The Rugby Union Thread

exocet

MagicPigDetective said:

exocet said:

MagicPigDetective said:

I’ve never felt such little confidence and  enthusiasm for a match against England. It will be painful to watch, we’re going to get tonked. 

2013 was the last time I felt confident about Wales winning v England. So confident that I went down to my local Rugby club in Kent to cheer them on loudly. I wasn't very popular that day.

The Scott Williams try? That was epic. I was out in Caernarfon, it went wild. 

No that one was 2012? 2013 was the England Grand Slam that wasn't. In the event.  Adam Jones and Gettin Jenkins bossed the scrum with Tiperic running like a banshee off the back. 2013 was 30 - 3. 

I thought Wales would sneak a win against Eng at 2015 WC but was hardly confident about it, ever since then I've pretty much accepted that we'd be 2nd best when playing them. 

koneguitarist

I thought we would be blown away in RWC 2015 until I saw England pick Burgess, then I thought they are playing into our hands. Lancasters biggest mistake that England lineup. 

hywelg

exocet said:

MagicPigDetective said:

exocet said:

MagicPigDetective said:

I’ve never felt such little confidence and  enthusiasm for a match against England. It will be painful to watch, we’re going to get tonked. 

2013 was the last time I felt confident about Wales winning v England. So confident that I went down to my local Rugby club in Kent to cheer them on loudly. I wasn't very popular that day.

The Scott Williams try? That was epic. I was out in Caernarfon, it went wild. 

No that one was 2012? 2013 was the England Grand Slam that wasn't. In the event.  Adam Jones and Gettin Jenkins bossed the scrum with Tiperic running like a banshee off the back. 2013 was 30 - 3. 

I was in a very rowdy pub full of Englishmen that afternoon. All were there to watch the match and I was the only Welshman . Fantastic afternoon.  

crunchman

VimFuego said:

there are some pretty useful young 9's coming up through the ranks; Maunder at Exeter, Harry Randall looks really exciting but to give him his due, Youngs is executing the EJ plan really well. I suspect (well, hope mostly) that he is not a long term solution, I mean if you look at the backrow from EJ's 1st year compared to now, it's much more exciting and dynamic, but he introduces things at a gentle pace.
EDIT: as for Saturday, I'm looking forwards to a nice bit of televised training for our boys. Should be good for them to do a bit of opposed training and put a couple of cricket scores in against the hired in sparring partners.

Which Maunder?  I know Jack is starting most of the time at the moment, but his younger brother Sam is quite highly rated as well.  I went to school with their dad.

VimFuego

crunchman said:

VimFuego said:

there are some pretty useful young 9's coming up through the ranks; Maunder at Exeter, Harry Randall looks really exciting but to give him his due, Youngs is executing the EJ plan really well. I suspect (well, hope mostly) that he is not a long term solution, I mean if you look at the backrow from EJ's 1st year compared to now, it's much more exciting and dynamic, but he introduces things at a gentle pace.
EDIT: as for Saturday, I'm looking forwards to a nice bit of televised training for our boys. Should be good for them to do a bit of opposed training and put a couple of cricket scores in against the hired in sparring partners.

Which Maunder?  I know Jack is starting most of the time at the moment, but his younger brother Sam is quite highly rated as well.  I went to school with their dad.

Jack, don't think I've seen Sam play, but been really impressed with Jack. I was worried when Nick Phipps left, but Jack has really stepped up.

kjdowd

Pretty good from the all blacks you'd have to say. But the real world class skills on display are from the tv director who has got "slo mo big lad chagrin over handling error at a critical moment" down to a fine art.

koneguitarist

Well the odds against a Wales win is pretty good if anyone wants a flutter!

scrumhalf

kjdowd said:

Pretty good from the all blacks you'd have to say. But the real world class skills on display are from the tv director who has got "slo mo big lad chagrin over handling error at a critical moment" down to a fine art.

That wing sub they brought on, Will Jordan, I thought they'd accidentally managed to speed up the video, He hasn't half got some gas.

Wales-England will be on a second screen this afternoon, primacy will be given to Wasps' visit to Castle Grim.

kjdowd

scrumhalf said:

kjdowd said:

Pretty good from the all blacks you'd have to say. But the real world class skills on display are from the tv director who has got "slo mo big lad chagrin over handling error at a critical moment" down to a fine art.

That wing sub they brought on, Will Jordan, I thought they'd accidentally managed to speed up the video, He hasn't half got some gas.

Wales-England will be on a second screen this afternoon, primacy will be given to Wasps' visit to Castle Grim.

Hasn't he? And he got decent return from it...

I'll be watching Wales England but prem rugby is the far better spectacle at the moment

scrumhalf

kjdowd said:

scrumhalf said:

kjdowd said:

Pretty good from the all blacks you'd have to say. But the real world class skills on display are from the tv director who has got "slo mo big lad chagrin over handling error at a critical moment" down to a fine art.

That wing sub they brought on, Will Jordan, I thought they'd accidentally managed to speed up the video, He hasn't half got some gas.

Wales-England will be on a second screen this afternoon, primacy will be given to Wasps' visit to Castle Grim.

Hasn't he? And he got decent return from it...

