Rugby 2023-24 World Cup Year!

England seem to be finding themselves as a strategy and as players.   I can see why Furbank is in now, we have a rapier back line with him and Wabosa in it, Fords flat passing and clever kicking is valued and Smiths unpredictably can be a weapon.    Daleys days are benched/numbered.  If they can stay consistent it could be a good team over the next couple of years.

im not sure I would have picked the ABs for the Summer though, I can’t help thinking that won’t be good for motivation, that’ll be schooling at a whole new level.

should have been 5th but for the bonus points

As much as I like the way bonus points encourages attacking rugby, I thought this year’s tournament shows it can distort the table. For example England get the same number of points losing to France as France & Italy did with a draw. At one point in the England/France game Scotland could’ve ended up 3rd, above England (3 wins) Italy (2wins + draw). It doesn’t sit well with me that accumulating bonus points can put you above teams who are actually getting results.

@BruceWee I agree we simply dont have enough players. We don’t even have enough fans. Football is all pervasive in Scotland and the football clubs outside the 2 obvious exceptions are to be congratulated for finding a waye to survive without massive tv money.
If the six nations were ever to introduce relegation we would be favourites for the drop.

Living half my life in Kerry it’s astonishing how much rugby is challenging the football GAA.
There are big, athletic lads down here who now want to play rugby.

Pity David Clifford chose Gaelic Football, would have been a hell of a full back or center. I know what you mean though, Guys like Ben O’Connor and Gleeson in Irish U20 would probably played stayed playing hurling a few years ago.

Congratulations to Georgia..!!!

They comprehensively beat Portugal 36 – 10 in the Rugby Europe Championship in France. Richard Cockerill has continued Georgia’s dominance in the competition with their 13th win in 14 years. I couldn’t watch the match but sports pubs in Tbilisi were completely booked as soon as Georgia won the semi-final. Rugby thrives in Georgia and it would be great for rugby if Georgia could play the tier 1 countries more often. I’d love to see how Georgia would fare against the current Wales team…..

Scotland is struggling to build a culture outside of the Borders.  The problem is that there just aren’t enough people living in the Borders.

I was thinking about this yesterday. There actually is a rugby culture in the Highlands. It’s just that they play shinty instead 😂

Some slow ex rugby player.

Welsh rugby union star Louis Rees-Zammit – “Rees-Lightning” – ran a 4.50 40 at the NFL International Player Pathway Pro Day. Unofficial time. pic.twitter.com/O6nd2XNHJS

— Rob Maaddi (@RobMaaddi) March 20, 2024

Which position is he going for?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40-yard_dash#Average_time_by_position

He’s either pretty average or pretty fast depending on where he wants to play.

Apparently Carlin Isles ran a 4.22 before deciding to go and play for Glasgow.  He never made an appearance though and went back to 7s after a year.

Disappointing performance from Zammit.

To stand out he needs to have something better than the numerous guys who can already play the game.

I thought it would be his speed and I hoped he would run in the 4.3s or better. 4.44 is quick but in the recent combine 30 college prospects ran quicker than him & one of them was a linebacker (!)

There are maybe 100-150 guys on current rosters that run in the 4.4s or better.

His vertical & broad jump were relatively poor which will disappoint scouts.

When he made the switch I hoped to see him as similar to GB Packers WR Christian Watson. Tall, fast with a deep threat & the ability to make contested catches over shorter defenders.

He’s 6’4″ & 208lbs but runs a 4.36 40yd with a 38.5″ vertical & a 136″ broad jump along with 18 reps at 225lb on the bench.

Zammit is not, athletically, in the same class.

I still think he’ll make a practice squad though so hopefully he can spend a season learning. He does look good in his route running & receiving drills and seems to have good hands too.

Disappointing performance from Zammit.

Good, hopefully they’ll reject him. I hope he does well but also hope he doesn’t!!

Zammit is dead to me, we have signed Wade.

Zammit is dead to me, we have signed Wade.

And Wales could have Regen Grace next season too!

Is it ok to say I wish there wasn’t a Womens 6 Nations. The mens only makes any sense because of history. You would never invent a competition that is inherent unfairness built in, i.e teams have a different number of home and away games in a season. Mismatches are worse than the men’s game, it would have made more sense to have 2 groups with promotion / relegation via play offs each season.

LRZ signs to Taylor Swifts NFL team, I’ll be honest I was hoping they would say he was shit and send him back asap

how was this not red, officiating is really in the gutter at the moment.

McGrath haunted not to see a red for that pic.twitter.com/5KdCsh0vWV

— Jim Demps (@jim_demps) March 29, 2024

If that wasn’t a red I don’t know what is. I actually suspect there’s been a quiet change in officiating again to minimise red cards again. There have been a couple now that were let go in matches I’ve watched, such as the big hit on Tadhg Furlong in a ruck clearout during the first half at Twickenham, and Harry Byrne’s incredibly incompetent “tackle” against Scotland only getting a yellow.

Clearly not a red as most of the impact is thru chest and shoulder so low degree of danger.  Correct decision according to the laws and guidance

Follow the process as published

Yep, clearly not high, clearly no head contact with force 😄😄😄

Reas tbe guidence.  You might stop making all these daft assertions if ypu understood it

I’ve read the guidance thanks. It comes down to deciding if danger was high or not, this is a matter of opinion so is open to debate by all apart from people who fail to see anything other than what they want to.

