Rugby - Hands Off Black!

[Havak]

Really? That is news to me I have to say.

[finbar]

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/commonwealthgames2006/story/0,,1730372,00.html

[Havak]

Hmm, that is interesting. That is what comes from having a government (indeed successive governments) who just will not fund national sport I guess.

Even so I think the sponsors of the Scots and Welsh teams are pouirng good money away.

Well quelle surprise, NZ did their best to lose to Aus in the last minute but couldn't quite manage it and then England ambushed the favourites Fiji.

And the biggest surpise - Henry Paul and Mathew Tait looked superb. Sevens is indeed a very different game.

Oh and it looks like Varndell copped an injury against Fiji. Pat Howard will be pleased!

[Havak]

The Pacific All Stars beat us in the final.

I blame the Aussie ref myself.

[Havak]

You might appreciate this Finbar. Radio 5 were discussing this morning the, um, perceived lack of balance in Australian media coverage of the games (not to mention any other sporting event ever?).

They proceding to play a clip of an Aussie girl swimmer from Aussie TV who was beaten by one of the Scots yesterday. The Aussie girl was pretty uncomplimentary about the Scottish swimmer that beat her, saying she'd never seen her, not heard of her before (and didn't expect to again).

The presenter on 5 live ripped into that lack of graciousness and capped it by saying "at least she knows what the soles of her feet look like now".

I enjoyed this anyway.

[finbar]

You mean an Australian behaved like an occupant of a parochial backwater? I'm shocked.

[Havak]

Oh yes. It's a bit like saying an Englishman had a pint Friday night isn't it?

And from that you may be able to tell where my mind is wandering right now.

So fingers crossed for tomorrow - wins for Italy, Wales and England would be nice. And cap this tournament with the rare distinction of being poorer in standard that last years. Great preparation for RWC 2007.

More realistically France and Scotland should win - leaving England to win to scrape second (or slide to third depending on the Scots margin of victory). And the embarassing coach still will not resign whether we win or not. Talk about reality denial...

[LDiCesare]

I haven't had the opportunity to comment on the match which happened in PAris last week yet...
Well... I thought I saw France play, though they weren't as good as they should be, they at least were consistent for once, but. Who were the clowns in the white jerseys? Normally England is a solid team???
And, HAvak, you're being totally unjust at turnip: He didn't shuffle 21 players out of 22. Lewsey and Hodgson are gone (the latter because he is hurt). So you see, you're unjust. It's pretty obvious that players who couldn't play before going to the bench will be better when coming from the bench, and those who were bad after leaving the bench will play better for fear of going back to the bench. I'm not a psychologist, but I'm sure turnip is a great one in order to find out how to best know the way to instill confidence in his players.
Oh, well, let's hope France and Italy win. England seems beyond hope, even with a new center, I doubt he'll singlehandedly lift the team.
Prediciton: Abbott will be ditched if the team loses to Ireland? How fun would that be?

[finbar]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Just listened to Shane Horgan sink England. 28-24. Abbott? Turnip? Who else?

Oh, and congrats to les grenouilles on their title.

[LDiCesare]

Honestly, the most interesting match this afternoon was England-Ireland.
Here's a summary:
Italy-Scotland: Started well, with a great try by Mirco Bergamasco. This guy has been, imo, the best player of the tourney. Then the Italians made mistakes of all kinds and left the Scots win the game. If I ware scot, I'd still be very much afraid of the team's performance. Only Paterson was able to be threatening in this match, and overall he's the only Scot with any attacking abilities, except maybe for Blair, who's a good scrum half.
Wales-France: France decided to play bad in the first half this time. At least they got better in the second half: Szarzewski (damn the spelling) played well, and the French lineout was clearly superior to the Welsh, but the pack didn't give many balls to the French. Finally, the French were rather lucky to win in my opinion.
England-Ireland: Poor match by the English. They were maybe somewhat unlucky with the referee but I believe both tries by Horgan were valid. Goode has been quite good, and his pair with Ellis was the best performance by an English hinge in the tourney. So of course turnip replaced Ellis by Dawson 20 minutes before the end game, for no good reason I could think of.
The English were also a bit stupid to play a long lineout 5 meters from their line, leading to a ball given to the Irish 8 who scored. I don't understand why they didn't pick a first jumper 5 meters from the in-goal. Or if they wanted to be witty, put only 2 or 3 players in the lineout. Bot a full lineout and then send it far. Maybe it was turnip's secret plan to keep the ball secure?

