Rugby: A New Dawn

[williamjm]

14 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

The game today in Cardiff was comfortably the best of the weekend even with the early red card. Ireland offered loads more in attack with 14 men than England did ever did with 15. Decent performance from Wales too. They looked good ball in hand but they do need to sort out their lineout.

Ireland can probably take some confidence for the rest of the tournament that they were still in a contention for a win up until the last minute despite playing almost the entire game with 14 men.

[ljkeane]

So after the complete failure in attack last week this is the team Jones has gone for against Italy. So Ford in (fair enough), Farrell to 12 (I'm not convinced), Lawrence dropped from the squad (they didn't even pass him the ball last week ffs) and a second row at 6 plus a 6-2 split on the bench. Jesus fucking Christ.

Edited February 11, 2021 by ljkeane

[Which Tyler]

I'm unhappy

[Which Tyler]

Jonathon Joseph, Elliot Stooke and Gabriel Oghre have all been handed bans by the RFU for meeting up for drinks during Covid restrictions.

Bath have increased the ban for their players and added a fine.

 

Stooke gets the harsher end of matters for driving one of the others home after.

 

It then emerges that he crashed his car and failed a breath test on his way home, and now the cops are involved.

 

I'm a Bath fan - I don't want to see him in a Bath shirt again.

[ljkeane]

Good game at Murrayfield. Going for a scrum repeatedly from kickable penalties when you've had your tighthead sent off is a very Finn Russell at flyhalf thing to do but they pulled it off and scored the try. I think what cost Scotland in the end was underestimating Rees-Zammit. Van der Merwe leaving him in space on the outside was a bad idea given how rapid he is and then Price followed it up with trying to chip in behind him.

England did show a bit more attacking intent against Italy but it was Italy at home. I'm not sure they've really proved anything. The most significant moment of the game was Willis picking up what sounded like another bad injury. What an absolute nightmare for him.

[Macklunkey]

Game was there for the winning and Scotland threw it away. Gutted.

[Which Tyler]

Anyone offering odds for "Farrell's shoulder to North's head, North unconscious, but not replaced; no sanction for Farrell"?

Am hearing that Scotland v France has been confirmed as postponed

[ljkeane]

Another terrible performance from England. If you hand that many soft points to any half decent international side you're going to lose. Some of the penalties they were giving away were a little soft but the complete lack of ambition in attack means they spend so little time putting pressure on sides of course they're going to be heavily on the wrong side of the penalty count if they're not right on their game.

A bit of a mixed bag from Wales but they didn't shoot themselves in the foot and put enough pressure on England to come away with the win. Rees-Zammit continues to look good but I'm not sure about North in the centres.

Solid win from Ireland in the earlier game. Gibson-Park's added a bit to their game and Sexton's held up better than I thought he would when he's on the pitch. They still need to develop a replacement sooner rather than later though.

[Padraig]

In that vein, the big event for rugby Ireland this weekend was actually the return of Joey Carbery for Munster.  He played the last 15 minutes in a game for Munster.  Pretty much hasn't played for the last 18 months.

Ireland has plenty out halves playing for the provinces.   Unfortunately, few people think any of them can be relied upon beyond that level (although, a few of them are still young).  Even against Italy, it was felt that Sexton was the only option.  It could be a tough few years.

England is very strange.  World beaters a few years ago, to terrible, back to world beaters and now terrible again.  Ireland v England will be a game for pride in a few weeks!  Nothing else.

And Wales.  At least England didn't have a player sent off!

[williamjm]

2 hours ago, ljkeane said:

A bit of a mixed bag from Wales but they didn't shoot themselves in the foot and put enough pressure on England to come away with the win. Rees-Zammit continues to look good but I'm not sure about North in the centres.

It does seem they're potentially on course for a Grand Slam (although the toughest game is yet to come) largely because of their opponents' indisciplines.

[ljkeane]

10 minutes ago, williamjm said:

It does seem they're potentially on course for a Grand Slam (although the toughest game is yet to come) largely because of their opponents' indisciplines.

I suspect they’re going to get steamrolled by France. I might be wrong though, I thought they were going to lose all the other games so far.

[williamjm]

Just now, ljkeane said:

I suspect they’re going to get steamrolled by France. I might be wrong though, I thought they were going to lose all the other games so far.

I wouldn't be surprised if you are right, although with France there's definitely always the potential for some indiscipline.

[Which Tyler]

This will scare a few clubs - though (in theory) not for salary cap purposes.

https://inews.co.uk/news/hmrc-probes-english-rugbys-leading-clubs-over-salary-payments-904255?ITO=newsnow

 

The tax authority’s investigation into the 12 Premiership clubs, plus Championship side Saracens, could lead to a raft of salary-cap breaches if image-rights deals for players are found to have been overvalued

England’s elite rugby clubs are facing a wide-scale investigation by tax officials into how payments to players and agents are accounted for, i can reveal.

