Rugby - The Game They Play In Heaven II

[finbar]

Danny Care = England's Andy Powell.

That aside, I see that young Ben Morgan has aligned himself with England. I've seen him a few times for his Welsh outfit and, I have to say, I'm not sure what the fuss is about. Still, he's barely out of nappies.

[Havak]

However Rugby does continue to show Football how player misconduct should be handled. It is one thing Rugby generally gets correct and football seldom does.

Care has always been know to be reckless off the field - but that has moved on to actual stupidity recently. So Youngs and Simpson in the box seat now then.

And what is the fuss in the media about Morgan choosing England? The lad is English after all and the taffs could only sniff due to residency qualification. He does have promise Finbar - but many a slip...

[Havak]

You know I had somehow failed to notice that not only has Tigers old boy Wentzel joined Wasps he seems to be skippering them?

Hope he does the same sterling job of leading them that he did for Leeds.

[finbar]

Gee, Saints stuck it up Quins very nicely, taking them on at their own high-tempo game, with brute force tossed in for good measure. They played some glorious, fierce, attacking rugby. George Pisi, at 13, has given them the attacking midfield option they always lacked with their two flanker-type centres and Lee Dixon picked the right time to deliver the goods in front of the interim England coach. Sooner or later Quins are going to have to address the scrummaging problem. Even Doran-Jones gave Joe Marler a lesson in scrummaging. And Rory Clegg isn't Nick Evans.

Pity the useless Ospreys went down to the Dragons, costing me a 3/3 start to the weekend.

[kittenOFchaos]

Useless Ospreys also wiped me out. That said, I'm playing accumulators with odds of 10,000 to 1. I shouldn't expect many wins

The way I see it, I could put ALOT on games that are near certainties or spend very little, but have a high payout when I get it right. £300 from £5 remains my highest payout however.

Next weekend is more exciting however what with it being Heineken Cup rugby - go Munster and their habit of winning by 3 points!

[finbar]

Now dang Glaws have let me down! Wasteful lot they are, they had Worcester comfortably where they wanted them and gave the game away. Of all people, Havak's old pork pie-eating, balding, fatty Leicester friend Andy Goode came on in the second half and turned the game for Worcester. Even waddled over for a try.

And it looks like Newcastle are going to let me down too. I tipped them on the basis that they had some pride at home in desperate circumstances. Apparently not. Stupid Northerners! (Any present company excepted, obviously).

[kittenOFchaos]

Sorry Finbar but backing Gloucester away or Newcastle anywhere weren't good moves.

I really regret not taking time to watch Leceister Vs Wasps just to see how Twelvetrees did it:

Leicester 29 - 11 (16 - 11) Wasps

Twelvetrees kicked five penalties, scored two tries and converted them...

[finbar]

Backing Glaws anytime HRH Tindall is playing is the problem. They're so much more fluid in attack without him. Newcastle was a sentimental choice. Silly me.

Twelvetrees played well. Both tries were of the opportunist variety, but he kicked well. It was his first outing at 10 for a long time. He's got nice hands but, like his kicking, not a lot of subtlety. The ball leaves his hands and boot at 1000 mph regardless. He's a handy back-up 10 but I think his future - and it could be a very good one - is at 12. Tigers were always comfortable without producing their best. Croft was outstanding. Wasps, as I said before, have some good young talent, but too often waste opportunities with clueless rugby. A beter coach would make more of the available talent.

[LDiCesare]

A piece of startling news today. I somehow managed to score a 20m run try yesterday. Was playing prop by the way, though I ended up as hooker with the replacements (I feel much more at ease at hooker in the scrum).
It's fun to notice that most of the front-rowers congratulated me after the match, despite our scoring 5 other tries. Must be something between small numbers?

[finbar]

Congratulations! How far into the 20m run was it before it started to feel like 120m?

And what's your take on the French squad? I've seen a bit of Fofana. Looks like a talent, but on the small side. Or is that just my TV?

