6 Nations

[Lee Grant]

England team to play Wales

15 Delon Armitage (London Irish),
14 Mark Cueto (Sale),
13 Mathew Tait (Sale),
12 Riki Flutey (Brive),
11 Ugo Monye (Harlequins),
10 Jonny Wilkinson (Toulon),
9 Danny Care (Harlequins),
8 Nick Easter (Harlequins),
7 Lewis Moody (Leicester),
6 James Haskell (Stade Francais),
5 Steve Borthwick (Saracens, capt),
4 Simon Shaw (Wasps),
3 David Wilson (Bath),
2 Dylan Hartley (Northampton),
1 Tim Payne (Wasps).

Replacements: 16 Steve Thompson (Brive), 17 Dan Cole (Leicester), 18 Louis Deacon (Leicester), 19 Steffon Armitage (London Irish), 20 Paul Hodgson (London Irish), 21 Toby Flood (Leicester), 22 Ben Foden (Northampton).

That's a much better team than the one for the autumn tests.

To be fair to the Poms: because of the butchers bill they had when they played Oz a few months ago, only a few players who started in their previous test at home - in the 2009 6N - were available to play.

13. Tait has been given a chance in his favoured spot. He's the bloke who made that slashing run in the 2007 RWC final. He's not the most robust tackler but at least he's not on the bench as a utility - as happens to him. Remember him when he came on against Oz in 2008 at HQ and sparked a final assault?

15. Delon Armitage was a big loss for Johnson in the autumn, which however does not excuse him from picking winger Monye there instead. The poor bloke looked like a cow playing the piano.

12. Flutey was missed also - the Poms needed his attacking sizzle.

9. Care is dynamite from the base of the scrum or ruck but is high risk as he can be a nutter.

8. Easter is not the fastest no.8 rumbling around but it was a problem area for England without him in the autumn and he's been in great form for Quins.

4. Shaw is derided in the SH by some but he is playing the best rugby of his career at the minute.

3. Wilson and 1. Payne are going to be in real trouble against Adam Jones and Gethin jenkins, who are world class.

20. Hodgson - I wish that scrummie Youngs from Leicester would get a shot. He's an impact player - a bit like Care without the brain farts.

22. Foden - Good to see him get a run at fullback and run he will. A bit of a Christian Cullen counter attacker, though not the greatest defender.

Cipriani is came back recently from injury and hadn't cemented his flyhalf spot for Wasps last time I saw them play.

I think the Poms will do better than people think.

 

[TheRiddler]

Whilst I agree the Welsh have a better starting front row, I'm looking forward to Dan Cole getting a run. Has been in great form for Leicester and smashed Tim Payne when they played Wasps a couple of weeks back, so much so that Payne had to be subbed off. Will be interesting to see if Cole can make the step up to international level.

 

[Lee Grant]

Riddler - saw that game and Cole was MOTM (wasn't he?). Good to see him in the 22. He could be playing for England for a while methinks.


Ireland team to play Italy

15 Rob Kearney (Leinster),
14 Tommy Bowe (Ospreys),
13 Brian O'Driscoll (Leinster capt),
12 Gordon D'Arcy (Leinster),
11 Andrew Trimble (Ulster),
10 Ronan O'Gara (Munster),
9 Tomas O'Leary (Munster),
8 Jamie Heaslip (Leinster),
7 David Wallace (Munster),
6 Kevin McLaughlin (Leinster),
5 Paul O'Connell (Munster),
4 Donncha O'Callaghan (Munster),
3 John Hayes (Munster),
2 Jerry Flannery (Munster),
1 Cian Healy (Leinster).

Replacements: 16 Rory Best (Ulster), 17 Tom Court (Ulster), 18 Leo Cullen (Leinster), 19 Sean O'Brien (Leinster), 20 Eoin Reddan (Leinster), 21 Paddy Wallace (Ulster), 22 Keith Earls (Munster).

It doesn't matter who Ireland picked to play Italy but there are some items of interest.

6. McLaughlin is a good player but he doesn't compare to the injured Ferris who was in top form in Ulster's first win in England recently, against Bath.

