The Rugby Thread

[Cormack74]

I see Billy Burns is on Nev - how is he Irish, the family are from Gloucester or Bath.

Just like those Tuilagi and Vunipola lads.........as English as you get

We’ll take anyone Cormack - not fussy

The Vunipola lads are basically Welsh

I hadn't paid much attention to Wales these past couple of weeks, but I realized watching the highlights last night that they are getting us back by picking two highly promising English centres in the past couple of weeks - Nick Tompkins and Johnny Williams both of whom have played for England Under 20's.

Not sure what happened there

[Irishnev]

I hadn't paid much attention to Wales these past couple of weeks, but I realized watching the highlights last night that they are getting us back by picking two highly promising English centres in the past couple of weeks - Nick Tompkins and Johnny Williams both of whom have played for England Under 20's.

Not sure what happened there

Did I see that the U-20 side Burns was a part of has guys playing for Ireland, Scotland and Italy now

[Cormack74]

Did I see that the U-20 side Burns was a part of has guys playing for Ireland, Scotland and Italy now

Yeah the two I mentioned plus Sisi (Italy), Ross Moriarty (Wales) and Buzzo's favourite Devonian Sam Skinner

[Cormack74]

Actually I've just googled it and apparently there are another 5 but it's on the Telegraph site behind a pay wall so I can't see all of them.

But there are pics of Will Addison and Tom Heathcote so they are evidently two of the 5.

[Cormack74]

The Philistines on this site may not be interested in reading this given it's more about rugby than football so I've put it here rather than in 'Our style of play' where it probably might have sat better.

Oh and try and overlook the fact it's Jones lads - he's bigging us up for ****'s sake

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/nov/22/eddie-jones-credits-liverpools-role-in-jonny-mays-wonder-try-for-england

Eddie Jones has revealed how Liverpool are having a key influence on his England team, explaining how a meeting with the Premier League champions played a role in Jonny May’s wonder try against Ireland.

Jones met with the Liverpool director of research, Ian Graham, to discuss transitional play – moving from attack to defence and vice versa – with a particular emphasis on what players do off the ball. Previously Jones has cited Pep Guardiola as having a significant impact on his team selection policy and more recently he has been reading Believe Us – a book about how Jürgen Klopp turned Liverpool into English champions – and has started collecting data on how his players perform when not in possession.

In the 18-7 win over Ireland, England had just 39% of the ball – making 246 tackles compared to their opponents’ 73 – but prevailed thanks to two tries from May. His second came after Ireland lost an attacking lineout before England swiftly shifted the ball from right to left to May, who finished off a memorable try from his own 22. Jones believes that was a perfect example of the “flick the switch” game scenarios he has introduced into training coming to fruition.

“I’m nominally the flick the switch coordinator but all the coaches do all the work. We’ve just created games that mimic those sorts of situations,” said Jones. “We had a great meeting with the Liverpool analyst, that’s one area they’re in. We’re starting to develop our own database that’s helping us in that area that can measure work off the ball. That’s so important, transitional parts, it’s a pretty exciting area for us and it’s pleasing to see that try where we shifted the ball quickly to the outside [for May’s second try].

“[Liverpool], and I think most football sides, are very advanced in being able to measure the movement of the players off the ball. If you look at any [rugby] stats that you get, they are only concerned with information on the ball. Say if Mako Vunipola makes 20 tackles and carries the ball three times, for 79 minutes and 45 seconds he is not with the ball. But his movement off the ball is crucial to what we do when we transition.

“What we want the players to do is what is obvious, but it’s their race to get in position which is really important. We’re starting to measure all that, we’ve got three great analysts who look at that area and give the players feedback. And then we want the players to use their skills.

[Irishnev]

The Philistines on this site may not be interested in reading this given it's more about rugby than football so I've put it here rather than in 'Our style of play' where it probably might have sat better.

Oh and try and overlook the fact it's Jones lads - he's bigging us up for ****'s sake

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/nov/22/eddie-jones-credits-liverpools-role-in-jonny-mays-wonder-try-for-england

Eddie Jones has revealed how Liverpool are having a key influence on his England team, explaining how a meeting with the Premier League champions played a role in Jonny May’s wonder try against Ireland.

Jones met with the Liverpool director of research, Ian Graham, to discuss transitional play – moving from attack to defence and vice versa – with a particular emphasis on what players do off the ball. Previously Jones has cited Pep Guardiola as having a significant impact on his team selection policy and more recently he has been reading Believe Us – a book about how Jürgen Klopp turned Liverpool into English champions – and has started collecting data on how his players perform when not in possession.

In the 18-7 win over Ireland, England had just 39% of the ball – making 246 tackles compared to their opponents’ 73 – but prevailed thanks to two tries from May. His second came after Ireland lost an attacking lineout before England swiftly shifted the ball from right to left to May, who finished off a memorable try from his own 22. Jones believes that was a perfect example of the “flick the switch” game scenarios he has introduced into training coming to fruition.

“I’m nominally the flick the switch coordinator but all the coaches do all the work. We’ve just created games that mimic those sorts of situations,” said Jones. “We had a great meeting with the Liverpool analyst, that’s one area they’re in. We’re starting to develop our own database that’s helping us in that area that can measure work off the ball. That’s so important, transitional parts, it’s a pretty exciting area for us and it’s pleasing to see that try where we shifted the ball quickly to the outside [for May’s second try].

