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Respectfully, can we just cut all of this stuff out please? No more sweaty taff saes bollocks. It's a bit tedious now.
Even unopposed I wouldn't bet against the England backs butchering most of their chances.......
And Jack 'Butter Fingers' Nowell knock on loads of ball or falling over a blade of grass that is marginally too long.
Third place is probably fair (at best) for a team that have got worse as it's gone on.
saes bollocks
S****..
Ducks, you read too much into random posts! Getting sweaty is standard office parlance for getting nervous/worried. As you say no " ", so should not be misread.
ffs, can't be bothered.
England fans favourite ref retires http://www.sanzarrugby.com/superrugb...re-from-rugby/
Who; 404 not found? 😆
Anyone else out on a Leo Sayer tomorrow?
I do enjoy super saturday, we have made it a tradition to go out on an all day piss up. The problem will be on sunday when I will be expected to carry out normal parenting duties....
Yep, looking forward to it. Game fair in the morning then off to a lovely pub in the middle of nowhere to eat possibly the best burger I've ever had and drink beer until I fall over. Sunday may hurt. A lot.
Long off-piste ride in FoD tomorrow morning followed by an afternoon/evening of rugby and cider. Now that's what I call a Super Saturday 😀
England fans favourite ref retires
Hope he enjoys the extra time he will have to spend with his mirrors.
I wonder what the real story is for the abrupt departure?
My heart strings have been wrenched. I was just offered a spare place in a suite at Twickers on Saturday, with free entry, lunch, snacks, bar and other corporate entertainment.
I turned it down so I could sit on the sofa with my son and watch it as I'm away from work all week and haven't seen the kids.
Sigh.
Walsh? (link problems for me)
I turned it down so I could sit on the sofa with my son and watch it as I'm away from work all week and haven't seen the kids.
Made the right choice.
I wonder what the real story is for the abrupt departure?
Reckon it's the old drinkydrinks?
I reckon someone recorded him admitting he used to fix England games and was asked to go gracefully or face the music 😀
Walsh? (link problems for me)
Me too - its Walsh isn't it?
http://www.supersport.com/rugby/international/news/150320/Steve_Walsh_retires_from_rugby
[i]"The Australian Rugby Union today announced international referee Steve Walsh has retired from all forms of match officiating with immediate effect to pursue business interests outside of rugby"[/i]
That's similar to the email my company might circulate when someone's been fired.
So what did he do to get fired by the NZRFU?
3 strikes - foul language with Dave Reddin and Shane Horgan on the pitch, then he rocked up drunk somewhere.
Tut tut.
Hmmm, he was replaced by Butcher Barnes at very short notice before Wales v Ireland.
Yeah. He's done something stupid and been showed the door. He's been a career ref since the age of sixteen, it'd by unusual to stop at all forms, - although maybe not, innocent until proven guilty...
I like Walsh good ref.
He's bloody good at spotting forward passes. 😀
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In glencoe, so better thing to do than all dayer watching Scotland get pasted then the English make up reasons why they lost the 6n, see above ref for example.
I'll miss Walsh TBH. Even though England always seemed to be on the wrong side of him.
"But one thing stuck out beyond all others. Well though the three of them (Irish back row) played, they were no match for Steve Walsh. The tan, the arms, the demeanour, the chatty style, the mad new TMO rules he invented on the spot. It’s Walsh’s world, the rest of us just live in it."
Raises some good points this. Barnes certainly was more relaxed with the welsh players, they didnt berate him like the irish did. It was sumilar when Walsh reffed the wales england 30-3 game. Wales seem good at being respectful to refs and it gets them onside. England and ireland seem to pressure refs more.
Yeah, plenty of video analysis out there showing Barnes making [i]what looked like[/i] poor decisions, but I certainly wasn't going to post them. 🙂 I think Ireland suffered a little having had him ref them against France - perhaps he'd had enough of them whinging at him. They didn't adjust properly to his decisions in the first half, overreacted if anything - and seemed to stop contesting the ruck as much as they had been previously. Having said that, they should have turned possession and pressure into points and they didn't. Despite having some bizarre decisions against them towards the end of the game, (EDIT: and Sexton having sent his evil twin to play) they were still only a score behind at full time. Disappointing, yes. End of the world, nah. Sour grapes, certainly not. 🙂
think Ireland suffered a little having had him ref them against France - perhaps he'd had enough of them whinging at him. They didn't adjust properly to his decisions in the first half, overreacted if anything - and seemed to stop contesting the ruck as much as they had been previously.
Not sure, I thought he was pretty fair and consistent. Warburtons yellow seemed harsh as Ireland had been pinged a lot already. What was odd was that both teams were not getting what their analysts and coaches had prepated them for. The difference was that Wales adapted quickly, rolled away more and didnt contest defensive rucks much. Ireland got stroppy and didnt adapt as quickly. Right from the fist play you can see SOB getting frustrated and beratting the ref. Same as in the play with the Davies hand off. Compare that to Warburton who still managed to ask a polite question when getting his yellow card.
Well that settles it then. Bonus points for politeness. 🙂
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IEuXfewLcuY
Have a look at this. Too much to discuss, but the intial one sexto jumps into the ruck in contact with no one but in all the others players go off their feet in contact. A clear difference between the two. But check out the irish player not getting the ref on side.
On a phone at work now, so can't check out links I'm afraid. I'm sure it shows an Ireland player not playing the ref properly as you say. And as I said, we either need to deduct points for whinging or award bonuses for politeness. That would get rid of this sort of thing.
So any brave predictions for the consolation prize of top of the table by end of play today?
England for me, Wales second after a 30+ victory against Italy with Ireland scraping third after either a tense 2 or 3 point victory or a performance to mirror the Choker in Croker. 🙂
Irelands to lose. 2 pts diff and playing the bottom team. Should have it sewn up.
Wales and england? Gawd knows.
Irelands to lose.
🙂
Hence my pessimistic outlook.
sorry for the kiss of death!
They should do it though. Their backs will be up after the beating from the Welsh too.
Ireland to win the championship, Wales second and England relegated to third after losing to France by 5. Kryton to bang head on wall after listening to Lamcaster talking about "taking the positives away from the game and into the World Cup".
Italy 10 Wales 32
Scotland 12 Ireland 26
England 23 France 9
All the bookies have England as clear favourites for the title.
It makes sense as they have -
the points on the board,
the home game,
and the last fixture of the day.
So at least in the bookies' eyes, it's England's to lose really.
For me though, Wales look to be the bet of the day. Were still available at 8/1 for the title last night. And IMO, there's no way they're that far off the other two's chances, they could easily put a cricket score on a poor Italy side who consistently finish badly.
Funny that so many English seem to want or need to cling to a false underdogs tag. Interesting mindset for a home World Cup year, IMO.
For years, it was Ireland that always needed to be underdogs to play their best stuff. Quite happy that they now seem to be learning to cope with the expectation of being a top team.
Didn't work out last week against a very good Wales performance, but they'll move on and try to execute the skills a little more accurately against a good Scottish side this week.
Funny that so many English seem to want or need to cling to a false underdogs tag. Interesting mindset for a home World Cup year, IMO.
Or trying not to be arrogant as some like to accuse them of?
True, I agree.
There's a fine line between confidence and arrogance.
Not sure they're comfortable with it.
You have to believe you can win the WC - I assume NZ, AUS, SA, ENG, FRA, WAL, IRE all do. How you say publicly that you have that belief without appearing arrogant I'm not sure, especially when its England 🙂