7. David Wallace is as hard as nails world class player in the "can play any of the backrow positions" category, but is not a specialist fetcher. In Ferris' absence I wouldn't have minded him at 6. and giving young 19. O'Brien a start for his development. Can run with the ball this kid.

11. Trimble wouldn't have been thought of earlier in the season, but he is part of the Ulster resurgence and scored a terrific individual try in the Bath game mentioned above. He is preferred to Earls, the Munster rising star.

12. D'Arcy is back to his form of a few years ago. He and BOD form the best midfield in the world.

10. O'Gara is back because Sexton is injured again.

The front row is the area which will cause the most concern in 6N.

1. Healey is one of the most mobile LHPs going around but he is still learning his trade as a scrummager.
3. Hayes learned his trade as a THP scrummager but never got any good at it. If the ref had noticed his hand on the ground in the last scrum against Oz we would have won the game.
2. Flannery - good player but has been out for ages. Shoud be coming off the bench.

 

[Moses]

Morgan Freeman features on the BBC's intro
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/8500298.stm

 

[TheRiddler]

Morgan Freeman features on the BBC's intro
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/8500298.stm

I cant get past the trailer for some dodgy hollywood flick. Am I missing something?

 

[chief]

Morgan Freeman features on the BBC's intro
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/8500298.stm

I cant get past the trailer for some dodgy hollywood flick. Am I missing something?

Movie looks shit, at least I know not to see it. It is because it's not availiable in Australia. We cannot see it, only UK people can.

Anyone know where I can watch 6-nations rugby online?

 

[chief]

Well England have beaten Wales 27-17, while Ireland have beaten Italy 29-11. Wales were in a chance but they blew chances, with a Welsh player spending 10 in the bin for a trip, during those 10 minutes on either side of half time England scored 2 tries.

 

[Scorz]

Well England have beaten Wales 27-17, while Ireland have beaten Italy 29-11. Wales were in a chance but they blew chances, with a Welsh player spending 10 in the bin for a trip, during those 10 minutes on either side of half time England scored 2 tries.

30-17 actually, and Wales were never in the game, looked like shit. England also looked like shit, but managed less fuck ups than the Taffs.

 

[Gagger]

Not sure about them never being in it Scorz; Wales were only 3 down with 8 to go and on attack having scored the last two tries when Armitage took that intercept. Agree though about the over all shitness.

I've been unfortunate enough to see a lot of England matches first hand, and as far as any structure or gameplan is concerned, yesterday was as bad as any I've seen. Outside of the pack they have absolutely no fucking clue what they are doing, and that includes Wilkinson.

With the Welsh line-out imploding, they could have kicked for corners and raped it, but didn't. Instead they dumped the ball laterally for 5 phases, losing territory before Wilkinson hoofed it aimlessly downfield. Not once in the whole 80 minutes did the English backs set themselves any attacking structure, either from set piece or phase.

Similarly the Welsh spent the whole day dumping the ball two out from the ruck and getting hammered behind the gainline. It wasn't until they were chasing the game that there was any imagination, although to be fair it was really just quick ball usage.

Neither of these teams has made an inch of progress since the Autumn internationals

 

[Scorz]

Mate did you ever for a moment think they would do it? I didn't, and that's my point. I would have been pussed orf if I'd gotten up just for that, but luckily MUFC thrashed Portsmouth before it - so I'm actually thanking kissball for not wasting my early morning effort.

The Poms and Taffs should be ashamed.

 

[naza]

I've been unfortunate enough to see a lot of England matches first hand, and as far as any structure or gameplan is concerned, yesterday was as bad as any I've seen. Outside of the pack they have absolutely no fucking clue what they are doing, and that includes Wilkinson.

Similarly the Welsh spent the whole day dumping the ball two out from the ruck and getting hammered behind the gainline. It wasn't until they were chasing the game that there was any imagination, although to be fair it was really just quick ball usage.

It was truly dire from both sides. Just a horrendous lack of skill all round. And not that much intensity either !

I thought the difference, other than England's lineout, was that the Poms treasured possession more whereas Wales pissed it away.

 

[spectator]

It wa a crappy game.

