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kiwififer

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Wales starting 15 for this weekend has a total of 859 caps, making them the most experienced line up in 6 nations history. Or you could say aging.

BIg test of France's championship credentials, Wales doing their bit to pressure the ref by whinging about the French scrum.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51580990

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Wales starting 15 for this weekend has a total of 859 caps, making them the most experienced line up in 6 nations history. Or you could say aging.
BIg test of France's championship credentials, Wales doing their bit to pressure the ref by whinging about the French scrum.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51580990
They whinged about Furlong too. You think refs are completely immune to these things these days....but heh it's rugby 'i don't have a clue about scrums' refs we are talking about
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On 19/02/2020 at 17:46, honestly united said:

With the centres we had then I don't I wouldnt have passed to them either emoji16.png

 

Since first thinking about this, it keeps popping up in my head. I'm now very much of the opinion that if you took 3 of the centres we've had over the last few years and a better coach, and parachuted them into that squad, we could have done a similar thing to Gatland's Wales in terms of stodgy success.

 

Taking the 2008 6 Nations Squad

Kerr - Ford - Murray

Scott Murray - Hines

White - Taylor - Barclay (take your pick from Brown, Beattie, Hogg and Rennie on the bench!)

Any of our scrum halves - Parks  (limited but great at what he did)

Dunbar? - Bennett?

Evans - Paterson - R.Lamont (Sean was injured)

I know there were deeper lying problems and injuries knackered a lot of these guys' careers, but to a large extent that's a not bad group of players. Would definitely say our pack was individually more impactful at least, and would take any of the three scrum halves over what we have now. 

Anyway, I know it's a pointless exercise but I found it quite interesting

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The game has moved on so far in terms of conditioning, intensity and ball in play time I don't think you can make that comparison. 

Dan Biggar is starting for Sales tomorrow despite suffering his third concussion in three months against Ireland last week. The Welsh and the Irish really don't give a f**k about player's health and although we moan about Scottish mentality there is a definite downside to the win at all costs ethos they have. Not being an arsehole is a victory in itself.

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Absolutely bizarre stuff there in the Edinburgh game. Scott goes over, looks like he dropped the ball with one hand backwards, but easily grounds with the other. Ref and TMO decide otherwise and end up awarding a yellow card and penalty try against Carty for a high tackle instead. Unbelievably harsh for a situation where common sense would have just seen the original try awarded.

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3 minutes ago, Detournement said:

Agreed great play from Scott.

Unfortunately the Premier app and website broke right after that so not watching now.

Working fine for me... It's a shit game to be fair. Edinburgh just scored again. Lots of Irish whinging.

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3 hours ago, Detournement said:

The game has moved on so far in terms of conditioning, intensity and ball in play time I don't think you can make that comparison. 

Dan Biggar is starting for Sales tomorrow despite suffering his third concussion in three months against Ireland last week. The Welsh and the Irish really don't give a f**k about player's health and although we moan about Scottish mentality there is a definite downside to the win at all costs ethos they have. Not being an arsehole is a victory in itself.

That was the downside to my argument definitely. Looking back at games from that era the difference in intensity is really marked. 

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8 minutes ago, afca32 said:

U20s came from 29-18 with 15 to go to win 30-29 in Italy with a 4 try bonus point. Some superb performances again. Italy impressed me more than Ireland or England.

Any particular standouts for Scotland? Especially in positions where we could use some reinforcements in the next couple of years

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11 minutes ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

Any particular standouts for Scotland? Especially in positions where we could use some reinforcements in the next couple of years

Boyle (captain last year) as mentioned and Darge (captain this year) are the two standouts. Both opensides in the Embra academy...not exactly an area of weakness (although think one might get a pro deal at Glasgow next year). Beyond that there are a heap of players who have a shot at pro level. Jack Blain was a standout last year and has a pro contract with Embra (made his debut for them on the wing this team last year) but got injured v Ireland. Ollie Smith (full back), Cammy Henderson (lock), Ewan Ashman (hooker), mhak Wilson (prop), Robbie McCallum (centre) and Thomas Lambert (prop) have all had very good tournaments so far. Most of them were involved in the 2018 u18s team which won all 3 of their games at the 6 Nations Festival against England, France and Ireland. Given we're normally happy with 1 win from 3 in that tournament it was clear this group had serious potential and they've performed well in all 3 games so far.

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John Barclay playing very well since he came on. Really helped turn the game actually. Ref having a nightmare for both teams hasn't helped make this much of a spectacle.

Can't wait till DVM is Scottish btw.

Edited by GAD
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7 minutes ago, Detournement said:

Any time I've seen Blain his defence has been chronic. 

It's maybe not that strong but certainly not chronic. I've seen him across at least 15 games and he's struggled defensively in maybe 2 or 3. Cockerill wouldn't be giving him a pro deal if he couldn't defend.

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