As a former prop, that brought a warm glow of pride seeing that young lad sell the dummy pass, effortlessly hand off the tackler and canter away to the line. Good to see Wales making progress -it was looking pretty grim for a while.
Lotta love for that try. They were ready for him when sieging the Irish line, but not expecting him on the wing! That show and go was class
LRZ has been quiet (most of the back line tbh) but at least this picture caption didn't go to waste
https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/videos/c20l32eny51o
Scotland playing stunning rugby.
Enjoying Benjamin Kaiser's colour coordinated gloves on commentary
Well this has been fun!!
Next weekend will be interesting.
Sat here at home on guardian.com hitting the refresh button. Six nations is that one time in the year when I wish I had a telly.
So let me get this straight.....ABE is on holiday next weekend? What a position to be in.
Bloody hell Scotland l I dared to hope but didn't that result coming. Haven't seen the whole match yet as I was at work but couldn't see any way Scotland would score 50 against France
Sat here at home on guardian.com hitting the refresh button. Six nations is that one time in the year when I wish I had a telly.
Pub?
Sat here at home on guardian.com hitting the refresh button. Six nations is that one time in the year when I wish I had a telly.
Use the phone/tablet/pc your typing on to use the iPlayer?
Been away from phone all afternoon so only just checked the scores and WTAF Scotland!
Nothing predictable about these 6 nations
Scotland were great. I also thought Wales did well against a good Irish performance last night. Still not sure England have discovered the levels of intensity that have been produced by Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Italy and France - but at least they've replaced GF at 10. May be kicking the ball up in the air doesn't work against a good team.............as Scotland did hold onto the ball.
Woohoo. Great game by Italy
Forza!
Wow. Incredible games this weekend.
Massive respect to Scotland and Italy.
Wow! What a weekend of rugby?
Wales managed to make a proper game of it. Champagne Whisky & Haggis rugby in Murrayfield. Roman grit and a never give up attitude give Italy a very well deserved victory.
Borthwick to the dole queue ? (after the last game against France)
Watching Baldwick's post match interview it's no surprise England players have no clue what's going on. Almost complete gibberish. I am disappoint ?!? What? I know there's the dour Yorkshireman cliche (and no offence to the Yorkshiremen on here), but heck. Even Gatland had more going on in his last 6N.
Yep just watched that post match interview with Borthwick - seems not to understand -its not the fact the lost - its the manner in which they lost. There are no signs of hope at the moment. Wales has hope, some decent players coming through, Scots did really well , Irish have recovered and Italy have improved - England have stayed the same - one tactic - kick the ball up in the air - given the resources they have, its pretty poor.
Stringiamci a coorte!
Siam pronti alla morte.
Siam pronti alla morte,
L'Italia chiamò. Sì!
England to beat France.
Wales & Italy - who knows
And Scotland blow it in Dublin gifting the Irish a 6N
What do you reckon?
IMHO
France beat England
Italy beat Wales
Ireland sadly beat Scotland
Everyone except Italy ends up feeling disappointed to greater or lesser extent
England to beat France
Are you expecting France to bring out their under 16's? This England side would need a small miracle for that to happen. I say that as an England-er.
Are you expecting France to bring out their under 16's? This England side would need a small miracle for that to happen. I say that as an England-er.
I’m Scots. I believe in you.
Absolutely tremendous day in Edinburgh yesterday, it felt like all of France was there. A total privilege to be at a game like that and see rugby of that calibre.
That was class from whichever forward got that pass away out the back
Bench made a difference in the end. Another triple crown.
Well, I don't think Scotland were out of the game until the 76th minute. But also they were somehow never really in it. Just inches off everywhere, it felt like.
Congratulations, Ireland.
Pretty much agree with @BruceWee. Ireland appeared to have the edge over the Scottish forwards and that gave them control. Scotland were always chasing the game. Passes that stuck last week did nt this week. We played well and lost to the better team
Maintenant Allez les Bleu
Great game. No shame in losing that for Scotland.
Come on Wales surely you cannot lose again!!
Wales are improving great to hear the crowd singing once again
Well played the Irish forwards today, made the difference
Well done lamoro, first words "credit to Wales", unlike itoje last week who didn't even recognize italy were playing.
C'mon England. That was hard.
Maybe it's just me, but I find the ITV commentary so hard to listen to....compared to Andrew Cotter etc on the BBC earlier, it's just awful.
Why do they have 2 English commentators and no one else? (or is it 3....can't tell them apart)
Also... Pale blue and white are hard to distinguish!
OK, genuine question. Are all the northern hemisphere teams really good or really bad?
From this France England game (and every other game this tournament) I really have no idea.
OK, genuine question. Are all the northern hemisphere teams really good or really bad?
From this France England game (and every other game this tournament) I really have no idea.
really inconsistent!
Why the f@ did he kick it !!?!
At least they played better
Well played England. Where has that team been all championship? So does that performance save Baldrick's job .....and would that be a good outcome for England rugby going into a world cup....
Wales finally putting it together, need to put some fitness work in over the summer....Tandy seems like a good man for where they are.
Scotland didn't get out of Ireland's defensive squeeze
Maybe it's just me, but I find the ITV commentary so hard to listen to....compared to Andrew Cotter etc on the BBC earlier, it's just awful.
Why do they have 2 English commentators and no one else? (or is it 3....can't tell them apart)Also... Pale blue and white are hard to distinguish!
