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kiwififer

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3 hours ago, John Lambies Doos said:
9 hours ago, Dunning1874 said:
Not looking such a sure thing now...

They were never going to win tbh

Not with Glen Jackson reffing in their favour. Think Conor Murray could have done quarterback throw 30 yards forward and Jackson would have ignored it- he decided Ireland were the better team in his head and reffed accordingly. 

14 hours ago, Bonksy+HisChristianParade said:

I don’t think I’ll ever find out then. I have been to several Scotland home games though and I thought it was full of cretins.

This tweet is a good example and they won't be alone. If you read the responses you'll see Welsh fans saying as much. And for avoidance of doubt, no doubt nowadays that you can do similar at Murrayfield.

Welsh fans often say they are big rugby fans yet club and regional Welsh rugby is permanently in a state of crisis. Attendances only boom when it is the English they are playing. #ItsThePro14sFault

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Was in Cardiff last year and the majority of the welsh fans were fine and we had a good laugh with them on the Friday and Saturday before and after the game, the majority, like most fans are just there to see a good game, have a good day out and if there team win all the better. . To be fair there were only a few w*nk*rs all weekend, one was Irish, there were 2 scottish lads falling about on the dance floor in the pub, and about 7-8 prawn sandwich types from Bristol that were sat behind us at the game (just there for the atmosphere, dont you know....). Dont find them anywhere near as bad as the Irish, but I think the price of tickets is stopping the average fan going, and your getting more of these nonces turning up as it seen as trendy to go along as its a big occasion

 

Onto Scotland and apart from Hastings and Price I wouldn't give anyone pass marks. We should have started Hardie rather than Bradbury as we had no openside to get to the breakdown first, the slow ball makes Laidlaw look even more ponderous, making Horne's job even more dificult. It really reminded me of England 2 years ago, and Wales last year where there are so many off days your never going to win. Given we were missing Hogg, Russell and Jones, we need a big performance from the forwards and none stood up. I dont like singling out Grey and McInally, but they were really quiet and as 2 of our best forwards we struggled without big games from them. I thought Strauss was ok, Dell and Bergman average, and Graham at least added something when he came on, which Toolis didn't. 

In the backs it was much as expected, Kinghorn looks like the really rally quick lad that you always just shove on the wing, who when he has got the ball looks amazing, but in defence he somehow slows down so much the props get back quicker. Obvious he doesn't want to be putting in tackles. The 10, 12 &13 should have been better as they have played together for 3 plus years at Glasgow, but the ball was so slow they never got a chance. No suprise that we started to carve out breaks when price came on.

Plenty of work to be done over the next 2 weeks before Wales, at the moment I am just glad we have already played and beaten Italy as at the moment I wouln't be confident of taking anything from a game against them.

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3 hours ago, honestly united said:

 I think the price of tickets is stopping the average fan going, and your getting more of these nonces turning up as it seen as trendy to go along as its a big occasion

Onto Scotland and apart from Hastings and Price I wouldn't give anyone pass marks. We should have started Hardie rather than Bradbury as we had no openside to get to the breakdown first, the slow ball makes Laidlaw look even more ponderous, making Horne's job even more dificult. It really reminded me of England 2 years ago, and Wales last year where there are so many off days your never going to win. Given we were missing Hogg, Russell and Jones, we need a big performance from the forwards and none stood up. I dont like singling out Grey and McInally, but they were really quiet and as 2 of our best forwards we struggled without big games from them. I thought Strauss was ok, Dell and Bergman average, and Graham at least added something when he came on, which Toolis didn't. 

In the backs it was much as expected, Kinghorn looks like the really rally quick lad that you always just shove on the wing, who when he has got the ball looks amazing, but in defence he somehow slows down so much the props get back quicker. Obvious he doesn't want to be putting in tackles. The 10, 12 &13 should have been better as they have played together for 3 plus years at Glasgow, but the ball was so slow they never got a chance. No suprise that we started to carve out breaks when price came on.

It's exactly your first point I guess. So many sound people but the knobs stand out! 

On Scotland you are right, I didn't know Bradbury was playing till he was substituted- and people criticised Harley last time out! The centres were good defensively but got nothing going forward due to the style of play. Had we Dunbar or Jones for crash ball then it would be different, but Grigg and Johnston are about pace and exploiting gaps which Laidlaw's slow ball was never going to give them. 

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2 interesting stories in the news at the moment, Georgia in talks over getting a Pro 14 team https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47388295 and the welsh regions being in dissary and talks of merging or moving teams https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47368262

If the SRU are serious about Scotland challenging for the 6N's we need more players playing as first choice for their clubs and we need more strength in depth to give us options when the inevitable injuries happen. Given there are changes afoot the SRU need to be pushing for 3rd club side. Leaving aside the arguments of where to put it, we need more players playing at a decent level.

