Rugby

[Vestrit]

Pretty ordinary game all round yesterday. Heaslip’s try was comical in the complete lack of understanding between Scotland’s two centres. Memo to de Luca: when your centre partner has the guy covered, trust him to make the tackle and just stay on your man. Dumbass

I seriously think Gregor Townsend’s job might be in danger. The Scottish had loads of ball and yet the backline again looked clueless. And the body language between him and Robinson is interesting to watch.

One thing I thought was interesting about Ireland yesterday was the change in their defensive policy, particularly in the first half. They changed from a drift defence, as they were using against France, to a out-to-in blitz defence. Whoever was in the 13 position was leading the line up. So many times Jackson decided against the long ball and instead gave it to someone to hit up in the middle. Scotland never really got a chance to attack out wide cos they were being forced to go back inside all the time. Interesting to see Ireland change it and also how effectively they carried it out, given it’s the first time they’ve used that defence this 6N.

Ireland’s substitutions were largely quite brainless though. Subbing Cullen on for O’Callaghan when it was O’Connell who should have come off (he was having a shocker). Subbing Sexton on for O’Gara at the very time when Ireland needed to settle down and just close the game out. I’m not much of a ROG fan, but yesterday he showed why he can be so crucial to Ireland and Munster. Subbing Stringer for Reddan, which only served to slow the ball getting out, didn’t make much sense either.

They all felt like substitutions for the sake of substitutions

I also think O’Brien may have cemented Wallace’s fate yesterday. Even if Ferris is ok for the rest of the tournament, which looks very doubtful, I wouldn’t think that they’d rush him back in. But I can’t imagine that Wallace will be starting at the World Cup or beyond. I think these last two games will be his last as a starter

[ljkeane]

I can't disagree with any of that but I do think the performances of O'Gara and Reddan were a step in the right direction for Ireland. If they have a halfback partnership that's managing the game well, which they seemed to be doing, that's a good platform to get the undoubted talent in the reat of the team firing. If they can build some cohesion in the game against Wales it could set up an interesting game against England in Dublin.

The blitz defense Irelad used probably had a lot to do with Scotland fielding an inexperienced ten twelve combination. In hindsight I'd say that Robinson made a mistake bringing in Jackson at flyhalf as Parks clearly improved Scotland when he came on and Jackson definitely should have played more territory with how well the Scottish lineout did. Having said that I don't really blame Scotland for making large numbers of changes after the Wales game.

In non Six Nations news Kyle Eastmond is moving to Bath from St Helens. He's probably about as talented as any British rugby player in either code so that's exciting news but we'll have to see how he handles the transition to Union, you'd have to think he'd want to play in a decision making position that may make that more difficult.

[Vestrit]

I can't disagree with any of that but I do think the performances of O'Gara and Reddan were a step in the right direction for Ireland. If they have a halfback partnership that's managing the game well, which they seemed to be doing, that's a good platform to get the undoubted talent in the reat of the team firing.

Exactly. Which is why I couldn't understand why they were both taken off, particularly O'Gara, as he's the king of closing out games

In non Six Nations news Kyle Eastmond is moving to Bath from St Helens. He's probably about as talented as any British rugby player in either code so that's exciting news but we'll have to see how he handles the transition to Union, you'd have to think he'd want to play in a decision making position that may make that more difficult.

I'm really excited about this but also quite sad for rugby league.

It will be interesting to see how he goes. I really hope he makes it, as if he can fire, he could be devastating.

[Slick Mongoose]

Italia! Italia! Italia!

Edit: The Garibaldi trophy is really ugly. :stunned:

[ljkeane]

Great win for Italy and they definitely deserved it, they've actually been pretty good at home this season and it would have been massively unlucky if they'd lost both the Ireland game and this game after playing so well. On top of that Perugini's awesome 'tasche didn't deserve to be on the losing side.

On the French side Lievremont's position has to come into question now if it hasn't already. Despite some good performances there hasn't been anything like a sustained improvement under his management, not hugely suprising given the lack of consistency in selection.

[Padraig]

Congrats to Italy. Great win.:)

As for Ireland. I expected to lose but it was still very painful. We were unlucky, given that he Welsh try was very controversial but we have been riding our luck with wins over Italy and Scotland, so I can't complain. Eventually we would run out of luck. Our performance wasn't good enough. We just never seem to be in control, give away too many penalties, kick too much.

[ljkeane]

Not a particularly impressive performance from England today. Scotland defended reasonably well and they are a better team than recent performances suggest but England were generally pretty bad with only Haskell really standing out. England's ball security was bad again which is starting to be a real concern and against a rush defense they spent a lot of time trying to throw miss passes under pressure rather than getting over the gainline. They really need to start getting more from the centres and Banahan was a decided improvement over Tindall when he came on which should raise some questions.

The game between Wales and Ireland yesterday wasn't great either with neither side offering a lot. Ireland were unlucky with the try that should have been disallowed but I don't have a lot of sympathy for them as they didn't do a lot to deserve to win the game, not that Wales really did either. On the positive side for Wales at least they got the win and Hook again managed the game reasonably well.