You know this thread was far more pleasant without you. Feel free to strop off again any time you please.

More quality officiating

Quins replacement Irne Herbst was sent to the sin-bin in the 64th minute but then returned to the pitch after only seven minutes and went on to make a crucial tackle.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/68660353

I was mentioning these by the way in the context of the video ref last week not wanting to look at something as it would make it seem like the commentators were in charge 🤔

To be fair the behind angle of that tackle looks low danger.

Surely the video referee should have intervened in regarding the early return of a player on a yellow card. There’s a real rammy going on in Scottish Football regarding the competence and the role of video assistant refs.
Celtic manager is currently serving a ban for his comments on the issue. Head of refereeing has resigned

Aa

You constantly whine about reffing decisions because you do not understand the application of the laws.  You dish it out but you cannot take it.  You are why no rugby chat here anymore.

Think about it.

I just don’t see significant force going through the chest or shoulder there: Arendse isn’t deflected until the head contact (which he has seen coming and tried to lean away from). It’s a clear high level of danger for me with most of the force going through the head: had he not tried to pull his head away from the tackle it would have been a lot worse.

To be fair the behind angle of that tackle looks low danger.

Aye, looks much worse from the front angle.

But then it is this kind of ‘technique’ that these laws were supposed to clamp down on.  The original idea was that if the tackle was illegal and there was any kind of head contact then it should be red but that’s definitely been getting eroded recently.

With the way the laws are applied today not red is probably the correct decision.  With the way they are supposed to be getting applied today it should have been a red.

To be fair the behind angle of that tackle looks low danger.

I think the rear angle looks worse, shoulder charge with a lowered arm and no wrap.

With the way the laws are applied today not red is probably the correct decision. With the way they are supposed to be getting applied today it should have been a red.

That’s a fair point, two years ago red card and a ban, now yellow and crack on.

It’s called discussion TJ, you should try it one day instead of lecturing.

The idea that the degree of danger is low is absurd, two guys just ran into each other head first, the guy who got the yellow never came back on presumably he failed a hia. My son plays rugby this shit trickles down, it was on its way to being eradicated as best it could be and then world rugby and the refs shit out of it.

If nothing else he should have hit him in the ribs with his shoulder and tried to drive him to the touchline. Shit defensive tackle. And yes that sort of tackle is why this law was introduced.
Outcome of tackle low degree of danger.
Intent high degree of stupidity but probably not intending to cause damage no one leads with their face if they are intent to smashing someone.

Not entirely sure about the mental gymnastics needed here to only find one Munster player at fault, one tips and drives the other tips and lets go both deserve a yellow. The players deserve a higher duty of care from the officials.

Red prop probably should’ve had red. Tips and drives into ground. Landing turns entirely on player pivoting. 14 yellow potentially for tip and letting go. #MUNvCAR #BKTURC pic.twitter.com/JcxfJqgFDK

— Andrew (@aj_d___) March 31, 2024

That’s a shocker, bet that slowed the Cardiff player down no end when he was doing the takeaway deliveries last night.

That’s a shocker, bet that slowed the Cardiff player down no end when he was doing the takeaway deliveries last night

Welsh players eat takeaways Italian players deliver them, I think that may be why we lost.

The best thing about that clip is POM’s reaction in the background. When he’s more worried than the refs you know there’s a problem!!

I was alluding to the fact that Welsh club players are so poorly paid they have part time jobs.

I was alluding to the fact that Welsh club players are so poorly paid they have part time jobs.

Indeed, I was alluding to that Italian number 8 who delivers pizza in Exeter.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2024/02/20/ross-vintcent-interview-exeter-italy-dominos-delivery/

Munster fans pretty resigned to John Ryan (prop) getting cited and banned after that. Luke McGrath’s tackle should be a red even if some mental gymnastics allows current guidance to be interpreted differently.

It comes down to deciding if the danger was low or high which is open to massive interpretation. As someone who watches their son play, I think it was highly dangerous. Like I said this stuff trickles down.

I watched my son 3 times in his last game arrive at a tackle first, remain on his feet and try to lift the ball, clear pen for holding on a second or so later one or two massive lumps cleared him out and he was smashed backwards. Ref shouted didn’t survive the clear out, which refs at the top level used to say a few years ago but then realised it was dangerous. Now if you have hands on a lift it’s a pen…this ref had clearly not caught up. He’ll be looking at these no arm shoulder charges with head contact next and taking his cues.

Ryan gets a 3 match ban so proving the video ref should have upgraded the yellow to a red. Or did the ref not even put it for review, not sure tbh…clearly the citing officer and the panel thought it was a red.

a_a just watched the quins bath match. The reffing was awful.
I’m not sure if the offside line exists any more. I know there’s a perceived home advantage but you should’ve the ref adding to that.

Ryan gets a 3 match ban so proving the video ref should have upgraded the yellow to a red. Or did the ref not even put it for review, not sure tbh…clearly the citing officer and the panel thought it was a red

Been thinking a bit about the new red cards that are in the pipeline and I’ve kind of changed my view on them.

At first I thought it was ridiculous and counter productive (never subscribed to the accepted wisdom that red cards ruin matches).

However, there has always been a reluctance by refs to hand them out, probably because it is seen as such a monumental decision.  I’m wondering if having the new 20 minutes and then a sub coming on means that refs will be more inclined to start handing them out for reckless tackles.  If so that may finally encourage teams to change their tackle technique.

Or maybe not.