The move from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) follows a similar probe into football, which resulted in players and agents being forced to hand over millions in unpaid taxes.

HMRC is understood to have launched the investigation into each of the 12 Premiership clubs, as well as Saracens, which remains a shareholder in the top-flight league despite playing in the Championship – the sports second-tier – this season.

The tax probe is believed to be focused on payments that players receive on top of their club salaries, as well as the role of agents in transfer and contract negotiations. It comes at a tough time for clubs who have lost tens of millions during the Covid-19 pandemic with no income from tickets sales or matchday spending by fans.

HMRC is looking to recover unpaid taxes on earnings players accrue via channels away from their playing contracts, including image-rights deals. Players are paid additional money on top of salary for the use of their image by their club, such as in advertising and endorsements.

This additional income is often paid to a company set up by the player and is only taxed at the 19 per cent corporation tax rate, rather than at the 45 per cent income tax rate top players pay on their general salaries.

...

article continues...

[ljkeane]

On 3/9/2021 at 9:33 AM, Which Tyler said:

This will scare a few clubs - though (in theory) not for salary cap purposes.

You'd think.

The England team for the France game has a bit of a better look to it. Malins at fullback is definitely an improvement and it's good to see Lawrence at least back in the squad.

In other news Sonny Bill Williams has retired from all rugby codes. Not a bad career I'd say.

Also World Rugby will be streaming the Super Rugby AU games in the UK and Ireland in the absence of a broadcast partner for anyone who's interested.

[ljkeane]

Very good game at Twickenham.

That's the best England have played for a while. It wasn't perfect, the accuracy in attack wasn't great, but it's good to see them actually trying to play rugby. I still think they could do with a ball carrier in midfield. It was very noticeable if they wanted to carry direct over the gainline they pretty much had to drop Billy Vunipola out into midfield.

France will be disappointed with that though. Despite England playing better they still looked far more dangerous when they turned it on. They seemed to go into their shell a bit in the second half. I don't know if that was a deliberate decision or because they ran out of steam but it did let England batter away at them for the last 20.

The earlier game was a bit of a let down. Wales were decent but Italy never even looked competitive. They're trying to play some good rugby and they have some nice moments but it's hard to see any facet of the game were they're really able to impose themselves. The old Italy sides were a lot more conservative but at least they had something to fall back on in their pack and they were usually in the games at least for 60 minutes or so at home.

[Which Tyler]

For England - that's the best we've played since the RWC SF - though I expect a lot of what we did good to be put back in the cupboard, and only brought out occasionally to practice it, without giving too much away to the analysts.

 

For France - that feels like one of those hard losses you have to come through, and evolve from to become a great team. I really hope they do, and that they find the THP they deserve.

[ljkeane]

Another really, really poor performance from England. I hoped they'd kick on after a decent effort against France but, once again, the accuracy and discipline was horrendous. Ireland did defend really well but so much of it was self inflicted.

Ireland on the other hand were really good. Unlike England their accuracy in attack was excellent and they were very good in defence. Farrell clearly had a pretty good idea what England were going to try to do with the Ford-Farrell axis in midfield and the combination of aggressive linespeed and choke tackles completely bamboozled England. I do feel a bit sorry for Aki with the red card, he's not setting up to make a high tackle, but it was a stone cold red card with the way it's reffed now.

Hopefully we'll get a better game in Paris tonight.

[williamjm]

2 hours ago, ljkeane said:

Another really, really poor performance from England. I hoped they'd kick on after a decent effort against France but, once again, the accuracy and discipline was horrendous. Ireland did defend really well but so much of it was self inflicted.

I think this might be the worst Six Nations I can remember for England, despite a good win over France.

Hopefully we'll get a better game in Paris tonight.

I think you're getting your wish so far.

[lessthanluke]

Heartbreaking. 

Funnily enough for the first 65 minutes probably our best performance of the year. 

[ljkeane]

1 hour ago, williamjm said:

I think you're getting your wish so far.

It wasn't just a good game it was a fantastic game. Good to see after a largely disappointing championship.

1 minute ago, lessthanluke said:

Funnily enough for the first 65 minutes probably our best performance of the year. 

Comfortably. Wales have been grinding out results but I think this was a lot more how Pivac actually wants them to play.

I will say I think it'd have been very controversial if they had held on for the win. I don't think Adams actually scored his try and I'm not sure Chat didn't score when the officials didn't have a look.

A classically French win though. I did think with the talent they've got combined with an Edwards coached defence France were on their way to being boringly consistent. None of that though. Brilliant tries, shaky defence, dubious game management, red cards and drama. That's what we want to see!

To be fair I thought the red was a bit harsh. There's no way he's intended to gouge anyone. He's reaching back behind him to try and drag Wyn Jones off the ruck and just happens to catch his face. A yellow would have been sufficient.