Rugby - 6 Nations, Heineken Cup, You Can't Beat A Northern Hemisphere Winter!

[kittenOFchaos]

England: D Armitage (London Irish); Mark Cueto (Sale), Mathew Tait (Sale), Riki Flutey (Brive), Ugo Monye (Harlequins); Jonny Wilkinson (Toulon), Danny Care (Harlequins); Tim Payne (Wasps), Dylan Hartley (Northampton), Dan Cole (Leicester), Simon Shaw (Wasps), Steve Borthwick (Saracens, captain), James Haskell (Stade Francais), Lewis Moody (Leicester), Nick Easter (Harlequins).
Replacements: Lee Mears (Bath), David Wilson (Bath), Louis Deacon (Leicester), Joe Worsley (Wasps), Paul Hodgson (London Irish), Toby Flood (Leicester), Ben Foden (Northampton).

[finbar]

Charlie was called up as cover for Wilko's injury concern. Despite Sale's plight and J****'s low opinion of him.

[kittenOFchaos]

Charlie was called up as cover for Wilko's injury concern. Despite Sale's plight and J****'s low opinion of him.

CH should have told them where to stick it.

[Havak]

CH was definitely called into the 'Elite' squad I assure you. Inexplicable as it is.

CH will never tell them where to stick it - he will always hope he can finally make that step from club to country. He can't tackle and his backfoot play is highly suspect - so it's a forlorn hope but one he will hold onto never the less.

[Havak]

Incidentally one of England's many problems at the moment is that the back row forwards are not protecting Jonny when he rarely comes within sight of the gameline. The fear of seeing Charlie who loves to play flat being munched by the high quality back rows of Ireland and France is a scary one indeed.

I even quite like the Scottish number eight who has qualities Easter can only dream of (he gets about the paddock pronto). And Jonno's solution to the problem is worzel on the bench who is indeed a great defensive flanker (if not much else) - but it speaks volumes about how we intend to play don't you think?

*edit* I didn't want Ospreys expelled for the 16 man thing - but this new allegation of player eligibility cheating is a totally different matter. The facts are black and white - so they must be expelled (whether it is we or Cardiff who take their place)

*Flannery is appealling? On what possible grounds? I think he might find the sanction gets increased?

[finbar]

Wales plan to run Mathieu Bastareaud off his feet.

You have to laugh. More likely he will run straight over the top of them.

Presumably the Stormers let Januarie go to Ospreys on the basis that he was back in time for S14. A third month in Wales would have seen him miss the first three weeks. Very stupid of Ospreys to think no one would notice. Particularly Leicester.

[Havak]

Natural justice would see Ospreys thrown out and Tigers lose the tie Finbar.

Tomorrow not only do I get to see Ireland thump England but Tigers visit our old East Minland rivals in Saints. No love lost for sure - but the Sky Rugby club hilariously presented a Tigers mug to the Saints owner ('Loot' Barwell) this week. Saints are playing very open rugger right now - Tigers excel at closing teams down. Could be a good game. We both normally win our home rubbers and I do expect a Saints victory.

[LDiCesare]

Poor game by the French, but still a win's a win.
The Welsh lost the game all by themselves. Foolhardy passes leading to 2 interception tries, missed penalty kicks giving the ball back to France instead of finding a good lineout. And losing their own lineout throws too.
The French, apart from a good scrum and lineout, didn't do much with the balls they had. This is a bit annoying, considering the game against Ireland had been so much better and this was mostly the same team.

[finbar]

Couldn't agree more. Parra was poor apart from his goal kicking. While I was away I read a couple of articles suggesting that Trin-Duc was coming of age as an international #10. Not on last night's effort. With the French forward ascendancy, Parra and Trin-Duc should have made hay. There was little organisation behind the scrum. Hopefully that's their stinker of a game for the tournament.

Yes, Wales literally threw away the game, but their terrible decision-making and poor handling only continued their pattern in this 6N. They're being called brave. I'd call them fundamentally, fatally flawed.

[Havak]

Quite. England beat them handsomely. What more proof do you need of Finbar's statement?

Liked the way the Welsh scrummy - who I know little about - got completely under Parra's skin. Job done - and if Parra aspires to be world class he needs to improve his temperament.

France are going to have another stinker - against England. We are their bogey team.

[finbar]

I like the way Gatland is saying France didn't play any rugby, hence the Welsh were the only ones playing rugby, hence some sort of excuse for their errors. If the French had played any rugby Wales would have been down 0-40 at half time.

[finbar]

Che partita! The Italian commentators didn't burst into tears this time but I nearly did. Gee, Scotland make Italy look like the All Blacks when it comes to threatening to score a try. Great Italian defence throughout, and the Scots continue to do all their best work behind the advantage line. The ball passes through countless pairs of hands, they reach the advantage line, and run straight into contact. Same old problem.

Craig Gower continues to prove that he's far from a mug. If he only weren't so kick-oriented, though I'm sure it's at the coach's instruction. There were a couple of small touches of class in the Italian try. Just a pity they don't have the courage to try it more often.

How Dan Parks won MOTM is quite beyond me.

EDIT. The Italian commentary team awarded their own MOTM to Craig Gower. I'd have less argument with that.

[kittenOFchaos]

Dan Parks played very well, but he wasn't man of the match.

A very enjoyable game, both sides played alot of rugby, the Scots surprised the Italians quite often at scrum time, but the Italian defence was magnificient as was that try.

Wales better watch out!


In other news, Sale lost 47 - 3 against Gloucester. Brian Kennedy needs to spend some money on players for next season, the departure of so many French players and so many players to Northampton and Cueto and Tait in England colours is hurting us.

Lets hope we don't get demoted!

[kittenOFchaos]

England go down to Ireland, due to poor Wilkinson kicking amongst a number of other things, such as the Irish ability to make 3 times as many tackles and have just as many if not less missed tackles. Also, Tommy Bowe was class.

I hadn't placed any money this weekend as I didn't have a feel for who'd win in either game this Saturday and I don't bet on games involving France. I'd still fancy England to beat France this year as I think the English raise their game for France and that France are flattering to deceive - they aren't all that and Wales showed that.

France won't GS in my opinion, but win the championships as Ireland are likely to lose to Wales and France will have scored more than England and that England may very well lose to Scotland - Scotland have been unlucky this Championship.

Two weeks then Scotland Vs England

[Havak]

I suspect no team in history has ever lost as many games as England with such a massive possession and territory advantage.

Ireland executed well but they were not impressive. To have lost 6/7 to them is massively embarassing now.

The reversed penalty was quite ridiculous given the endemic way O'Leary was slowing ball - but that ten point swing from it was only part of the problem today.

Foden looked good though didn't he? better in 20 mins than Delon has been in 220. Still Jonno won't make any changes will he?

Care is so slow and so out of position it's getting farcical. Youngs will report to training next time and again be sent home whilst Care and Hodgson keep shirts they do not warrant. Ellis is playing better than both men!

Ah I'm not happy at all. And I suspect England can still beat France - but execution and decision making must improve tenfold (for it is in Paris!)