Feel free to come and lecture the welsh when you have done more than win three home games and get bummed raw by the english
It does seem strange to me that Scotland won three home games, one of which was against Italy and now their fans are advising Wales and calling for Italy to be relegated. I worry they may regret such suggestions. Going by how their game against England went they appear to lack strength in depth, it would be awful if in 12 months time Scotland were to lose their place in the 6 nations!
Scotland lacking strength in depth is probably factual and not news.
But on a day where we'd have been third in the championship if they'd found the the phantom arm biter of Paris, and second if the charioteers hadn't suffered a wheels coming off moment, I think we can safely say this was a better performance than previously.
A win in Paris would have been nice and maybe even possible, and not being 13 points down in London after an early doors sin binning would have made that a very different game. But what happened, happened.
There really wasn't much to choose between any of the sides save Italy and England this year.
I wish Scotland well, I'd really love this to be a new era for them. But, it's always, if, if ,if... Some would have you believe they almost won the last World Cup!
I cannot help feeling that if they'd played their home games away and their away games at home, they could have lost all their games. Am I right in thinking that's how it goes next year?
Feel free to be complacent when your team won only two games, looked toothless and are dropping down the rankings at a rate of knots! YOu are well below Scotland now and were well beaten by scotland. I know that sort of thing hurts.
AA - don't be so sensitive 🙂 I know how much it hurts to follow a shit team but IMO if wales don't take radical action soon they will be where scotland were 5 years or more ago
There should be no relegation from the six nations, cricket has the same problem, you can't allow the ancient fixtures to disappear. The traditions are too important.
Guass - we met a perfect Storm in England and were roundly beaten. Bar that we are on the up ad up and have been for 3 years now - albeit from a very low place.
2 years ago whitwashed and scored 4 tries. 1 years ago won one game and scored 11 tries, this year 3 games won and scored 14 tries. Gone from 10th in the world rankings to 5th. All this with a team that is young and inexperienced and will not peak for at least 2 years yet.
mefty / Gauss
Its a really tricky one the promotion and relegation issue.
Georgia need more meaningful opposition and tournaments and we need to grow the game.
MY post on it was the result of a lot of thought.
are dropping down the rankings at a rate of knots!
Higher than we were last time the world cup seedings were decided!! This time 4 years ago we were ninth.
Hey, cheer up guys. We all get to wet ourselves over who gets Argentina in the RWC group. 😀
That right AA? I had forgotton. We were 10th IIRC
Who gets Argentinia - Scotland will of course 🙁 Nowt goes right for us grumble mutter moan
MY post on it was the result of a lot of thought.
If you gave it less thought you might come to the right conclusion.
Right? matter of opinion. Is it right Georgia can get no meaningful games?
matter of opinion
Precisely, so how much thought you gave it carries no weight.
Is it right Georgia can get no meaningful games
Playing Wales in Nov....oh hang on
Stade / Racing merger cancelled. French organisation at its best 🙂
http://m.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/39321038
Good on Wales for playing Georgia. It will give some clue as to how close to the 6N teams they are
I think Farrell is mediocre at best
That's a bit harsh given what he has been part of at a relatively young age - he's a double 6N winner, European cup winner plus premiership winner numerous times and was part of a white wash of Australia, in Australia. For a mediocre player, that's not a bad record.
He's not the most gifted creatively but he works hard and is generally solid in defense and kicks pretty well. I was certainly no fan, bit he had developed in the last 18 months.
Oh I agree - a good hard working player who makes few mistakes but is a creativity free zone and that holds England back. If England had a good 10 then they could play a specialist inside centre and would be a better team - but you have to work with what you have got and it appears England simply don't have those players available
I have to say, I don't get all the stick Farrell gets, he's a great player.
Anyway, interesting piece on Balls.ie where they have aggregated all the Lions XV from the weekend papers
Full-Back
Stuart Hogg is the main man here, picked by six of the eight writers. Those who went against the grain are Peter O'Reily, who went with Liam Williams, and Stephen Jones, who upheld his wavering support for Rob Kearney.
Wingers
George North is included in all eight teams, a remarkable turnaround for a man whose selection against Ireland was questioned by Welsh supporters. Anthony Watson and Elliot Daly are the next most popular, each with three picks. Liam and Scott Williams made an appearance each.
