Rugby matters

[david_carnell]

Scotland were poor against the French. The scrum was appalling and the backs lacked any creative or attacking flair.

I'm not a fan of Parks (mainly as he's an Aussie) at fly-half but he was outstanding today. And Euan Murray bolstered the forwards - probably Scotland's only true world-class player.

My only consolation is having Shane Williams in my fantasy XV!

[brum]

Yes the scots played so well, but credit to Wales for never giving up.

[Michael Palaeologus]

Scotland werent snuffed out by the Taffs, they lost it through last minute indiscipline. A terrible shame given the battering they gave the Taffs.

[brum]

Hardly a battering, mike!

[Michael Palaeologus]

They were, until the last 5 minutes of the game the Scots dominated, tries straight through the Taffs defence, the Scots defence being tight.

Then the Scots lost 2 men and that was their downfall.

[david_carnell]

How Flannery is still on the pitch for the Irish I do not know. One of the worst, most cynical challenges I have seen.

Disgraceful.

[Mick Mac]

He will be punished. Don't worry David he won't be around for the England game. But we will win anyway.:)

[Narnia]

david_carnell Wrote:

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> How Flannery is still on the pitch for the Irish I

> do not know. One of the worst, most cynical

> challenges I have seen.

>

> Disgraceful.

It was hardly sly enough to be cynical. It was plain daft and he should have been sent off though it hardly made any difference.

[Narnia]

Very unlike the French in taking penos and dp goals when they were well ahead.I can only assume it was because in recent history the Irish tended to have good 2nd half's in Paris when we were 30 or so points behind. Hard to see them not winning the GS but everyone says they have one horror game each season. Where will that be?

[Mick Mac]

Horror game? I'm hoping that will not happen this year Dec.

They will have tough games tho - against Wales in Cardiff and also England (that one should be easy).

[Narnia]

Welsh flanker Andy Powell arrested for allegedly taking and driving away in a golf buggy! That's got to be the sports headline of the year so far!

[Brendan]

France only won that because they used their hands.

Cheating fuckers.

[Narnia]

Buggy it

[matthew123]

Great comeback Wales beating Scotland although good to see ex-England boss Andy Robinson take it on the chin like the true English Rugby gentleman we all know and love.

As for the Irish in Paris what disgraceful behaviour, what the French said pre-game was out of order but what Flannery did was an outrage.

Going back to the Welsh game I could not believe Wales went for the penalty equalizer on the stroke of time - it struck me as a negative attitude rather than go for the try 10 yards from home against 13 Scots. Wales were then let off the hook with 3 strokes of luck leading to that glorious winner: 1) Blair did not kick ball out at re-start, 2) Stephen Jones high risk cross field kick (when overlap galore was on his right) bounced back in field, 3) the forward pass from Byrne to Halfpenny was not spotted.

A weekend of poor Rugby sportsmanship, from a Scotsman tripping up a Welshman, an Irishman trying to cut a Frenchman in half.. and the worst of all the English captain waving an imaginary yellow card for an Italian to be sin-binned. Even Didier Drogba would have been shaking his head at that lot ;-)

[Narnia]

It probably thanks to Drogba that lot happened!

Anyway, Lee Byrne dived.......the Scot was mid-air as Byrne passed him. It was convenient to make contact as Byrne wasn't going to get to the ball. All the tut tutting about Flannery is a bit much. It was a poor attempt to slice a Frenchman in half and doesn't compare to much of the unseen foul play that happens in the forwards such as gouging. As for the English captain..........I can't explain that one away. In a way that was the worst one as we don't want that in rugby please.

[matthew123]

I saw the slow-mo on telly yesterday after the England match and it had the Scotsman flicking his boot out to bring down Byrne.

[Brendan]

matthew123 Wrote:

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>English captain waving an imaginary

> yellow card for an Italian to be sin-binned.

That was piss poor. It was like that little limp-wristed, cheating tw@t Broad complaining to the umpire and throwing tantrums on the pitch in the last test series.

[Ted Max]

1) Blair did not kick ball out at re-start,

Is there any clarity on this? I thought it likely he could be penalised for deliberately kicking it out, and I don't think you can end a game with a restart in any case.

[Narnia]

In normal circumstances if the ball goes out of play directly from a restart it's a scrum to the other team in the centre of the pitch. From what I understand from the laws of the game this does not apply if 'time is up'. Therefore the game would have ended there and then. MInd you having looked at the laws you could only deduce this from there being no mention of it as a reason for the game to continue.

Am I imaging things but was not Stephen Jones penalty converted in added time? If so the game should have ended then.

[Mick Mac]

Ian Robertson Radio 5 commentator said "Scotland would be well advised to kick the ball out now from the restart" and seemed amazed when they did not then do that.

[matthew123]

Declan Wrote:

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> Am I imaging things but was not Stephen Jones

> penalty converted in added time? If so the game

> should have ended then.

The original foul was made with over a minute remaining but after some clock management by the Scots the penalty was kicked over the posts with only 14 seconds remaining. When the Ref awarded the penalty the Welsh captain asked how much time was left and was told 40 seconds. Wales kicked the penalty with the belief the game would be re-started.

Clock shots from the iplayer re-run.

The Foul

The Penalty Kick

 

[Mick Mac]

Very good Matt. Well illustrated.

And were the Scots entitled to kick the restart out and would that end the game as Radio5 suggested?

[Mick Mac]

Did the rugby happen today?

English, Scots and Welsh contributors have all gone quiet?

Was at my first ever twickenham 6 nations game today and the game was fantastic. It seemed a great game to us and good atmosphere before and after the game. Really good day.

I had always thought London was the poor relation of the 6 naations rugby venues (london being too big) but was pleasantly surprised to get the village vibe in and around Tickenham town and pubs. (It was like a day out in Dublin there were so may Irish there today.)

Will def go to Twickenham again. Great ground and great pubs.

[david_carnell]

A poor show from England once again. Mountains of possession and absolutely no idea what to do with it.

With no playmaker in the mould of Sexton, O'Gara or O'Driscoll our back line looks sadly short of ideas. The most exciting thing England did all game was a 40m driving maul! Even if we were getting results this wouldn't be good news but losing games as well is just unacceptable.

I watched the interactive "forum" after the game a Guscott made a good point. Marting Johnson is staying too loyal to players who are just not performing. This leads to disillusionment amongst those trying to break through and complacency in the first XV. We had almost our favoured starting line-up out on the pitch so no excuses about injuries this time.

If Johnson won't drop players and experiment then the buck stops with him. At least if he shuffled things around a bit and it still didn't work the players could take of the blame.

Foden looked bright when he came on and must surely start against the Scots. Flutey looks short of match fitness. Shontaye Haype (sp?) could be brought in. Flood or Geraghty are in line for Wilkinson's berth. The forwards are equally inept. Where are the ball carriers? Even our back row are now just being used as battering rams. The lack of finesse is palpable.

The World Cup is 18months away and we are a million miles away from competing with the best in Europe let alone the Southern Hemisphere teams.

[????]

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