Absolutely brutal

duckman
Full Member
Telt yous!

Ya did.

England are trying but not sure anyone could live with this french side.

Tale of 2 scrum halves here.

Dupont is superb, so complete.

All in all a good day of rugby

Congratulations France, deserved Grand Slam. Whilst they have strength across their team, they still have quite a bit they can improve upon. Frightening how good they could be next year.
Similar could be said for Ireland too I guess.
Italy on the up. Hopefully they’ll get a few more of the promising young players into the team next year, to give them strength throughout their team.
I’m not sure what to make of England, Scotland and Wales. I guess none are quite as bad as it may first appear, and each have their own issues – but, they all need something drastic to be done soon imho.

France deserved that win, great all round game.
I thought England looked superb at times, and woeful at other times,
The turnover from when Slade went in to contact was zero to do with French jackaling and 100% about the support players being asleep, there was not only nobody there, there was never going to be anyone there, it was not even like the support was late, there just was not anyone to defend the ruck.

Smith I am not sure about, either he is incomplete, or juzt not as good as everyone thinks. So many of his kicks were off target, cross field kicks that were just unreachable, or straight in to French hands, we saw the same vs Ireland and Scotland.

England looked at their best when the backs ran the ball. And when the forwards ran the ball…

To be honest I thought Smith had an ok game. A lot of the time the England ball was being slowed down or majorly disrupted, so it would get to Smith when he was under pressure.
Lawes is immense, but do think he’s a second row not a flanker.

As an Ireland fan all I can say is that England were pretty good but they played a much much better team today. The result was deserved.

Smith is better with quick ball, Youngs slows down play far too much which stifles the whole back line, not to mention his fondness for box kicks which seem to always pass possession back to the other team with little territorial gain.

I don’t know what the question is but if the answer is Firbank it’s the wrong question. That moment he caught the with one foot, waaaaay in touch, sums him up.

Anyway end of term report, Wales have a fancy attacking game plan but don’t have the players to execute it. Coach needs a long hard look in the mirror, preferably after being given a service revolver.

Only just seen this, watch Russell, he is the guy with the back base layer over his arms…if he were Welsh I’d want him to never play another international match.

That Dupont magic 🪄
France secure the first points of the game! 🇫🇷 #SCOvFRA #GuinnessSixNations pic.twitter.com/Q5lGxD2v9A

— Guinness Men's Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) February 26, 2022

Scotland’s problem with Russell is you need to be good enough to understand what he might do. Racing play and train with him a lot Scottish backs don’t. He’s also a bit lazy/plays a 10 that is more about being ready for the next impressive move than defending the line. Even when forced to tackle he rolls out of the line quite quickly.
At least he’s not got hands of glue like Hogg.

Yeah this is what I was talking about vs Italy, pretty strange behaviour from a 10 who should be right there in defence. Something very wierd going on. All 15 need to be able to defend.

That Hogg thing was a Tindall-esque opportunity squander. I think maybe the queen was watching and Hogg thought his OBE was due? Compared to the little Italian guy who made the most brilliant try yesterday.

Scotland’s problem with Russell is you need to be good enough to understand what he might do.

What amble back in defence and then purposely hide in the wrong place…..

Yeah that is definitely the rest of the teams misunderstanding of Russell where he doesn’t place himself between the attackers and his own try line.

AA; you seem to be developing a weird obsession with Russell, are you trying to deflect from anything? How DID the obviously much superior Biggar do yesterday? ( Apart from tell the media some of his team shouldn’t be playing for Wales again.)

At racing, he’s got big tacklers to help him out. Being a 10 isn’t all about defending the line. Modern rugby has many more chips and kicks that’s his defensive role.
Jonny Wilkinson was a defensive 10 in the line and got pretty broken by it. Most 10s don’t defend the line if they can get away with it, sometimes they’re hidden on the outside sometimes they drift around waiting for the ball over the top.
The misunderstanding is not seeing that he’s eyeing up what he could do and not being able to be on the same page. Is he good? yes, is he great? At times. Does he believe the hype? Definitely.

Question;

I’m only just watched last night’s FRA vs ENG game. And the commentators kept going on about how much heavier the French pack was.

