Sarries Munster didn’t look / sound great other than a big brawl.

The most disappointing big brawl ever.

Looks like Scarlets will be without Mooar as he’s off to coach some bunch of loser called the all blacks or something.

Sarries Munster didn’t look / sound great other than a big brawl.

The most disappointing big brawl ever.

Alex Sanderson’s description of why it happened was more entertaining than the push-shove.

Connacht V Gloucester was very good, especially the last 15 mins. that Welsh kid on the wing for Glaws looks pretty special

that Welsh kid on the wing for Glaws looks pretty special

Rees Zammit, not seen much of him but hearing good things.

https://mobile.twitter.com/gloucesterrugby/status/1113035589358706689?lang=en

Ioan Lloyd for Bristol seems to be showing a lot of promise too.

Good win for Exeter today.

Bath are getting absolutely hosed by Clermont who have scored 40 points in the first half! Ouch. Hooper is so far out of his depth.

Away from the current games – just watched Doddie Weir on SPOTY – what an inspiration. Got a little dusty in my house….

Big men do cry!

Edinburgh / Glasgow this afternoon. Time for the ritual slaughter of the great unwashed.

Whats the betting on at least two back row yellow cards in a niggly game. Ryan Wilson to be involved in at lest one “discussion” with his opposite number.

Shirt & boots ready, just waiting for mates to turn up for what I suspect will be a muddy five mile walk to a country pub to watch the chiefs game.

Shirt & boots ready, just waiting for mates to turn up for what I suspect will be a muddy five mile walk to a country pub to watch the chiefs game.

Cracking game and great result for Chiefs. Not looking quite so good for Tigers having seen how Sarries played.

Yep top of the prem & all is good, seven pints of Guinness & a pizza makes for a good night’s sleep !

Soapdodgers won. Five yellow cards. We will smash them on the return leg which I have tickets for

Amazingly the Dragons managed to beat someone. Again. Did The Dragons Lose? on twitter actually has a few “no” tweets for a change.

At this time of year, it’s important to think of those less fortunate than you who may be suffering.

Ospreys fans.

Urgh.

Jesus the Ospreys were poor, watching Jake Ball outpace James Hook was a lowlight, although he did get a good tap tackle in as the lock raced away!!

And the mighty Edinburgh put the great unwashed in their place. Cracker of a game with the lead changing several times but the right team won!

Louis Rees God Dammit scores a hatrick, Biggar gets injured and Faletau makes comeback.

Rhys Webb eligible for Wales in six nations due to something or other, shame he couldnt have gone to world cup. Not sure how he’s playing but he’s got to be better than Aled Davies. Tomos Williams should be first choice 9 though going forward and Gareth Davies for all his flaws is decent.

Jonny Gray to Chiefs. Hope he’s worth it.

I think you will find just how good he is. A limited player in some ways but his tackling and ruck support play is sensational and he is a fantastic athlete in that he is an 80 min every week player. He is always the top tackler and hardly ever misses. 23 no misses last week – top tackler on either side. IIRC he made 48 tackjles against munster! 48!

I think its actually a very good move for both. I think he has stagnated a little playing for Glasgow the last year and he will develop further playing for Baxter and I think he will shine in the premiership.

Moving to Exeter has been a good move for Hogg

A big loss for Glasgow mind you – but we are getting big Naka back

48 tackles against players as big as munsters,i’m in pain just thinking about it.

I checked – its was 43 against Leinster!

Another loss for Ospreys!!!
North makes comeback scores and gets injured!!

Are the Ospreys the worst region in Wales now?

(happy to pop that in the post to you from Newport 😉 )

Looking at the tables the worst team in the league! Getting good value for the £600 000 AWJ is being paid!

Wru paying 60% of awj’s salary though. He only really costs Ospreys £240k pa. wru pay the rest.

Good to see the dragons on the up.

Gray will suit Exeter’s style for sure.

Good to see the dragons on the up.

Yep, they have some good players at present. Ospreys desperately need a half competent coaching team.

