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Six Nations

Holle

Chainsmoker
Member
Two interesting matches on Day 1.

Scotland winning against Ireland was a big surprise, I thought Ireland will cruise through this. But in the first half it was only Scotland who turned up. Ireland could bounce back in the second half but it wasn't enough.

England's win against France wasn't exactly impressive but it was a very intense match where England was luckier in the end. France is a force to be reckoned with this year.

The tournament is wide open and 5 teams bar Italy could win it.
 
Wow, an Austrian rugby fan! ;) Don't take this the wrong way but I'm reminded of my year in Germany, when I worked in a bookshop in Bonn. Once a week a group of us used to go down to the Gronau (a stretch of meadow by the Rhine) and have a kickabout, and quite often a small group of rugby players would be having a kick-and-runabout nearby. I don't know if they were all German but that was the language they spoke to each other. One showoff among them used to play barefoot!

Scotland have been the weakest of the Home Nations in recent years, but have always been awkward opponents who sometimes upset teams expected to beat them and I actually had a hunch they might turn Ireland over yesterday. They certainly defied the odds in doing so but I'm not sure it was that great a surprise, especially on their own home ground. And I don't think England were lucky - we weren't great, but neither were the French overall (though Picamoles was superb and was rightly given MOTM). Jones has turned us into a team capable of winning ugly when we have to, and the strength of our bench made it happen.

I do agree it'll be an open tournament this year though. Not sure Scotland have a much better chance than Italy of going all the way, but the other teams are certainly all plausible contenders. Mal sehen!
 
Scotland did incredibly well to resist the Irish , it looked from the 40th minute to 60th that the Irish would steam roll them .well deserved Win.

England were poor and still came through , they mentioned post match of jones offering the fergie factor , which id agree with , there's a certain resilience and grit about this England side , it bodes well.
 
What I meant by lucky for example is that England could very easily have conceded a try seconds before half time when the French player (I can't exactly remember who it was and I'm too lazy to look for it) didn't hand the ball off and France conceded the penalty kick instead of scoring a try. The game could have gone another way from there.

But well in, England - a win's a win after all. And the Grand Slam is very possible again. England has an impressive team - World Class in every position (apart from Marler, maybe).
 
considering Marler broke his leg like 3 weeks ago he did bloody well to hold it together yesterday but yeah, he not at the same level as some of that team, theres some phenomenal talent in the squad right now.
 
Yes, of course. But even if you take this in account, he's still not in the same bracket as Farrell, May, Youngs etc.

I thought Atonio would destroy him when I saw the lineups yesterday.
 
Finally getting to watch a few games today.

Looking forward to seeing the French no.9 in action - because i think we'll play a fairly dull tactical kicking game. Which is the right thing to do against the French wingers.
 
Ht in Wales v Scot.

13-9 to Wales - Wales haven't been great with the ball, but their defence is knocking the stuffing out of the Scots. Tipuric's turnovers in the tackle and on the ground have kept the Welsh ahead.

I'm surprised the delivery of the Scottish nine isn't being criticised - the last thing you want against a more physical defence is slow, high floaty passes from your scrumhalf. He's accurate enough but the passes are so weak its unreal.
 
Great move by Scotland. One for the TV ref.

Hogg delaying the pass and using the dummy runner opened everything up.

16-13. They needed that - i thought given the possession they had the lack of first half points would cost them the game because Wales will be better this half.
 
Scotland tale the lead with a splendid try and conversion! Well deserved so far. 16-13 :)
 
Great line by Davies, Webb couldn't take in the offload. I wouldn't blame either for that. Davies had to off it or risk losing it.
 
Wales need to go back to drawing board. One try off a quick tap penalty only.

Very handy Scottish team though.
 
Shame for Scotland to have to change their coach after what looks like being one of their best Six Nations campaigns for a long while.

Wales' coaching situation is rather different. I know more than one Welshman who does not rate Howley at all. My old mucker Jürgen4PM on here is one of them, :whistle:
 
Just looked at the betting ... how are Ireland 7 points favourites in Paris ?
 
Whats happening with Cotter ?
Is he getting pushed out for Townsend ?

Yeah, pretty much. The SRFU seem to have decided that the time has come for their anointed one to ascend the throne. Cotter himself has taken it in his stride, though the salary he'll probably be getting from Montpellier may have something to do with that.
 
Slightly ominous start .... a mixture of physicality and fluid rugby by France.
 
Zebo brain fart.

If we get out of here without giving away a try we'll be doing well
 
Very lucky to escape with just conceding 3 there.
Everything seems to be clicking for France so far.
 
Much better now and France are showing a major lack of discipline.
A try before half time will be huge.
 
Fuck off.
Brilliant French defence though.
Should be a cracking second half.
 
Yeah a much more promising finish to the half.

The one thing i like is it looks like we've got a couple of specific weakness in the French defense that we want to attack - the main being the first five metres either side of the ruck.

The pillar and post defence that you see at rucks - the nearest man on each side of the ruck is within arms distance. His job when the ball goes wide is to take three steps forward ( and if anything comes his way to hit it hard) rather than follow the ball - if he follows there's a hole to exploit and we've attempted to do that with passes back inside. Each time we've gotten over the gainline because the pillars had gone wandering. Each time cover defense has saved them.

We're also using the Sexton loop to free up men outside and sooner or later its going to bear fruit. Sexton and Ringrose have almost made clean breaks from it.

The game is delicately poised. I have one major injury related concern about us in the second half but other than that we've been growing into this game. We just need to pick up where we left off.

We've gone right at them with ball in hand - no aerial ping pong whatsoever. It'll be attritional and we've nobody capable of playing 7 if O'Brien goes off.

Hopefully Owen hasn't forgotten how close to binning a French player he was in those last few minutes.
 
Very good result with Murray a deserved MOTM.

The game was a mixed bag in the second half - the weather made it sloppy but it was enthralling at times.

There were no real spectacular performances, it was a day when you had to turn up and do your job and everyone did. Whilst you won't see him much in the highlights i thought Henshaw's performance was very good. He was asked to take up a lot of crash ball off first phase possession (when a defence can tee off on you) and he did it well.
 
Jesus Christ !

'Im a referee not a coach maybe ask yours at half time, im sure he will have better ideas'

in response to not a man in white on the pitch knowing the difference between a ruck and a tackle

absolutely bizarre . They have completely outfoxed a poor England so far
 
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