The Rugby Union Thread

sev112

scrumhalf said:

Owen Farrell - never knowingly under-argued.

He had an interesting point, ok he was holding on, and maybe that’s a penalty, but does that make it acceptable to punch again and again.  Normally in rugby retaliation takes it the other way, and probably rightly so.

sev112

Game 1 , CJS and VDF were awesome, playing like they were in their youth

Game 2 back to normal (which is pretty good, albeit)

Game 3 not influential at all

so 2 experienced back rowers holding on to past glories, and on the basis of Game 1.

the new breed are fabulous,  maybe time to let them go?


Youll never convince me that Po’M isn’t worth his place - he can still play world class rugby when he’s 40!

exocet

sev112 said:

scrumhalf said:

Owen Farrell - never knowingly under-argued.

He had an interesting point, ok he was holding on, and maybe that’s a penalty, but does that make it acceptable to punch again and again.  Normally in rugby retaliation takes it the other way, and probably rightly so.

Looked more like repeated "open handed thrusts" to remove the offending "attachment" rather than punching? I've always interpreted a punch to be with a closed fist. 

sev112

I must have been watching something different if they were open handed
it was handbags, but he shouldn’t have done it. Sends a poor message imho (which is worth very little in the big scheme if things )

MagicPigDetective

Farrell finally learns to wrap his arms in a tackle...... but at totally the wrong time! 

hywelg

sev112 said:

I must have been watching something different if they were open handed
it was handbags, but he shouldn’t have done it. Sends a poor message imho (which is worth very little in the big scheme if things )

They were, watch it again.

sev112

Ok, tried to on YouTube last night but they don’t show it.  Fair enough

drofluf

sev112 said:

I must have been watching something different if they were open handed
it was handbags, but he shouldn’t have done it. Sends a poor message imho (which is worth very little in the big scheme if things )

I agree; open handed or fists makes no difference. Farrell was in the wrong but the hitting was out of order and sends a bad message. 

p90fool

drofluf said:

sev112 said:

I must have been watching something different if they were open handed
it was handbags, but he shouldn’t have done it. Sends a poor message imho (which is worth very little in the big scheme if things )

I agree; open handed or fists makes no difference. Farrell was in the wrong but the hitting was out of order and sends a bad message. 

Bollocks, he was cheating in the most obvious way like a fucking five year old in front of millions of people, while the other player was trying to free himself with the palm of his hand. 

I sometimes miss the days when whiney little fuckers like Sexton, Farrell and Biggar would've been raked to hell and back for their footballer attitude.

drofluf

Farrell was definitely at fault but the other player looked more like a toddler throwing a tantrum. If I were making a serious attempt to free myself in a similar situation I’d be going for the arms round my legs rather than hitting the torso. 

But I suspect we’re unlikely to agree on this  

p90fool

drofluf said:

Farrell was definitely at fault but the other player looked more like a toddler throwing a tantrum. If I were making a serious attempt to free myself in a similar situation I’d be going for the arms round my legs rather than hitting the torso. 

But I suspect we’re unlikely to agree on this  

He was, he was trying to knock his arm away. 
I'm not even sure we're talking about the same incident any more. 

sev112

 if I wanted to be fair to Farrell, he was onky doing what everyone else was doing in all the other rucks.  

Rocker

The Irish Minister for Health has stated that the Ireland -v- Italy match should not go ahead next week.  This is due to the outbreak of coronavirus .............

I presume this includes all the Ireland/Italy matches, U20s, Women's and so on.

exocet

Rocker said:

The Irish Minister for Health has stated that the Ireland -v- Italy match should not go ahead next week.  This is due to the outbreak of coronavirus .............

I presume this includes all the Ireland/Italy matches, U20s, Women's and so on.

Sensible thing to do - thousands of travelling fans wouldn't help the situation.

VimFuego

cos there isn't already enough money in rugby: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51704956

this'll be a horrendously bad idea IMO. 

crunchman

VimFuego said:

cos there isn't already enough money in rugby: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51704956

this'll be a horrendously bad idea IMO. 

Agreed.

Look at what has happened to Cricket since it went behind a paywall in 2005.

On a separate subject - what are the odds of this weekend's 6N matches going ahead with all the coronavirus stuff?

fretmeister

VimFuego said:

cos there isn't already enough money in rugby: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51704956

this'll be a horrendously bad idea IMO. 

F1 used to have 1.5 million UK viewers per race.

Now it has 300,000

New owners Liberty F1 are not happy with the tanking figures around the world, as unlike Bernie they recognise that you need casual fans to give watching it a try to then turn them into regular fans. 

As the Prem and the England Internationals are already PPV the decision seems stupid - the BBC with ITV have got massive watching numbers that Sky just won't get. F1 can cope (a bit) as it's mainly an advertising spend for the manufacturers. Rugby doesn't have that.

The 6N needs to be added to the Grade A list under the Broadcasting Act to keep it on terrestrial.

VimFuego

I also don't see the issue with the joint bid, money's money, don't matter if half of it is from the beeb and the other half ITV, unless you want to give the rights to, say, Sky. 

hywelg

If it goes to Sky it would be a horrendously stupid decision. And England centric too. Their club scene might well be very healthy but in Wales it really isn't and will suffer proportionally more. In Wales it is the premier sporting event and worthy of Grade A classification. 

p90fool

Regional rugby is dying on its arse in Wales since it disappeared off the TV. 

They're dumb enough to think that if millions of people can't watch it at home they'll go to matches, but in fact overall interest just tapers off. 

For the first time in my life I'm now a casual test match only viewer, often having to Google the names of players who are playing for my country because I've never heard of them. 

I always laugh when Welsh people call rugby our national sport when you get 7-8 times the attendance at Welsh club football matches.