Rugby - Ball's Out!

[LDiCesare]

England 13 - 19 Ireland
Ireland bet England at Twickenham.
Mostly, Ireland defended well, and England lost all their balls because of the most pitiful lineout one has ever witnessed. I mean, even I can throw better than that.
The English would probably have won had they had the balls to play with. They almost scored twice, and did score one try, despite having very few ammunititon. They didn't play very fair, however, and were lucky not to get a yellow card on at least two occasions. They also leaked too many penalties, which is something they didn't do last year. Of course, at least once I didn't understand why the referee penalised Hill, but overall, the English did make mistakes, conceding penalties and giving all their lineouts but one or two to the Irish. Very interesting game to watch, as the suspense lasted to the end. And a few nice mauls, particularly from the Irish, whose pack I didn't expect at that level.

[Tamerlin]

England 13 - Ireland 19



[EDIT]LDiCesare posted the score five hours ago... but it is still an amazing news...[/EDIT]

[LDiCesare]

Yep. It would tend to prove that England misses Johnson to jump in the lineout and keep the heads of his fellow players cool. Thomson's throws in lineouts were the worst ever seen and his replacement didn't do much better. That problem for France when we'll meet them is that they are very likely to spend a few weeks doing nothing but lineouts at training.

[finbar]

I think it's more than his lineout skills and his control of the team. As Havak has pointed out many times, J**** is - or was - a massive part of the spirit of the team.

Oh, and the England hooker has always been a suspect thrower. No surprises there.

[Tamerlin]

Half-time:

Wales 12 - France 13

The French players are clumsy and rather slow, they are making unusual fools that are prematurely ending most of their actions.

As the English team yesterday, the French lineout is loosing too many balls...

[Tamerlin]

Full-Time:

Wales 22 - France 29

Difficult game for the French team, the players have hopefully managed to raise their level and have made less fools than in the first half.

Jean-Baptiste Ellissalde is confirming that he is the half-scrum of the French team and that playing alongside Frédéric Michalack is a great advantage as they can switch their positions at every time.

Unfortunately, Jean-Baptiste Ellissalde is wounded and should be unavailable from one to three weeks. Dimitri Yachvili played the last ten minutes and, IMO, proved once again that he definitely does not have the required level... and this is very worrying.

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by finbar
The Chiefs rolled the Blues tonight. Gee, the Blues are struggling. They lost Rokococo early with a shoulder injury but his presence wouldn't have helped them. They never looked in control, never seemed coordinated. They haven't in any of the three matches, despite the win against the Crusaders. To the Chiefs' credit, they played very well, never giving the Blues an inch. Carlos went off injured midway through the second half but he hadn't had any great impact.

Waratahs thumped the Cats. Another super first half - helped by the incompetent Cats missing 19 tackles in the first half - followed by a lacklustre second half, which would worry the coach. So would Matt Rogers being carted off on the medi-cab in the last minute with an ankle injury. He's been in sublime, silky form. Hopefully it's not serious.

I didn't get to see either of these games, but was pretty suprised to hear of the Chief's victory over the Blues. The Chiefs are now higher in the standings than any other NZ team! Who would have predicted that would be the case after the 3rd week of Super 12?? The Chiefs might actually make it to the playoffs this year...

The Hurricanes looked very good against the Stormers, and although they got their season off to a bad start in the first two rounds they could be a team to watch.

The Highlanders didn't really impress me much with their draw with the Bulls. Did you see that game Finbar? One of the commentators kept referring to the Bulls as "The Momentum Bulls". It's bad enough that the jerseys have massive corporate logos emblazoned across the front (I would buy far more jerseys if not for this) - do we now have to incorporate the sponsor's name into the team name!?

[Caligastia]

Well done Ireland!

I was contemplating paying the $20 to watch this game on pay-per-view - I should've!

Looks like England have really suffered from the loss of Jonno. They now seem to be in that stage that all great teams eventually get to - retirement!

[Havak]

Well isn’t that just typically Irish – handing the tournament to France like that.

Well done to the lads – thoroughly deserving winners on the day.

They didn't play very fair, however, and were lucky not to get a yellow card on at least two occasions

As were the Irish – who even if they knew about the concept of ‘back foot’ didn’t let it trouble them.

Well you gents seem to have got it fingered – I don’t recall ever seeing an international game where the line out was so woeful. Both hookers are at fault of course but so is the skipper who kept with elaborate long ball when a few confidence building two balls were needed.

Jonno was sat in the BBC studio and must have been itching to whack Dallaglio around the head and say “show some leadership you nonce�. There was no leadership on the field at all and perhaps the Dallaglio experiment should end now and a younger man take the helm.

