The Rugby Union Thread

[Comrade 86]

After the second break it's back to business this weekend. Have to say I'm looking forward to the games, but with some trepidation given our next opponents. The squad is as below:

England: Furbank; Feyi-Waboso, Slade, Lawrence, Freeman; Ford, Mitchell; Genge, George (capt), Cole, Itoje, Martin, Chessum, Underhill, Earl.

Replacements: Dan, Marler, Stuart, Cunningham-South, Dombrandt, Care, M Smith, Daly.

Now perhaps I'm being overly critical, but at what point do we commit to the rebuild. Think how ruthless Fabien Galthié was; old and underperforming? Off you go son and thanks for your service type ruthless. So when I look at the above and the number of players who have zero chance of making the next RWC, it annoys me. Quite a lot actually. I could understand it at the last tourny as a RWC is absolutely not the time to be experimenting, but with our 6N campaign effectively curtailed by the loss to the Scots, why on earth are we not using these games to blood more than just Freeman and Feyi-Waboso? This is the perfect opportunity for the next generation to experience test match rugby against a top side. Also, what on earth has Freddie Steward done to be dropped, not only from the starting 15, but from the squad too? Has Borth forgotten his performances at the world cup? Argh. Frustrating.

Ireland by 20. Come on England, make a nonsense of my appraisal, pretty please! 

[CWC1983]

23 hours ago, Comrade 86 said:

After the second break it's back to business this weekend. Have to say I'm looking forward to the games, but with some trepidation given our next opponents. The squad is as below:

England: Furbank; Feyi-Waboso, Slade, Lawrence, Freeman; Ford, Mitchell; Genge, George (capt), Cole, Itoje, Martin, Chessum, Underhill, Earl.

Replacements: Dan, Marler, Stuart, Cunningham-South, Dombrandt, Care, M Smith, Daly.

Now perhaps I'm being overly critical, but at what point do we commit to the rebuild. Think how ruthless Fabien Galthié was; old and underperforming? Off you go son and thanks for your service type ruthless. So when I look at the above and the number of players who have zero chance of making the next RWC, it annoys me. Quite a lot actually. I could understand it at the last tourny as a RWC is absolutely not the time to be experimenting, but with our 6N campaign effectively curtailed by the loss to the Scots, why on earth are we not using these games to blood more than just Freeman and Feyi-Waboso? This is the perfect opportunity for the next generation to experience test match rugby against a top side. Also, what on earth has Freddie Steward done to be dropped, not only from the starting 15, but from the squad too? Has Borth forgotten his performances at the world cup? Argh. Frustrating.

Ireland by 20. Come on England, make a nonsense of my appraisal, pretty please! 

The Steward one is weird, isn't it?  

Slade and Lawrence had shockers against us, can't be as bad again tomorrow. 

Lawrence must be in to take on Ake. 

It will be some of the players Twickenham swansong, can't imagine Care, Marler, Cole pulling on the white shirt there again. 

I also wonder if Itoje might take a break at some point. 

If you could manage a low scoring draw I'd be a happy man, assuming we beat the Italians in the afternoon. 

Italy will fancy it tomorrow and we've never given them a doing over there. It will be a lot closer than some are thinking. 

We got out of jail last season against them, for me it's a 60/40 game in favour of Scotland. 

[Comrade 86]

28 minutes ago, CWC1983 said:

The Steward one is weird, isn't it?  

Slade and Lawrence had shockers against us, can't be as bad again tomorrow. 

Lawrence must be in to take on Ake. 

It will be some of the players Twickenham swansong, can't imagine Care, Marler, Cole pulling on the white shirt there again. 

I also wonder if Itoje might take a break at some point. 

If you could manage a low scoring draw I'd be a happy man, assuming we beat the Italians in the afternoon. 

Italy will fancy it tomorrow and we've never given them a doing over there. It will be a lot closer than some are thinking. 

We got out of jail last season against them, for me it's a 60/40 game in favour of Scotland. 

The Steward thing is made even weirder by the chosen replacement, a fullback with concrete hands. Arundell, meanwhile, is tearing it up in Top 14 rugby in the same position. How I'd love to see him collecting the kicks and running from deep if Steward is not going to play. Ah, well, I give up on England for the time being. I thought the idea was to roll out the next generation but instead we're trying to salvage a dead tourny for us with a team full of guys who are at the very end of their careers. Whatever the strategy is, I'm not seeing it.

