[Closed] Rugby - 6 nations.

When do we get to start arguing about lions picks?

It must be the worst England perfomance for along long time

anagallis_arvensis - Member
When do we get to start arguing about lions picks?

Right now!

😆

Put Bradley Davies on the plane, for a start! 🙂 Great runner, great player.

Also, North MUST go on any Lions tour if fit. SCIENCE FACT!

aa, post a team. never to early for a lions "debate" 🙂

North +1

England didnt do much.

I agree.

Lions team is tricky if priestland plays can we trust his kicking? Brings players like 1/2p and the coaches son into contention so with that in mind:

Foden/ Kearney ( too close to call)
1/2p
Davies/Tuilagi
Roberts
North
Priestland
Phillips
erm dont know faletau/denton/hislip
?again ferris or sob
warburton
grey
? Lawes doc?
Cole
ford
gethin

Foden/ Kearney ( too close to call)
1/2p
Davies/Tuilagi
Roberts
North
Priestland
Phillips
erm dont know faletau/denton/hislip
?again ferris or sob
warburton
grey
? Lawes doc?
Cole
ford
gethin

Just watched the France / Italy game.

Italy will facny beating both Engladn adnScotland.

France Wales Ireland fighting for the championship, England Scotland Italy fighting for the wooden spoon is wht it looks like.

2 division championship

I cant work out how to use sean obrian great player but not 7 and is he a 6. Would prefer more footballing ability in midfield too but resisted the temptation to pick gavin!!!

First game for a new look England. Too early to write them off entirely IMO. I suspect that they will improve but by how much is anybodys guess.

I saw that David Sole in Comely Bank Waitrose today. He doesn't half walk slowly 😆

I don't see many lions coming from yesterday's game tbh.
Denton impressed, but not ahead of Faletau or Heaslip.
Tuilagi would be a possible from England, but the Jonathan Davies/ Desperate Dan combo would be hard to split, even for BOD.
Hooker is up for grabs, Best was best this weekend but not sure if he's Lions quality.

1st draft:
Kearney
Bowe
Davies
DD
North
Sexton
Phillips
Faletau
Ferris
Warburton
O'Connell
Gray
Jones
Ford
Healy

O'Brien on the bench, covers 3 BR positions

Edit. Today emphasised what a player BOD is, Ireland were half the team without him. Probably a bigger loss than all Wales' injuries together (Warburton going off at half time excluded)

[img] [/img]

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'sfunny coz it's troo.

I could go with that but even sexton has his off days with the boot i also think adam jones is not hitting form so cole gets the nod.

Scots in the frame ( but not any on yesterdays performance really)

Grey
Denton
Ford

Posibles for the future are Laidlaw and Hogg but need to show it. Laidlaw really could become very good indeed. he is the best Scots back I have seen for decades

From England I really like Foden in particular - Strettle as well but plenty of good wingers around, I would be Farrel comes good as well but we need to see it.

Can't argue too much with many of AAs picks and Ireland and Wales should have the bulk as of right now

Fair enough with Cole.
I'd like to see a bit more consistancy from a kicker before the tour. Sexton and Priestland are the top 2 for FH, but I wouldn't be totally confident in either for the pens. Just have to hope their off days aren't in sync, but I think we'd lose to much by leaving out anyone else for a kicker.

Scots in the frame ( but not any on yesterdays performance really)

[s]Grey[/s]
Denton
[s]Ford[/s]
...
picks and Ireland and Wales should have the bulk as of right now

Had to fix that for you, TJ.

Denton looked very, very good mind you. Very good indeed. Gray could and should be on the tour bus, though.

England need to rethink overseas player thing - not having Sheridan in the front row is appalling.
I read it last month that he "puts fearinto front rows" I can bloody believe that!

