The Rugby Union Thread

fretmeister

koneguitarist said:

Trouble is the clubs in England can be quite militant about player release. Can’t remember who it was now, but one of the clubs was fined for letting a player play for country outside of international window. 

Let’s hope common sense wins out. 

Saints were fined for letting Biggs go.

The RFU didn't like it.

Schnozz

Ref looked like he was in pain when Watson went over.

crunchman

Wales have an extra man again.  16 vs 15.  How can an international ref be this bad?

p90fool

crunchman said:

Wales have an extra man again.  16 vs 15.  How can an international ref be this bad?

He's playing to the crowd.

scrumhalf

I'm assuming the ref isn't pro-Brexit.

You have to hand it to Eddie Jones. He said he wouldn't reveal his best team and playing style until we're nearer to the World Cup and he's been true to his word. 

tbm

I feckin love Wales England games. Stress free (for me) and always quality. 

Wales getting silly amounts of luck. But they’re a fun team to watch. 

fretmeister

When Jiffy is complaining about a ref being in favour of wales, and saying the ref is the MOM then you know the ref is bad.

Schnozz

tbm said:

I feckin love Wales England games. Stress free (for me) and always quality. 

Wales getting silly amounts of luck. But they’re a fun team to watch. 

I used to love watching Wales matches as a neutral in the early 2000s but I love watching Scotland now. I don't even bother watching Italy matches, even if they're playing England.

Did the French ref even check if that last try was grounded? Lol.

sev112

Just for a laugh ...
Wales play 3 games in a row with one more player than the opposition

axisus

Bloody hell, what a sh*t ref. Just seen that incident where he gifted Wales a try by waving play on whilst England were nowhere near ready. Feckless tw*t should NOT be refereeing at this level. 

Schnozz

Sheedy looks like a Welsh Bruno Mars 

MagicPigDetective

Great win, totally deserved. You can whinge about the ref all day, but apart from a period around the hour mark, England were poor, bad discipline and gave far too many penalties away. Sheedy, Hardy, Tipuric, Faletau, Adams, Zambo all excellent. Triple Crown!!!!!! 

Philly_Q

I switched off at 24-24, it was stressing me out.  Pleasantly surprised at the final score.

sev112

MagicPigDetective said:

Great win, totally deserved. You can whinge about the ref all day, but apart from a period around the hour mark, England were poor, bad discipline and gave far too many penalties away. Sheedy, Hardy, Tipuric, Faletau, Adams, Zambo all excellent. Triple Crown!!!!!! 

No, well done Wales for playing what was in front of them and winning.

but that ref?!  Even JIffy said that 5 out of the “first 6 penalities” were not .

I am sure he probably gave Engkand some too.  But seriously that was an appalling performance from a ref in an important game.  Even worse was the 12 year old video ref.  And did none of the linesmen not see the knock on?  Seriously poor.  

Jaycee

You snooze you loose

exocet

sev112 said:

MagicPigDetective said:

Great win, totally deserved. You can whinge about the ref all day, but apart from a period around the hour mark, England were poor, bad discipline and gave far too many penalties away. Sheedy, Hardy, Tipuric, Faletau, Adams, Zambo all excellent. Triple Crown!!!!!! 

No, well done Wales for playing what was in front of them and winning.

but that ref?!  Even JIffy said that 5 out of the “first 6 penalities” were not .

I am sure he probably gave Engkand some too.  But seriously that was an appalling performance from a ref in an important game.  Even worse was the 12 year old video ref.  And did none of the linesmen not see the knock on?  Seriously poor.  

But once the ref got the hang of the rules in the 2nd half, we scored even more points than we did in the 1st.

England were very poor today. 

One of the strangest Internationals I've ever seen.

koneguitarist

Can I come in yet ;-)

koneguitarist

exocet said:

sev112 said:

MagicPigDetective said:

Great win, totally deserved. You can whinge about the ref all day, but apart from a period around the hour mark, England were poor, bad discipline and gave far too many penalties away. Sheedy, Hardy, Tipuric, Faletau, Adams, Zambo all excellent. Triple Crown!!!!!! 

No, well done Wales for playing what was in front of them and winning.

but that ref?!  Even JIffy said that 5 out of the “first 6 penalities” were not .

I am sure he probably gave Engkand some too.  But seriously that was an appalling performance from a ref in an important game.  Even worse was the 12 year old video ref.  And did none of the linesmen not see the knock on?  Seriously poor.  

But once the ref got the hang of the rules in the 2nd half, we scored even more points than we did in the 1st.

England were very poor today. 

One of the strangest Internationals I've ever seen.

I was quite surprised by TMO missing forward pass to Watson and hardy being taking out off the ball when running in to touch down. But as some have said to me you can’t blame the ref. 

So hey ho. 

p90fool

sev112 said:

MagicPigDetective said:

Great win, totally deserved. You can whinge about the ref all day, but apart from a period around the hour mark, England were poor, bad discipline and gave far too many penalties away. Sheedy, Hardy, Tipuric, Faletau, Adams, Zambo all excellent. Triple Crown!!!!!! 

No, well done Wales for playing what was in front of them and winning.

but that ref?!  Even JIffy said that 5 out of the “first 6 penalities” were not .

I am sure he probably gave Engkand some too.  But seriously that was an appalling performance from a ref in an important game.  Even worse was the 12 year old video ref.  And did none of the linesmen not see the knock on?  Seriously poor.  

They all saw the knock on many times and all four international referees decided that to the letter of the law it wasn't one. 

The quick kick to the corner try was definitely dubious, but why did the England backs on the right sprint out wide at the end of Farrell's team talk while the two on the left ambled out with their backs to the ball?  

Even more unforgivably after all that controversy, the England full back did exactly the same again when the Wales scrum half was taking a quick tap penalty 10m from his line. 

The referee obviously knew he'd let Wales off the hook a bit early on because England should definitely have been on a yellow by ten minutes from the end, so he did even things up a bit. 

Wales had the rub of the green in the first half today, but England shouldn't ignore the fact that it was 24 all with 20 minutes to go and they had all the momentum, but it was them who blew it, not the ref.

sev112

I’m  sure they do realise they blew it, and you are right.

id love to know what the knock on rule is though if that wasn’t a knock on?

as I say, not criticising Wales at all.  Just I thought he spoilt a game of rugby when I was interested in seeing those 2 teams playing, and not a game spoilt by wrong interpretations.  I would rather Wales win and not have all this debate.

still think Sheedy needs to learn to kick straight,  as any professional golfer will tell you a draw/hook is extremely unreliable under pressure, and good player that he is, he will have much more important kicks to make under a lot more pressure as he becomes 1st choice.  Good pair of half backs though. Excellent to have Davies coming off the bench too. I think Sheedy is real bolter for the lions because there isn’t a reliable fit half back with Biggar moving down the pecking apparently (I like Biggar, he doesn’t run much though).  (sexton fitness unreliable, Russell unreliable, Ford no one likes).