As for Scotland, we beat Italy and we're poor, so I'm not expecting too many problems for your chaps, but I'm afraid that's as good as it gets as I don't see us getting near the Irish, especially with the team selected. Would love to help you out as the Irish are giving the Saffas a run as the most arrogant fans ever these days, but sadly, it'll be them singing tomorrow, not us.

Yours, fed up and grumpy,

86 😋

[Comrade 86]

Jamie Heaslip just can't STFU can he? All feckin week he's been going on. We're like the Carter / McCaw All Black sides, we fear nobody, we'd have to go down to 14 or 13 men for England to win. If I was Andy Farrell I'd be having a word as even fairly even handed fellows like Ruaridh Jackson are calling him out as an arrogant t*** and the Rugby pages are awash with Irish fans trash-talking other teams and their fans. I very much doubt we'll win tomorrow to be honest, but I'd imagine Borthwick won't need to give much of a team talk to have the lads a deal more fired up than they might have been. 

[CWC1983]

41 minutes ago, Comrade 86 said:

Jamie Heaslip just can't STFU can he? All feckin week he's been going on. We're like the Carter / McCaw All Black sides, we fear nobody, we'd have to go down to 14 or 13 men for England to win. If I was Andy Farrell I'd be having a word as even fairly even handed fellows like Ruaridh Jackson are calling him out as an arrogant t*** and the Rugby pages are awash with Irish fans trash-talking other teams and their fans. I very much doubt we'll win tomorrow to be honest, but I'd imagine Borthwick won't need to give much of a team talk to have the lads a deal more fired up than they might have been. 

Its their moment in the sun at the moment.

The WC still stings since they will never have a better chance to make a semi final.....😄

It's been a while since the backs have had to play going backwards, let's see how they get on if you can put some forward pressure on them. I think you could win the  scrum to get penalties and put scoreboard pressure on them. 

 

[CWC1983]

Well played Italy, that result has been coming for them for 2 years. 

 

[Comrade 86]

16 minutes ago, CWC1983 said:

Well played Italy, that result has been coming for them for 2 years. 

 

I've never seen an Italian side defend like that. It looked like Scotland were going to walk it, but I thought Russell was quite ordinary today by his own high standards and Italy were absolutely on it in all aspects for their game. It's a shame that the Scots will rightly view this campaign as another instance of 'what might of been', but as you've very sportingly surmised, all credit to Italy who were immense today. I don't think anyone will begrudge them that result after so many close shaves against the higher rated sides.

[CWC1983]

England Italy double would have been a good price. 

They fronted up brilliantly and deserved that win. 

 

[Comrade 86]

10 minutes ago, CWC1983 said:

England Italy double would have been a good price. 

They fronted up brilliantly and deserved that win. 

 

Was just thinking the same myself. I'm tempted to ask why we don't play like this more often, but I'm going to get incredubly drunk with the lads instead. Thank you Engalnd. It's lovely to have you back! 

[CWC1983]

1 hour ago, Comrade 86 said:

Was just thinking the same myself. I'm tempted to ask why we don't play like this more often, but I'm going to get incredubly drunk with the lads instead. Thank you Engalnd. It's lovely to have you back! 

When we were 11 points up I stuck £5 on Italy at 10/1. 

Softened the blow a bit. 

Enjoy, there's nothing quite like your country winning in the 6 nations as underdogs, 👍

[Highgate]

Thoroughly deserved victory for England today no doubt. Disappointing to see a win at Twickenham snatched away in the final minute, but that's sport, the better team on the day won and I thought England played superbly throughout.

Heaslip's arrogance is legendary, both from his Leinster and Ireland days and now as a pundit.  Best thing to do is to ignore everything he says. 

[Comrade 86]

8 minutes ago, CWC1983 said:

When we were 11 points up I stuck £5 on Italy at 10/1. 

Softened the blow a bit. 

Enjoy, there's nothing quite like your country winning in the 6 nations as underdogs, 👍

My bets this weekend have all bombed completely, but the lads' performance today more than compensates. To be fair, even if we'd not have nicked that game today, I'd have been delighted just to see us playing running rugby and getting the ball wide. It's been a fair old while for us English fans and to match the best side I've ever seen emerge from the Emerald Isle is really pleasing, even if realists like myself will know that there's still much work to do. 

10 minutes ago, Highgate said:

Heaslip's arrogance is legendary, both from his Leinster and Ireland days and now as a pundit.  Best thing to do is to ignore everything he says. 