What difference does it make?

I know in a collision, assuming a 23 stone human can still run at decent speed that’s a lot of kinetic energy/momentum to try to stop, but in a scrum scenario there is no or movement in comparison. Is it assumed that as they’re all elite athletes power is proportional to weight basically?

A much lighter loose-head has to hold that weight difference up all game. Plus you have to shove that extra heft backwards. Even at championship level it was not unusual if playing second row to have purple spots dancing in your eyes after a scrum. 1400nm of pressure going through a prop and second rows back every scrum, and that was in the early 90’s when guys were much smaller.

Happy for the french it’s well deserved. World cup at home and playing like that is ominous for the other nations.

How DID the obviously much superior Biggar do yesterday?

Tackled like a mad bastard as he always does and put his body on the line. Being supremely talented doesn’t give you a free pass to amble back in defence and not at least try to number up.

Not trying to deflect from anything Wales are a poorly coached rabble, been saying that all season, I’m sure if anyone looks back they could find me saying I was worried about playing Italy right from the start.

Most 10s don’t defend the line if they can get away with it, sometimes they’re hidden on the outside sometimes they drift around waiting for the ball over the top.

Yes but when the opposition are deep in your 22 at least trying to get back, stand in the line and usher a fat lad towards the fringes of the ruck would help. There’s two rucks and he still hasn’t ambled back onside.

I know in a collision, assuming a 23 stone human can still run at decent speed that’s a lot of kinetic energy/momentum to try to stop, but in a scrum scenario there is no or movement in comparison. Is it assumed that as they’re all elite athletes power is proportional to weight basically?

Adding to what Ducky said, note that Genge held up his end pretty well agaisnt the big lad, after the first two scrums anyway.

Yes but when the opposition are deep in your 22 at least trying to get back, stand in the line and usher a fat lad towards the fringes of the ruck would help. There’s two rucks and he still hasn’t ambled back onside.

Also how many world class 10s don’t defend??? WTF.
Carter, Ntamack, Garbisi, Sexton, Biggar, Barrett, Pollard, J.Davies, Farrell all have huge tackles.

all have huge tackles

Sometimes my imagination gets the better of me…

Grand Slam for Ireland U20s. Cracking performances away against France and England. Will be nice to see some of these guys coming through.

When I saw the end of the Wales game yesterday and Adams being MOM my first thought was that a car crash interview like the Mike Brown one was coming up. Both strike me as similar sorts of spikey characters who have massive desire to win.

Just saw this, he did alright to be fair!

Tackled like a mad bastard as he always does and put his body on the line. Being supremely talented doesn’t give you a free pass to amble back in defence and not at least try to number up.

Isn’t it a bit early to start campaigning for Lions selections?

I reckon the Scottish Lions didn’t have a good 6 Nations for whatever reason. That’s a problem because it seems like if Russell and Hogg are having a 6/10 game rather than a 8/10 game then Scotland really struggles.

Still, it could have been a worse competition, overall.

I thought this years 6N was one of the best, its great to see so much competition. When two closely matched teams come together, its either spectacular, or they just dull each others games, in the NH we tend to do the latter. However if you like the nuances of forward play then it’s great (I do) but I can see that people get bored when you don’t get amazing tries, which is understandable.
Speaking of Lions, the last Lions series was not that really that good, we lost 2-1.
Not tryign to cause any trouble, but note that in previous lions squads where the lions won there have been more leek munchers and no Scottish players at all.

I was just about to post the same vid. A particularly good one I thought. I, still can’t help but be pleased for Italy – despite the ribbing I’ve taken at work! 🙂

I, still can’t help but be pleased for Italy

Me too, I am also giddy with excitement everytime I check the sports pages in the hope that Pivac has been sacked!

Me too, I am also giddy with excitement everytime I check the sports pages in the hope that Pivac has been sacked!

Who would you want instead?

Who would you want instead?

Long list……I’ll start with my nan and then move up

Trade you Townsend for your nan?

No thanks, I’ll stick with my nan, she’s been dead 20 years but I reckon she could at least stop the captain going out on the piss!