The Rugby Union Thread

tbm

Try all day. FFS.

eSully

Vunipola was amazing. Standout player on the pitch and deserves motm but I'm so depressed right now. No way England deserve to win this by 11 points. I need to source a Welsh jersey

tbm

Result as expected. Should have been closer with that disallowed try, but we were knackered and couldn't recover.

Still, the new lads all did well. And for the most part our defence was good.

scrumhalf

Heartfeltdawn said:

lloyd said:

He's a really unlikeable chap Farrell isn't he?

Finally we have a successor to Rob Andrew. 

Oh, he's got a long way to go before he approaches Squeaky's all-round appeal. He is, however, a nast-piece-of-work-in-progress.

hungrymark

tbm;985778" said:

Result as expected. Should have been closer with that disallowed try, but we were knackered and couldn't recover.

Still, the new lads all did well. And for the most part our defence was good.

It wasn't disallowed as there wasn't enough evidence to allow it in the first place. We've all been there anyway.

tbm

hungrymark;985824" said:

It wasn't disallowed as there wasn't enough evidence to allow it in the first place. We've all been there anyway.

https://twitter.com/freddieburns/status/703650920031096832

Yeah you're correct. I'd be in agreement with Freddie Burns though.

sev112

lloyd said:

Reckless feet from Brown there.

Well the green scrum half was off his feet lying on the ground so he shouldn't have had his hands on the ball and he moved it away from Brown's kick 3 times so he only had himself to blame. Having said that he didn't complain, he knew what he was doing.

lloyd

sev112 said:

lloyd said:

Reckless feet from Brown there.

Well the green scrum half was off his feet lying on the ground so he shouldn't have had his hands on the ball and he moved it away from Brown's kick 3 times so he only had himself to blame. Having said that he didn't complain, he knew what he was doing.

I'm guessing you're English? Come on, Reckless feet is reckless feet. If his feet contact the head (they did 3 times) it's reckless use of the feet regardless of where Murray's lying or what he's doing with his hands.

lloyd

tbm said:

hungrymark;985824" said:

It wasn't disallowed as there wasn't enough evidence to allow it in the first place. We've all been there anyway.

https://twitter.com/freddieburns/status/703650920031096832

Yeah you're correct. I'd be in agreement with Freddie Burns though.

It was the right decision technically but come on, we all know Ireland scored there. The refs gotta be in a better position for it. Themes the rules though and every team has had them go for and against, still hurts though. I think in all honesty England would have won despite that though.

exocet

It was reckless feet, end of.

exocet

It was a very entertaining match.

Both teams will take something out of it.

Ireland were hard done by with that try decision. However I don't feel that the scoreline flattered England.

That said, England were brought down to earth a bit by resolute Irish defence. The match with Wales will be very interesting. I think that England will be favourites to win, due mainly to strength of squad. However Wales will be difficult to beat providing that they don't leak a few early scores.

lloyd

Watching the u20's this Giles kid can play. Wales go ahead running a try from their own try line, superb stuff. The u20's games have been much more entertaining than the grown ups one. 16-10, 71mins gone.

lloyd

exocet said:

It was a very entertaining match.

Both teams will take something out of it.

Ireland were hard done by with that try decision. However I don't feel that the scoreline flattered England.

That said, England were brought down to earth a bit by resolute Irish defence. The match with Wales will be very interesting. I think that England will be favourites to win, due mainly to strength of squad. However Wales will be difficult to beat providing that they don't leak a few early scores.

I can't call the England v Wales game, it's going to be another defence-led affair though. We won't trouble England too much try-wise, we don't have the ball carriers or the handling skills to get outside the defensive line. England have some talented attackers but Wales have a good defence. Winner of that game takes the championship so I think that carrot and home advantage pushes them ahead.

lloyd

This Giles kid is going to win 50+ caps for Wales.

exocet

Who is Giles? Which region does he play for?

Trouble with Wales is that we always end up with a handful of very good players, never enough to make a complete match day squad of very good players.

lloyd

Keelan Giles, Ospreys winger, only 17, fast as fuck, great footwork and hands. Defence is pretty good too.

He needs a few years of course but looks a real prospect. He has the main talent needed for a winger that you cannot teach-genuine pace.

Wales is a tiny country with a very small player pool competing against football for the talented players-Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey both played rugby in their youth and chose football, I assume that they both would have carved out fairly successful careers in rugby had they wanted to.

I think we've over performed in the last decade-which has been great but I also believe this crop of players has underperformed in terms of results vs the SH we should really have beaten Australia a few times and SA. I'm not sure we'll beat NZ in the next 10 years, they are too far ahead and never seem to have off days.

As a small country well struggle whenever there's injuries to our top 23 as there's not much coming behind them. NZ could put 2 teams into a WC and probably both make the final. England have a few players who are coin flips in a lot of positions. France are similar which I think is hampering them-what's their best 15? Ireland are similar to Wales in this, they've lost some key men and it's shown this championship-they've done well in the circumstances.

exocet

@lloyd I agree with you which is why I find the sizable view of "player resources don't matter - accept that you're inferior" view that is visible on many Web forums to be so disagreeable.

Player / financial resources really matter.

The main country that bucks this trend is Australia (small RU player Base but relatively high success rate).

I do worry about the financial state of Rugby in thd UK & Ire (excluding England).

lloyd

Australia are a freak nation in terms of sports. I'm not sure I've ever met an Aussie that doesn't want to kick a footie or do some kind of sport in their free time. They live outside and sport is in their blood, a stereotype for sure but it holds true. Money in pro sport while doesn't guarantee success lack of it will virtually guarantee a lack of success, look at any league table in any sport and the general trend is highest spenders have higher positions. Personally I think that the NH will continue to fall behind while we continue with the structure we have now. What is needed is a European super league that is sponsored/paid for by sky and bt money, England and France won't go for it (why would they) but we're just pissing in the wind until we have our players playing at a higher level week in week out. Scotland have fallen back massively in the last few years but now have Glasgow who are a decent team, Ireland are not supporting the regions for whatever reason and they are suffering because of it, the Welsh regions have no real money. Ospreys benefit financially from Swansea being in the premiership. 10-15 years ago look at the teams the Scarlets, Ospreys, Munster Leinster put out. They can't dream of those kind of names on the teamsheet these days, the big names go to England/France.

lloyd

Appologies for lack of paragraphs

exocet

lloyd;986010" said:

Appologies for lack of paragraphs

No apologies needed

Rugby is still a "small" sport.

It needs the competitive participation of many nations.

In Europe, we are currently doomed to fail.

The French have money but spend on import players.

The English have similar money (probably more than France bit don't bend the rules as much).

The Welsh and Scottish are pretty impoverished by comparison. I'm not really aware of Irish finances.

We need European Leagues to be larger / more regular competition.

Failing that, we need to have a united UK & Ireland league structure.

Right now, the English Premiership don't need it, but long term - NH Rugby does.

End of rant... been drinking far to much