 

[PhucNgo]

England were a poor man's Bok strategy; bully boy forwards, up and in defence and kick anything that moves. Soooo yesterday. And what was it with the pop-colar b'shit. Someone should tell these guys that the rugby's not on the Lifestyle chanel. Haskell tho was impressive.

I think the backs looked like crap because they were obviously playing to a tight game plan, which unfortunately didn't include them. Big Marty was desparate for a win and wasn't about to give them fairies a chance to fook things up.

Plan worked tho. Absolutely creamed the Welsh forwards in the first half and they didn't recover. Surprised me, because they took a similar pummelling from the Blacks and came back strongly.

All in all a great advertisement for English roogby.

 

[Thomond78]

The collars were there because it was the centenary of the first England-Wales game at Twickenham, so they wore the retro jersey. Personally, I thought it looked vasty better than the God-awful cycling tops the like of Canterbury have inflicted on us all recently.

Ireland-Italy was drek. We were poor, Kearney coughed up a shocking charge-down by being a cocky dolt, and Italy had no interest in doing anything except keep the score down from about 20 minutes in. And Poite left them do it. Bad game, bad ref.

 

[chief]

The collars were there because it was the centenary of the first England-Wales game at Twickenham, so they wore the retro jersey. Personally, I thought it looked vasty better than the God-awful cycling tops the like of Canterbury have inflicted on us all recently.

Ireland-Italy was drek. We were poor, Kearney coughed up a shocking charge-down by being a cocky dolt, and Italy had no interest in doing anything except keep the score down from about 20 minutes in. And Poite left them do it. Bad game, bad ref.

Seems your views on Poite for this game were premeditated. Poite is one of the best scrum referees in the game, and he showed us this in this game that he was. Yellow was soft, but all referees have to bin spear tackles no matter how clumsy they are. Poite did a pretty good job, and I think it is unfair for you to judge him on what you and the fellow Irish population have seen of him.

Aside from that, Italy really should have capitalised on the earlier opportunities and the scoreline really wouldn't have been how it was.

 

[Lee Grant]

It wasn't a great rugby weekend but there were some good moments.

Ireland v Italy

It's always hard to play a limited team like Italy because they limit their game to their abilities and and try to limit yours too. Ireland were good in the 1st half and I thought they were going to run away with the game after oranges but they got infected by the Italian virus and played a limited game themselves.

They looked rusty but they also looked rusty in Rd.1 last year and they did rather well. Italy did a better job in bringing the game down to their level in the 2nd half but spoilt it by losing too much lineout ball.

For Ireland 13. BOD sparked a few things as usual, MOTM 7, Wallace went over the gain line as if he owned it, but 15. Kearney suffered some come uppance with a kick being charged down for a try and a few other errors.

I like referee Poite in that his English is limited so captains know that he won't understand their selling jobs, and likewise his instructions in English are refreshingly terse. But he had no idea how to keep players onside and that helped to spoil the game; not that it needed a lot of assistance.


England v Wales

There was some awful rugby due to lack of skill and enterprise, but whilst one expected this from England it was unusual to see the talented Wales outfit stumble around. They were worse than when they were playing Oz in November.

This will be known as the game of the AWJ trip because 17 points were scored by the Poms in the 10 minutes he was sitting on the bench. The Welshman was MOTM for the Poms. Wales tried do do a few things but they found it hard, losing more of their own lineouts than they won and turning the ball over too much when they they had it, or kicking poorly.

Wales showed enough when they were trying some desperation rugby at the end that they should have been trying to open the game up earlier, at least during the 70 minutes when they had 15 men.

The Poms were nervous and showed their fear of failure but the backrow was good and Haskell, very good. For Wales THP Adam Jones, and 7. Martyn Williams earned their pay, whilst Hook, playing 13, if you don't mind, scored a stepping try that warmed the heart.


France v Scotland

France got the gong for team of the weekend, but like Ireland, switched off at half time. They had too much class for the Scots in the first half and they played with a bit of dash. I had a strange feeling watching the game. It was a bit like watching a women's tennis match without the grunts. Believe or not: sometimes there was an absence of aerial ping pong.

