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Rugby IV - Striking Hookers Are Back In Fashion


Which Tyler

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Ok second round of the Six Nations this weekend. Some thoughts on the games.

Ireland v Italy: Italy weren't terrible against England and Ireland weren't fantastic against France but, ultimately, Italy lost comfortably and Ireland won. Italy tend to be worse away from home and Ireland, while they're often not the most expansive side, don't tend to let teams into games. I think Ireland will squeeze Italy out of the game and rack up some points in the second half.

England v Wales: I was more confident of an England win before Wales battered Scotland. Losing Youngs disrupts England's pattern of play a bit since Care doesn't usually offer the game management Youngs does and Wigglesworth isn't the impact sub off the bench care is. The fact that Italy caused England a few problems out wide is also a bit of a concern given how the Scarlets/this Wales side play, I suspect that's why Joseph is back in. Still, I don't think England will crumble the way Scotland did and given home advantage and their pressure orientated defence I think they'll grind down a still inexperienced in many areas Wales side.

Scotland v France: I'm not sure how I view this, France weren't great last week but they showed the determination to stick in the game and almost win, Scotland on the other hand were just bad. The way I see it if Scotland get a bit of go forward before they fling it wide and play to the levels they've shown at various points recently they're the better side but if they play like they did last week they'll lose. It's a fairly good test of how Townsend's doing as an international coach.  

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Pretty similar to last week for Italy. They had some nice moments ball in hand, O'Shea certainly seems to be improving them on that front, and scored a few tries but they were far too loose without the ball, and in terms of retaining possession for that matter, and made it far to easy for Ireland to rack up the points.

Ireland also were pretty good ball in hand and got the result they wanted but the injuries to Furlong and Henshaw will be a concern given they both looked fairly serious.

ETA: Whew, England were the better side for most of the match but after the early couple of tries they really lacked the clinical edge to kill the game. Ultimately they were pretty lucky the tmo didn’t give Wales what looked a clear try.

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I'd have given the try, but I can see why someone would decide there was no downward pressure. Mind, I could also see why someone might have queried a knock on.

 

Ultimately I don't think it made a difference though, with the try instead of the penalty it would still be a 4 point loss (2 if he hit the difficult conversion); and if there were any butterfly effect changes, it would probably have been England taking a golden opportunity for a drop goal to push beyond a score ahead, rather than not trying it because they were already a score ahead.

 

I see a lot of Welsh are annoyed at Mike Brown again - this time for finding it amusing that Wales butchered a 4 on 1.

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ETA:

From what I can see on the various stills and slow-mos going around, the grounding was good (though there is still room to debate the "pressing down" part); but the knock-on beforehand would have ruled it out... Unless Williams has a knee in his 4th finger.

 

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44 minutes ago, lessthanluke said:

Mike Brown is just a complete cunt in general. Do English people even like him?

I quite like him. You’ve got to have a few spiky, confrontational knobs in your rugby team, ideally at 9 but I suppose fullback’ll do.

Poor start from Scotland following on from last week. They gifted France 10 points, Russell should never be letting Thomas get outside him from a standing start and Lauret shouldn’t be getting on the ball when a 3 man pod of forwards carry it up. 

Finn Russell in general isn’t playing well which isn’t ideal given he’s such a key player.

On the plus side for Scotland it is going a bit better for them in attack so at least they’re still in the game. They need some better game management though.

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1 hour ago, lessthanluke said:

Mike Brown is just a complete cunt in general. Do English people even like him?

Is that because he was amused after Wales wasted a 4 on 1?

What should he have done? Offered Williams a shoulder to cry on?

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6 minutes ago, Which Tyler said:

Is that because he was amused after Wales wasted a 4 on 1?

What should he have done? Offered Williams a shoulder to cry on?

Nope you are the only one talking about that incident. He's just a prat. Pretty much universally hated in World rugby. He is always that one guy stirring up trouble, being abnoxious, dirty cowarldly little off the ball antics. Just a spiteful little man.

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Error strewn game at Murrayfield but still quite entertaining. Scotland have a fair bit to work on over the next couple of weeks but they’ll be far happier now they’ve got a win under their belts.

Good news for England too that Hughes played for Wasps today. If they can get him back in the balance of their back row will look a lot better moving Robshaw back to 6 and playing one of Underhill or Simmonds at 7.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Right, the Six Nations is back this weekend and tomorrow's games at least should be good.

France vs Italy: I didn't realise this game was on tonight rather than Sunday until I looked at the tv guide after I got in from work, which probably says a lot about my interest level. France have dropped a bunch of players for 'inappropriate behavior' after the Scotland game but I'd expect they'll probably win with home advantage.

Ireland vs Wales: This should be an interesting game. Wales have some experience coming back into the side with Halfpenny, Liam Williams and Biggar while Ireland, after starting the Six Nations probably the closest to having a fully fit squad, have lost number of key players. Given the level of preparation Schmidt does I think Ireland will just about manage to get the win at home but it should be tight.

Scotland vs England: Another interesting game. If Scotland start as loosely as they have been I think they're in for another big defeat like at Twickenham last year. On the other had if they can stay in the game and get the crowd behind them England's bench has less of an strong look to it than it usually does and they might be in with a chance.

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Horrendous first half from England. They need to sort their back row out, playing a second row at 6 and a blindside at 7 really isn’t working.

ETA: Nigel Owens can fuck right off. He wasn’t calling that then Care gets the interception and he changes his mind.

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Sigh.

 I do think Owens hasn’t had the best game, he was very, very lenient with Scottish hands in the ruck, which definitely isn’t in line with how it’s supposed to be reffed, and calling back Care was ridiculous, but ultimately England were rubbish and didn’t deserve the win. 

Finn Russell massively improved his performance and the Scottish backrow were excellent so credit to them.

From an England point of view, again, they need to pick back rows in the back row and have an 8 on the bench. And just play better really.

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That was a great performance by Scotland, when Finn's got his mojo he's probably the best in the world (when he's misplaced it however...).

 

That was a poor day at the office for Nige, but even there in feel that England only have themselves to blame. We put ourselves right into his bad books during the first half, and we're particularly poor where he's particularly lenient, and thus got schooled at the breakdown. Once in his and books, we cemented our place there with frustration, sloppiness and indiscipline, rather than tightening up the basics and giving him no reason to use his whistle.

 

Good from Scotland, and let's hope they can keep that form up for the last 2 matches.

Poor from England, bit a lot of it could be seen coming (Hartley and Cole are passengers now, too many locks, not enough flankers, not enough SHs, full-back play has evolved past Brown [actually, it evolved past Brown about 15 years ago unless he's right at the top of his game], and the Ford Farrell axis just needs more time [such a pity Faz always gets his learning time at international level], and isn't particularly well balanced with JJ). Let's hope this is the kick up the arse we need to escape the.... malaise that seems to have settled after playing passably-poorly, but winning.

Still poor from Nige though, even if 1 team has pissed you off. Both still need to be ref.d the same. However, there's still no excuse for the media trying to blame a ref, or trying to make a coach do so.

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