No pep talk needed this week, I'd imagine, after Heaslip's demeaning assessments. You could tell from the kick off that the lads were 'playing angry' and they maintained that right to the end, without letting it override what they were trying to do. Heaslip now just looks a complete mug and even my Irish pals are pissed at him. One described him as being the 'kind of eejit who'd poke a sleeping dog just to see whether it would bite him' which made me laugh. He has his answer now anyway. Important now that both players and fans keep level heads and not assume we're back. There were a still a large number of errors made, even simple kicks from out in front of the posts, so the boys must keep working hard to improve if they are to compete with the likes of Ireland regularly. As for Ireland, well I'd not like to be playing them next week! I suspect we'll see them remind us all again why they are generally considered the best team out there right now.

[Van der MoodHoover]

3 hours ago, Highgate said:

Thoroughly deserved victory for England today no doubt. Disappointing to see a win at Twickenham snatched away in the final minute, but that's sport, the better team on the day won and I thought England played superbly throughout.

Heaslip's arrogance is legendary, both from his Leinster and Ireland days and now as a pundit.  Best thing to do is to ignore everything he says. 

I set much more store by Brian O'Driscolls analysis and comments. A true giant of the game.

England surprised me today. Ireland still very much the team to beat tho. Nobody comes near their clinical finishing.

[Bessie1]

Whenever I watch a bit of rugby as I did over the weekend, I wonder why on earth I bother with football.  I know the standard of rugby in the 6 nations is high and the standard of football I watch is - well - not high.  But the rugby seems to be thrilling for almost the whole game - loads of jeopardy, extraordinary athleticism - huge men darting around like gymnasts - it gets me off my seat and shouting at the tele.

So I tell myself I’ll go watch Derby RFC but I never do.  I suppose there’s just something special about football.  But I’ve got a ton of respect for the top rugby players.

 

[Comrade 86]

4 hours ago, Bessie1 said:

Whenever I watch a bit of rugby as I did over the weekend, I wonder why on earth I bother with football.  I know the standard of rugby in the 6 nations is high and the standard of football I watch is - well - not high.  But the rugby seems to be thrilling for almost the whole game - loads of jeopardy, extraordinary athleticism - huge men darting around like gymnasts - it gets me off my seat and shouting at the tele.

So I tell myself I’ll go watch Derby RFC but I never do.  I suppose there’s just something special about football.  But I’ve got a ton of respect for the top rugby players.

 

I'm biased as hell, but the 6 Nations is an epic tournament and last weekend's fare was absolutely top drawer. All three games were bruising encounters full of hard running rugby and some sublime tries to boot. It's a shame we seem to be fnding our feet a bit too late, but for high drama, the last play win against the irish, probably the top side in the world right now, was very hard to beat. Cracking stuff.

[RadioactiveWaste]

21 hours ago, Bessie1 said:

Whenever I watch a bit of rugby as I did over the weekend, I wonder why on earth I bother with football.  I know the standard of rugby in the 6 nations is high and the standard of football I watch is - well - not high.  But the rugby seems to be thrilling for almost the whole game - loads of jeopardy, extraordinary athleticism - huge men darting around like gymnasts - it gets me off my seat and shouting at the tele.

So I tell myself I’ll go watch Derby RFC but I never do.  I suppose there’s just something special about football.  But I’ve got a ton of respect for the top rugby players.

 

I did watch the occasional club match in my uni days in Swansea and had a housemate who played for one of the local clubs (rejected the uni team because it was "too English"🤣)and rugby union has the potential to be incredibly bad to watch especially as the skill level drops off down the game, however, the spirit of the game is present and it's a very healthy one (mostly) and very different to football.

[Comrade 86]

On 12/03/2024 at 10:01, RadioactiveWaste said:

I did watch the occasional club match in my uni days in Swansea and had a housemate who played for one of the local clubs (rejected the uni team because it was "too English"🤣)and rugby union has the potential to be incredibly bad to watch especially as the skill level drops off down the game, however, the spirit of the game is present and it's a very healthy one (mostly) and very different to football.

I think in terms of spirit, the games are worlds apart. There's a saying among rugby fans that football is a game where players spend the entire match trying to pretend they're hurt, while rugby players spend the whole game pretending they're not. You get the occasional prima donna, I'll concede; Biggar with his incessant chirping, Sexton believing he walks on water and the dog's abuse he's given refs, Cipriani who couldn't grasp the reasons he was not trusted, instead blaming the coaches for his alcohol fuelled idiocy, but thankfully, it's pretty rare.

Rugby can be a poor watch no doubt, but there were 3 games this weekend and you couldn't take your eyes off any of them. I'll always love the Rams, but I very seldom watch other games these days and hardly anything from the Prem. In truth, if I weren't a Ram, I'd watch none of it at all, save for the Euros and WC.