Big bastard 13. Bastareaud was back and hard to stop when folks actually tried to stop him which was not always, and old stager 12. Jauzion was back to his best, which is very good. The star was 8. Harinordoquy who was doing everything at the ground excepting selling programmes, but including giving away a few penalties.

The Scots didn't have the players or strategy to beat the France blitz defence, their lineout was crap and their scrum likewise, with “Never On Sunday” THP Murray absent. I don't know how France have such a good scrum year after year with a lightish scrum – and this one included LHP Domingo at 106 kgs – but they do.

Next week the game between France and Ireland could decide 6N.

 

[Thomond78]

The collars were there because it was the centenary of the first England-Wales game at Twickenham, so they wore the retro jersey. Personally, I thought it looked vasty better than the God-awful cycling tops the like of Canterbury have inflicted on us all recently.

Ireland-Italy was drek. We were poor, Kearney coughed up a shocking charge-down by being a cocky dolt, and Italy had no interest in doing anything except keep the score down from about 20 minutes in. And Poite left them do it. Bad game, bad ref.

Seems your views on Poite for this game were premeditated. Poite is one of the best scrum referees in the game, and he showed us this in this game that he was. Yellow was soft, but all referees have to bin spear tackles no matter how clumsy they are. Poite did a pretty good job, and I think it is unfair for you to judge him on what you and the fellow Irish population have seen of him.

Aside from that, Italy really should have capitalised on the earlier opportunities and the scoreline really wouldn't have been how it was.

Chief, he was bad. Two of his first three decisions, one each way, were stone-cold wrong. As LG has pointed out, he was also diabolical on the offside. In the last 20, he was signalling penalty advantage after penalty advantage in the Italian 22, yet never followed through. Net result, even more ball-killing by the Italians, and an even worse game. He wasn't as bad as he can be, but he was still bad. There were two better French refs running the line on Saturday than him, Garces and Berdos, and I'd have been far happier with either, because they're simply better refs. And btw, I've seen a fair bit of him, and in the flesh; I'd be willing to wager that I've seen more live games he's done than anyone else on this board, simply because I'm in the NH. His control of the offside line is perpetually awful.

Rolland was erratic in the England-Wales game. One penalty against Borthwick was plain wrong, and so was one against the Welsh scrum shortly after.

Nige left pretty much everything go at scrum-time, and, since the French were driving up deliberately without being pinged, didn't ping the Scots if they were driven up as a result. Which was fair enough. It was utter chaos, but didn't work out too badly; quite conducive to nostalgia, actually. Incidentally, that French rush defence leaves huuuuuuuge holes in the 12/13 channel, just begging for a winger or full-back cutting back against the grain or coming in from the blind aiming at the inside shoulder. Scotland just didn't see it. The game itself was like 15-man beach rugby; mad, but strangely enjoyably in a giggling farce manner.

One other thing that strikes me is that the French are using a bajada scrum; the rot in the Sweaty scrum started with their hooker, Ford - who's drek - being popped from the get-go. When that happens, it means they're channelling it all through the hooker, which is bajada. Will be interesting to see what happens this weekend on that front.

 

[Scarfman]

One other thing that strikes me is that the French are using a bajada scrum; the rot in the Sweaty scrum started with their hooker, Ford - who's drek - being popped from the get-go. When that happens, it means they're channelling it all through the hooker, which is bajada. Will be interesting to see what happens this weekend on that front.

Havne't heard that one. Maybe my hair dryer was too loud.

Here's Green and Gold Rugby's own Bruce Ross on the "lambada", sorry, the "bajada."

http://www.myoquip.com.au/Bajada_article.htm

 

[Lee Grant]

Interesting article and more in the links on it.

 

[macg101]

NIGHTMARE France 33 Ireland 10...

Absolutley hammered! The French defended brilliantly and it was one of those days that Ireland made them look dam good with a huge error count, the knock on count was disgraceful.

Flannery almost certain to miss the next game and also Kearneys out... gonna take a long time for everyone else to recover too, just absolutely shellshock the lot of them..

France were class though, they probably could have beaten anyone Saturday, they were a pain to watch, but brilliant for any neutral