Yeah it was the crim 11 that looks like a 118 118 fella…him and Hooper do look similar though!

As for England….very encouraging really-missing a few key players and still made as good a game of it as just about anyone else this year.

Backs are pretty dire though. No confidence in Dickson, Farrell isn’t a 10 and the rest bar Brown may as well not be playing.

Little over 6 months ago Brown was as bad as anyone in world rugby….fast forward to now, play him in his proper position and he’s been player of the Autumn. It’d be lovely to have two out and out wingers on the pitch at some point in the future!!

At this rate Wales will have the Gavin Henson and Scott Gibbs centre partnership v Aus.

Just watched the England game and although we lost we did well. Should be a good team when the “a” backs and front row play. 🙂

Barrit an tuilagi with Yarde and Wade could be formidable or at least enough. Ashton and what’s-his-name at 13 need to go. Brown cemented his place with Foden on the bench for me in that team.

I think we could easily win the 6n based on that performance and without Ashton.

Yeah how the **** Ashton ended up as the last defender 20 meters in from touch after 30 seconds is frankly baffling!

Ducks I think Hartley got his bell rung making a tackle.

Yes, he said it.

Hartley knocked himself out on McCaws hip during a tackle and couldn’t walk straight. It’s a shame because Tom Youngs ineffective throwing in really helped us lose possession we so vitally needed at that point.

Robshaw will be nursing a shiner this morning – ouch!

Yeah Hartley couldn’t walk straight! Great turnaround of fortunes for Hartley this Autumn. …back as number one choice for me. Robshaw’s eye will look pretty horrific today I’d guess!

I didnt think it was intentional either, but how can you judge it clearly anway, I guess I just default to benefit of the doubt.
Interesting thoughts on warbs, I imagine his red stole a lot of his head space after so I can see what you mean about getting the technique right.

Wales looked good yesterday. To look completely in control despite so many errors and missed tackles (25% tackles were missed in the first 20 minutes!) is reassuring and quite un-Welsh. The defense wasn’t really up to the usual standard and Argentina made some easy yards but they looked far, far better in attack. I’m certainly not a Biggar fan but he did seem to get the backs flowing far better. The lesser experienced players didn’t look out of place either and did very well (besides Lee!). Tipuric and Warburton looked like a good combo and Tips gives you that extra link between the forwards and backs- a bit like having another centre at times. Good to see Halfpenny used in attack and that really seemed to help get outside the Argentina defense. Faletau was awesome too.

I think this difference with Wales with Biggar playing as he did also goes to show what England could be with a 10 with decent distribution. Farrel might be defensively strong and a reasonable goal kicker but he’s like the spikey Mike equivalent distubution-wise of fly halves 😀 (OK so Phillips has been playing pretty well recently but you get the point).

Why was Farrel replaced so early? Things seemed to go downhill with the him and Dickson replaced, not to mention the chubby centre’s throwing. As other have said the forwards must be distraught all their hard work is in vein as soon as the backs got their hands on the ball. I don’t think the forwards as a unit can be criticized and were pretty awesome. What NZ did very well especially early on is use the desire of the English players to smash NZ out of the park in tackles to draw players out, ride a bit hit and put others in space. Using England’s individual over-enthusiasm early on was pretty clever and shows why NZ are where they are in world rugby.

Only saw the first half of Ireland but it looked a mess 😀 Lots of individuals, hardly any cohesion in the forwards and the ball thrown out to the backs early and left to fend for themselves- you can’t expect Bowe or Kearney to smash through a pair of locks on a regular basis. Bit weird given so many individuals with such potential (or reputations I guess). The positive for Ireland is this now means they will win the 6 Nations following the successful Wales model- “Poor in November, a 6 Nations to remember” 😀

Can the scots keep S.A. to below 50 points today? I think about 47-15 to the boks

Regarding Lawes size, I was surprised to see that the stats showed that Launchbury is heavier!
I hear that Lawes brother is coming along well, and even bigger than he was at that age(!)
I can’t give Foden too much shit, he’s being played out of position and outside of a pair of centres who struggled all game.

Probably? You appear to have access to footage or rules to which the ref, touch judge, TMO and our resident level 5 referee don’t? None of them appear to say “probably”. Intent to be dirty means nothing. You tip a player over drop him on his head (though, fortunately for O’Mahony he didn’t come down on his head in this case.) One can talk about intent all one wants. It’s a fruitless discussion as in this case, it doesn’t matter.

True it is a fruitless discussion as none of us can influence any outcomes but the consistency of the application of the laws of the game must be as frustrating for the players as it is us fans.

As a_a says, it isn’t so much any injustice (or not) on a single incident but the fact so many other similar incidents get very different outcomes. In the Wales game North I think it was completely upended someone, legs up in the air, down on the head and neck yet no-one even so much as mentioned it. Common sense would say there was nothing in it but the law doesn’t say so.

On other law related stuff, Phillips put the ball to the second row in half the scrums as did SA last week yet this is supposed to be one of the big crackdowns. I think Phillips only got pinged for it once.

I felt sorry for the Argentina forward who tackled Phillips when he had his hands on the ball and gave away a penalty for offside. Phillips did have his hands on the ball, the replays showed this and the Argentina player said this. The referees reply wasn’t to ignore it or march Argentina back 10 for back chat, instead he said something along the lines of “I don’t care if he had his hands on the ball, I don’t want you taking any chances, don’t come round in future”… basically giving Phillips as much time to fanny around as he likes in the future. It would be nice to see some of the referees less involved as personalities but more as enforcers of the law.

In Wales news: Cory Allen looks to have dislocated his shoulder and Scott Williams has foot or toe ligament damage. Henson’s phone will be ringing soon 😆

Carter also looks to have aggravated his long standing Achilles injury which can’t be good

Again I agree DD, so let’s stop debating any incident and rule infringement in future. You are as correct to “ping” me for the completely wrong use of the word probably earlier, as the ref is to ignore the word of the law at nearly every scrum or kick in open play.

At least you can (correctly) claim the moral high ground (unlike the myopic ref who picks and chooses 😉 )

Oh bugger off you big Wendy!! 😀

Edit: that one at thm.

The habit of refs referring it to the video ref, watching the big screen and then telling the video ref what to say really pisses me off.
Lacey’s yellow card on Tips was harsh imo.

If Allan and Williams are broken, christ knows Hook and Beck?… ****….that Roberts Davies Williams and Allen. If Eli is fit we may see North at 13.

Unusual to see Andy Nicoll being so upbeat about Scotland’s last performance 😉 My highlight to the rugby weekend starts now….makes someone else (cough) look totally unbiased in his views!!!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=POr1EiXjLiA

Indeed – 2:17 in that video for those who can’t be bothered to watch the rest – had Charteris not been there it would quite clearly have been a red card offence.

Dusty in here to a_a. What a bloke!!