The Rugby Thread

[Buzzo]

Might be higher come World Cup time…..

https://twitter.com/thepaulwilliams/...49923638190086

1, 3 and 5 all in the same WC group ffs

Why they feel they have to announce the groups so far in advance is baffling.

Even with our improvements it’s a ridiculous task to have to beat two of the top three teams in the world just to get out of the group phases.

[Irishnev]

Ahhh there we go….

He did play well but it was a team performance. Only when it’s Scotland do the residency rules get brought up. CJ Stander, Josh Van Der Flier, Gibson Park don’t get mentioned in the same way.

Josh is Dutch by the way, his family moved to Ireland as a kid……. He’s not an “import”.

All countries with probably the exception of SA benefit from overseas players, it’s the game and I’ve no issue with it. NZ have been well ahead of others for years, then England and the rest of us are catching up

[Buzzo]

Josh is Dutch by the way, his family moved to Ireland as a kid……. He’s not an “import”.

All countries with probably the exception of SA benefit from overseas players, it’s the game and I’ve no issue with it. NZ have been well ahead of others for years, then England and the rest of us are catching up

ah, the nuance.

Tiopolotu's gran is Scottish (true story). So he's not residency either

I absolutely agree though, and the big winner is International Rugby. But, and I suspect this is because the main media narrative is English - it always gets brought up when we win.

Van der Merwe left ZA as he could not get a game, went to Montpellier, could not get a game. Went to Edinburgh when they were poor, got a game. Improved year on year in that environment. Qualified through residency and his career took off.

I've no issues with it, and I suspect as you point out, the main nation who could feel grievance, is South Africa. But they have hardly struggled!

[Buzzo]

Watched a bit of the Italy France game yesterday.

Italy are improving at a rapid rate. I'll bet Borthwick was worried watching that with Italy being next up. The gap is closing, the Italian club teams are improving all the time also, there are no walkovers any more. I think the URC has become an incredibly strong tournament and the smaller nations are all benefiting, the only losers seem to be the Welsh (so far) as there structure is in disarray. I would argue that in terms of prepping players for the challenges of international Rugby the URC is better than the Gallagher prem.

Given the relative inexperience of a lot of that Italian team, the potential for them to improve is massive. A few mare caps and experience in the bank and they may well have won that. It is great for the tournament.

[Buzzo]

[ame]https://twitter.com/thistlerugbypod/status/1622493081252597760[/ame]

[Irishnev]

Fully agree with all that - CJ was “too small” in SA so Munster took a punt and he became a Lion. Bundee and Lowe the same plus we benefited from the granny tile a bit

The WC is a ****er - ye guys could easily win a triple crown this year and such a **** draw for the 3 of us. Where is see Scotland is that when everyone is fit you can beat anyone and I genuinely mean that….. no patronizing. That was us in the era of O’Connell and O’Driscoll but now we have consistency based off a pretty good (not perfect) provincial structure. I still think if teams slow you down you’ll struggle off bad ball, kick bad to you and you rip teams up

Injuries will be a factor in the 6 Nations and WC when our games come round - depth it massive.

[Buzzo]

Fully agree with all that - CJ was “too small” in SA so Munster took a punt and he became a Lion. Bundee and Lowe the same plus we benefited from the granny tile a bit

The WC is a ****er - ye guys could easily win a triple crown this year and such a **** draw for the 3 of us. Where is see Scotland is that when everyone is fit you can beat anyone and I genuinely mean that….. no patronizing. That was us in the era of O’Connell and O’Driscoll but now we have consistency based off a pretty good (not perfect) provincial structure. I still think if teams slow you down you’ll struggle off bad ball, kick bad to you and you rip teams up

Injuries will be a factor in the 6 Nations and WC when our games come round - depth it massive.

Yeah, I fully agree

Ultimately - I love this Scotland team, no matter what they deliver. Always entertaining. Does that mean we win anything? Probably not. But the journey is amazing.

The worry for me with you lot is I thought you crushed Wales without really playing incredibly well. Decent in the first half, but not so much in the second. But. You will get so much better.

Im kind of fascinated with England, no idea where they are at now, they played a very un-English game at times on Saturday. I see Borthwick has thrown the end of the Eddie era under the bus this morning.

[Buzzo]

This must be specific to England - no issues here at Murrayfield, nor from what I see in Cardiff or Dublin.

[ame]https://twitter.com/jimhamilton4/status/1622181071193358338[/ame]

[Irishnev]

Yeah, I fully agree

Ultimately - I love this Scotland team, no matter what they deliver. Always entertaining. Does that mean we win anything? Probably not. But the journey is amazing.

The worry for me with you lot is I thought you crushed Wales without really playing incredibly well. Decent in the first half, but not so much in the second. But. You will get so much better.

Im kind of fascinated with England, no idea where they are at now, they played a very un-English game at times on Saturday. I see Borthwick has thrown the end of the Eddie era under the bus this morning.

Wales looked oooold and sloooooooow in the first half because we came at them at 100 miles an hour are were super accurate on the set piece. They were blowing hard after 20 mins. I think we dropped off and they feared a battering which resulted in them getting on top - we also scrambled very well and they butchered a few scoring chances. The score in the end flattered us a bit.

This leaves plenty of room for improvement with Henshaw, Gibson Park, Furlong and Kelleher to come into the starting line up. In addition we have some real prospects coming through - Coombes, Baird and Osborne are real bolter options.

Borthwick has no right to blame what he inherited as he was part of it, they need to go back to basics and focus on set piece and pack.

[Buzzo]

Thats encouraging with Wales from our POV. We went the full 80 coast to coast in 4 phases v England in the 74th minute. We looked fresh. An old slow pack should be perfect for us.

Should be.

I loved seeing Gatland looking despondent. Just need it to continue.

[Buzzo]

The fend and ball transfer at the end...

[ame]https://twitter.com/thepaulwilliams/status/1622225618354962432[/ame]

[RichC]

I thought we actually played quite well but a few individual errors was the difference in the sides, not really sure why he's harking on about Jones etc... that's been and gone now.

The talent in the squad is there it's about how we set up and how regimented he can get them i.e. not giving a pen away every time we go into a scrum!

[Irishnev]

[ame="https://twitter.com/murray_kinsella/status/1622595944356233220"]https://twitter.com/murray_kinsella/status/1622595944356233220[/ame]

[Buzzo]

Ooft. That’s a blow - particularly Furlong, Park and Sexton.

The guy who came in for Furlong was giving away pens left right and centre.

[Irishnev]

Ooft. That’s a blow - particularly Furlong, Park and Sexton.

The guy who came in for Furlong was giving away pens left right and centre.

Bealham is the prop - he did quite well tbh and didn’t give away more pens than anyone else. Playing for Connaught is a big difference vs the French front row. Still, these are the challenges you need to overcome so let’s see how the others step up