GAD

They are fucking soft though. They have good players and can turn it on at times, but if they can be dragged in the big question will be their mentality. I kind of think Dundee United are similar, no questioning the ability in the squad, it's the mentality that's an issue.

Japan aren't really as good when they don't have a year to prepare and every ref fully briefed to make sure they get what they need.

Lol! Amazing from Samoa!

I wonder if Itoje practices all these wee dance routines he does everytime an opponent knocks the ball on or whatever.

To be fair, it's hard to be too critical. I think we were trying to play, trying to get out, but we are focused on our two target men to hold the ball, which was very difficult as they were being fouled everytime the ball went forward.

Bit dissapointing in the end, we were the better team, but couldn't turn decent positions into real goalscoring chances. The referrreing in the second half particularly also made it very difficult to build pressure as Rangers were effectively allowed to do whatever they wanted in defence. Fair play to Ayunga, Main and Greive just getting on with it and putting in great shifts when it would have been easy to lose focus and get frustrated with the treatment being dished out, especially since any rise to it would have seen them immediately penalised and probably booked. Decent point on paper I suppose, but could have been a lot more.

The woman's final has been really good so far. England down to 14 since the 17th minute, but winning. NZ starting to turn the screw a bit, and as I write this go ahead for the first time. Real try fest, and good quality play.

That was great. Gutted for the Kiwis.

Looking ominous for the Kiwis now. They look utterly fucked and making mistakes they weren't before.

Kind of feel that try would have been given in Union, depending who scored it anyway. Seems much stricter in League.

Great game so far!

Hamilton have no chance with these officials, they are absolutely fucking them.

To be honest, last time I was there I thought the food was pretty rubbish as well, but nobody cared due to the fact it was the 0-0 draw against Livi when we sealed the championship under Ross and they were basically pouring the booze down our throats! All the players were in with us afterwards and we didn't get put out till near enough 8pm. It was brilliant, but probably not the norm.

Do you think starting v bench really makes much difference for a front row forward these days? Maybe a bit more kudos in starting, but it's almost identical in terms of importance these days. I think Ashman is pretty good off the bench. Anyway, Brown will be off after one of his head first tackles with the first half, so Ashman will play most of the game anyway.

Jonny Gray seems to have upset them now as well. To be honest, I don't really know what it is Townsend is looking for at 12, seems to be someone different each time. If it's Sione, then why does he never play there for Glasgow? He seems to want a physical carrier at 12 again, but if we don't have one that's good enough, then we don't have one that's good enough. I quite like Sione, but he feels to me like a good Glasgow player, not a good Scotland player. Guys like Redpath look like international level players to me.

Scotland squad that day had Marfo, Toolis, Du Preez, Lee Jones starting. Pyrgos, Hamilton, Pyrgos, Pete Horne and Byron McGuigan all coming off the bench. Doubt many of them would get into our current team. Yet I'd back that team to pump the current one. Townsend probably has one of the best squads we've ever had at his disposal now, and he's completely fucked it.

It could. What annoys me though is we've had a wee bit of trouble on the 10/12 axis for a while now for me. The one that's tended to work best, for me anyway, is Russel and Sam Johnson, but I feel with Harris in there they are very samey. The other one that's looked best has been Russell and Redpath, but to the best of my knowledgeable it's only happened once, against England. This seemed like a good opportunity to give it a go again, but nah, it'll be something else again, probably Tuipolotu at 12. Or something weird involving Mark Bennett because he's not played yet.

Maybe we are getting something mental this weekend. Kinghorn at 10, Russell at 12? It's only NZ at home so what better time to experiment?

Yeah, this is what annoys me in seeing the second Saintees goal again, it's a great finish, but the guy isn't on his own, he's surrounded by Saints players who all just sort of watch it happen. I didn't think we were as bad as some are making out. I also don't think the tactical changes were the issue either, we went for it, we scored, we went back to the usual shape and were pretty comfortable really. Our big problem was players behaving stupidly. The time wasting wasn't necessary and just led to the ref going in the huff and playing till the Saintees scored. Also, I'm pretty sure the reason they were able to play the cross in so easily for the second was because O'Hara dived in for a ball that he wasn't going to take and just helped it on to the guy in space instead of keeping shape and closing him down, but I haven't seen that part back so maybe harsh. At the end of the day, we are better off than we were this time last season. We are going through our roughest patch so far, and even then, we are two points off 3rd.

Aye, a guy that refs the entire game from the halfway line can still see that one. It's an incredible miss from the ref/tmo.

I thought Strain was the more likely of the two, but Rogic not being picked seems to have opened a door for Baccus. Brilliant for him, though looking at the squad I feel it's going to be a tough tournament for the Aussies.

I think Russell will go straight in to start against NZ.

Finn back in!

Sad thing is Starmer probably isn't actually a racist, he just has no problem pretending to be one to win elections. Fucking shameful.

It's funny how it can never just be said that England are not very good. They are in the same bracket as Scotland, Wales and Argentina and nowhere near the top 3 or 4.