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Shame he is not good enough to play for Edinburgh.
I tell you what, even at 35 he's better than heathcote and Hastings!
I'm not saying they're good enough to play for Edinburgh but as outside contenders for caps, Henson is still better than both.
wrecker - I was hardly being serious. Edinburgh this season are woeful.
It's sad but (if you is English glad) that the Engalnd team are going rip the Italians to pieces.
There, I said it.
Happy with tigers result last night, seems there's something about them again. Wish they were playing like this when Glasgow smashed them (twice)!
Won't catch the games this afternoon as I'll be driving to sunny Leamington Spa, should get tomorrow's though. Off out on a quick muddy 20k ride now, enjoy the rugby!
Ali Williams (Racing) and James O'connor (Toulon) arrested by police at 3am in Paris trying to buy cocaine. Doh !
Something very wrong with French rugby off-field antics isn't there?
Or is it the Kiwis and their love of recreational pharmacology?
Two old pros on a well paid jolly in France, rather than actually training hard for international rugby.
Really looking forward to a semi-neutral Saturday and esp, Scotland v Wales. Really important line out battle with Lions in mind. Should be fun.
Only downside was Andy Nicoll putting yet another positive spin on the injuries first thing this morning!!Forget glass half full, its glass constantly over-flowing with Andy!! Cotter and Nicol plus Jiffy, the other battle of the afternoon. Unless the Beeb save us and let Butler's soft brogue take over.
Very true, Dan.
There have been whispers that there's a bit of a recreational culture around rugby in NZ for a while though.
Ken owens never throws down the middle. He always takes two or three steps and throws down his line
Nice simple try - Rhys having a great start too.
Wales look physically stronger at the moment if wasteful
Owens throwing is funny, true. But he gets away with it.
Tips player of 1H
Not bad, not great as too many errors. Still think Welsh physicality will see them through
AWJ winning the second row battle too - more with the hits.
Hogg desperate plea for a TMO review when he knew 1/2p had beaten him. Pathetic. Who does he think he is? Biggar?
Biggar being particularly annoying. Clancy needs to clamp down and tell the Welsh boys to stop trying to ref the game and buy penalties.
Dunno why, he's fallen for it a few times 😉
Welsh defence making the difference so far in this one.
Bigger ALWAYS does that. Shame Our Nige won't ref Wales - he'd sort him out!! Missed the 1st half walking the dog, but 2nd looking good!
Good grief, what did Scotland take at half time?
Kiwi juice ?
Russell? Lions? I bloody hope not!
Visser on the other hand......
Wasteful, wasteful Wales
Urgh.
Scotland doing well, though!
Yes awesome finish - oh eck we really might have to have Hogg as Lion's 15 after all 😉
Hamish Watson's not bad for a wee one.
Scotland have deserved this. Better team today.
Wales were wasteful, making mistakes. Disappointing.
Norfolk George taking tackling lessons from Cuthbert
Wales been disappointing for years.
Well done Scotland!
We'll done Scotland; withstood a physical onslaught and had a great start to the second half. Very, very good at the breakdown which is concerning as an Englishman when Wales tuned is over at will. Scotland were far better today at the breakdown.
Wow well played Scotland - brilliant 2H
True team effort - as always a pretty boy get MoM but to me was far more a great team effort not individuals.
What happened at the breakdown in 2H for Wales?
Wales started to chase the game and lose shape.
Let there be no more talk of "tokens", I have 3 Scotsmen in my lions xv. Barclay was immense, he takes the 6 shirt and a likely candidate for captain. Visser takes the wing shirt from Liam. Hogg at 15, no competition.
How the hell did Russell get motm?
Kicked dead numerous times, crabbed across the pitch and coughed up the ball with a brainless run after the pack had worked like dogs to keep it. Crap, and seriously unfair to the boys in the pack.
Hogg is great going forward, but really suffers in defence.
That said, a sack of spuds would have been better than North in defence today.
He's a pretty boy and the commentators ejaculate when the pretties get the ball.
Scottish forwards won that
I'm afraid A-WJ looked a little AWOL in 2H
Bollocks 😥
🙂
Did North do anything today apart from holding up the ball carrier once?
Well done Scotland dominated Wales in the 2nd half. Wales need to go back and look at their decision making. The miss by Halfpenny and the decision to kick to the corner were real turning points.
Happy happy
Hogg and Farrell nailed on for me after that.
Dunnbarr looks a tidy 12 if Farrell's 10
And Watson's a proper 7
Good to see Sexton back and playing well
It seems France are the only people never to have seen the Sexton Loop!!
There have been whispers that there's a bit of a recreational culture around rugby in NZ for a while though.