15 BOWE
14 BOWE
13 BOWE
12 BOWE
11 BOWE
10 BOWE
9 BOWE
8 BOWE
7 BOWE
6 BOWE
5 BOWE
4 BOWE
3 BOWE
2 BOWE
1 BOWE
We all dream of a team of Tommy Bowes, a team of Tommy Bowes, a team of Tommy Bowes...
🙂

Edit. sorry, couldn't help it. But Kearney at 15.

Not sure you would lose much having 1/2p rather than Bowe.
Sheridan is yesterdays man.

We all dream of a team of Tommy Bowes

A true Ospreylian, and one of those lovely rugby players who plays with a smile on his face (See also Castagneide, T and Williams, S) Love to watch Bowe play. Great player, and love the way he smiles!

Sheridan is yesterdays man.

Yesterday? Try last decade.

1/2p a good option, but for the bench back 3 cover probably

This weekend highlights two important contradiction in the 6 Nations - (1) it is vitally important to get the momentum rolling from the start with a win but (2) the win/loss actually tells you very little about the team. perhaps that's why we see swings and roundabouts each year.

(1) is obvious and self explanatory and really key for Wales given the run of home games they have now. They should have excellent momentum

(2) no suprise that Fr > Italy and both the other matches could easily have gone the other way. The headlines and pressures would be very different. I bet if Scotland had won, the performance would have been described as fantastic, exposing England's inexperience etc. But, having hit the self district button, Robinson and the players are now under much more scrutiny (ESP about scoring tries) whereas England walk away with more heroic (if undeserved) headlines and little pressure. And yet it could have been so different for all of these four.

Like I said above, Denton looks good. His biggest problem is the strength in that area though.
On form, today and WC, Faletau should start at 8.
Heaslip's ahead of him too, but probably wouldn't even make the bench 'cos O'Brien would cover 6,7,8.

CFH - who would you have instead of Ford tho? ( or master samwise as he really is?)

Edit - agree with the strength in the back row in the home nations tho. Funny isn't it whereas its not a great bunch of standoffs now - sexton is the best IMO but he ain't a world beater

Interesting little snippet in this week's New Scientist on a study of in/out of group bias.

Researchers "...divided 24 volunteers into two teams and had them judge the speed of hand actions performed by two people, one from each team.
As expected, most of the volunteers were biased towards their own team, judging their players as faster, even when the two actions were performed at identical speeds.
Surprisingly, brain scans taken during the task showed that this bias arises from differences in brain activity during perception of the hand action and not during the decision-making process."

So we don't even decide to be biased, we actually perceive the event (e.g. spear tackle / not spear tackle) in different ways depending on our allegiance.

Well that was really something. I can't believe Wales won. How many times have we been in a similar situation and choked? This is what really cheers me up. That and having North on the team. Fair play, watching him in slow mo is incredible. Other players put their heads down and take on the tacklers - North has his head up and arms out - coming through! Reminds me of a police horse.

Definite red for Davies though, no question. The disallowed try was also definitely a try but that's all in the game. It's not enough to score, you have to be seen to have scored, and I might've recycled the ball in that situation if it'd been me. Cos you know, I am such an experienced second row and all.

The pity about Davies was he was playing so well. Special mention to ian evans too who has recovered from serius injury. Last season he looked like he woudnt make it back as he struggled to last the pace for 40 mins for the ospreys. Yesterday he played his part for a full 80 in a proper test match really happy for him

haven't checked above but have u lot seen the lovely 'austin healy' kicking off bigtime on twitter, the backlash after his pre match welsh comments! I bet his agent is happy! oh dear

The only Austin Healey I can see on Twitter is For Sale!!! 😆

Go on what did little Austin say about us this time? I actually find him amusing in a perverse way.

GlitchynessreturnstoSTW

glitchy bump again

Lions;
Kearney
Bowe
Davies
Roberts
North
Sexton
Phillips
Ferris
Denton
Warburton
O'Connell
Botha (to translate the codes for Denton)
Jones
Ford
Healy

Ireland needed to play against 14 to get in front

Did you see the game? Ireland were 10-5 up at half time and playing really badly.

