Rugby Union

[topcat(The most tip top)]

6 hours ago, AngusTheBull said:

Really don’t get the hype about him, Hogg, Keenan and Williams are all significantly better.

Italy could easily have won that, some poor decision making and lack of accuracy at the end.

He's the same size as Maro Itoje so if you're a fan of big heavy fullbacks who run into people as opposed to round them then he's perfect

There's no accounting for taste

Edited February 5, 2023 by topcat(The most tip top)

[ajwffc]

1 hour ago, Mark Connolly said:

Good article on Rugby Pass about why Farrell trying to be a hard man cost them yesterday

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/going-after-finn-russell-backfired-for-england/

What makes it better was RFU fudging his ban so he could play 

[superwell87]

1 hour ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

My french isn't bad but it's not as good as it might be so I basically understood only half the words on the French coverage but somehow the half time pundits sill made more sense than Clive Woodward

That wouldn't be hard to be fair. 

[topcat(The most tip top)]

3 hours ago, superwell87 said:

That wouldn't be hard to be fair. 

Bien sur

[Donathan]

6 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

Odd tactics to go for the points, I thought.

I said to my mates in the pub yesterday that I didn’t like us taking the points in a similar situation when we were down 4.
 

In a way the penalty we did kick ended up being meaningless because we scored a try anyway, the real benefit of kicking a penalty down 4/5 is that another kick wins you the game and you don’t need to score a try anymore.

 

IMO you need to play for the try in the last 10 mins. 

[Loki]

8 hours ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

Has anybody else tried to watch the Italy vs France Game on STV Player? The signal is shit even by the dodgy unofficial stream standards

I've had to turn on the VPN and watch france tv 2 on my phone

 

i would bin the STVplayer and use the ITVX app.  Just use a random English postcode, the only one I know is Wimbledon (SW19) and the stability of the stream and quality is far better than the STV player.  you would have thought they wouldn't be a difference but it is remarkably so.

[cyderspaceman]

On 04/02/2023 at 23:44, GAD said:

I actually didn't think we played brilliantly in all honesty. Defence was a bit ropey, missed a lot of first tackles and England were making easy meters too often, but Duhan, Steyn, Jones and Sione were such a threat throughout. 

Scotland will need to defend better though against the good teams. I think Russell was getting a bit of stick, but I actually thought the English were so focused on him that it opened up gaps and he found them. He's a very brave player, he doesn't give a f**k if he gets smashed as long as he gets the ball away. Wasn't the usual bag of tricks but I think he was instrumental in the win, far more than he'll be given credit for.

I found a website saying that this was England's main tactic and that Farrel was to blame for concentrating on Russel too much. Interesting for me as I know feck all about rugby tactics.   

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/going-after-finn-russell-backfired-for-england/?c=1

 

ETA   Soz, Mark Connolly, just read your post.

Edited February 6, 2023 by cyderspaceman

[peasy23]

[cyderspaceman]

Last comment from me on the England match.   

Scotland avoided any bad luck. In some other matches, recently v Wales , we have had unfortunate events that swayed the game.

I'm really not trying to be sour grapey, we've suffered some misfortune.  Remember the WC exit in 2015?

Maybe the fates have toyed with us enough.

Or maybe I just remember the bad stuff...

Edited February 6, 2023 by cyderspaceman

[topcat(The most tip top)]

9 hours ago, Loki said:

i would bin the STVplayer and use the ITVX app.  Just use a random English postcode, the only one I know is Wimbledon (SW19) and the stability of the stream and quality is far better than the STV player.  you would have thought they wouldn't be a difference but it is remarkably so.

I'll probably stick with French commentators that I can't quite understand properly instead of English ones that I can understand only too well

[flyingscot]

21 hours ago, Virtual Insanity said:

Question from a 6 Nations/World Cup glory hunter: is there any realistic chance of them just doing away with scrums? Slow the game down to a farcical extent at times, put in is beyond ridiculous now and penalties are almost random a lot of the time. Don't seem to bring anything to the game. 

The best option would be to abolish them as the default restart method for knock-ons. On a horrible wet day where teams are dropping it all over the place, you also tend to find scrums slip and it's just horrible. Tap would be a better option. 