I've heard rumours about it in the Welsh sides, as well, specifically about a player who was dropped this weekend. Which might explain things.
It's always been an issue - Matt Stevens for England/bath a few years back.
Bloody hell Rob Howley!! 👿
Fair play to Scotland Wales beat them up first half but Scotland took their chances well (unlike Wales) and deserved a win. North only got one pass all game that I saw and that was when Sammy Davies Junior came on.
Scrappy 2nd H but Ireland won't care. Personally, I'm hoping Wales turn up to do a job on Ire next week.
Personally, I'm hoping Wales turn up to do a job on Ire next week.
Wouldnt hold your breath.
Mind you a dodgy try with the wrong ball type win might give them a good gee up to go to town on the Orc horde the week after!!
Weird game. France looked up for it to start with then just lost shape. I thought we were in for a thriller!
Sexton looked amazingly good for his first game back. Furlong was impeccable, his decision making is on point. The young centre is lively, obv destined for great things. Stander and henshaw largely anonymous.
It's always been an issue - Matt Stevens for England/bath a few years back.
Henshaw anonymous, really?
I think he is a dark horse missing only an Irish commentator creaming himself when he gets the ball.
Orc horde
And I thought we'd all grown up and stopped all of that...
I think it's almost complimentary!!!!
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I'm not surprised TJ! Great finish by Seymour in the corner.
Mike Brown, seen here in a recent post match interview.
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😉
To misquote Alan Hansen "You win nowt with pretty-boys!"
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CF, this is the true Mike Brown ! Only a back, not qualified for true Orcdom.
Mike Brown goes for a post match drink
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followed by a light snack:
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Well having watched the game all I can say is - its about time!
This is a team that will only get better. they are young and fearless and fast and skilful. The rapier [i]and[/i] the bludgeon today and never let up the intensity and the speed.
Big shout for Hamish the coo. I have been telling everyone how good he is and today he showed it. No one tries harder and he has the speed of a back with the strength of a forward. Honourable mentions to Fagerson, Dunbar and of course the Grays remain immense.
I thought the injuries would hurt us more than they did. Thank goodness there were not to many scrums tho
All I can say is - told you so and I am sorry you will have to forgive me but it time for the happy dance again[img] 
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The other big shout of course goes to Big Vern. Got the tactics spot on
If you want to know why we won look at the tackles and breakdowns - the scots guys bounce back to their feet and are back in the line. Wales didn't get a single overlap all game and were always outnumbered cos the scots were quicker so were there to make the tackles and to create the defensive wall
Wales didn't get a single overlap all game
What about on Williams try?
The difference was compsure and taking chances. Wales kept pushing the last pass too much but Scotland took their chances very well.
The pre match stats showed wales' problem. Too much playing not enough scoring. Like Scotland a few years ago where it looked like we couldn't score a try.
I wonder if Biggar is the problem. He's like an unlikeable parissi. He's trying to ref the game but gets more and more frustrated when the ref doesn't agree. His face when he was lying on the ground claiming a knock on when it was obvious he'd gone for the strip was priceless.
I wonder if Biggar is the problem. He's like an unlikeable parissi. He's trying to ref the game but gets more and more frustrated when the ref doesn't agree. His face when he was lying on the ground claiming a knock on when it was obvious he'd gone for the strip was priceless.
I'll accept that you and tjagain are biuncing on the euphoria of the win, I'll agree that Wales weren't up to it, but it was closer than the score reflects.
As for Biggar reffing, he probably learnt from Hogg and his request for TMO.
I wasn't too keen on the booing or celebrating of won freekicks etc.
The only real negative is that Scotland are still missing a high percentage of tackles; they missed more of less the same as Wales but made/attempted much fewer tackles (according to the match stats).
They'll have a field day at the breakdown against us though.
The press have all but written Italy off wifi ting articles about what they need to do to avoid a cricket score. Hmmmm. Not clever. We'll end up making hard work of it now.
Biggar may be the issue but not for the reasons you highlight. He doesnt play flat enough to draw in defenders and combined with two centres who cant pass we need to bludgeon our way to space and we dont have the forwards to do it. We also dont have any other players to try out.
I was at Murray field yesterday and it was another great match,so many things hinge on the small moments in the modern game, the kick to the corner and the subsequent line out instead of points was one of those points, the transformation of Visser from a player who was unable to catch the ball compete in the air to one who could was immeasurable and fascinating particularly after being picked up and ragged by North.
Personally I thought Price suited the style of Scotland better than Laidlaw, who for all his qualities can be glacial in his passing.
Laidlaw missing meant Russell and Hogg seemed to step up and mature, Russell was excellent and controlled the second half, yes mistakes and errors but they were much less than previous games.
