Plus love the photo of AWJ sat in the almost empty stadium while the rest of the team party drinking in the achievement.
Ps, I think I might have a wee man crush...
AWJ looked like an excellent player the first time he turned out for Swansea RFC, about 14 years ago. He captained them before the end of that season, iirc?
My sister worked for his father. Small town! I have seen him hobble out of Morrison’s* on crutches, glaring at everyone. He’s a big man. 😂
*Morrisons next to the Liberty Stadium. I have chosen cold/flu medicine next to Paul Thorburn in the Boots there. Had coffee in the Starbucks sitting at a table alongside a handful of Welsh players. I have held the door of Starbucks open for Paul Moriarty and got glared at for thanks. If you want to stalk Welsh stars, that retail park is the place to go. 😁
I once went to a 2 day conference at the vale hotel - I was walking round star struck for 2 days. It was the start of an autumn campaign and the press were in etc. As a Welshman it was nuts.
The blues have breakfast in the hotel restaurant- queuing up for breakfast I must have been the only person not having 6 poached eggs and beans!
Gussets team of the tournament on Beeb is comedy!! Did England win the Grandslam?
Its better than the Guardian one! that has Farrell at 10!
I think you need to be a little be fair here. There was plenty of skill from Scotland, but also luck of the draw. A couple of balls bounced the wrong way, 3 England players vs a Scottish 12 and they did actually make a tackle we'd all be in a different place. That near loss was a combo of some good Scottish play, poor English play but also some luck.
IMO - both Wales and Scotland saw this coming - they weathered the storm in H1 - Scotland less successfully and Wales as a part of their more complete game strategy - knowing to attack England in H2. This is going to re-occur in the RWC - everyone's aware of their H2 collapses.
Yes, England were shocking to let that go and are rightly being torn a new one over it. Apparently though Eddie has a secret weapon, who (she) can fix things so lets see who he enrols next and if it works. I'm prepared for a disappointing autumn TBH - the last time Englands tactics were exposed was a year long run of losses, because as has been widely reported, they don't have a Plan B.
An important part of the analysis of Wales doing so well has been under-reported IMHO. I went to two games this 6N, England and the Ireland matches.
Since 2004 I've never seen Wales lose a match when I've been at them, so whilst I was at the Principality I dropped my CV off for Pivac as I reckon the success is mostly due to me.
(I was too nervous to mention this before Sunday as it would have cursed Wales. Family and friends currently crowdfunding a trip to Japan and approaching WRU for a grant)
It's a well known fact that luck is an important factor in all Scotland games. Scotland are bad at rugby on a genetic level, you see.
England, on the other hand, are the result of a thousand years of eugenics to make them the ultimate rugby playing machine. England only lose games for one of two reasons. The first is that the gods are angry. On Saturday they were showing their displeasure at the governments handling of Brexit. Hence, all the balls bouncing conveniently towards Scottish hands.
The only other reason that England can lose is that rugby is wrong. Whenever this happens the rules must be changed.
I’m prepared for a disappointing autumn TBH
Many of us are hoping that England have a disappointing autumn. 🙂
Nice work by Anscombe Grand Slamming shitehouse 10. Shapes to kick to the corner which keeps Kearney wide and then dinks it over the top.
Copy cat. Thats a Finn trademarked move!
Which means we can claim that try and choose to use it in the Calcutta Cup retrospectively.
Still he wouldnt get in the Glasgow team ahead of Hastings!!
G love and the Scottish hype train. dunno if you guys have seen this but he has done one after most games for the last couple of years. https://twitter.com/GLove39/status/1107619006469599232
That is a funny video, to be fair.
I listened to the Wales Ireland match on the radio, and ^^^^^ was the first time I have seen the Parkes try - much better than it was described by the commentators.
Got to love a bit of g-love!
Bruce;Don’t you realise it is down to luck that we took the lead? Apparently, mentioning it twice makes it so...🤔 But then Wales also won the GS because Ireland were crap.
No we won because the Ireland team was leaked.
www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/joe-schmidt-blames-irelands-defeat-15990014
G love and the Scottish hype train.
Indeed. Even an Englishman has to laugh at the latest one.
Unless you're Danny Care, obviously.......... (Because you're a total prick.)
#Squidge report on the Calcutta cup
I had a conversation with someone about the Ospreys earlier. A long chat about why there is any discussion of them merging with anybody else, but some interesting points came out regarding funding..
Last June they were told that their funding from the WRU would be reduced by £500,000. Later that month the funding was reduced by another £400,000. Later in the summer they were told that the WRU would not be able to pay their portion of salary towards centrally contracted players.
They will be releasing around 12 players at the end of the season, partly because of an oversized squad, partly because of the quality of some of those players. There are in the process of signing 8, 9, 10 and 15 from overseas. No names were given, but none of those players is called Rhys!
