General rugby thread

[schmalex]

With that England line up, if Wales play like they did last weekend they will get trounced.

Either Gatland has some kind of master plan to de-value Wales’ credibility ahead of Japan, or he is out of ideas

[TheGreatSoprendo]

schmalex said:

With that England line up, if Wales play like they did last weekend they will get trounced.

Either Gatland has some kind of master plan to de-value Wales’ credibility ahead of Japan, or he is out of ideas

So a team goes on a 14 game winning streak, wins a grand slam along the way, and then puts in a rusty performance after a long lay off, and that somehow signifies the coach has run out of ideas? It's one view I suppose....!

[prand]

TheGreatSoprendo said:

England: Daly; McConnochie, Joseph, Francis, Cokanasiga; Ford, Heinz; Genge, Cowan-Dickie, Cole, Launchbury, Itoje, Lawes, Ludlam, B Vunipola.

Replacements: George, Marler, Sinckler, Kruis, Singleton, Youngs, Farrell, Tuilagi

England not really going for sublety in the back row...

Apart from Daly who I felt was a weak link last week, and I guess Willi Heinz needs another start, even though I dind't think he seemed quite at home and went awol a couple of times, this looks like a promising team.

Bench looks strong, I can't wait to see the spare hooker coming on as flanker...

[PomBstard]

Australia have just been shown the difference between playing 14 All Blacks and 15...

NZ 36 - 0 Aus

[GravelBen]

PomBstard said:

Australia have just been shown the difference between playing 14 All Blacks and 15...

NZ 36 - 0 Aus

NZ only had 14 for 10 minutes... 7 man NZ scrum was still pushing the Aussie pack around!

Good to see the ABs settling into good form again, Aus just had no answer for them tonight.

[iwantagta]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/49372199

Ruaridh McConnochie: Bath wing ruled out of Wales game

Was looking forward to seeing him.

[JonChalk]

Liam Williams out before the start.

England destroyed Wales at the first scrum.

[JulianPH]

TheGreatSoprendo said:

schmalex said:

With that England line up, if Wales play like they did last weekend they will get trounced.

Either Gatland has some kind of master plan to de-value Wales’ credibility ahead of Japan, or he is out of ideas

So a team goes on a 14 game winning streak, wins a grand slam along the way, and then puts in a rusty performance after a long lay off, and that somehow signifies the coach has run out of ideas? It's one view I suppose....!

I could not agree more.

TheGreatSoprendo is being somewhat delusional I think!


Edited for stupid typo!

[JonChalk]

Not a desperately exciting game; mostly between the 2 22's.

Not sure England are playing / have been told to play the same game plan as last week, by Eddie.

Wales look about the same (& pretty solid, but uninspiring). England seem an odd mixture of up-for-it and uninspired.

[Kermit power]

Surely the IRB have to do something about this ludicrous law regarding knocking on in the tackle?

I have no problem with people being penalised and binned for deliberate knock ons, but how can you possibly say that someone is deliberately knocking the ball on when they're in the process of making a tackle?

Surely it would be better to place the onus on the tackled player to keep hold of the ball?

[JonChalk]

I'm not sure the AB, SA & Aus have a lot to worry about, if I'm honest.

Dull game; technically interesting, but not sure the No.1 ranking means a lot when you've achieved it by not playing the best?

The Rugby Championship teams still seem to have an edge.

[Jasey_]

JonChalk said:

I'm not sure the AB, SA & Aus have a lot to worry about, if I'm honest.

Dull game; technically interesting, but not sure the No.1 ranking means a lot when you've achieved it by not playing the best?

The Rugby Championship teams still seem to have an edge.

Almost word for word what I was going to say.

[TheGreatSoprendo]

JulianPH said:

I could not agree more.

TheGreatSoprendo is being somewhat delusional I think!

Rather than just name calling, perhaps you could point out which part of my post you consider to be "delusional" and put forward some arguments to back up your point?

[TheGreatSoprendo]

JonChalk said:

Dull game; technically interesting, but not sure the No.1 ranking means a lot when you've achieved it by not playing the best?

The Rugby Championship teams still seem to have an edge.

