The Rugby Thread

[Irishnev]

Wales
Getting out played by 14.

Ssssssssssh

[Irishnev]

What a ****ing kick from Burns at the end

[Buzzo]

What a ****ing kick from Burns at the end

Just read about it, was it out on the full to end the match?

[Irishnev]

Just read about it, was it out on the full to end the match?

Played most of the game with 14 after POM correctly sent off. Down by 5 and win a pen in their 22 and he kicked out in the full

Have had better Sundays Buzzo

[Buzzo]

Played most of the game with 14 after POM correctly sent off. Down by 5 and win a pen in their 22 and he kicked out in the full

Have had better Sundays Buzzo

I’m still clinging on to yesterday for dear life.

Playing a 6 nations game with 14 for so long is virtually impossible so you did well to stay in touch.

Kicking it out on the full can happen, if you try to bite off too much - but not from inside the oppo 22. That is poor.

[badpiggy]

His brother made an utter **** of himself ****ing up a try a couple of years ago in a Heineken cup match against a French team

[Buzzo]

His brother made an utter **** of himself ****ing up a try a couple of years ago in a Heineken cup match against a French team

I think I remember this. Failed to dot the ball down for a try after doing all the hard work?

[Buzzo]

Cant believe w're not still talking about the game. And no sign of Cormack since Saturday...

Anyway, I will reignite the conversation with these Stuart Hogg kicks. Absolutely incredible.

[ame="https://youtu.be/lQL4WMKjaCw"]Stuart Hogg kicking display vs England 2021 - YouTube[/ame]

[Cormack74]

Cant believe w're not still talking about the game. And no sign of Cormack since Saturday...

Anyway, I will reignite the conversation with these Stuart Hogg kicks. Absolutely incredible.

Stuart Hogg kicking display vs England 2021 - YouTube

I haven't remotely felt like coming on the site since the City game. Well the City game on top of the previous two. I thought I'd pop in here but I still don't fancy the football forums - I noticed I had a page and a half of unread threads in the LFC forum and it's going to stay that way for a while

So FWIW.

Scotland were excellent, had a game plan and executed it. I suspect in the past they might have got a bit twitchy in the second half but they were solid in pretty much all aspects and showed far more clarity of thought than we did.

Clarity of thought is something EJ had in spades but seems to be rapidly losing. Picking 4 guys with pretty much no rugby since October on top of having 5 missing is straight jacket territory. I can't possibly think he underestimated Scotland but have to sort of wonder.

And his muddled thought processes seemed to have spread to the team. Why else when they were chasing the game would they be aimlessly kicking to one of the game's best when it comes to returning kicks or running the ball back?

And now more muddled ****. We can't win the Grand Slam but might win the 6N (we won't but you'll see where I'm going here). Of course we want to win the 6N but the GS should be where we're aiming when we've won the 6N in recent years. So what better opportunity to give game time to the guys on the margins and hone our tactics?

Olly Lawrence, case in point. A very talented youngster who got given the ball once on Saturday. So not really his fault he didn't have a stormer. Common sense says give him a run out against the Italians with Paulo Odogwu next to him - another young talented guy. **** that says Eddie. Let's go back to the Ford / Farrell axis which we know all about. Why Eddie why? because we've seen it 20, 30, 40 times before.

Anyway one last thought about Saturday; it's the losers perogative to whinge about the ref. But equally you know I've done some reffing so I'm always on 'ref watch'

You may have guessed I was pretty disappointed with his performance . . . allowing the Scots to go off their feet but penalising us for it. Penalising us for foul play that wasn't foul play e.g. Genge's 'no arm' tackle even though TV showed he attempted to wrap them (no idea what happened to the TMO there). Letting Price get away with Rugby League feeds into the scrum. The list is long but I won't go on any further. It's clear that if you get on the right side of the ref early you've got a better chance of getting subsequent decisions but we seem to always ignore that.

Oh and 2 last Scottish things: I thought Price was bang average (again) - does he have a relative high up at the SRFU or something? Others like SHC must be wondering what's going on there.

Scotland have a real chance to do something brilliant this year but they'll need to be lucky with injuries and absolutely must improve their 'red zone' efficiency to avoid the season becoming a 'what might have been'. I'm almost more interested in their next game than England's TBH.

[Buzzo]

That’s a fair read on the game (other than the ref, we all see what we want to ).

I was also surprised by EJ. I felt his attempts at mind games were pretty feeble in the run in to the game. England are huge favourites as always, goading us seemed pointless. And then tactically England seem to be fast becoming outdated. What is the plan here? The incessant kicking was absolutely bizarre and given the fact it wasn’t working persisting when Hogg was on top form was just strange. Kicking to a guy that can either run it back or send it over your head to the 5 metre line from inside his own 22, and was doing just that was bizarre.

I also agree that the return of Ford Farrell against Italy is a strange one, it’s a known formula and pretty much any England team is going to demolish Italy. I don’t understand how either Simmonds doesn’t get a look in for England, surely both deserve some game time on form over the past few years?

I agree with the Saracens comment to an extent, however Maitland played well for us. To me the entire mentality from England seemed miles off what was required, and that’s something I can say I’ve never associated with England except for second half in 2019. With us winning in 18, drawing in 19, last years game being destroyers by the weather and winning again this year I’ve felt the win was coming - I just couldn’t say it. And we definitely left a few points out there.

Where do we go fron now? We have to back that up. We have Jamie Ritchie and Can Redpath out on Saturday which is a shame (Redpath was incredible) but we do have depth now. 2 frontline hookers out and George Turner came in and had a stormer. We look like a team in every sense of the word. But we MUST go on and prove it. 3 hone games and France away so anything could happen.

I am actually intrigued to see what England do on Saturday because the performance was sooo poor and the likes of Farrell and Billy who were awful must respond, I’m sure they will. I’ve never seen Farrell look bereft of ideas and confidence - he looked shocked, But long term do England have the attack to really progress - as things stand I’m not so sure. Which is odd as they definitely have the players.

BTW. Very much enjoyed Rugby Union Weekly this week which brought in very fair assessment of the game.

[Buzzo]

I thought Price was ok, he responded well to being put under pressure from Itoje. But I kind of agree on SHC, he isn’t even in the squad and Steele seems to be the new deputy. Price and Russell do work well together however.

[Buzzo]

And yeah. The footy forum is less than amazing right now...!!

[ChesterDave]

Strong whiff of a knock-on for the first English try

[ChesterDave]

OOOOOOF!

14 man Scotland regain the lead!

[ChesterDave]

Don't understand these delicate little kicks through. Seems unecessary concession of possession. Just need to keep hold of it and draw a penalty.