The Rugby Union Thread

[Comrade 86]

Thought I'd just create a single thread rather than doing the separate tournament thing. The reason for today being that for any other egg-chasing fans, the Leinster vs La Rochelle European Rugby Champions Cup final is now on terrestrial TV and not just BT Sport - ITV 4.00pm for anyone who is interested. It's going to be brutal!  

[CWC1983]

On 20/05/2023 at 15:07, 86 Hair Islands said:

Thought I'd just create a single thread rather than doing the separate tournament thing. The reason for today being that for any other egg-chasing fans, the Leinster vs La Rochelle European Rugby Champions Cup final is now on terrestrial TV and not just BT Sport - ITV 4.00pm for anyone who is interested. It's going to be brutal!  

Don't really watch club rugby but I was glued to it after 30 mins. 

What a last 10 mins.

Must admit I was glad LR won because I'm a bit bored (jelous) of the Ireland / Leinster love in recently. 

It might just sow a seed of doubt in the Ireland camp for the World cup. 

As for Glasgow the night before.....they didn't turn up. 

 

[Comrade 86]

19 hours ago, CWC1983 said:

Don't really watch club rugby but I was glued to it after 30 mins. 

What a last 10 mins.

Must admit I was glad LR won because I'm a bit bored (jelous) of the Ireland / Leinster love in recently. 

It might just sow a seed of doubt in the Ireland camp for the World cup. 

As for Glasgow the night before.....they didn't turn up. 

 

One of the best club matches I've seen. Leinster untouchable for 20 minutes then LAR choking the life out of them until they cracked. That LAR pack is terrifying!

[StockholmRam]

Leinster/Ireland showing what might be their undoing in RWC. The seeds of doubt will most def be there now.

However, Andy Farrell is a habitual winner. Lets see. 
I would really like a NH name on the trophy if its not England. 

[Comrade 86]

Still find it hard to be too pleased for Saracens to be honest, though I thought they were good today in the Premiership final. Owen Farrell seems to have rediscovered some form and in an entertaining game, just might have been the difference. 10 tackles made, zero missed, 2 turnovers and 21 points, he was at the heart of everything good Saracens achieved. Where's this Farrell been since 2019 😑 He was like a man possessed today. I still wanted Sale to win, mind!

As for the United Rugby Championship final (why play both games on the same day?), Stormers fans became incredibly smug when Munster turned over Leinster in their own backyard, handing the Stormers homefield advantage for the final in the process. To be fair, their smugness seemed justified when an early loose pass was run unchallenged back over Munster's line on the intercept. Woeful refereeing and that early mistake did not deter the Irish though and for me, they were value for far more than the score line suggests. Another fiercely contested game, but I have to admire Munster who went to Glasgow and won, followed up at Leinster and then pitched up In Cape Town and bossed the Stormers. The Saffas have no excuses this time.

Looking forwards, I really can't wait for RWC23, England have some 'friendlies' in August prior to the tournament opener against the Argentinians, but I posted before the 6 Nations that I thought Ireland would win that competition, with the French winning the big one. Nothing has really changed in my thinking as sadly, I can't see England making up the ground on either, though the optimist in me hopes for a decent showing at least! That said, my hunch is that it's going to be an immense tournament this time around. Playing in the Northern Hemisphere with NH teams arguably dominant at this point, surely we'll put the SH teams away for once, no? 🙏 

Whatever, September 9th can't come soon enough.

[Comrade 86]

Cracking game with effectively two wildcard sides as the Barbarians took on a World 15 at Twickenham. For you egg-chaser fans, the full match can be viewed here: 

 

[Comrade 86]

Ladies Prem Chiefs vs Saracens on the Beeb sport site for anyone who is interested. Second semi-final.

[Van der MoodHoover]

All a bit quiet so thought id see if anyone else is watching England falling apart against Wales?

 

The WC can't be over quickly enough.

[StaffsRam]

Good run out for Wales B though...

[Van der MoodHoover]

England somehow won after stinking Twickenham out for 60mins

France v Scotland was different gravy afterwards. 

Looking forward to the WC but not fancying England to do much, even though they might be improved if OF gets a ban.

[Comrade 86]

23 hours ago, StaffsRam said:

Good run out for Wales B though...

