Rugby Union

[stanton]

Finally 

[Mark Connolly]

They might look at the Ringrose clear out here, that didn't look right

[Gianfranco]

They might look at the Ringrose clear out here, that didn't look right

Thought that myself.

[Mark Connolly]

All 3 winners this weekend were definitely a case of "got the job done" rather than champagne rugby

[FK1Bairn]

I missed the first half of the Scotland game today but saw most of the second half. Disappointed we allowed Italy to come back into the match but job done. Reckon we will get beat by Ireland next Saturday to end the tournament with the same record as last year. I'd like to see some progress in results. 

Really disappointed with Ireland today. Thought it could have been a cricket score with such an early red card and 8-0 lead. I wonder if the red card gave the English a point to prove and the Irish forced things too much causing them to make too many errors

[John Lambies Doos]

I missed the first half of the Scotland game today but saw most of the second half. Disappointed we allowed Italy to come back into the match but job done. Reckon we will get beat by Ireland next Saturday to end the tournament with the same record as last year. I'd like to see some progress in results. 
Really disappointed with Ireland today. Thought it could have been a cricket score with such an early red card and 8-0 lead. I wonder if the red card gave the English a point to prove and the Irish forced things too much causing them to make too many errors

We won 3 games last year, hence if (when) we get beat in D4 next week we will actually only have 2 wins this season, so we will have a worse record than last Yr, not same.

[aDONisSheep]

Ireland outplayed for much of today.

I will continue to say it but an accidental clash of heads is not a red card offence.

Imagine in football,  if a defender accidentally clashed heads at a corner with a striker.  Would we really be calling for a sending off.

Nobody (and I repeat nobody) targets a ball carrier with their own face.
 

The current laws aren’t up to scratch.  I’m not saying that their intent is completely wrong, just that they are out of balance.

It’s spoiling the game.

 

[HK Hibee]

4 hours ago, aDONisSheep said:

Ireland outplayed for much of today.

I will continue to say it but an accidental clash of heads is not a red card offence.

Imagine in football,  if a defender accidentally clashed heads at a corner with a striker.  Would we really be calling for a sending off.

Nobody (and I repeat nobody) targets a ball carrier with their own face.
 

The current laws aren’t up to scratch.  I’m not saying that their intent is completely wrong, just that they are out of balance.

It’s spoiling the game.

 

I think concussion is a massive issue and so red cards for head contact is a deterrent that will, over time, change how players tackle and reduce contact to the head. That is a good thing.
I definitely don’t think Ewels deliberately went for the head but he is a professional athlete who can control his body and where he puts it so it was not completely “accidental “.  given the rules the way he went into the tackle meant he had a high risk of a red card.

[Mark Connolly]

7 hours ago, aDONisSheep said:

Ireland outplayed for much of today.

I will continue to say it but an accidental clash of heads is not a red card offence.

Imagine in football,  if a defender accidentally clashed heads at a corner with a striker.  Would we really be calling for a sending off.

Nobody (and I repeat nobody) targets a ball carrier with their own face.
 

The current laws aren’t up to scratch.  I’m not saying that their intent is completely wrong, just that they are out of balance.

It’s spoiling the game.

 

Got to disagree with you on most of this.

While I agree that Ewels wasn't trying to headbutt him, his body position and height was so poor that he was taking a massive risk. He hit high and was hitting up, and that's exactly the sort of tackle that they need to be taking action with, otherwise players will simply not change their behaviour. I'd also need to watch it back, but I've seen various reports that said Ewels had another one before it that was very close to sanction as well.

You can argue the head contact is accidental, but he made a choice to set himself that high, and hit in that position. It's a stick on red card, and should always be

[Donathan]

Ironic that after beating France last year to deny them the title and hand it to Wales instead, we could hand win our last game this year to clinch it for the French. 

Edited March 14, 2022 by Donathan

[honestly united]

I think the problem we have at the moment is the tactics. Townsend seems to have decided we are playing a territory game and we are only going to play in the opposition 22, and if we get the ball anywhere else we are going to kick it.

 

It must be hugely frustrating for the players, we have gone in the last 3 years from Townsend saying he wanted to play the fastest brand of rugby in the world, then when we loser to Ireland and Japan at the world cup, deciding he wants to have the best defence in the world, which he was getting close to but we still weren’t winning games. Last year we had a more balanced approach and weren’t far away from winning the tournament, with first wins away at France and England together since 1926, and a Fagerson sending off away from beating Wales (which would have given us the title) or a 77 min sexton penalty away from a draw vs Ireland that would have seen us 2^nd.

 

We have though changed the style of play again this year, and taken a step backward. Its an over cautious approach and you can see by just looking at Russell that he isn’t happy with it, and I don’t think it suits the players. To be fair its what Ireland and Wales were doing 2 or 3 years ago and SA still do, in putting pressure on the opposition, try and keep the ball in their half and hope to capitilise on mistakes, which to be fair we have the backs to do. Its speculation but if we had taken the chance before ht vs France how would the game had finished?

 

However I don’t think it suits, and results have shown its not working. The issue we have is that other teams build a style over time, everyone knows what they are doing, and the routines become second nature. We chop and change so much that it looks like players are still not sure what they are suppose to be doing. We were small tweaks away last year, yet we have taken a winning style of play that seemed to suit the players we had and ripped it up. All that was letting us down last year was discipline and it still is this year.

