The Rugby Union Thread

hywelg

Wales need to put a bomb up Rhys Webb's arse. The number of times I counted to three from when the ball became available at the ruck to when he actually passed it. Someone on the coaching staff MUST have noticed too, surely.?

snakemanStoo

One of the worst conversion attempts from Scotland there.

fretmeister

snakemanStoo said:

One of the worst conversion attempts from Scotland there.

It's like they are channelling Gavin Hastings!

I remember when he missed one in front of the posts against England in about 1990 ish

Fretwired

exocet said:

But Wales did it all game - they kept the ball on the field. It seemed to be a deliberate strategy. Great game though and Wales had England on the rack for large parts of it. Wales just needed to have got a try in the first half which all their pressing of the English line deserved.

Wales have been doing this for some time now. My point was that at that moment in time, I don't believe that they intended to do that but by passing to a left footer kicker, they were very unlikely to find left hand touch.

@exocet .. OK .. I see what you mean ..

kjdowd

hywelg said:

Wales need to put a bomb up Rhys Webb's arse. The number of times I counted to three from when the ball became available at the ruck to when he actually passed it. Someone on the coaching staff MUST have noticed too, surely.?

It's amazing how often you see that in international scrum halves. It can be coached out though. Eddie Jones has obviously spoken to Youngs and Care about their old habit of three sideways steps before getting the ball away. 

kjdowd

snakemanStoo said:

One of the worst conversion attempts from Scotland there.

Not many! What was the rush?!

kjdowd

Great line on Howley from Tom Fordyce:

 Howley is more the well-meaning supply teacher whose optimistic lesson plans fail to survive the streetwise and disruptive elements inherent in every classroom.

Not sure it's entirely fair, but it's a good line...

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38946919

fretmeister

Another cracking game!

Gassage

Peyper almost ruined another test there!

scrumhalf

snakemanStoo said:

One of the worst conversion attempts from Scotland there.

Reminds me of Kenny Logan missing one from in front of the posts for Wasps in Paris. Except he was wide of the posts.

On which subject, cracking game at Sandy Park this afternoon. Catch the highlights on ITV at some ungodly hour tonight.

koneguitarist

French robbed of a try, and a complete free for all at rucks. 

fretmeister

koneguitarist said:

Shit ref, shit refs, shit refs, shit TMO, got away with murder, should have been pinged for that, shit refs shit refs, that coach has got to go.

Fixed that for you.

koneguitarist

fretmeister said:

koneguitarist said:

Shit ref, shit refs, shit refs, shit TMO, got away with murder, should have been pinged for that, shit refs shit refs, that coach has got to go.

Fixed that for you.

What is your problem, did you think it was a try or not, did you think it was reffed well or not, bearing in mind, it's not sour grapes, I am not Scottish or French! 
Or maybe you have no idea yourself? 

kjdowd

koneguitarist said:

fretmeister said:

koneguitarist said:

Shit ref, shit refs, shit refs, shit TMO, got away with murder, should have been pinged for that, shit refs shit refs, that coach has got to go.

Fixed that for you.

What is your problem, did you think it was a try or not, did you think it was reffed well or not, bearing in mind, it's not sour grapes, I am not Scottish or French! 
Or maybe you have no idea yourself? 

I guess it's just that if your sole - or main - focus is on the officiating rugby becomes a bit of a joyless game. The nature of the game is that officiating will always be flawed - you'll always be able to pick holes. 50% of all breakdowns could be pinged if you really wanted to. 

The test for me seems to be did ref by and large get the game right and allow rugby to be played. If yes, and the majority of decisions were right, then why comment? 

For the record, I didn't watch enough of the fra vs sco game to comment, but I did watch wal vs eng and for every comment you can make on pro-English bias I can make one on warburton getting away with murder at the breakdown, or any number of other welsh infringements that weren't picked up. But why bother? It was a great game of rugby, Garces officiated well and the decisive actions were by the players, not the ref. Don't think you can ask for more than that. 

exocet

Fretwired said:

exocet said:

But Wales did it all game - they kept the ball on the field. It seemed to be a deliberate strategy. Great game though and Wales had England on the rack for large parts of it. Wales just needed to have got a try in the first half which all their pressing of the English line deserved.

Wales have been doing this for some time now. My point was that at that moment in time, I don't believe that they intended to do that but by passing to a left footer kicker, they were very unlikely to find left hand touch.

@exocet .. OK .. I see what you mean ..

.............perhaps.......it........was........just......a.....shit.......kick........rather......than.......deliberate......

koneguitarist

kjdowd said:

koneguitarist said:

fretmeister said:

koneguitarist said:

Shit ref, shit refs, shit refs, shit TMO, got away with murder, should have been pinged for that, shit refs shit refs, that coach has got to go.

Fixed that for you.

What is your problem, did you think it was a try or not, did you think it was reffed well or not, bearing in mind, it's not sour grapes, I am not Scottish or French! 
Or maybe you have no idea yourself? 

I guess it's just that if your sole - or main - focus is on the officiating rugby becomes a bit of a joyless game. The nature of the game is that officiating will always be flawed - you'll always be able to pick holes. 50% of all breakdowns could be pinged if you really wanted to. 

The test for me seems to be did ref by and large get the game right and allow rugby to be played. If yes, and the majority of decisions were right, then why comment? 

For the record, I didn't watch enough of the fra vs sco game to comment, but I did watch wal vs eng and for every comment you can make on pro-English bias I can make one on warburton getting away with murder at the breakdown, or any number of other welsh infringements that weren't picked up. But why bother? It was a great game of rugby, Garces officiated well and the decisive actions were by the players, not the ref. Don't think you can ask for more than that. 

I didn't think Garces had a bad game, couple of things went either way, as I said I did think the scrum penalties were a bit unjust and gave my reasons. I have also said that Wales lost through their own stupidity so not being blinkered about Wales. And I think all of us rate some refs higher than others, when Everyone moaned about Warburton getting sent off in 2011 RWC I said he was right due to directives that had been handed down by IRB. 
Peyper today was not great and could have been deciding factor in the game, when the players should be. 
And as I am passionate about rugby, sometimes I may say what I think more in the moment than as calmly as could be, so if I have upset anyone I apologise. But we all love the game and get pissed off sometimes at coaches, sometimes players and also at refs as they can also have bad games so should not be exempt from critiscm. 

fretmeister

koneguitarist said:

fretmeister said:

koneguitarist said:

Shit ref, shit refs, shit refs, shit TMO, got away with murder, should have been pinged for that, shit refs shit refs, that coach has got to go.

Fixed that for you.

What is your problem, did you think it was a try or not, did you think it was reffed well or not, bearing in mind, it's not sour grapes, I am not Scottish or French! 
Or maybe you have no idea yourself? 

Have a look back at almost all your posts in this thread.

No joy for the game, just moan after moan. I really have no idea why you watch it.

Even when you mention a good performance it's added on to a moaning post almost as an afterthought.

koneguitarist

Did write a big reply, but thought fuck it. 

crunchman

Biggest thing with ref in the France Scotland game was that he had no interest in making sure the ball was fed in properly at the scrums.  That's schoolboy stuff.  Get the basics right.

Fretwired

Good news for England - Billy and Mako Vunipola are both expected to be fit for what could be the Six Nations decider against Ireland in Dublin.