Does losing to the worst England team in decades despite having as many as 3 players more on the field qualify as a good run out for Welsh folk then? They'll not even be in the top 10 ranked nations by the time they arrive and will be home just as fast as England, if not quicker. Watching 12 man England roll over the entire the Welsh pack for their try when down to only 12 men was hilarious. 

@Van der MoodHoover depressing isn't it? My preferred option for the coaching role is turning out to be a bit of a cabbage without the wit or courage to play only players whose form warrants it. Taking Care and Youngs sums it all up for me. Quirke and Randall both fit and firing and yet we persist with players who simply do not get the ball away quick enough. Ignoring VRR's claims when he is probably the best scrummaging loose head in the Premiership is nonsensical and much as I admire Farrell, his added bulk just means he's even slower. In a team on the front foot he can get away with it, but we've not seen that much in recent times. He's unlucky with the cards yesterday, as Jamie George (I think) seemed to push Basham into him, but trying to wrap players moving at any kind of pace these days is a terribly risky strategy anyway.

Sad to see you wishing the tournament over though, as I think the French and a resurgent Kiwi side might be as good as any we've seen for a while and as an opening game, I'm not sure what could be better fare really. Still so much to savour and it's in the back of my mind that England have suddenly sparked at two RWCs where they had looked hopelessly out of form.

*Can someone pass me the straws, please! 😂

 

 

Edited August 13, 2023 by Comrade 86

[Comrade 86]

Quick heads up to my fellow egg-chaser fans, the tickets for these warm up games are really reasonable, if like me, you feel that paying £250 to watch England play at Twickenham is basically daylight robbery. My lad bought two pretty decent seats on the halfway line, lower upper sort of thing and they were only £37.00 a pop for the game we chose which is NZ vs SA. That's crazy cheap and as a last game before the RWC, it aint gonna be no friendly either! Have a peep at the games scheduled as I reckon there'll still be bargains to be had compared to the lunatic prices charged for inferior 6N games. I've listed some of the more interesting games below but check locations of games, obviously.

Saturday 19th August: Wales v South Africa
Saturday 19th August: Ireland v England
Saturday 19th August: Italy v Romania
Saturday 19th August: France v Fiji
Saturday 26th August: England v Fiji
Saturday 26th August: Scotland v Georgia
Saturday 26th August: Italy v Japan
Saturday 26th August: Ireland v Samoa
Sunday 27th August: France v Australia

 

[Van der MoodHoover]

47 minutes ago, Comrade 86 said:

Quick heads up to my fellow egg-chaser fans, the tickets for these warm up games are really reasonable, if like me, you feel that paying £250 to watch England play at Twickenham is basically daylight robbery. My lad bought two pretty decent seats on the halfway line, lower upper sort of thing and they were only £37.00 a pop for the game we chose which is NZ vs SA. That's crazy cheap and as a last game before the RWC, it aint gonna be no friendly either! Have a peep at the games scheduled as I reckon there'll still be bargains to be had compared to the lunatic prices charged for inferior 6N games. I've listed some of the more interesting games below but check locations of games, obviously.

Saturday 19th August: Wales v South Africa
Saturday 19th August: Ireland v England
Saturday 19th August: Italy v Romania
Saturday 19th August: France v Fiji
Saturday 26th August: England v Fiji
Saturday 26th August: Scotland v Georgia
Saturday 26th August: Italy v Japan
Saturday 26th August: Ireland v Samoa
Sunday 27th August: France v Australia

 

That is pricing as it should be. Me and mates stopped going to autumn international matches a few years ago when prices reached 125 - and that was for top tier.

Good to see WC being made accessible.

[Van der MoodHoover]

1 hour ago, Comrade 86 said:

Does losing to the worst England team in decades despite having as many as 3 players more on the field qualify as a good run out for Welsh folk then? They'll not even be in the top 10 ranked nations by the time they arrive and will be home just as fast as England, if not quicker. Watching 12 man England roll over the entire the Welsh pack for their try when down to only 12 men was hilarious. 

@Van der MoodHoover depressing isn't it? My preferred option for the coaching role is turning out to be a bit of a cabbage without the wit or courage to play only players whose form warrants it. Taking Care and Youngs sums it all up for me. Quirke and Randall both fit and firing and yet we persist with players who simply do not get the ball away quick enough. Ignoring VRR's claims when he is probably the best scrummaging loose head in the Premiership is nonsensical and much as I admire Farrell, his added bulk just means he's even slower. In a team on the front foot he can get away with it, but we've not seen that much in recent times. He's unlucky with the cards yesterday, as Jamie George (I think) seemed to push Basham into him, but trying to wrap players moving at any kind of pace these days is a terribly risky strategy anyway.

