Weird 6 Nations!

[Druid]

England v Italy. Hard to tell if there's been an improvement because Italy are so poor

That was exactly the Wales I expected to turn up - disorganised, disinterested, poorly coached, they'll be lucky to beat Italy. Wayne Pivac and his coaching team have turned the World Cup semi finalists into a second tier rugby nation in a year. Gareth Davies kicking the ball away with 15 seconds left on the clock summed up just what a clusterfuck Welsh rugby is. Fortunately for Wales Billy Burns' cocked up penalty kick let us off the hook. I can't see us being that lucky again

There are signs of improvement. Scrum was pretty solid, lineout mostly worked and they've discovered how to maul. Half backs and the centres are still a problem. Haloholo was pretty good when he came on but he's 30 so not exactly a prospect for the future, Tompkins is not an international centre, Gareth Davies - slow service, poor box kicks and erratic passes, and Dan Biggar looks like he'd rather be somewhere else.

Beat a 14 man Scotland by 1 point though, and scored 4 tries for the BP

Some interesting selection choices to be made for the England match but LRZ has to be the first name on the sheet, his performance yesterday was excellent.

Ireland v France was a hard fought battle, I was expecting France to win comfortably but they just held on to win. Considering he's been hailed as the best scrum half in the world Dupont didn't look that impressive and his game management in the last 10 minutes was poor - kicking the ball away to the Irish back 3 was dumb.. Not as bad as Gareth Davies last week but still... he's young and has time to learn.

[Noggin]

I can't remember ever seeing a player front up to a ref and calling him out on something and even calling him back

Am a bit surprised he didn't get a card for that!!

[Kneerly Down]

Surprised he didn't get a card for it but the actions of the ref were outrageous.

[Davie lad]

Well done Wales

[Noggin]

Well done Wales

I won't agree with the nice!! Too many years of "don't support Wales' drummed into me!

But England really did give it away


Funny though, when one of the commentators said the ref would be his man of the match

[Druid]

England won't be that bad again.

They will beat Wales comfortably, lose to France and scrape a win past the Irish in Dublin on the last day.

Everybody will beat Italy as usual, even Wales

That hasn't aged well has it?

A couple of contentious decisions. First try was fair enough, England caught napping. Second try LRZ and me both thought it was knocked on but the TMO and the ref thought it was ok and who are we to disagree. It almost makes up for John West's decision*

Itoje was lucky not to get a yellow after giving away 5 penalties but then people would have complained that Wales can't beat 15 men

Wales deserved to win in the end though it was closer than the final score suggests. England were still in it until the last 10 mins when they gave away a few penalties and let us pull away. Hill's try a few minutes from the end sealed it. 40 points is our biggest ever score against England**


Right, I'm off to celebrate

I won't agree with the nice!! Too many years of "don't support Wales' drummed into me!

But England really did give it away


Funny though, when one of the commentators said the ref would be his man of the match

A lifetime of "as long as we beat the English" for me.

Blaming the ref is ignoring the fact that England's indiscipline, and Wales' ability to capitalize on it, cost them the match.


*England vs Wales 1974. It was my first trip to Twickenham https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_Five ... ampionship

**Wales won 34-21 in 1967. Using the current scoring system it would have been 41-27

[Noggin]

I 100% do not blame the ref. Yes he seemed to be a bit finnicky and liked blowing the whistle more than others, and maybe made a couple of bad decisions (I don't know the rules well enough, just going by the commentators)

But - England gave it away on penalties. to go from 24-24 to 40-24 in so short a time is just rubbish!

So I only blame the team


Hopefully two of the matches next time will be pretty good. I'm fully expecting Italy to get walked over again

[Cousin Jack]

I 100% do not blame the ref. Yes he seemed to be a bit finnicky and liked blowing the whistle more than others, and maybe made a couple of bad decisions (I don't know the rules well enough, just going by the commentators)

But - England gave it away on penalties. to go from 24-24 to 40-24 in so short a time is just rubbish!

So I only blame the team


Hopefully two of the matches next time will be pretty good. I'm fully expecting Italy to get walked over again

I think Eddie Jones must take some of the blame too. He keeps picking the same team, coaching them the same way, and is then surprised when the results stay the same.

[Fruity]

A couple of contentious decisions. First try was fair enough, England caught napping. Second try LRZ and me both thought it was knocked on but the TMO and the ref thought it was ok

Wales supporter here, through grandparents rule

The first try shouldn't have stood. The referee called time off, and asked the England captain to speak to his players, which he did. The referee shouldn't then call time on and allow a restart until both sets of players are ready. I've never seen that before as either a player or a speccy and it is manifestly unfair.

The second try was a clear knock on and I'm surprised that neither the referee or tmo know the rules.

I turned the tv off at that point because whatever the result, the game was marred by such poor officiating.

[Druid]

A couple of contentious decisions. First try was fair enough, England caught napping. Second try LRZ and me both thought it was knocked on but the TMO and the ref thought it was ok

Wales supporter here, through grandparents rule

The first try shouldn't have stood. The referee called time off, and asked the England captain to speak to his players, which he did. The referee shouldn't then call time on and allow a restart until both sets of players are ready. I've never seen that before as either a player or a speccy and it is manifestly unfair.

The second try was a clear knock on and I'm surprised that neither the referee or tmo know the rules.

I turned the tv off at that point because whatever the result, the game was marred by such poor officiating.