[Comrade 86]

And so to the final weekend of what has turned out a better tourny than looked likely, with the mighty Irish proving human after all. I still expect them to wrap things up against a Scottish team who have again flattered to deceive. I wouldn't say the Scots can't beat the Irish, as if they could put it all together for a full 80, they have their chance, but I never get the sense with them that they themselves feel they can beat the top sides, England notwithstanding.

The matches kick off with Wales at home to Italy and while all form lines point to another win for the Azzuri, I expect Wales to come out slugging. A wooden spoon would cap a horrible couple of years for the Welsh, but they do have some very good young players and I'd hope we will see evidence of that next year, if not this. 

Next up we have champions elect Ireland at home to Scotland and I think we'll see an Irish side determined to show they are still the team to beat. Their pride will have been stung, but they were perhaps not aided by their media and I suspect those involved will be a little less silly in their appraisals this time around. I'd love the Scots to do us a favour, but I can't see past a convincing Irish win.

Last up, we have Le Crunch, with England going to Paris to meet the enormous French pack who simply battered a spiritied Welsh team into the ground in the 2nd 40. The French will surely start with le Garrec again at 9. I've no idea why Lucu was initially preferred as to me, he's a French Ben Youngs and always takes a beat longer than he should to release the ball. It'll be an absolute war upfront and if either side can establish dominance in the set piece, they will win the game. Sadly, the immensely promising Feyi-Waboso is out due to concussion protocols and I don't really understand the selection of Daly as his replacement. He's not a winger, end of and is past his best anyway IMO. Cunningham-South looked to have done his ACL in the last game which led to England playing the last few minutes with only 14 men, though strangely, Heaslip failed to notice that particular irony overload. He's another big miss as this is exactly the kind of game where his pace and power would be gold dust. I think the French start as favourites in their own backyard, but if England can be as committed for this as they were with their pride stung agaibst the Irish, it really ought to be a belter and possibly the tie of the round for the neutrals.

All in all, a weekend to savour, what with the small matter of a game at PP this weekend too! 😉

 

[Van der MoodHoover]

I watched Winchester RFC the other week against Witney.

Didn't bear much resemblance to 6N rugby as described.

More like formation mugging......

[CWC1983]

10 hours ago, Comrade 86 said:

And so to the final weekend of what has turned out a better tourny than looked likely, with the mighty Irish proving human after all. I still expect them to wrap things up against a Scottish team who have again flattered to deceive. I wouldn't say the Scots can't beat the Irish, as if they could put it all together for a full 80, they have their chance, but I never get the sense with them that they themselves feel they can beat the top sides, England notwithstanding.

The matches kick off with Wales at home to Italy and while all form lines point to another win for the Azzuri, I expect Wales to come out slugging. A wooden spoon would cap a horrible couple of years for the Welsh, but they do have some very good young players and I'd hope we will see evidence of that next year, if not this. 

Next up we have champions elect Ireland at home to Scotland and I think we'll see an Irish side determined to show they are still the team to beat. Their pride will have been stung, but they were perhaps not aided by their media and I suspect those involved will be a little less silly in their appraisals this time around. I'd love the Scots to do us a favour, but I can't see past a convincing Irish win.

Last up, we have Le Crunch, with England going to Paris to meet the enormous French pack who simply battered a spiritied Welsh team into the ground in the 2nd 40. The French will surely start with le Garrec again at 9. I've no idea why Lucu was initially preferred as to me, he's a French Ben Youngs and always takes a beat longer than he should to release the ball. It'll be an absolute war upfront and if either side can establish dominance in the set piece, they will win the game. Sadly, the immensely promising Feyi-Waboso is out due to concussion protocols and I don't really understand the selection of Daly as his replacement. He's not a winger, end of and is past his best anyway IMO. Cunningham-South looked to have done his ACL in the last game which led to England playing the last few minutes with only 14 men, though strangely, Heaslip failed to notice that particular irony overload. He's another big miss as this is exactly the kind of game where his pace and power would be gold dust. I think the French start as favourites in their own backyard, but if England can be as committed for this as they were with their pride stung agaibst the Irish, it really ought to be a belter and possibly the tie of the round for the neutrals.

All in all, a weekend to savour, what with the small matter of a game at PP this weekend too! 😉

 

All home wins for me this week. 

Im in the pub for the last 2 games, plan to bring in Paddy's day 1 day early with some Guiness. 

Watch us wilt in Dublin and get beat by +20