The back row battle was tremendous Barclay was consistent, Wilson made some ground and Watson is outstanding but they played was a unit much more than Wales. Tipuric was lucky by the laws not to be binned, and seemed to lose the momentum of the game. The loss of momentum after 30 Minutes was surprisingly by Wales, yes Scotland raised the tempo in the second half and played tactically better but Wales seemed all at sea at time returning the ball with any shape or form.
Luck did favour Scotland, Davies break and Reece's try not being allowed ( correct decision but sometimes the TMO does spoil the sheer skill and exhilaration of rugby) a couple of scrum decisions but overall the better team won.
Wyn Jones was well off the pace, as were the props, it all felt off after the performance against England.
Well done Scotland.
If anything was proved at Murrayfield yesterday it was that Scotland are better WITHOUT Laidlaw.
Wales were flattered by the score, their try followed a ref mistake as the ball was caught from a kick but the ref gave the scrum to Wales
Welsh sh was dangerous all game
Tipuric and awj should have had cards. Awj tried to kick ickle Johnny head off ( mind you jonny was holding his ankle
The only real negative is that Scotland are still missing a high percentage of tackles; they missed more of less the same as Wales but made/attempted much fewer tackles (according to the match stats).
Not an issue when in their system.
V aggressive def line blitzing almost constantly.
They're going for teams behind the gain line with numbers stepping up quickly. Not unusual for the first player to get stepped when committing like that. system works as long as the next player gets him.
It's about making the highest number of gamechanging tackles, not the most overall %. As in, catching players behind their support. Trade off in stats is not important.
Saracens "wolfpack" defense has similar stats.
Biggar may be the issue but not for the reasons you highlight. He doesnt play flat enough to draw in defenders
Jackson did the same in the Ireland game. It plays into their hands (Scots defense system).
I fear yout TV might be broken tjagain.
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I was at Murray field yesterday
A day that will stay with you for a long time. Well done to Scotland.
That loss to France must really rankle, the team that played Ireland and Wales didn't seem to turn up against Les Blues. All setup for a showdown at Twickenham on 11th.
Wyn Jones was well off the pace
Who is he?
Very well deserved Scotland win
Biggar may be the issue but not for the reasons you highlight. He doesnt play flat enough to draw in defenders and combined with two centres who cant pass we need to bludgeon our way to space and we dont have the forwards to do it. We also dont have any other players to try out.
Spot on a_a but there isn't an alternative as you say. Biggar is solid and fits the defensive game (in fairness not something to be underestimated as he was not at all like this early in his career), and unlikely to lose a game for Wales... but the defenses have all the time in the world to stand of and read what is happening.
Although people are giving pretty boy Finn a bit of a hard time he does take the ball to the line very well and kicked his points. Not perfect and not a Lion, but does get things moving
I'm guessing Bennett is broken but I'd like to see him in as a wildcard Lion. Very talented player
Interesting quote about the kick to touch that shifted momentum... I know it is a horrible place to kick and not the easiest, but the kickers at this level have to back themselves IMO. If Russel can do it I'm sure 1/2p can 😉
Jones, asked whether he might have gone for the points with hindsight, replied: "I would have liked to. The kickers didn't want to, so we went for the corner. Then I got done for blocking at the back of the lift, but I would have liked to have gone for the three."
If Russel can do it I'm sure 1/2p can
I dont understand why Biggar isnt kicking. 1/2p is a bit off his very high standards and Biggar is bloody good.
Having said that the wind was pretty strong and if both of them didnt fancy it then backing themselves to go for the corner is fine by me.
A_A pretty much all the Welsh fans around us clap the decision to go for the corner, it looked and felt a good choice, Wales seemed on top and gaining momentum but it turned out to be a real critical game changer.
Also agree about Biggar both kicking and style, the backs did not seem confident at all. L Williams impressed but should be fullback to give more threat.
Alun Wyn Jones the captain is no where near the lions team , three Englishmen and Jonny gray are way out in front mech. The Welsh lineout was pretty ropey, the Scots pulled the same move three times and it was pretty clear what they were going to do.
Scots defense is pretty outstanding and the stats mean little, from the warm up it was clear what the Scots planned.
Referring caused some outcrys on both side and it will be interesting to see the match back but it did feel ropey especially at scrum time. It was a complete contrast to Romain Poite referring in the Ireland game which was a great performance especially in the speed of setting the scrum.
Been up in Ullapool climbing, just got into wifi again...Did I miss anything?
If Warburton had been captain there wouldn't have been any discussion or disagreement and they'd likely have gone for the three points.
Excellent start by Nathan Hughes 😯