If the answer at 12 isn’t Fickou the teams not worth looking at…other than that too many welsh

I expect leads of bleating from AA

Too busy counting Welsh six nations championships and grand slams…Scotland meanwhile……….

Also one team has Mack Hansen and the other has James Lowe when Penaud and zan Der Whatsit are available. Madness. Ireland are an excellent team but the two wingers are relative weaknesses.

Huwipuloto!  so good they only have one name between them

I mean who is more scottish ( and hates the English more) than them – a south african with a welsh name and an Aussie born Polynesian with a granny from Greenock

( Actually Jones was born in leith 🙂 )

I actually think too many Scots in those teams. the only one yo can really argue for is Finn and its not obvious between him and Sexytoes

Duhan despite being a formidable attacker ( and great stats) was caught out defensively too often again.  Mind you I could watch him handing off Dombrant time and time again.  How embarrassing for a no8 to be handed off by a winger 🙂

It might not be even be Dombrants most embarrassing play in the tournament. He just looks ponderous in international rugby.

Hogg to retire after world cup

By the look of things the great AWJ has also played his last game at home for Ospreys

Hoggs lost a touch of pace and his form and injury record over the last couple of years is not great.  Understandable call – he is not going to be the automatic pick at 15 in future for Scotland

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Anyone here coached any Youth teams that can provide some advice?

After our head coach leaves this season I’ve been ask to consider volunteering at my kids club as a Backs coach from September. This is on the basis a) I’ve played before and b) I can’t stop enthusiastically pacing the touch line and reading the game banging out advice and the occasional “fucksake!”

The club will pay for a level one basic qualification which is great, but what I’d really like to know is what is the realistic time commitment?

By the look of things the great AWJ has also played his last game at home for Ospreys

Yeah, but then he is about 30 years older than Hogg and has 3 grand slams in his back pocket, coincidentally that’s the same as Scotland although now one less than Ireland now…..

@Kryton57 a fair amount 2training sessions and game on Saturday. I’d guess the coaching course a first aid course and possibly a reffing course.

Very rewarding but parents can be a pain.

As long as your not head coach the work load should be bearable, the level 1 course was a full weekend when I did it but was really good fun. One thing I would say is ask your son about how he feels about having his dad as one of the coaches?

All good points thanks. I have asked my son and he’s ok with it, although he’s so laid back he probably wouldn’t see an issue anyway, but my own Dad ruined the Scouts for me, so I am conscious of that.

Fur us its Wednesday Training and Sunday Training / Match, but this would be on top of 5 bike training sessions a week plus work leaving me no time at all for anything else. I think perhaps this is a stretch too far – if I wasn’t bike training & racing I could do it, so maybe its a thought for years to come.

Anyone watches Eng V Wales women’s 6N? What a game, I thought Wales had it on the 1H but England really sorted themselves out after that. Some monumental efforts from both sides.

A couple of interesting stats

Ryan Wilson is leaving Glasgow after 13 years and 220 caps – only 8 yellow cards in that time.  Given he is at the centre of every bout of handbags and a real wind up man thats remarkable but the one that got me was that Glasgow have only kicked one penalty goal this year.  Every other pen has gone to the corners.  that shows attacking intent alright

Yep Glasgow are a good team to watch this season. I hope they manage to put some silverware on the table.

Nowell fined £10k for calling a ridiculous ruling ridiculous on social media

Take someone’s head off, turn up with biscuits and have a seat for 3 weeks. To be fair Dickson was caught between a rock and a hard place but the ruling sets a rubbish precident for the last 5m of the pitch.

I saw that, ref seemed almost apologetic but from my time with the whistle – we don’t set the laws, just apply them, and as soon as you start to busk the ones you don’t like, consistency disappears and you let your reffing colleagues down.

I also just was catching up on missed posts, and @kryton – don’t want to muddy waters unduly but did you decide to / not to put your hand up for coaching. Because my 2p, which you didn’t ask for but you’re getting it anyway 😉

If you don’t, who else will? Does it compromise overall. Not to bully you into it but can be a factor, the same few always seem to be the ones that coach, man the bar / BBQ, paint the scorebox, put the ground to bed at the end of the season and so on.

You say with your own training there’s no time, maybe in a couple of year’s time. Will the opportunity be there in a couple of years time? Although in many ways I screwed up my son’s basketball I absolutely look back on them with fondness, the times we spent with me helping and fetching and carrying for the coach and sharing the experience while it was there. Just like weeksy is living the dream through his son. Don’t miss that opportunity, or put different – if you decide to pass up on it now in favour of your own aspirations, get your head properly in that game and do justice to the decision.

Free advice, worth what you paid for it, apologies if it is a bit direct.

I get the rules is rules part (ex-ref) but now as a captain I’d be asking the question about every tackle when the player dives for the line and is hit in the air. Wet plastic pitch bet you can slide it in from at least 5m out

Imagine penalty on the 5m get winger running at full belt, pop pass to him and he hits the deck immediately. Try time every time.