Rugby is complicated and there is a lot of room for interpreting the laws. If you turn the tv off because you don't agree with the ref's decisions you won't watch much rugby. The (English dominated) media are presenting a version of events which isn't entirely correct - there's plenty of videos online of the 2 tries, go and watch them with the sound off and make your mind up. I'll help

Try 1: Ref tells Farrell to talk to his players, which he does. English players start to fan out to their left, some are still under the posts drinking water etc. Ford wanders toward the right wing, back to the ball. 9 seconds after the English fan out to the left the ref signals time on, Biggar takes another couple of seconds to kick and Adams is over for the try. Wales had never indicated they were going for the posts, England were guilty of switching off, perfectly legal try to Wales.

Try 2: Bit more contentious this one. LRZ fails to catch the pass and knocks it down, onto his leg. Ball goes backwards off his leg, hits Slades? knee and bounces towards the try line. Williams falls on it and slides over, try awarded. Ref, TMO and both ARs have a good look at the replays and decide that the try stands, no knock on because the ball doesn't travel forward and hit the ground or another player, it travels backwards to hit an English player.

It's frustrating that Wales have put 40 points on England, beaten them by 16, won the Triple Crown, completely dominated the last 20 minutes and the biggest talking points are two refereeing decisions that were technically correct. I don't remember any discussion about 3 England tries against Italy where there were knock ons or forward passes in the build up that the referee ignored

[Druid]

It appears that Pascal Gauzere has said that he made the wrong decisions for both of the controversial Welsh tries.

Never mind eh?

[Noggin]

It appears that Pascal Gauzere has said that he made the wrong decisions for both of the controversial Welsh tries.

Never mind eh?

Wow. Didn't expect him to say that at all

Is he likely to get asked to ref the six nations again after this one??!!!

[Druid]

It appears that Pascal Gauzere has said that he made the wrong decisions for both of the controversial Welsh tries.

Never mind eh?

Wow. Didn't expect him to say that at all

Is he likely to get asked to ref the six nations again after this one??!!!

Full story here: https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/refere ... 43111.html

Gauzere is down to be an Assistant Ref at the Italy vs Wales match in 2 weeks.

I thought he did a decent job if you ignore the 2 tries, particularly at the breakdown. If you include the tries I thought he did a fucking fantastic job

[Noggin]

It appears that Pascal Gauzere has said that he made the wrong decisions for both of the controversial Welsh tries.

Never mind eh?

Wow. Didn't expect him to say that at all

Is he likely to get asked to ref the six nations again after this one??!!!

Full story here: https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/refere ... 43111.html

Gauzere is down to be an Assistant Ref at the Italy vs Wales match in 2 weeks.

Pretty decent of him to admit it. Bit late really, but decent!

Will be interesting to see how the next game goes!

I thought he did a decent job if you ignore the 2 tries, particularly at the breakdown.

He did seem a bit whistle happy to me, stopped the flow of the game a lot. But then I will happily admit that I don't know the rules well enough to criticise!! And I'm not really a huge England fan right now - and really not a Farrell fan.
Jack Nowell isn't playing - I'm friends with his brother and sister so sort of obliged to support when he's playing!! LOL

If you include the tries I thought he did a fucking fantastic job

TBF, I'm a bit ambiguous about the result - except that it means Wales might win overall instead of France!! That would be tough!!




(I did tell my physio that a couple of us are getting together for the rugby final day and he said - it won't be a final! (His meaning that France would have already won - I'm not 100% sure about that at the moment )

[Druid]

(I did tell my physio that a couple of us are getting together for the rugby final day and he said - it won't be a final! (His meaning that France would have already won - I'm not 100% sure about that at the moment )

Maybe because the France v Scotland match is postponed until March 26th, the Friday after the "final"

[Noggin]

(I did tell my physio that a couple of us are getting together for the rugby final day and he said - it won't be a final! (His meaning that France would have already won - I'm not 100% sure about that at the moment )

Maybe because the France v Scotland match is postponed until March 26th, the Friday after the "final"

Ah - that isn't what he said - don't know when that was confirmed but he definitely said it cos he thought France would win

But, now I get it!!


I do love rugby, but am not paying enough attention to it all this year. No one to chat about it to or watch the games with, so it's a bit meaningless in some ways

[Noggin]

Today?

Italy vs Wales - foregone conclusion???

England vs France - hmmm ? (Bloody hope I can get to an England/France match next year!!)

Sunday - Scotland vs Ireland - guessing its almost a foregone conclusion but the Scots do seem to fight back a bit sometimes!!!


Sadly I think I'm solo watching this weekend, but next weekend we are having a Super Saturday get together with Chinese takeaway food (there isn't one up here, I'm cooking!! )

[Druid]

Italy vs Wales should be a foregone conclusion, but I imagine Italy would have been targeting this one at the start of the competition. I can't see anything but a BP win for Wales.

England vs France will be close I think. France suffering a bit with injuries and England will be hurting. There will be a few there playing for Lions places too. If England win that will likely hand Wales the championship even if they lose to France next week, but I would prefer them to win that by beating everyone. So Allez les bleus!

Scotland vs Ireland - Scotland have had their one good performance. The Irish will do what they always do, retain possession by cheating at the breakdown and grind the opposition down. Ireland by 10.

Of course if Ireland and England both lose then next week's match will be the 5th place playoff, which would please me no end

[Supermofo]

Nothing on the England game?

Must admit I very very nearly turned off at 1 min

I expected to lose so was very happy with the win, still too much indiscipline but was nice to see us actually play with the ball a bit for once! Good exciting game I thought.

[Noggin]

I wanted France to win!! If only cos the Welsh wanted England to win!!

I enjoyed the Scotland Ireland game. Ok, I do normally support Ireland but being part Scottish as well, I would have been happy to see them win! To keep it so tight was brilliant