Not to take anything away from Wales they did deserve to win, however I think that Ireland were the authors of their own misfortune rather than Wales playing to their full potential. Even Gatland reckon they were only playing at 70% which clearly bodes well for the Welsh fans going forward.

I really feel like Ireland missed BOD's leadership and defence in midfield and the loss of Earls at short notice was also a key factor. Ireland really need to be looking at more midfield options as Darcy and BOD don't have long left and the young fellas in the provinces are very green (if you pardon the pun).

I must mention Connor Murray, that was his first 6N game and I thought he really played well.

A good start to the championship for Wales though and they have a good chance for a GS.

Ireland need to really play well in France to get a bit of confidence and win the last three games.

I thought France looked reasonably good in spells and the new centre pairing will improve as the games go on.

Scotland were very dissappointing and seemed to have leart nothing from the WC.

A new England side got a win which will give them some confidence.

In some ways I was most impressed with Italy as they really tried to play some rugby and move away from the spoiling tactics they normally employed.

Have no clue why anyone rates Botha looked shit to me

Plays like a 6, A-A. Will help his partner rest his auld legs a wee bit. All in all,gives a nice foil for O'Connell imo.

Just watched a quick highlights clip over on Rugbydump while having a rather uninspiring sandwich for lunch.

North just ran over people. Almost unfair to watch it. He just bludgeoned through them. For his try, he took three Irishmen over the line with him! He's a monster. And only 19? EEEEK!

But then, alongside the brutality of the back line (Scary, as Desperate Dan called it), there was that delicious offload from North to put Davies in position with a run in. Delicious.

North did look good tho not the complete player - [i]yet[/i]

he has a very long neck.

TandemJeremy - Member
North did look good tho not the complete player - [u][b]yet[/b][/u]

If he's this good when he's not the complete player, I fear for everyone else when he reaches that level! 🙂

Indeed. He made a couple of good defensive plays as well.

Glad he has a scots grandmother and we are about to find out he is actually ineligible for Wales and should be playing for Scotland

North was born in England, as were Cuthbert and J Davies. Thats "dibs" if they get deported. 😉

North, followed by JDavies, were man of the match for me yesterday. However, reflecting on the game now, it becomes even more apparent how much Ireland missed BOD.
As good as North, Roberts, and JDavies played , it did feel like the Irish midfield was a missed tackle waiting to happen. It was a definate area of weakness, which Wales targetted brilliantly, whereas normally it feels like a turnover could come from any tackle.
BOD's not just a great tackler, rucker, and ball winner - he organises the line so well that he semms to get 20% more out of the players around him. Also, when Ireland did chuck it wide, they went over fairly easily themselves. The Welsh defensive line could have been a bit stronger themselves.
What I'm getting at is I'm coming round to the idea that there's one last Lions tour for BOD and his mad tackling.

Edit:"Indeed. He made a couple of good defensive plays as well." Especially the one wher he came flying in off his line and flattened P O'Connell. Worth a try, that hit.

Just for balance, as much as I'm a patriotic welshie.. WTF was North doing giving Bowe that much berth for his try, there was a simple 1 on 1 marking going on and North gave him far too much room, Bowe is a top finisher fair play, I'd not let him have an inch (though he'd take it quite easily from me).

there's one last Lions tour for BOD and his mad tackling.

Loum I hope you are right! I was at the Gabba when he scored 'that' try. Something very special about a Lions tour.

North certainly is some talent and while defensively his positioning needs a bit of work, he is only going to get better. A very exciting prospect.

Lions:

Kearney
Bowe
BOD/Davies
Roberts
North
Sexton
Murray
Ferris
Warburton
SOB
Gray
Ryan (this guy is gonna be very good)
Jones
No real stand out hookers - Best or Ford
Healy