In fact the front five were anonymous so they can all be dropped for me (including my Tiger friend Mr Kay). Thompson has to be dropped if Clive wants us to stillbelieve he picks on form? The back row was strange – Worseley is a waste of space at this level, Dallaglio had a fairly okay game in adversity and Hill’s work rate was impressive – but he was clearing out rather than wrapping around the pill and with the number 7 on his back that isn’t what we wanted.

As to why the knighted one brought on that young pudding Jones for Worseley when what we needed was someone to get us some possession (and Neil Back wasted away on the bench) well words fail me – I think Clive seems intent on proving he was not the driving force in the RWC win at all. He certainly needs to take the blame for his awful selections – Worseley, Jones, Borthwick and Regan England players - I don’t think so Clive!

Lets get that SOS sent out and get Jonno back in the side for the last two games!

Is there a bright side – a small one maybe. Clive will have to examine his mistakes in selection very carefully and if that results in more Tigers getting selected them we may recover. If he persists with his Wasps, Sale and Glaws policy even Wales might beat us because the forwards are simply not good enough without East Midlands beef in there. And I’m not at all biased.

Seriously though despite overwhelming forward superiority against Wales France were not very impressive. The Fly Half looks extremely shaky whenever pressured and the best scrummie looked badly hurt afterwards as the French boys said. France are quite beatable and if any side is going to do it it has to be England now (yes that does mean I don’t think Scotland can beat France!)

I wonder how Sir Clive’s ego is coping with this?

[Sloth]

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by Havak
Seriously though despite overwhelming forward superiority against Wales France were not very impressive.

True, especially in the first half...

The Fly Half looks extremely shaky whenever pressured and the best scrummie looked badly hurt afterwards as the French boys said.

Frédéric Michalack was not very good in the first half but was instrumental in the french victory when he started playing well in the second half.

Jean-Baptiste Ellissalde was rightfully elected "Man of the Match"... his injury is a really bad news for the French team and the Stade Toulousain.

France are quite beatable and if any side is going to do it it has to be England now (yes that does mean I don’t think Scotland can beat France!)

True, this French team is indeed shaky... but you also know that all the teams are raising their level when they meet England...

[finbar]

Originally posted by Havak
I wonder how Sir Clive’s ego is coping with this?

Not as well as yours. You, after all, had seriously allowed for this possibility. He probably didn't. Or, if he did, he doesn't seem to have done much to guard against it.

My only news is that Carlos copped a broken jaw on the weekend.

[finbar]

Originally posted by Tamerlin
True, this French team is indeed shaky... but you also know that all the teams are raising their level when they meet England...

Not to mention the fact - yet again - that two thirds of the England team retired last month and the other third is out with a shoulder injury.

[Havak]

It's a real problem for us all right.

I don't doubt France will raise their game for us - what worries me is that on Saturday's showing they don't really need to.

Bad news about Carlos - but the news on Rogers is rather better I understand?

Have you seen the silly news about NZ's tour up here in November. They may face England twice but they won't be official tests becuase the two unions have seemingly cut a deal to share the money in a way the IRB wouldn't sanction. It's all very weird...

[finbar]

Originally posted by Havak
I don't doubt France will raise their game for us - what worries me is that on Saturday's showing they don't really need to.

Oh well. Ruling the world roost is cyclical, as you know. Just a pity England's spell on top was the shortest on record.

Bad news about Carlos - but the news on Rogers is rather better I understand?

All very odd. There's ligament damage, but he's gone on the South African roadtrip with the team. I assume he'll miss this week at least. Gee, he's been in magical form. He picked up a pass from his toecaps at full speed for a try on the weekend.

The best news, though, is that Wendell has done absolutely zilch for the Reds in the first three weeks. His Wallaby days have to be numbered. Mark Gerrard, from the Brumbies, is doing everything right on his wing. Yet another wonderful talent let slip by the Waratahs. He, along with several other of last season's U-21s, are coming along very nicely.

Oh, and the Rathbone kid, regardless of the carry-on, can play a bit. Even if he looks like a centre playing out of position on the wing. Which he is.

Have you seen the silly news about NZ's tour up here in November. They may face England twice but they won't be official tests becuase the two unions have seemingly cut a deal to share the money in a way the IRB wouldn't sanction. It's all very weird...

Haven't heard about it. I'll check it out. Isn't this meant to be the year of the carnival of Tests? Or is that next year?

Edit. I just checked out the report about the unofficial Tests. So what are they? Exhibition matches? Presumably the ABs would only play if they received a cut and England were happy to settle for 50% rather than nothing. As you say ... weird.