[Paddy]

Can anyone tell me what Mike Blair was trying with his restart after Wilkinson's drop-goal miss near the end?

The game between Wales and Ireland yesterday wasn't great either with neither side offering a lot. Ireland were unlucky with the try that should have been disallowed but I don't have a lot of sympathy for them as they did't do a lot to deserve to win the game, not that Wales really did either. On the positive side for Wales at least they got the win and Hook again managed the game reasonably well.

I'm a wee bit annoyed with how the media are saying Ireland were caught napping for that try, when they stopped to regroup because they (correctly) believed that the quick throw-in wasn't on.

And that it's being described as controversial when it was just a fuck up by the linesman. Nothing controversial about it.

But then maybe I have a different connotation of the word "controversial".

Still, I can't rue that too much as I'm in complete agreement that we didn't do much to deserve the victory, especially when it was our own bad decision that cost us a try at the end.

[ljkeane]

Can anyone tell me what Mike Blair was trying with his restart after Wilkinson's drop-goal miss near the end?

They needed possesion so I assume Blair was going to just kick the ball off and drop on it so Scotland didn't have to compete for the ball but Thompson read what he was doing and kicked it through.

ETA: Lievremont's response to the loss to Italy yesterday is entertaining. It's good to see someone after a tough loss with the courage to step up and say 'it's not my fault!'. :lol:

[The Anti-Targ]

I hope some ASOIAF UK Rugby fans can get along to this game, for a variety of reasons. I also hope the game is a good spectacle. It should be with the Sharks and Crusaders, being that they're both in reasonable form and they are both averaging 25-30 points per game. Though with the good defensive it could be a low scoring game.

The Canterbury Crusaders have confirmed Twickenham will host a Super 15 earthquake benefit this month, as the All Blacks announced their own Christchurch disaster fundraiser.

The Crusaders said their round-six home tie against South Africa's Coastal Sharks would be played at the famous London ground on March 27, making it the first Super rugby match ever played outside the southern hemisphere.

In related news a decision is going to be made today apparently about whether Christchurch will remain as a RWC venue for this year's World Cup. It's looking rather unlikely, with the games probably being farmed off to Dunedin and Auckland. It would be a shame in some ways for Chch to not be one of the host cities, but there are bigger revovery and repair priorities than getting the stadium and hotels ready for the RWC.

My money is on Chch losing the matches. There's too much uncertainty around whether Chch can be ready in time.

[ljkeane]

I hope some ASOIAF UK Rugby fans can get along to this game, for a variety of reasons. I also hope the game is a good spectacle. It should be with the Sharks and Crusaders, being that they're both in reasonable form and they are both averaging 25-30 points per game. Though with the good defensive it could be a low scoring game.

I'd definitely like to go see the game. I might see if I can get down to London.

[ithanos]

This promises to be an excellent spectacle. Even if it were held back in NZ it would be the match of the round. The Sharks are the only unbeaten team going into this weekend and deservedly so. The Crusaders have shown clinical form in their last two matches and in Fruen and Williams they have monsters in the midfield, seriously. My only concern would be the heavy toll asked of the Sharks to travel back from NZ to South Africa only to hop on another plane to England, where as the Crusaders travel to the England from NZ.

[Hereward]

I'd like to go, but I'm already going to one match that weekend and my wife claims that's sufficient on her birthday weekend. Women. :dunno:

[Slick Mongoose]

Well this is dire.

[Renasko]

Should've put a bet on. Ah well. Victory will be sweet enough. :D

[Slick Mongoose]

Rule 19.2 (i), motherfucker. :tantrum:

[lessthanluke]

Keep racking up the points Ireland!

ETA: As I say that England score.

[ljkeane]

Well that was fucking rubbish. :bang:

To be fair to Ireland that was about as well as I've seen them play for a couple of years, they dominated in pretty much every area of the game and that's a good note to end the Six Nations on for them going towards the World Cup. England on the other hand were dire, they completely crumbled under the pressure. It's probably the first time I'd say their inexperience in key decision making positions has really been a noticable issue, I probably would have brought Wilkinson on a half time to try and steady the ship.

Not that it had any real impact on the result but bloody hell Bryce Lawrence pisses me off. He constantly makes shit decisions and to cap it off he's incredibly smug about it.

[Padraig]

Undoubtedly our best performance in a long time. A lot of wounded players out there before the game. This could have been a complete disaster of a tournament. (I expected us to lose). Not something you'd like to do at home. So instead it all pulled together nicely. Drive and commitment. Not a gazillion penalties given away. And we kept our error count reasonable.

1 to 15 were all great. Nice to see Sexton do well and O'Gara can still make an impression when he does come on.

We haven't been as bad as we have looked recently but I do wonder how long it will take us to repeat that performance. At the same time, i'll worry about that another day. :)

[lessthanluke]

So France beat Wales comfortably to finish off the Championship.

I think this was a very poor 6 Nations on the whole and I don't fancy any teams from the Northern Hemisphere to do much at the world cup.