Agreed about the commentary. So one sided.
England below Italy in the table.
Is it just me wondering why the "high tackle" that ultimately decided the 6N has not been shown again?
Seems very odd. Anyway, well done England... Should have been your game. Very entertaining.
Is it just me wondering why the "high tackle" that ultimately decided the 6N has not been shown again?
Seems very odd. Anyway, well done England... Should have been your game. Very entertaining.
except they took it on the spot of the deliberate slap down.
Oh and well done borthwick getting the congratulations in.
Is it just me wondering why the "high tackle" that ultimately decided the 6N has not been shown again?
Literally all of English rugby reddit, xitter, Bluesky, and every other online outlet is screaming about that at this very minute.
Personally I'm still wondering why the off-ball tackle on LBB for his last try didn't result in a yellow card for Van Poortvliet...
That was a fantastic game of rugby, certainly the game of the cup. No idea where England have been the rest of the time, that was more the England we are use to seeing. Don’t mind losing in a game like that.
I’m wondering how France collapsed 3 driving mauls without a card, England first one yellow card and pen try. England scored from the second collapse but he should have carded such a deliberate collapse.
Ramos is unreal though……
except they took it on the spot of the deliberate slap down.
Ahh, there was so much french "attitude" going on I lost track!
England must have played better than I thought they would have. Could nt watch the match as there was no live stream available where I live
Literally all of English rugby reddit, xitter, Bluesky, and every other online outlet is screaming about that at this very minute.
Even the BBC report questions it's absence!
OK, genuine question. Are all the northern hemisphere teams really good
No, Wales are still rubbish, which is a step up from awful but they have a long way to go to be good
Personally I'm still wondering why the off-ball tackle on LBB for his last try didn't result in a yellow card
My 2p, the ref looked at it, but someone running fast enough to catch LBB has very little time to make the call, he made contact with him, he shouldn't have, he didn't make enough contact to stop him getting back up and getting the try. Had the contact been more significant it probably would have been different.
All the games yesterday were good to watch, Fra Eng definitely the match of the day. England had a good game, far too late in the competition, they also need to improve their discipline although the collapse of the mail was a harsh decision as mentioned above.
Don't agree maul, collapse was correct. He wasn't even subtle about it. It was a deliberate take down of the player he was in contact with
The JvP tackle, I think would have been a yellow and penalty try if LBB hadn't scored. There had been a penalty against italy earlier in the day for almost the same thing.
Even the BBC report questions it's absence!
That doesn't surprise me.
At that point England had had two penalties awarded against them and there was a lot of confusion as to exactly where the two infringements had occurred with DuPont and Ramos looking very annoyed at the lack of clarity. You also had Itoje injecting himself into the 'discussion' and looking like it was going to erupt in handbags or perhaps some proper fighting.
So, I assume the indignation comes from the fact that the 'high tackle' wasn't getting re-shown on loop so the ref could see the error of his ways and reverse one of the penalties (remember, there were two penalties at that point).
I don't think that the high tackle occurred in the tackle immediately prior to the ref holding up his arm. I suspect it came from either one of the ARs of the TMO for a previous play. But maybe it was. Maybe what exactly happened will be clarified on the next few days
As to why there weren't replays, I don't think it's a conspiracy by French TV. I think they weren't sure exactly where the two penalties occurred and there were some pretty interesting things going on as DuPont, the ref, and Itoje were trying to figure out where to put the ball.
One of the things I've come to peace with in rugby is that you are not always going to agree with referee decisions. One of the reasons I don't go on the Glasgow Warriors forum anymore is because it is an echo chamber of referee complaints after every match. Every fan has their own interpretation of the rules and every call is obvious.
Anyway, I'm sure if it does turn out to be an egregious mistake that cost the game then we won't be seeing much of Nika Amashukeli for a while. This is England we're talking about, after all.
By the way, Ireland's 3rd try, 100% a forward pass and without it Scotland would have won the game 😉
Actually, I just watched that part of the match again (2:22:30 on the ITV replay) and Amashukeli says, 'You've got a deliberate knock on there and you've got a high tackle there' and he points behind him, away from where he first raised his arm.
So it looks to me like the penalty that was taken was not for the high tackle but for deliberate knock on (which occured at 80:22 on the match clock). The high tackle happened in the mid-field and was most likely flagged by the TMO or ARs (I think it was on Moefana at around 2:21:30 on the ITV replay, 79:22 on the match clock).
Maybe the BBC should re-watch the relevant section of the match before they start fueling anti-England conspiracy theories.
I wonder if Pollock is still shushing the crowd? He lost the game with that stupid offload...much to learn you have young one
Why do they have 2 English commentators and no one else?
Oh yes, I turn off the commentary when it's on ITV. We went to a sporting awards dinner around 10 years ago, Nick Mullins was one of the Speakers. He loves himself. All the other Speakers gave a witty/funny story about something they had done, NM just spoke about himself and how he'd fell into his big break when he commentated on SA vs Japan in the World Cup.
Bruce totally agree despite me posting about decisions, but my point is that it is too easy to be one eyed.
Not watched the Scotland game but really wanted them to win and for England to them a favour.
Be great for the tournament, they have some special players, Townsend seems a decent bloke, Finn is a breath of fresh air in the game, I like the style of rugby they can play, and about time they bloody won!
Not sure I could be a Scotland fan though, they keep giving you so much hope….
At least supporting England we know where we stand….