Centres
An English clean sweep: Owen Farrell and Jonathan Joseph the heavy favourites, with a couple of votes for Scott William a single call for Robbie Henshaw.
Out-half
Seven out of eight go with Johnny Sexton, Stephen Jones the outlier to nobody's surprise. ( He picks Owen Farrell).
Scrum-half
Once again, seven out of eight choose Conor Murray. The outlier? It's Jones, who selects Rhys Webb.
Number 8
No doubt here: all eight go with English wrecking ball, Billy Vunipola.
Flankers
Lots of different selections here: Sam Warbuton, Maro Itoje and Justin Tipuric all get four votes, while Sean O'Brien gets three. CJ Stander gets Jim Glennon's vote.
Second rows
Alun Wyn-Jones the most popular choice here, with six picks. Itoje and Joe Launchbury each get four, with one each for Richie Gray (Bernard Jackman) and Courtney Lawes (Stephen Jones).
Props
At loosehead, it's a tie between Ireland's Jack McGrath and England's Mako Vunipola. On the other side, Tadgh Furlong gets seven picks, with Neil Francis' choice of Dan Cole the only deviation.
Hooker
Jamie George is preferred to his England captain Dylan Hartley, with four picks to two. Hartley got as many picks as Wales' Ken Owens, with poor Rory Best nowhere to be seen.
The full team
15 - Stuart Hogg
14 - George North
13 - Jonathan Joseph
12 - Owen Farrell
11 - Anthony Watson/Elliot Daly
10 - Johnny Sexton
9 - Conor Murray
1 - Mako Vunipola/Jack McGrath
2 - Jamie George
3 - Tadgh Furlong
4 - Alun Wyn Jones
5 - Maro Itoje/Joe Launchbury
6 - Justin Tipuric/Maro Itoje
7 - Sam Warburton
8 - Billy Vunipola
You could (and we will!) argue over a couple of selections, but that's a pretty good team.
Tipuric at 6!?!?
Still dont see the George thing
Blindmelon.
On Farrell - IMO what he does is fine, its what he doesn't do that is the problem - he is slow between the ears and lacking in creativity. He is very steady and makes few mistakes but neither does he create space for those outside him or tie in defenders with his running game. He looks good in isolation but he doesn't improve the team.
Its just an opinion and I prefer mercurial mavericks to steady edddie players. I'd rather go down swinging 😉
ON the lions selections I think one issue is do you go for familiar combinations or the best player in each position? For example Sexton is clearly the best 10 available. So do you play Murray who is familiar with him and who had a good series or do you play Webb who IMO was the outstanding 9 of the series?
I wonder how many of the papers / journalists were scots?
I'd have Seymour and Dunbar in there altho I accept the England game made Dunbar look poor. I don't know the final stats - can't find any on turnovers but after (IIRC) 4 games Dunbar had more ruck steals than any other player forward or back
I'd love to make a case for Watson at 7 I thought he had a great series and was the best 7 in the tournament but until I can find the number of steals made I can't show this. Many foll would consider him too light and he is up against established players with fine reputations.
anagallis_arvensis - MemberStill dont see the George thing
Me too. I thought Best was the best.
until I can find the number of steals made I can't show
All it would show is which refs havent got the memo about not penalising holding on after the tackle.
Just looking at a single position but how far the Lions hooking options are behind Dane Coles is frightening.
On a separate note has anyone seen the pictures of ex springbok Joel Stransky after his MTB fall
[url= http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11821580 ]Ouch![/url]
Reading half of the comments on here, anybody would think that England hadn't finished top, a clear bonus point win ahead of second!
Farrell.....oh yeah, absolutely ordinary player, no way is he one of the best kickers in the world and at the heart of pretty much all of an 18 game winning streak. Definitely think the Lions need Dunbar in there instead....
....and Hamish Watson too.....he can't get into the starting xv that finished fourth in the 6 nations, but definitely should start at 7 for the Lions 😆
Is it right Georgia can get no meaningful games
Playing Wales in Nov....oh hang on
I LOLd
Me too. I thought Best was the best.