Sad to see you wishing the tournament over though, as I think the French and a resurgent Kiwi side might be as good as any we've seen for a while and as an opening game, I'm not sure what could be better fare really. Still so much to savour and it's in the back of my mind that England have suddenly sparked at two RWCs where they had looked hopelessly out of form.

*Can someone pass me the straws, please! 😂

 

 

I had hopes for Steve B, if not great expectations. It looks to me like he's not being allowed to write the WC off by the powers that be so is reverting to safety first type.

I can't understand how our scrum halves are being trained. Watching JVP walking slowly to the ruck pointing left, right and everywhere....then seeing how Dupont and the Scottish scrum half played made me want to hurl things at the screen.

We should just do what we can at the WC and go for a 2011 style reset afterwards.

Please Steve, grow a pair. He's starting to sound depressingly platitudinous in interviews.

[Comrade 86]

2 minutes ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

That is pricing as it should be. Me and mates stopped going to autumn international matches a few years ago when prices reached 125 - and that was for top tier.

Good to see WC being made accessible.

Those prices are for the pre-world cup game buddy. It's still really good value though. I did have a look at the WC tickets but sadly they are as stupidly priced as full internationals at Twickers. That said, I may bite the bullet if England do suddenly find some form, as there'll be way less demand than in a normal RWC year with expectations so low, but I think if France turn up, they win, despite the ridiculous seedings.

 

[Van der MoodHoover]

2 minutes ago, Comrade 86 said:

Those prices are for the pre-world cup game buddy. It's still really good value though. I did have a look at the WC tickets but sadly they are as stupidly priced as full internationals at Twickers. That said, I may bite the bullet if England do suddenly find some form, as there'll be way less demand than in a normal RWC year with expectations so low, but I think if France turn up, they win, despite the ridiculous seedings.

 

Ah, apologies, my bad.

You're right about the vfm tho.

[CWC1983]

That Owen Farrell decision. What a load of rubbish. 

Puts a bit of a cloud over the start of the RWC for me. 

Top tier teams being treated diferantly to tier 2 teams? 

[Comrade 86]

On 15/08/2023 at 18:41, CWC1983 said:

That Owen Farrell decision. What a load of rubbish. 

Puts a bit of a cloud over the start of the RWC for me. 

Top tier teams being treated diferantly to tier 2 teams? 

Cheer up chippy, your lot are flying!

He should have got a ban but this has happened to England before now. I could cite a lot of examples that show we're not the Rugby Illuminati, I can assure you. Also, rescinding the ban punishes us more than leaving it place. He's bulked up even more this season and now runs like a farmer carrying two urns of milk. It actually looks like it's hurting him which given the attritional nature of his game, would not be a surprise. Sadly, Smith still looks a little lightweight against teams looking to exploit his channel, so the obvious pick would be Ford. 

So..... moan all you like about Farrell, but remember you could be an England fan and that's a whole lot worse place to be right now! 😋

[Van der MoodHoover]

RSA looking v strong against Wales. Siya Kolisi returning from injury.

They're a tough prospect with their massive forwards. England really should keep quiet about wanting to be the best scrummagers.

[Comrade 86]

18 hours ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

RSA looking v strong against Wales. Siya Kolisi returning from injury.

They're a tough prospect with their massive forwards. England really should keep quiet about wanting to be the best scrummagers.

Gets little respect back home, but he's absolutely key for the Saffas. Many demean him as a 'quota captain' but he's much more than that.

As for England, I agree, though I'd say we're moving under the radar more this year than any I can remember. Sadly, that's because we're so poor. We have burst into life at the RWC before but I don't remember seeing an England side so inept at the basics. When you look at the handling skills of teams like NZ, Ireland, France and Scotland and the way they recycle ball, the gulf in quality is as shocking as it is depressing and sadly, Borthwick appears to have brought none of the enterprise and vision he did when transforming Leicester's fortunes. Fortunately, with such low expectations, I'll not be disappointed whatever happens, which is a first for me. Is being at least competitive too much to ask for? 😕