 

I don’t like anyone losing their job but I get the feeling that it is about time that Townsend stepped aside, the only issue is who would we get in to replace him.

[come on shire]

Spain in Scotland's pool at the World Cup next year as Europe 2.

That aside the players are good enough but it's inconsistent tactics.  We'll probably finish 5th as Ireland will be too clinical and brutal for us in Dublin (it could be a sore one) and Wales will BP Italy. 

I can't see us changing head coach just 18 months away from the world cup. 

I say we just write off this Saturday and focus on going back to the drawing board this summer in Argentina. 

[John Lambies Doos]

Spain in Scotland's pool at the World Cup next year as Europe 2.
That aside the players are good enough but it's inconsistent tactics.  We'll probably finish 5th as Ireland will be too clinical and brutal for us in Dublin (it could be a sore one) and Wales will BP Italy. 
I can't see us changing head coach just 18 months away from the world cup. 
I say we just write off this Saturday and focus on going back to the drawing board this summer in Argentina. 

Yup, fair play Spain. I see our match against them will be in Lille, fabulous city!! Might try and aim to go and sample the very finest (from about 10mins away) Belgium beer!

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

this is the stuff that's actually mental with the head protection stuff atm. Brex gets knocked flying, not even really clear he hit his head in contact or on the floor, and the ref decides to stop the play. Fast forward two days and people are justifying it by saying he didn't return to play... He came back on at half time ffs. 

 

 

[ajwffc]

changes in the squad

in. Fraser Brown, Murphy Walker, Scott Cummings and Jordan Edmunds

out. Kiran McDonald, Glen Young and Duhan van der Merwe

[aDONisSheep]

21 hours ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

this is the stuff that's actually mental with the head protection stuff atm. Brex gets knocked flying, not even really clear he hit his head in contact or on the floor, and the ref decides to stop the play. Fast forward two days and people are justifying it by saying he didn't return to play... He came back on at half time ffs. 

 

 

It's another facet of the mess we've gotten into.

I actually think rugby has done a lot of things right, particularly around the concussion protocols (although how Sinckler can fail an HIA and then be considered for the next game is puzzling me).  At junior levels, this wouldn't be allowed.

However, as everyone knows I'm not a fan of some of the the tackle law sanctions and how they are being officiated/administered.  That said, there are massive improvements around safety in the air and I really like the dump tackle laws.

I just think that we're over-officiating at times, with far too much interference by the TMO for 'run of the mill incidents' in the name of player safety, and that the decision tree is too binary (although hopefully the trial in the SH of a 20 min red works).

Pat Lam took issue with the Bristol v Quins game.  The referees and TMO took over 4 mins to replay a possible incident (I tried to time the incident itself but it happened so quick I couldn't press the button quickly enough).  So lets be generous and say that the player had circa 0.4 of a second to make the tackle decision and to try to execute the tackle, which he got slightly wrong.  

It took the officials more than 500x the tacklers decision time, with more than a dozen replays to try and establish sanction (we're supposed to be speading the game up).  [It ended up as yellow].  That is over officiating and it's becoming more prevelent as TMOs start to intervene for all sorts of stuff from the video-room.  If it's not serious misconduct, shut the fvk up and let the referee, referee and the players play!

 

I MIGHT AS WELL GET IT OFF MY CHEST RANT INCOMING

I actually have a general gripe and that is that there seems to be an ever increasing group-think among many fans and pundits, that mistakes and accidents can simply be coached out of the game.  (The Brian Moore-isation effect).

In the Wales v France game, Warberton pointed out that when Tomos Williams got absolutely sparked, that his tackle technique wasn't right...  WELL FVKKIN DUH! WHO WOULD HAVE FUKKIN GUESSED! 

But it's not because of poor coaching, nobody will have shown him how to tackle with his head on the wrong side.  In fact nobody in the history of rugby at any age group level or standard over the past say 100 years has gone into a training session and had coaches telling them to put their head across the front. 

Yet if you listened to Warberton, he gave the imperssion that what Tomos really needed to do was practice a bit more...  I repeat Tomos Williams will have litereally done hundreds of tackle sessions, and not a single session would have a coach teaching him to tackle with his head on the wrong side.

It's not lack of coaching it's the heat of competition and being human that causes mistakes (and believe it or not, we all make them, despite what the likes of Jiffy would have you believe).

 

Yours, rant over for now, but I do have more  in the locker.

aDONis

[GAD]

Fucking hell Townsend. Can't wait to see @Detournement's take on this...

[honestly united]

3 minutes ago, GAD said:

Fucking hell Townsend. Can't wait to see @Detournement's take on this...

If he had gone with Hastings at 10 I would have been OK with that, but that is a proper WFT moment

[GAD]

2 minutes ago, honestly united said:

If he had gone with Hastings at 10 I would have been OK with that, but that is a proper WFT moment

Same. Hastings I could have accepted, Russell hadn't been at his best, but throwing Kinghorn in there, in Dublin, it's crazy.

Maybe the Irish will be so confused they won't know what to do.

[GAD]

I feel a bit sorry for Kinghorn as well. Every little error is going to be amplified to a ridiculous degree.