Only thing he's "Best" at is having a massive brain fade and dropping his team in it at a crucial time. Not a penalty machine as such but a a huge pressure reliever for the other team!
Farrell is not an international class 10. He is a bery fine player and in particular an international level reliable short/medium range kicker. Much like Mike Catt his best position isn't at 10 in an England Shirt.
And if you pick Farrell at 12 you are missing out on better specialist 12s
Best leave him out then! 😆
What do we reckon to team of the tournament then? Rather than Lions squad....
I've got:
15: Hogg
14 Vakatawa or however you spell it
13: JJ
12: Farrell or Fickou
11: Daley
10: Sexton
9: Webb or Serin
8: Picamoles or Parise
7: Dunno
6: Stander
5: Lawes
4: Launchbury
3: Furlong
2: Best
1: Marler
7 Watson! *ducks and covers*
I think Sexton is fragile and can crumble under pressure.
Farrell is ok but doesn't set the barn alight, he does seem to have calmed down a lot.
WG will have a few surprises, cant see the Lions beating the All Blacks
If everyone if fit, Lions 10 is far and away Sexton. He isn't fragile or rubbish under pressure but he does have his fair share of injuries and head knocks to contend with. If Sexton were to play then I can't see Farrell at 12 at all so it is 10 or nothing for him IMO (unless they were daft enough to play Ford!).
And if you pick Farrell at 12 you are missing out on better specialist 12s
Agreed but we don't have another suitable kicker. Ford's kicking isn't reliable enough.
I think Sexton is fragile and can crumble under pressure.
To be fair to him, he got back up after some dubious hits on Saturday and kicked well. I thought he took a fair old battering, most of it legal and no doubt a tactic from Jones, but a lot of it wasn't great either. Thank Christ the green machine won, there'd be no end of whinging otherwise.
For the lions that should not be an issue.
Player of the championship
apparently the 6n folk have done some clever number crunching and come up with this list of players. Who would you go for?
Louis Picamoles (France)
CJ Stander (Ireland)
Finn Russell (Scotland)
Camille Lopez (France)
Maro Itoje (England)
Owen Farrell (England)
Joe Launchbury (England)
Stuart Hogg (Scotland)
Conor Murray (Ireland)
Sergio Parisse (Italy)
Rhys Webb (Wales)
Ken Owens (Wales)
I'd go for Hogg or Webb coin toss between them
http://www.rbs6nations.com/RBSPlayerOfTheChampionship#YMGVRiEXgHDfYqY7.97
Dunbar or Hamish Watson obviously 🙂
Or Hogg, Launchbury and Stander...probably Hogg.
Farrell.....oh yeah, absolutely ordinary player, no way is he one of the best kickers in the world and at the heart of pretty much all of an 18 game winning streak
6N 2017 kicking stats:
Sexton 100% Jackson 93% Lopez 92% Halfpenny 88% Russell 88% Laidlaw 83% Farrell 78%
[url= http://goalkickers.co.za/ ]goalkickers.co[/url] only have stats for the first 3 rounds (where they assign difficulty ratings) but had Farrell 12th out of 13!
He has no pace, no step, no power, no creativity and isn't a great tackler. He does run around looking tough but he only gets away with that 'coz his dad's proper hard.
So apart from his "world class kicking" what does he bring?
Owen Farrell is rubbish, that is why he is in pretty much every Lions selection that is in the papers and that is why Ian McGeechan said he was the player of the tournament. Obviously if you are narrow minded and think that Jamie Roberts was the epitome of what an Inside Centre should be, then maybe he isn't the best in the Six Nations, but if you realise that different types of players can excel in the same position then there is no question he is right up there.
Owen Farrell is rubbish
Couldn't agree more. 😉
Oh - you wrote more.....
I think Ma'a Nonu is the epitome of what an inside centre should be but, failing that, how about someone who can run AND pass?
I really don't get it. If Ford was a better kicker would Farrell still be at 12? If Farrell was England's best 10 why isn't he at 10?
Look if the only score available in rugby was a try and no kicking allowed would Farrell still be in everyone's team at 12? What does he bring to the centre position that makes him so invaluable?
He's not a bad passer and not a bad kicker - anything else?