[LDiCesare]

A brief summary of the 6 nations:
France won, with Ireland having as many victories but not as good a goalaverage. Italy ended last but managed to scrap one point in Wales. Wales were poor. Scotland defended itself to a surprising 3rd place. England were inexistant.
Lots of kicking in these games. The French in particular scored many tries after kicks. This afternoon, there was a try after a kick in each game playes. Many of the other tries came from strong defenses, and the overall level of play was not very good. That Scotland won 3 games on defense alone, that France ended first with extremely erratic play do not bode well for the future World Cup for any of these teams.

[finbar]

Sounded, from my brief exposure to the series, which consisted of match highlights packages on TV and radio commentary, to be as ordinary a series - if not worse - than last year.

Turnip is blaming the ref. The skipper, though, seems to have it in perspective. With 60+% possession, they had the ball enough to win the game and didn't.

Oh, and Turnip replaced Ellis with Dawson late in the game because that's what he did in just about every match last year, too. For no good reason then, either. His strategy - such as it is - is pre-ordained, regardless of the match circumstances. The man is a fool.

[LDiCesare]

I love the Welsh coach (an aussie by the way):
He says his team dominated in every domain but score. A look at the game and another at the stats convince me he's wrong: 4 lineouts lost in 20 vs 2 in 25: The Welsh lost twice as many balls as the French in the lineouts but apparently they dominated this area. More penalties conceded, the same percentage of missed tackles, but far more welsh offloads after tackle (I just checked the bbc stats). What is that coach? Turnip II? We lost but we should have won and have been better no matter what the score or statistics may say? Even with an abysmal French defense on the scrum half (bring back Betsen!) the Welsh managed to score only when they were 15 vs 14. Dominating? That guy should learn rugby if he wants to coach his team into victory...

[finbar]

Yes, the incumbent Wales coach is an Australian, being pursued by the ARU as a backs coach in the new Wallaby coaching line up. If he were entertaining any thoughts of staying with Wales, recent results probably knock them on the head.

All a bit sad for Wales, really. Under Ruddock they were developing a very entertaining, very effective game. When it worked. Reading between the lines, he wanted to give their game more foundation - after all, you have to get the ball before you can razzle dazzle - but the players didn't want that. They preferred Johnson's backline emphasis. Exit Ruddock. Next exit Johnson. Now they're nowhere. Very sad.

[Havak]

It is two days later and I am still furious with Robinson.

He has blamed the ref, the Irish and now even the clubs (for giving him tired players!). The only person he hasn't blamed is himself.

Funny how the longer the players are isolated under his care the worse they perform then eh?

Corry was right - with 60% ball and territory (actually even more in the second half) you should not lose games.

It is so easy to rip Turnip's selections apart I am happy to do so. Meers is a joke - he and Borthwick share the blame for the stupid try conceded from our line out. Ben Cohen shouldn't be anywhere near an England shirt ever again. Voyce as FB never once made the last covering tackle as he was always out of position. Noon is not an international. Neither are the Bath locks. Julian White is not doing enough anywhere but the scrum. And sadly Martin is not bossing enough on the pitch - I hate to say it but I think the armband needs to move.

In his post match interview turnip used these words "this was a positive step for us". Losing at home to Ireland despite holding territorial and possession advantages was a positive step for us? I must live ina different world to turnip!

Even this morning he is reported on the BBC as saying he plans to (mis)lead us into the RWC and feels we are 'heading in the right direction' (that would be down then?).

He has to be dismissed whilst the new coach still has a dozen tests before the RWC arrives. Sadly with the bellicose statements the RFU execs made in support of him last week they have boxed themselves into a corner - they look stupid if they sack him now (and equally stupid if they do not).

It's a shambles. Mind you knuckles will be looking forward to two easy wins over turnips choice selection before the real business of the tri-nations?