Not just as a now undoubted finisher at test level (although I doubt we'll ever see him do one of those dive in the corner efforts) but as that crash ball coming off his wing that we've missed for a long time. A much better Sean Lamont really.

For Wales I'd be targeting a bonus point win but not assuming we'll get one. They have the players to hurt us if we're not on it but if we match that physicality and game management and just have a bit more patience and composure in the 22 we could turn them over

I thought the best aspect of the pack was ball retention in contact.  How often do you see us keep it tight in the forwards then turn the ball over after a few phases?  We didn’t do that on Saturday.  We recycled the ball which led to the monumental posession stats.

[aDONisSheep]

2 minutes ago, Left Back said:

I thought the best aspect of the pack was ball retention in contact.  How often do you see us keep it tight in the forwards then turn the ball over after a few phases?  We didn’t do that on Saturday.  We recycled the ball which led to the monumental posession stats.

Absolutely, and not in good conditions either.

Forwards and backs played as though they were on the beach.  I was very impressed by Maitland and Hogg under the high ball (I think Hogg was short once).  Contrast to May and Daily (both quality players) who seemed to have had a bath in butter before kick-off. 

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

22 minutes ago, Left Back said:

I thought the best aspect of the pack was ball retention in contact.  How often do you see us keep it tight in the forwards then turn the ball over after a few phases?  We didn’t do that on Saturday.  We recycled the ball which led to the monumental posession stats.

Aye the execution was very good, without checking the stats looks like incredibly low handling errors for a Scotland team. I think it's slightly harsh to criticise not getting more points. England should have had a yellow at least once for just standing offside when we were close to their line, otherwise I think we'd have got at least the try at the end of Russel's sinbin

[aDONisSheep]

I still can't get my head round the notion that Lawrence's first touch was nearly an hour into the game!  He was at 12 and brought in to be a wrecking ball.  How can a 12 not get their hands on the ball for nearly an hour.

An England 12 is starved of ball for nearly an hour at TWICKENHAM!  Just let that stat sink in!

Also, about the points, Scotland kept England to their lowest points tally (at Twickenham) for 56 years!  

I'm going to blub again!

Yours

aDONis