The Rugby Union Thread

Gassage

tbm said:

I'm getting very very nervous now. Hate that Ireland are playing last.

By all indicators, we should win. But it's France. In Paris. With something at stake.

I'll be a wreck by kick-off.

Dunno why I'm expecting sympathy from England fans.  

The French- never more dangerous than when totally written off!! Hehehe!!

Stuart did a presentation on Thurs eve; he put up the halftime score v Italy from the last 8 England tests. In each case there was less than 4 points in it.

Fretwired

tbm said:

I'm getting very very nervous now. Hate that Ireland are playing last.

By all indicators, we should win. But it's France. In Paris. With something at stake.

I'll be a wreck by kick-off.

Dunno why I'm expecting sympathy from England fans.  

Well I'm English and if we slip up I'd rather the Irish stuff the French ... Agincourt and all that ... ;-)

bertie

fretmeister said:

Yup. The land of no parking at the ground!

It will be the telly for me.

park at Sowton services and walk over lazy twunt

tbm

Fretwired said:

Well I'm English and if we slip up I'd rather the Irish stuff the French ... Agincourt and all that ... ;-)

Ah you guys are not going to slip up, and to be frank I'm confedant enough that Ireland are not going to play badly. It's just that the French have that ability to just turn it around. E.g. lose to Tonga, then 3 weeks later miss out on the World Cup becuase Craig Joubert only reffed one team. Ok, they don't have Dusautoir, Para, Hairydonkey or, Irelands bete noir, Clerc in their ranks this weekend, but they can still decide to come over all French, like they did in the last few minutes vrs England.

digitalscream

Gassage said:

Stuart did a presentation on Thurs eve; he put up the halftime score v Italy from the last 8 England tests. In each case there was less than 4 points in it.

That's a fair assessment - in previous years, we've had very little in the way of attacking options and even less in terms of mobility, so we've sort of relied on keeping the Italians at bay until they're tired.

This year, I'd hope it'd be different; suddenly, England have options all over the place no matter who has the ball. It's almost like they've suddenly remembered how to play rugby again. The only question mark is whether the pack can actually get hold of the ball in the first place, but I have faith in our boys

Gassage

I do hope so.

We are evolving, and I beliueve on the verge of the best side since 02 (when Eng peaked with Catt at 12).

I also need Lancaster in a good mood...he's one of my assessors for my Level 4 the following weekend.

snakemanStoo

Well, that was a bit of a nailbiter.

tbm

I am so f@cking happy right now.

VimFuego

bah, trust a Frenchman to miss a penalty right in front of the posts.

koneguitarist

Congratulations Ireland, thought England could have done it, missed the match due to travelling back from Welsh game.

Very surprised at Hogg, not normally a dirty player, but deserved red, could have been penalised for late elbows dropping onto Williams when he scored but ref missed it. 

Lot of talk about Heally headbutt anyone see it ? 

Part of me wanted Ireland to win, as Wales would be 3rd, but other part wanted France to win, so England would win championship and spoil Bods party. 

VimFuego

healy's headbutt? the one where he caught picamoles? Didn't look like deliberate to me, more he was aggressively counter rucking and went in with... gusto.

tbm

Yeah, nowt in that. Should have been a little more breathing room at the end. IMO that second French try was a knock on, but really I don't care. Nausea gone. Feeling good. Going to have one more whisky, then bed. One more.

paulk

It was a pretty physical game. Healy's 'headbutt' was in no way intentional - the Frenchman just got his head in the way. As an Irishman I am ahppy as a pig in shite.

bertie

he "was" playing well in the previous games,  but RIP Burrell's  career as first choice 13.   I think we saw yesterday why Mr T needed to come on as early as he did.

While the 'contact' of the "Healy headbutt" may have been unintentional,  the fact that he attempted to challenge without any use of the arms, is technically a yellow card offence...........now, whether his arms were pinned/held back I dont know.

Try was a knock on anyway - so moot point I think

koneguitarist

I think the most consistent team won. So congratulations Ireland.

Now can we stop all the soppy stuff like giving away MOTM tags out of sympathy and to players who deserve it.

Wales showed (albeit) against poor opposition what happens when you pick players on form and in right position. Liam Williams, created so much more than Halfpenny, so much so that when he is back I would put Halfpenny to wing instead of Cuthbert and leave Williams at 15. 

Biggar the better 10 and Charteris the better lock, especially with Owens throwing in.

My biggest worry about Wales though is the lack of creativity from 10-13, and the lack of game time we are giving to Samson Lee who seems to be regarded as best TH in Wales.

Gassage

Walsh- bottled a ben to France in dying min- so obvious!!

@bertie - disagree re Manu- Burrell's all round game is vastly superior. It's a nice dilemma though.

digitalscream

Gassage said:

@bertie - disagree re Manu- Burrell's all round game is vastly superior. It's a nice dilemma though.

Well, it gives two options - start with Tuilagi to batter them for 50 minutes then bring Burrell on to run rings around their broken bodies, or make them chase Burrell and then have Tuilagi come on to steamroller them when they're tired

Neither of them are really world-class players, but the fact that they have wildly different games can be really unsettling.

VimFuego

Gassage said:

Walsh- bottled a ben to France in dying min- so obvious!!

the scrum?

Jalapeno

Did anyone see Steve Walsh getting hit ?  He was grunting and puffing a lot at one point ?

Brian Moore apologised because it was a French director and we couldn't have it replayed "for people's enjoyment"

(BM was also very complimentary about some of his reffing decisions - I felt faint ! )

Gassage

VimFuego said:

Gassage said:

Walsh- bottled a ben to France in dying min- so obvious!!

the scrum?

yup