“[Liverpool], and I think most football sides, are very advanced in being able to measure the movement of the players off the ball. If you look at any [rugby] stats that you get, they are only concerned with information on the ball. Say if Mako Vunipola makes 20 tackles and carries the ball three times, for 79 minutes and 45 seconds he is not with the ball. But his movement off the ball is crucial to what we do when we transition.

“What we want the players to do is what is obvious, but it’s their race to get in position which is really important. We’re starting to measure all that, we’ve got three great analysts who look at that area and give the players feedback. And then we want the players to use their skills.

I was going to post after the game that England reminded me of Liverpool but couldn’t be arsed writing it - now I’m saying it I look like a fraud

We used to be at are most dangerous we let opponents have the ball and then we’d lure them into pressing traps and pounce. England let opposition bring the ball into contact, smash them back, turn it over then kick intelligently or break - similar.

I now feel dirty that I’ve thought of something Eddie Jones has proved himself on

[Cormack74]

I was going to post after the game that England reminded me of Liverpool but couldn’t be arsed writing it - now I’m saying it I look like a fraud

We used to be at are most dangerous we let opponents have the ball and then we’d lure them into pressing traps and pounce. England let opposition bring the ball into contact, smash them back, turn it over then kick intelligently or break - similar.

I now feel dirty that I’ve thought of something Eddie Jones has proved himself on

Steady

Actually I meant to mention when referencing Jones' book yesterday that he wrote that he was in awe of Gregor Townsend's mental capacity - something along those lines

But I'm not sure even that would turn Buzzo to the 'dark' side.

[Zapater]

On the subject of Liverpool and the incorporation of football methods in rugby, Jake White has been very vocal about it too (amongst everything else in the world). Cites the City game where we sprung a tactical surprise and spoke about revealing the teams in advance a way of killing coaches tactical influences. It's late and I can't be ****ed looking for it, but I'll post some of the articles tomorrow if I remember. Most people hate him, but he's definitely quite sharp - no surprise him and Eddie were so successful together, then.

I hadn't paid much attention to Wales these past couple of weeks, but I realized watching the highlights last night that they are getting us back by picking two highly promising English centres in the past couple of weeks - Nick Tompkins and Johnny Williams both of whom have played for England Under 20's.

Not sure what happened there

On the subject of English centres, you mentioned Huw Jones a a while ago. I've always considered him English. Read up on him, there's actually nothing Scottish about him, he was just born there. He's as Scottish as George Gregan and Corne Krige are Zambian.

I was going to post after the game that England reminded me of Liverpool but couldn’t be arsed writing it - now I’m saying it I look like a fraud

We used to be at are most dangerous we let opponents have the ball and then we’d lure them into pressing traps and pounce. England let opposition bring the ball into contact, smash them back, turn it over then kick intelligently or break - similar.

I now feel dirty that I’ve thought of something Eddie Jones has proved himself on

[RichC]

Christian Dominici has passed away. Only 48, no age at all

[Buzzo]

Horrific.

A witness saw him climb the roof of a disused building at Saint-Cloud park, near Paris, on Tuesday before falling, officials say.

I wonder if this is going to be another CTE case?

[Zapater]

Horrific.



I wonder if this is going to be another CTE case?

Whilst possible, I doubt it. Pretty sure he ahd an abusive childhood and suffered from depression prior to his career. Assuming suicide obviously.

[Buzzo]

Whilst possible, I doubt it. Pretty sure he ahd an abusive childhood and suffered from depression prior to his career. Assuming suicide obviously.

Didn’t know that. Horrific for a different set of reasons.

[Cormack74]

Pretty average performance by England but enough to secure the win.

Wales look a bit short on confidence at the moment and having a crowd in today would have made a big difference IMO.

It does depress me that whereas some team are better then the individual sum of the parts, more often than not England as a whole are less than the sum of the parts.

And I fail to understand why EJ picks Ford as a second 'distributor' then lets him kick away bags of possession - most of it very badly. It makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.

[paulg]

Pretty average performance by England but enough to secure the win.

Wales look a bit short on confidence at the moment and having a crowd in today would have made a big difference IMO.

It does depress me that whereas some team are better then the individual sum of the parts, more often than not England as a whole are less than the sum of the parts.

And I fail to understand why EJ picks Ford as a second 'distributor' then lets him kick away bags of possession - most of it very badly. It makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.

This. Kicking possession away is so frustrating.

[Zapater]

Matera stripped of captaincy. Perhaps a bit harsh for something a while ago but fair enough and the right decision given the content posted. Racism doesn't pay and I'm glad he's been exposed.

“The Argentina Rugby Union forcefully rejects the discriminatory and xenophobic comments published by members of the Pumas squad on social media,” a statement read, after offensive post dating from 2011-2013 came to light.

In the tweets, since deleted, Matera spoke of “running over blacks” with his car and disparaged Bolivian and Paraguayan domestic workers with racial stereotypes.

Petti referred to his domestic worker as a “primate” and spoke of “blacks” stealing mobile phones and wallets.

https://rugby365.com/countries/argentina/matera-stripped-from-argentina-captains-armband/