Just wanted to thank idlejon for bringing the topic of conversation back to club teams.
Glad to be done with all that international bollox, worst six Nations ever. Glad that's all done and dusted.
Pro 14 looks interesting from here on in.
And Heineken cup too , for most of us.
😉
Also we'll played Wales, best team won.
Just wanted to thank idlejon for bringing the topic of conversation back to club teams.
What are these "club teams" you speak of?
When does the world cup start?
When does the world cup start?
When does the World Cup start, the one that Wales are going to win, you mean? The power of positive thinking! (Scotland should win everything on the basis of TJ’s positive thinking alone! 😂 )
I wasn't very positive in the 6N 🙁 Back to Private Fraser mode I was
Euro cup - well next weekend I have tickets for the 1/4 final at Murryfield. Munster - certainly a winnable tie. Edinburgh are looking at the biggest turnout for one of their games ever Over 30 000 seats sold now. Glasgow get Sarries which is a much more difficult proposition but their recent form has dipped a bit and I am sure the Glasgow boys will get in Farrells head as much as possible. Ryan Wilsons is already getting ready with his windups I am sure.
Pro 14 run in? I think Edinburgh will not make a euro cup place for next year nor the playoff. Glasgow should do both.
When does the World Cup start, the one that Wales are going to win, you mean?
.....no.
Munster – certainly a winnable tie.
PoPT! 😀
????????
Edinburgh have beaten better teams than Munster both home and away and this is at home with a big crowd ( we won't mention the losses to smaller teams)
Really good game at Kingsholm today, rugby is so much less stressful when you are a neutral 😂
Still don’t know why Charley Sharples hasn’t won more caps, he came on and really changed the game.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1109493400015900672
One doesnt push Loopy and expect nothing to happen!!
Not sure how the ref thought Care started it but couldnt give the try, seems like Care started it so both binned, fair enough but try stands. He said to couldnt give pen advantage retrospectively but he gave Saracens a pen.
If the ref had seen the foul play he would have stopped the game.
I can see the logic.
Good old Loopy. A real fun guy.:-) We should get him, Farrell and our new entrant into the bampot club Darcy Graham into a room to sort it out who is really the tough guy
Care does give Williams a big shove to put him out of the way of the side of the ruck. But Williams overreacts, both yellow fair enough.
both yellow fair enough.
Yeah I agree, just think it was odd to disallow the try but give Saracens a pen. Harlequims got the better of it despite being the ones pinged, makes no sense. Obviously an anglo-irish pact against the victorious Welsh!
What I love about Loopy is we all played with a kid like him who was skinny, but played with a complete disregard to his well being and the laws of physics. You would line them up and smash them and they'd jump up and run off leaving you on the floor!
Good win for Glaws against a full strength Wasps which hopefully just about secures a top 6 at least. They have taken some big scalps this season and with less of the frustrating slip ups.
If I had to select a team to play for my life Loopy would be one in it. I very much rate him as a player and even tho he is a bit "tempestuous" I don't see him as a dirty player.
Another fan of Liam Williams here!
I'll be honest I thought both were unlucky to be carded.....just a bit of handbags, given that no one is throwing a punch nowadays it still keeps that confrontational edge that makes the game what it is.
Anybody seen the incident the Newcastle lock is cited for? Opo player has both arms locked over his face and is clearly applying leverage. All he had to do was open his mouth and the Sale prop would put the mark on his own arm.
It's the Sale hooker, Rob Webber. I can't find a vid Duckman. Lots of discussion about it on the sale forum etc
From what I've read it's pretty hard to.see what was going on, I guess that it could depend what marks the ref saw and described in his report?
All the lock had to do was open his mouth and Webber did the rest. They interviewed Diamond during the game and he was fuming, I assume the Sale chat rooms are full of the same? To be honest as a neutral, it was one of "those ones." It isn't as the lock felt peckish in between scrums, Webber had a fairly large part to play in the incident; and remember how dodgy it is to put hands near face these days.
Sale chat was mainly full of abuse for Craig Maxwell-Keys.....I didn't watch the game but was listening to commentary as I was driving..... didn't get mentioned at all on the radio, but I'm not sure that they had a feed to the ref mic.
Wasn't there a similar incident last season with an alleged bite on an arm? Was it a Wales player bitten actually?
edit
I suspect he will be convicted, because he is the only person who could have done it. Looking at the bite in isolation seems unfair as sharking has a fair old ban.
I see Eddie Jones is being a dick again.
Blokes a dick, I'll be glad when he's gone.
Schmidt, Gats, Baxter, McCall, Cullen are the favourites in my mind for the job. Sadly, I think it might be a case of whom they can get to do it, rather than the best man for the job, it doesn't seem to hold quite the prestige that it once did.
