Thanks DoubleDee.

Only wanted to see the France game, as I missed that. Sounds like I didn’t miss much.

As for close games – Ireland v Wales was unbelievably one-sided! What happened to Wales? I know: Ireland.

yeah don’t get me wrong I’d have loved to have seen wales out maul and bore Ireland to death at the w/e. A win is a win afterall the other two games weren’t much of a spectacle though. The Ireland wales game at least had the sight of watching the champions being unceremoniously taken to the cleaners!

At a guess on bbc iPlayer?

Highlights would be quite enough 😉

True but even as a Welsh fan I did appreciate the apparent tactical superiority. It was well planned and smartly executed I felt.

Really? A lot of other people did to be fair..,,

To be fair, nobody has said “genius” regarding Ireland’s tactics (at least not in this thread AFAIK) and if they did, then it would be an overstatement by some stretch.

It was all very simple. Schmidt knew he had a superior fly half and a scrum half that’s an excellent tactical kicker (except when he kicks it to an AB with a minute left on the clock 😆 ). The plan was working, possibly even better than the green machine had expected. POM was lethal at the breakdown and Lydiate was gifting penalties. So they stuck with the plan. Moving it out beyond the half backs might have given us the cricket score we’d have loved, but North, Roberts, et al can run an intercept try in for seven points even on a bad day. D’Arcy and BOD while both still excellent in defence are not the game changers they were in attack. IMO, the choice was to sacrifice the high score for the lack of risk. Keeping ahead of Wales by a try and a bit was always enough on the day, 26-3 was a fair score given the dominance and tactics in the end.

Hook should have been brought on for the last twenty when it looked like the game was beyond Wales. Anything would have been better than what Priestland was doing.

Genius? Of course not. But enjoyable in its simplicity, yes. Schmidt out thought Gatland, but yesterday, there wasn’t much thinking from Gatland to out-think.

I didn’t say he was doing anything wrong a_a. He just wasn’t doing anything particularly well. And Sexton was doing everything better. Attributing blame to him for the loss is far too simplistic, and also FWIW, not something I said either. Hook was never going to be on the field from the start but certainly he’d have been worth a shot for the last quarter? I also don’t think Ireland planned on Wales not securing their own ball or being so useless at the breakdown. Who’d plan that in a 6N game? You appear to be attributing things to me that I haven’t said. Or maybe I’m misunderstanding your tone?

I’ll have to leave it to you to decide thm. Still, well done for leaving out the petty insult this time. 🙂

I think there’s still a little sand to wash out thm. I really have no idea what you’re on about this time – I assume we can expect some football tackling metaphors next? 🙂 It seems that any attempt to discuss or disagree with you is trolling now. I really can’t be indulging you on what is for the most part a civil thread.

DD you said “anything would have been better than what Priestland was doing” I asked what he did wrong and you tell me “I didnt say he was doing anything wrong”. Odd. What should he have been doing?

We’re clearly not going to change one another’s minds a_a. 🙂

I love the fact you hang off every word of mine Zokes.

In the inrests of sour grapes 😉 I have lifted these from another forum.

as you can see this is clearly illegal maul formation as the defence should have the opportunity to sack the lineout catcher..

I think Wales v France will be a good match.

Now that the dust – not much of that – has settled and we have had 2 games how do we now think the final table will look?

My tuppence worth

England – 8pts – win next 3 games

France – 8pts – win next 2 then lose to Ireland

Ireland – 8pts – lose to England and then win next 2

Wales – 4pts – lose next 2 then beat Scotland

Italy – 2pts – beat Scotland then lose next 2

Scotland – well you know how many! – Well you know what we will do!

As to the winner – England with 3 home games might just score more points than France and Ireland.

England at home to Ireland , France at home to Ireland

Engand are AWAY to Italy – my mistake – so probably not as easy a win?

The good thing is that the championship is still wide open. Four sides can still win. Still chances of an upset to two. And wales will come good at some stage – probably against us. No side looks dominant among the current top 4. Let’s hope Ireland v England is a high quality, hum-dinger.

You’re mistaking being grumpy with thinking you’re an odious character. Hopefully you will crawl back under your bridge soon. Until that happens I will try a little harder to ignore you and carry on with the friendly banter on this thread.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/sixnations/10627088/Six-Nations-2014-Scotland-should-be-told-to-shape-up-or-ship-out.html

I remember Ackford saying similar about Wales

Just read that, Christ what an agenda. It reminds me of the venom after the 1990 Grand Slam,and I suspect it is not unlinked to a certain vote this year. The Times one was a belter…”Scotland’s tourist indusrty makes 52 million from the 6N!” Err yes, so do England,Ireland and Wales, your point?