You just look at the current Scotland team, you have Russell and Hogg out injured, and apart from Kinghorn and Hastings you dont have any other options playing regularly (with the exception of Jackson and Weir who are out of favour - good clubs players but probably not top international class)

Its the same all through the team - 2nd and 3rd choice scrum halfs are sharing game time at Glasgow. 2nd and 3rd choice hookers are sharing game time at Glasgow. Dell is a first choice prop but is 2nd choice at Edinburgh behind Schoeman, Bergham and Nel are sharing the jersey at Edinburgh (or Bergham gets a game when Nel is injured which is quite a bit). In the centres You have Jones, Johnson, Grigg and Horne all at Glasgow (add Dunbar until recently and McDowall was also in the training squad and at Edinburgh it was Bennett and Scott, and Dean and Johnstone only got game time as they were injured - and both are now in the Scotland Squad.

Both Glasgow and Edinburgh are running with huge squads as they lose so many players in the international windows. This could be reduced with a 3rd team sharing the internationals. Given the welsh budget (£19m a year between the 4 regions) you are probably looking at least and extra £4m a year to run an additional team.

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13 hours ago, ajwffc said:

The only positive I can see is this trophy might be no moreIMG_20190228_200808.jpg

I think it will stay, its only the USA that would move the the rugby championship (Argentina use their B team mainly club players not with the Jaguares), so the US might do the same, or open up the competition for the next country down - either Paraguay or Columbia.

The whole World League started out as a great idea - top 12 ranked teams in the world play each other once (11 games over the year) either as part of the 6N's or Rugby Championship and the Summer & Autumn test windows are used for inter tournament matches. 13-24 do the same (using ARC / Pacific tournament / REC matches) with the bottom club  of 1-12 changing places with top club 13-24 every year.

The problem was that the current top 12 includes Georgia, Fiji and Japan and Italy are down in 15. So for the tournament to work you would have to replace Italy with Georgia in the 6N (or expand to 7 teams) and include Japan and Fiji in the Rugby Championship. Japan are good to go as already in Super Rugby, but they dont want to include Fiji as they dont bring any money (the same argument that Georgia aren't included in the 6N's - if Spain or Germany were sitting above Italy you can be sure they would be included without question.)

So to try and boost income the US are included over Fiji and the 6N's doesn't get touched to keep them happy - oh and there is no changes to the teams for 12 years!!! So the likes of Georgia, Romania, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Canada, Uruguay and Namibia miss out on playing the top teams outside of World Cups.

At present the 2nd tier would be a revised REC (Italy, Romania, Spain, Russia, Belgium and Netherlands) and another 6 teams of USA, Canada, Uruguay, Namibia, Samoa and Tonga which would be an interesting tournament

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Guinness PRO14  – Referee Appointments

 

Round 17 – 2018/19

Friday, March 1, 2019 (All KO local)

 

Leinster Rugby v Toyota Cheetahs – KO 19.35

The RDS Arena, Dublin

Referee: Nigel Owens (WRU)

AR1: Frank Murphy (IRFU), AR2: Wayne Davies (WRU)

TMO: Colin Stanley (IRFU)

Live on eir sport 1, Premier Sports 1, SuperSport 1, DAZN

 

Saturday, March 2, 2019 (All KO local)

 

Connacht v Ospreys – KO 14.45

The Sportsground, Galway

Referee: Marius Mitrea (FIR)

AR1: Sean Gallagher (IRFU), AR2: Matteo Liperini (FIR)

TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)

Live on TG4, Premier Sports 1, DAZN

 

Benetton Rugby v Edinburgh – KO 15.00 (UK time)

Stadio Monigo, Treviso

Referee: George Clancy (IRFU)

AR1: Andrea Piardi (FIR), AR2: Kieran Barry (IRFU)

TMO: Alan Falzone (FIR)

Live on DAZN, Premier Sports 2

 

Scarlets v Munster – KO 17.00

Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli

Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU)

AR1: Ben Whitehouse (WRU), AR2: Dave Sutherland (SRU)

TMO: Ian Davies (WRU)

Live on S4C, Premier Sports 2, TG4, DAZN

  

Zebre v Glasgow Warriors – KO 17.15 (UK time)

Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, Parma

Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)

AR1: Johnny Erskine (IRFU), AR2: Luca Trentin (FIR)

TMO: Stefano Roscini (FIR)

Live on DAZN, FreeSports

 

Cardiff Blues v Isuzu Southern Kings – KO 19.35

Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff

Referee: Joy Neville (IRFU)

AR1: Dan Jones (WRU) AR2: Mark Patton (IRFU)

TMO: Brian MacNeice (IRFU)

Live on Premier Sports 2, SuperSport 1, DAZN

 

Sunday, March 3, 2019 (All KO local)

 

Dragons v Ulster – KO 15.00

Rodney Parade, Newport

Referee: Stuart Berry (SARU)

AR1: Dan Jones (WRU) AR2: Gareth John (WRU)

TMO: Sean Brickell (WRU)

Live on Premier Sports 2, DAZN, SuperSport 1


 

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