[Havak]

20m? My word, you must have needed a drink after that?

I think Wasps need to be very thankful that Newcastle are in the Division. I’ve seldom seen them worse – particularly in the line out where we won about ¾ of their ball. But then their hooker generated that statistic having a bit of a mare. At times our scrum was so dominant it actually cost us possession – on at least two occasions we were still driving their pack backwards when their scrummy and/or flankers were securing the ball that had been left behind. LDiCesare will probably agree with me that front row player hate it when the 8 has failed to control the ball like that.

I liked the endeavour from the Wasps openside – I know next to nothing about him but boy did he work hard all day.

Tigers were actually very poor in many ways – once Chuter left the field no one seemed to be bossing the pack for example, Youngs had a fairly off day and the side seemed to lack confidence all around for me – strange given they have been on a fairly good run.

Croft was outstanding however – his best performance in some time. Lancaster was in the stands. The two may be connected.

And I entirely agree with Finbar that 12trees future is at 12. He has a good eye for space but lacks the accuracy of passing needed to be a top class stand off. The touchline received a couple of excellent scoring passes from him after all. It’s strange to me that Ford is still on loan at Leeds – that should have been cancelled when Flood got injured last weekend as it was all about giving him game time which he could now get “at home”.

Most comic moment for me was probably the lad Harrison kicking the ball dead 15 seconds early. He had only been on the field 2 minutes. No prizes for guessing the coaching instructions he received as he came on (just a shame they never gave him a watch). Actually for those of you who don’t know the ground from where he kicked the ball dead he was facing the clubhouse end with the big scoreboard where the game time clock also sits.

[finbar]

That was amusing. Hopefully his head was dunked in the dunny afterwards. 36 - or 12Trees, or Small Woodland, call him what you like - reminds me of that old golf joke. Gorilla tees off. Hits it 490m to just short of the green. Asks his caddy what club he should use. Caddy suggests a pitching wedge. Gorilla his the pitching wedge 490m. Still, he has the makings of an excellent centre. So does Small Woodland.

[LDiCesare]

20m is a bit long indeed. I was mostly surprised to see no opponent, actually. I had called my 9 because we had a 2 vs 1 on the side of the ruck/maul/tackle/heap from which he was extracting the ball, and I realy have no idea what the defender did. So after 3 meters I was surprised not to be tackled. After 5 I looked at the lines and tried to run as straight as possible in order to minimise the distance...

I haven't seen Fofana to be honest, so I can't comment about him. The selected players are a bit surprising because there are only two new players. The front row selection is ok. Ducalcon proved to be average at best, Debaty must show what he's worth at international level, and against Italy the scrum willl have a lot of work to do. Maestri is a very good and promising lock.
Still, this is an ageing team with little new blood brought in. I hope Maestri, Fofana or David will be playing and not just stay on the bench. The back row is kind of problematic too. Obviously, Dusautoir, Harinordoquy and Bonnaire are the best right now, but we should give some play time to younger players in order to prepare the future. Bonnaire, excellent as he may be, won't last forever. Harinordoquy should really play for his club. If they get relegated to ProD2, which they will if they play the same crap rugby they did early this season, he will not be able to produce anything for France anymore. Same for Yachvili.

[finbar]

You might have been playing against Leicester, mon ami. They leaked a try against Wasps on the weekend in very much the same way. I expect Havak choked on his pork pie at the sight of it. Even he would have thought to defend the blind side.

Fofana is very quick, has great skills. He's moved between wing and 12 for Clermont but, the times I've seen him, he's played 12 inside Rougerie. A very good combination. I hope Saint-Andre gives him a chance.

[Havak]

Tigers have been making far too many defensive errors this season but it is the schoolboy ones that rankle most certainly.

Bravo on the Gorilla joke btw - though perhaps better suited to Glaws where HRH actually plays?