Official Rugby Thread

[wpdavid]

Not a bad effort to beat Argentina with 14 men for most of the game. Sounds like a lively affair.

 

[Howe_zat]

It was bloody rough. Argentina pretty foolish to get dragged into an upfront battle with a man advantage.

Great defending and discipline from England. May looks to have come a long long way in terms of his positioning, lines and smart rugby.

Harrison is lightweight and was an utterly useless replacement for Billy. Rest of the pack had to cover him.

 

[Howe_zat]

Irish are giving the Australians a tonking here. Absolutely taking them to school in the forwards.

 

[Howe_zat]

More like what you'd expect from the Wallabies on the stroke of half time. Lucky to get the set piece but lovely support running.

 

[social]

Ref helping the Irish get home here

 

[BoyBrumby]

It was bloody rough. Argentina pretty foolish to get dragged into an upfront battle with a man advantage.

Great defending and discipline from England. May looks to have come a long long way in terms of his positioning, lines and smart rugby.

Harrison is lightweight and was an utterly useless replacement for Billy. Rest of the pack had to cover him.

Indeed. Really missed his ball carrying when big Bill went off. Kinda surprised Eddie didn't move Courtney to #8 as he was the only vague approximation of one in the match day squad once Billy V was broken.

Daly was a silly sod though, wasn't he? He seemed to panic once he realised he'd tackled the man in the air, completely took his hands away and let the airborne Argie fall to terra firma uncushioned.

Daft, but ref really had no choice.

 

[Dan_M_Bali]

Gonna really miss Billy V's ball carrying skills and Itoje all round work (especially breakdown) vs Aus next week. The Wallabies will be dead set of revenge after the 3-0 tonking they received at home.

 

[Howe_zat]

Six Nations: Bonus-point system introduced for 2017 tournament - BBC Sport

Hooray for table nerdery!

 

[Furball]

3 points for winning the Grand Slam seems pointless.

 

[StephenZA]

Six Nations: Bonus-point system introduced for 2017 tournament - BBC Sport

Hooray for table nerdery!

Irony is that they are going with the old Superrugby/tri-nations system that jhas ust been updated, so that rather than scoring 4 tries you must score 3 more than the opposition, thus making teams play till the end (at least that is the argument!).

 

[Howe_zat]

Irony is that they are going with the old Superrugby/tri-nations system that jhas ust been updated, so that rather than scoring 4 tries you must score 3 more than the opposition, thus making teams play till the end (at least that is the argument!).

Yeah but they were explicit about trying to encourage try scoring rather than rewarding a dominant performance.

They've had this system in the prem and pro12 for ages now and I find it works pretty well. The bonus point rewards only show up in play in the final quarter of most games there, so it won't change tactics all that much, it just stops points difference bull**** from deciding the whole championship.

 

[BoyBrumby]

3 points for winning the Grand Slam seems pointless.

Think it's to prevent the potential scenario where a team winning the GS could be pipped to the title by another.

Team A wins the GS with no try scoring bonuses (5 wins @ 4 pts per win = 20 pts)
Team B wins 4/5 games, securing 5 4-try bonus points & a losing bonus (4 wins @ 4pts pw, 5 x try bonus pts, 1 losing bonus pt = 22 pts)

 

[wpdavid]

Aus all over us here. Maybe Eddie Jones pre-match bantz has been counter-productive so far.

EDIT
As has the traditional English lack of discipline before half time, gifting our visitors 6 points. Sort it out boys.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Has to bode well we can play like drains for 40 minutes and be 11 points up ten minutes into the second half.

In fairness we've had the rub of the green. Blatant forward pass not called in the build up to the scrum that lead to Hughes's break and the Youngs tap and go.

 

[Howe_zat]

One bad call doesn't explain away 24-5 in the second half but no doubt Cheika will pretend it does.

FMD how good was Ben Youngs. World class (and about bloody time)

 

[BoyBrumby]

Youngs was awfully good, yes.

Might be my Saints bias talking, but I thought big Courts was the best on the paddock today though. Boy was immense.

 

[91Jmay]

Biggest positive is doing this without two of our best players and another excellent one in Haskell.

 

[Burgey]

Jeez we blow.

 

[social]

Wobblies are woeful

Cheika should be sacked for no other reason than his preoccupation with Pooper, Mumm and Phipps but the problems with the game in this country run so deep that any move is just a band aid

 

[BoyBrumby]

To be fair his hand was forced with Phipps what with Genia being unavailable.

Would've been a massive call to start with a chap who's basically been the Reds' bench 9 until now.

Although the way Phipps was sold Youngs's dummy there could be a case made for Frisby.