Sarries to trim their squad by the looks of, starting ASAP too. Williams is off with reports that the old boys like Goode, Wigglesworth etc are to get the chop. Apparently Kruis is heading to Japan, which puts an end to his international career. There’s talk of pay cuts too.

So it looks like despite them stating that they were magically complying with the cap this season despite adding Daly, Singleton etc now they’ve got to prove it, they need to trim. No surprises there.

Enjoyed the Wasps Saints game at the weekend. Dai must be furious to have lost to a 13 man team in the last few minutes.

correction: 12 + Naiyaravoro = 15

Wru paying 60% of awj’s salary though. He only really costs Ospreys £240k pa. wru pay the rest.

its still £600 000 pa from the fixed amount of money available for players

I really think this is a part of the welsh teams issues. too much money spent on keeping the stars in Wales meaning not enough money for squad depth. the welsh team (in total including the different ways of funding players) have similar budgets to the scots teams. The Scots teams however do not overpay for stars hence a great squad depth so do better over a season.. Hogg was apparently the top paid scots player on £300 000 pa. My guess is J. Gray and a few others of our top players have been on similar amounts.

~For one AWJ playing 10 games a season max for his team you could have 2 or 3 decent players each playing 20 club games a season. sure individually not as good players – ( think J. Gray, Toolis and Gilcrest) but which is better for the team? 70 games from international standard players or 10 games of one world class player with the other 60 games being played by a journeyman?

Anyone thinking about 6N yet? Any predictions?

Ireland have got their WC-choke out of the way so could be a good bet. Scotland too, tier 1 teams are in that post-WC rebuild so they could sneak past them?

Scotland in the 6N

Even more unpredictable than usual. We have got a few folk coming back from injury especially in the centres and hope to have big Ritchie back in the fold .

The key thing really is has Townsend learnt anything from the WC debacle? Myself I doubt it so continued slide and poor results. He has made the team with better players perform worse. a huge disappointment.

NO more laidlaw tho – so hopefully wee George starts with price as back up at 9. Loose head is a bit of a problem position.

Its a bit of a rebuild for Scotland as well – can Townsend actually pick the form players even if they are young and inexperienced? Thats his mistake in the WC not doing so.

We have the players to do well, our coach has proved he really does not have it. Bring back Big Vern!

23 days to go and I think it’s quite difficult to call a few of the games. Scotland are a bit further down the road with their set up than Wales, Ireland and France – is that correct? Italy have a new coaching team too iirc.
For me the questionable games are:
France v England – I’ll go England
Italy v Scotland – I’ll go Scotland
Wales v France – really hard this, I’ll go France : (
Wales v Scotland- I’ll go Wales
France v Ireland – I’ll go France

With a final table:
England
France/Ireland either way around, France slightly ahead of Ireland
Wales
Scotland
Italy

Scotland are a bit further down the road with their set up than Wales, Ireland and France – is that correct?

I would say not. Townsend proved to be a very poor coach in the WC with some awful selection and tactical decisions and a number of key players have retired.

Glasgow have also been pretty poor and have flogged some players. Fighting with Italy for the wooden spoon looks likely. I almost hope its a crap 6 nations as that would mean Townsend out – he needs to go. He simply is too inexperienced for an international coach. If he had a shred of integrity he would have resigned after the WC.

Gauss – why not Scotland / england as a questionable game? Or do you think Scotland will win easily? Its 3 years since England beat Scotland

Gauss – why not Scotland / england as a questionable game? Or do you think Scotland will win easily? Its 3 years since England beat Scotland

I think England have moved on somewhat recently. Whilst their World Cup wasn’t as outstanding (final aside) as the media heralded, they looked awesome at times. They are far far better than Scotland and have only struggled against Scotland due to ‘losing their heads’. I don’t think Scotland are organised/disciplined enough at the moment, to put them under that sort of pressure (similarly I don’t see Wales beating England this year). I am no expert in any way and may well be wrong – it would be hilarious to see Scotland beat England again this year, but my gut says not this time.

🙂

I wisnae being serious but England do have this issue where the half backs cannot cope unless the pack gets them go forward and of course the Farrrell issue