Josh Navidi has retired after failing to overcome neck injury. 😟

Just read that. Pretty gutted, I always liked watching him playing (except when he was facing Glasgow or Scotland).

That’s a shame, he always looked like a handful.

I was just about to post about Navidi.

I’m a huge fan-boi, loved watching him play. I met him in Saundersfoot a couple of years ago, really nice guy, embarrassingly apologetic about getting injured, especially when he was in a patch of good form.

Just as we thought Welsh rugby couldn’t sink further (till next season when all the good players have left) Dai Young gets suspended by Cardiff. Who can they afford to get in to replace him, my nan probably…can’t wait to see the usual Welsh way of leaving no stone unturned in a worldwide search for the best talent only to end up promoting the currently under achieving forwards coach at Cardiff to head bus. Who is Cardiff forwards coach?

Josh Navidi has retired after failing to overcome neck injury.

That’s awful. Can only wish him all the best in the future

I cannot see how rugby can survive as anything like the game we know.  The toll on the players is just too much.  Head injuries and dementia, other injuries leading to life long issues.  Its just too brutal.  these guys are wrecking their bodies and brains for our entertainment.

Watching a game last night forwards running with the ball so doubled over that a legal tackle is just about impossible and the ball players head is in such a vulnerable position.  Massive collisions between behemoths

I have no idea what can be done but I just do not see how the game can survive.  This makes sobering reading

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/aug/28/dylan-hartley-rugby-normalises-pain-and-injuries-its-the-reality

Josh Navidi has retired after failing to overcome neck injury. 😟

Such a shame. One of my favourite non-England players. Always seemed to me less spoken about than Faletau, for example, but always an exceptional performer.

Currently watching a try-fest worthy of Twickers between Quins and Bath.

Hogg’s interview about his retiring does highlight the physical battering they take. Both his knees are suffering. Mind you that’s not new saw Kim Renwick up the park today and I think he’s now got two new knees.

I cannot see how rugby can survive as anything like the game we know. The toll on the players is just too much. Head injuries and dementia, other injuries leading to life long issues. Its just too brutal. these guys are wrecking their bodies and brains for our entertainment

This

I really fear that the players have outgrown the game. To big, fast and strong at the professional level.

My son got bitten in one of the games in his u12’s tournament today…quite awkward as it was the son of the physio I see who did it…

Well so much for professionalism.

LCD has jeopardised his Montpelier contract by missing the medical because he was on the lash the night before.
That’s a few expensive beers.

I really fear that the players have outgrown the game. To big, fast and strong at the professional level.

Those of us that have played will understand the camaraderie and all other things that keep you loving to be part of a Rugby team. But you read that Dylan Hartley account and – he’s 37 – would never wish that physical abuse on your kids. I can’t imagine being that age and having the physical and potential brain issues he has. Horrible.

I’m not sure what the answer is.

My instinct says the priority has to be to reduce the size and/or speed of the players. In order to do that it has to be made more aerobic rather than anaerobic.

That’s the main reason I want to see the tackle height reduced. If the players can run upright with the ball held high without fear of getting wrapped up in a choke tackle and conceding the turnover I think it would encourage more offloading and get away from the defensive line system that is actually quite static.

I think part of the issue is that players have more time to train but I think the biggest impact of professionalism has been defensive systems that make open running continuous play almost impossible.

So yeah, I’d like a range of initiatives to make the game more aerobic. The Jonah Lomus should be the exception, rather than the rule.

Problem is, the game will almost certainly become less ‘spectacular’ as a result of that so I can’t see it being adopted anytime soon.

Watched a couple of games at the weekend, might as well have been league. Defence putting no-one into the ruck and throwing a line across the pitch with a hard press.

There is no way on god’s green earth that players in the ruck are supporting their own body weight and like that it’s almost impossible to drive them off and the possibility of head contact is high so why risk it? Easier to give up the ruck and defend across the pitch.

Watched a couple of games at the weekend, might as well have been league.

From the point of view of what I was talking about above (aerobic vs anaerobic) Union is probably worse than League.

As you say, players spend a lot of time standing in a line across the pitch, but at least in League they are constantly having to jog back 10, run forward, jog back 10…

It would be an interesting study to investigate the energy usage during a game of League vs Union and if/how this correlates to the amount of energy in the impacts.

Anyone on here watch the French league? watched a highlights program from the weekends matches and must say looked amazing. Might try and catch some of the games in the run in and playoffs as they are shown on Viaplay which I have access to already.

Sarries got beaten a few weeks ago because they could cope with the French style. Basically out sarrie’d in the forwards then outrun in the backs.
Gallagher league style seems fixed. Irish do we’ll be not conforming.

Sarries got beaten a few weeks ago because they could cope with the French style. Basically out sarrie’d in the forwards then outrun in the backs.
Gallagher league style seems fixed. Irish do we’ll be not conforming.

It’s 90% based on budget. French budget is biggest along with the likes of Leinster.