[peasy23]

It's often been mentioned on here about the madness of drawing the world cup nearly 3 years in advance. We now have two pools without a top 4 ranked team in them.

https://twitter.com/RugbyInsideLine/status/1622353601459851265?t=PyznBXZZ8n7n_8yAmIdO_A&s=19

[honestly united]

1 hour ago, peasy23 said:

It's often been mentioned on here about the madness of drawing the world cup nearly 3 years in advance. We now have two pools without a top 4 ranked team in them.

https://twitter.com/RugbyInsideLine/status/1622353601459851265?t=PyznBXZZ8n7n_8yAmIdO_A&s=19

Yeah think I posted this before. Its made worse by the way the teams are split for quarters and semis, one from Eng, Wal, Aus, Arg, Fiji or Jap will make the final, currently Eng are highest ranked at 6th, with the top 5 teams fighting over the other place

[come on shire]

Ange Capuozzo scored a fine try against France. I don't mean to be away with the fairies but I'm a bit nervous for the Italy game at Murrayfield on the final weekend.

[honestly united]

41 minutes ago, come on shire said:

Ange Capuozzo scored a fine try against France. I don't mean to be away with the fairies but I'm a bit nervous for the Italy game at Murrayfield on the final weekend.

Italy have improved greatly over the last few years, however a long way to go until the final weekend. If we can build on the Calcutta game, and get a win and a good performance vs Wales that set us up for  Ireland and France which could see us going into the Italy game looking for a grand slam.

On the other hand we could lose vs wales, get hammered in hte next 2 games and be facing Italy for 6th place

[Savage Henry]

6 hours ago, cyderspaceman said:

I found a website saying that this was England's main tactic and that Farrel was to blame for concentrating on Russel too much. Interesting for me as I know feck all about rugby tactics.   

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/going-after-finn-russell-backfired-for-england/?c=1

 

ETA   Soz, Mark Connolly, just read your post.

That article, despite its intended focus, really shows up Smith.  
 

On another note, I bought the Sunday Times for the first time in ages last weekend. Their two main rugby writers Stephen (?) Jones and Stuart Barnes can’t write for shit.  

Edited February 6, 2023 by Savage Henry

[Mark Connolly]

2 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

That article, despite its intended focus, really shows up Smith.  
 

On another note, I bought the Sunday Times for the first time in ages last weekend. Their two main rugby writers Stephen (?) Jones and Stuart Barnes can’t write for shit.  

Stephen Jones is absolutely detested by almost everyone involved in rugby in any way, and rightly so. The c**t's c**t.

Great watching Duhan's 2nd try back from the start, so much good work by everybody. And, of course, an unnecessary and meaningless late bump on Finn right at the beginning by Freddie Steward.

 

[GAD]

2 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

That article, despite its intended focus, really shows up Smith.  
 

Yeah, I agree. Also, despite how rattled Finn has him, I very much doubt Farrell went out there and focused solely on hitting Russell all off his own back. He's too experienced and disciplined for that and apart from anything else if he was completely ignoring the game plan and doing his own thing he wouldn't have lasted 80 mins. He was quite clearly doing what Borthwick told him to.

[come on shire]

4 hours ago, honestly united said:

Italy have improved greatly over the last few years, however a long way to go until the final weekend. If we can build on the Calcutta game, and get a win and a good performance vs Wales that set us up for  Ireland and France which could see us going into the Italy game looking for a grand slam.

On the other hand we could lose vs wales, get hammered in hte next 2 games and be facing Italy for 6th place

It'll be tricky. However if we keep Capuozzo quiet we should be ok at home.

3 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

That article, despite its intended focus, really shows up Smith.  
 

On another note, I bought the Sunday Times for the first time in ages last weekend. Their two main rugby writers Stephen (?) Jones and Stuart Barnes can’t write for shit.  

I subscribe to Rugby World magazine. They're regular contributors and Jones has his own column.

What's annoyed me in the media is what an improving England got wrong. Not much about what Scotland did right apart from Tom English's BBC piece...

[Honest_Man#1]

What is the consensus on here regarding international selection of players who play club rugby outside of their domestic league?

Have seen a bit of debate around it and the All Blacks’ refusal to change tact on it and being happy to give up on players who’ve moved abroad. Seems mental to me to potentially exclude your best players, but I guess they can get away with it due to their depth more than most. I hadn’t thought about it much as SRU allow it, but I’d be a seething mess if Russell for example was blacklisted because he’d gone onto a higher level.