Rankings don't mean much regardless. What happens in Japan is the important thing. In my view SA and NZ are currently the best sides in the world. Behind them is a group containing Ireland, England, Wales and Aus. Any one of those 6 could win the WC.

[JulianPH]

TheGreatSoprendo said:

JulianPH said:

I could not agree more.

TheGreatSoprendo is being somewhat delusional I think!

Rather than just name calling, perhaps you could point out which part of my post you consider to be "delusional" and put forward some arguments to back up your point?

I wasn't name calling in the slightest. I'll happily point out what I considered to be delusional, it was this:

schmalex said:

With that England line up, if Wales play like they did last weekend they will get trounced.

Either Gatland has some kind of master plan to de-value Wales’ credibility ahead of Japan, or he is out of ideas

As for some "arguments" to back my point up, I don't wish to argue, so will leave it at England lost (despite every opportunity, in what was a scrappy game) and Wales won and is now the official number 1 team in the world.

This time last week I said the England was the better team on the day. You didn't pick me up on this (because it was true), but you do pick me up on my comment this afternoon.

Anyway, this is not the NPE thread! We have the World Cup to look forward to now, so none of this really matters!

[anonymous-user]

JulianPH said:

Anyway, this is not the NPE thread! We have the World Cup to look forward to now, so none of this really matters!

Only just over a month to go!

Then the RWC which lasts until November.

[TheGreatSoprendo]

JulianPH said:

I wasn't name calling in the slightest. I'll happily point out what I considered to be delusional, it was this:

schmalex said:

With that England line up, if Wales play like they did last weekend they will get trounced.

Either Gatland has some kind of master plan to de-value Wales’ credibility ahead of Japan, or he is out of ideas

That wasn't my post so you're name calling the wrong guy!

[XCP]

Some odd decisions by the officials. I would have thought the tackle on Otoje was worth looking at, seemed high to me.

[iwantagta]

XCP said:

Some odd decisions by the officials. I would have thought the tackle on Otoje was worth looking at, seemed high to me.

I didnt spot that one but agree on the odd decisions.
I think that refereeing worldwide seems to have very different interpretations which adds to the confusion.
Wales didnt roll away from tackles (any tackle for the entire game so far as i could tell!).
England cleared out from the side on numerous occasions.

The high tackle where the TMO got involved was ridiculous. It wasn't an arm around the neck - it was onto the chest.


Not sure how the discrepancy in interpretations is addressed but it does need looking at.

[schmalex]

JulianPH said:

TheGreatSoprendo said:

JulianPH said:

I could not agree more.

TheGreatSoprendo is being somewhat delusional I think!

Rather than just name calling, perhaps you could point out which part of my post you consider to be "delusional" and put forward some arguments to back up your point?

I wasn't name calling in the slightest. I'll happily point out what I considered to be delusional, it was this:

schmalex said:

With that England line up, if Wales play like they did last weekend they will get trounced.

Either Gatland has some kind of master plan to de-value Wales’ credibility ahead of Japan, or he is out of ideas

As for some "arguments" to back my point up, I don't wish to argue, so will leave it at England lost (despite every opportunity, in what was a scrappy game) and Wales won and is now the official number 1 team in the world.

This time last week I said the England was the better team on the day. You didn't pick me up on this (because it was true), but you do pick me up on my comment this afternoon.

Anyway, this is not the NPE thread! We have the World Cup to look forward to now, so none of this really matters!

Not sure I was delusional to be honest. On paper, England fielded a strong side. They didn't turn up for the first half and paid the price against a fired up Welsh team. I would say Wales were the better side on the day, but they weren't really.

Wales's try was scored from a quick pen while Itoje was walking off yet England had 2 quick moves pulled back.

The high tackle on Itoje was monstrous and deserved a look at least

England were poor in the ground game and were generally overwhelmed when it got messy.

For me, Biggar deserved MotM but 0.5p was a very close second.

IMO Cokanasiga (sp?) doesn't deserve a place. You cant keep trying to run over people in today's game.

Ford was lacklustre the whole game.

Could Cipriani have made something? Possibly, but England are too formulaic and seem to be unable to think outside the box to change a game.

Edited by schmalex on Saturday 17th August 17:21