I'll be watching Wales England but prem rugby is the far better spectacle at the moment

We got thumped by Glaws, but having a very poor ref wasn't a help. This isn't a case of sour grapes, when even the commentator is surprised at some decisions and says "..but the referee thought otherwise" you know how bad it is. I'm all for bringing on younger refs, and it was only his second Prem game, but sheesh, was he evn watching the same game as everyone else?

fretmeister

kjdowd said:

scrumhalf said:

kjdowd said:

Pretty good from the all blacks you'd have to say. But the real world class skills on display are from the tv director who has got "slo mo big lad chagrin over handling error at a critical moment" down to a fine art.

That wing sub they brought on, Will Jordan, I thought they'd accidentally managed to speed up the video, He hasn't half got some gas.

Wales-England will be on a second screen this afternoon, primacy will be given to Wasps' visit to Castle Grim.

Hasn't he? And he got decent return from it...

I'll be watching Wales England but prem rugby is the far better spectacle at the moment

Not if you’re a Saints fan.

sev112

Thought the Wales try was in touch  Buggar’s foot on the line as he kicks on?

interesting that the ref called the England forward catching the Wales jumper (Halfpenny?) legal - is there a sub-rule that the defender can stand still and if the ball catching player impacts him it’s not a penalty?  Seems some logic in it, but ripe for “interpretation”.  Presumably the ref know the rules better than me, and he clearly saw it as he was saying a couple of times that the catcher jumped into the defender or something like that?

koneguitarist

sev112 said:

Thought the Wales try was in touch  Buggar’s foot on the line as he kicks on?

interesting that the ref called the England forward catching the Wales jumper (Halfpenny?) legal - is there a sub-rule that the defender can stand still and if the ball catching player impacts him it’s not a penalty?  Seems some logic in it, but ripe for “interpretation”.  Presumably the ref know the rules better than me, and he clearly saw it as he was saying a couple of times that the catcher jumped into the defender or something like that?

The player Caught Biggar in the air? He didn’t jump or compete for the ball just went forward and played man in the air, penalty all day long. 

Also how was the Daley shoulder to head on Adam’s not a YC? Could have been a red, down graded to yellow maybe but not even a bloody penalty? 

Shocking but what we expect from Poite and this TMO. 

VimFuego

well, erm, we won. I guess that's a plus. Not the most exciting rugby I've seen. I've seen paint drying in a more entertaining manner.

sev112

koneguitarist said:

sev112 said:

Thought the Wales try was in touch  Buggar’s foot on the line as he kicks on?

interesting that the ref called the England forward catching the Wales jumper (Halfpenny?) legal - is there a sub-rule that the defender can stand still and if the ball catching player impacts him it’s not a penalty?  Seems some logic in it, but ripe for “interpretation”.  Presumably the ref know the rules better than me, and he clearly saw it as he was saying a couple of times that the catcher jumped into the defender or something like that?

The player Caught Biggar in the air? He didn’t jump or compete for the ball just went forward and played man in the air, penalty all day long. 

Also how was the Daley shoulder to head on Adam’s not a YC? Could have been a red, down graded to yellow maybe but not even a bloody penalty? 

Shocking but what we expect from Poite and this TMO. 

I know, I was confused at the time.  Just watched it again, and if the defender keeps his arms by his side and gets clattered that’s fine, but if he puts his arms out it’s a penalty and possibly yellow / red card, so it is a confusing rule.  Maybe the rule allows you to “catch” someone who is jumping into you, but you can’t actively tackle and change their direction?  I thought it was more of the former

exocet

Could've been a whole lot worse. England certainly not "light years ahead" as some of the press have been writing this week. At times, we were clinging on but defensively we were better than I expected.
Difficult to see where improvements are going to come from. Certainly don't see us developing attacking platform from current pack? 

sev112

Wales are a very good tackling team, they have been even better in recent years. But I’m afraid they looked nothing like an attacking team today, and as you say on a day when England didn’t appear to be playing well.

Most disappointing was Pivac moaning about ref decisions, as if that was the difference, he must really be feeling the pressure if he feels tha5 a couple of ref decisions made the difference.  Didn’t see him complaining that there wasn’t a yellow card for the deliberate knock on like in the Italy game.  Dangerous place to be when you start blaming the refs,  over many years I tend to find the refs are pretty much average in who they favour.  Apparently he’s a good coach, but he needs to make a difference soon

exocet

Poite was shite today, glad that he was called out. However, he's not the reason why Wales lost. Pivac is probably not the right man for the job but in reality, any coach who picks up that job is drawing from a very limited pool of talent. That's the main difference between England and Wales, probably man for man there's 5% in it, however when the bench comes into play, there's no contest.

koneguitarist

Agree with that, if we can keep best 15 fit and build up decent forward bench, we will do well. Best backs coach not gonna help until 5hey get a serious scrum coach in to sort set piece. 

exocet

Having just watched some clips of Wales successes in the Gatland era, the player who got Wales over the gain line time and time again when the pack was not exactly dominant was Mike Phillips. I wasn't his biggest fan at the time but looking at the current Welsh pack, a Scrum Half in a Terry Holmes, Dave Bishop or Mike Phillips mould  is the more likely route to wining matches for Wales?