Rugby – 6 nations.

Pick of the teams after weekend 1 is probably Wales. There was nothing between them and ireland today so I’d give it to Wales by virtue of ireland having home advantage.

Well after the first weekends games I cant see England beating anyone else other than Italy. Italy could cause an upset though either against Scotland or England. That likely leaves these three fighting it out for the wooden spoon.

that leaves Wales, Ireland and France fighting for the title with it coming down to Wales Vs France I think.

Wales and Ireland both played with a lot more tempo than I think England can manage and France are still a bit of an unknown, but all three should beat England.

glitchy bumpy thingy

Stats – ( lies and damn lies) make awful reading – Scotland hasd such dominence and scored Eff all

http://www.espnscrum.com/six-nations-2012/rugby/match/133768.html

Wales deserved the win (ok biased), was touch and go there mind, think 1/2p will be taking over all the kicking duties from now on. hopefully be a grandslam finish Wales and france 😉

those stats are crazy, they show that England didn’t do very much… a bit of mauling and some turnovers. and a decisive chargedown doesn’t show up.
I guess stats don’t show heroic defending either… 🙂

England didnt do much.

stat for the weekend………..No of caps for scottish centres -89. No. of caps for english centres – 0. It can only get better 🙂 Ireland needed to play against 14 to get in front – Wales had to play some dirty play ( should have been a red that!)

Gottasay though…George North – how bloody strong is he!!! and only 19 😯 scary

Englnd did Eff all – It must be the worst England perfomance for along long time.

Thats a part of why its so disappointing. they were there for the taking

George North – how bloody strong is he!!! and only 19 scary

^^This. Lots and lots of this^^

North is a REAL talent for the future. As was the Scots 8 yesterday, very impressed.

We can argue all day if it was a red or not, but the fact is, the ref gave it a yellow. As such, the later Irish tackle also had to be a yellow. Neither was the right decision in retrospect, but that was the way it was called in the game.

Thrilling test match, though. Thrilling.

On to the next! 🙂

When do we get to start arguing about lions picks?

It must be the worst England perfomance for along long time

Yeah, since France in Auckland, 8.10.11

anagallis_arvensis – Member
When do we get to start arguing about lions picks?

Right now!

😆

Put Bradley Davies on the plane, for a start! 🙂 Great runner, great player.

Also, North MUST go on any Lions tour if fit. SCIENCE FACT!

aa, post a team. never to early for a lions “debate” 🙂

North +1

England didnt do much.

I agree.

Lions team is tricky if priestland plays can we trust his kicking? Brings players like 1/2p and the coaches son into contention so with that in mind:

Foden/ Kearney ( too close to call)
1/2p
Davies/Tuilagi
Roberts
North
Priestland
Phillips
erm dont know faletau/denton/hislip
?again ferris or sob
warburton
grey
? Lawes doc?
Cole
ford
gethin

Foden/ Kearney ( too close to call)
1/2p
Davies/Tuilagi
Roberts
North
Priestland
Phillips
erm dont know faletau/denton/hislip
?again ferris or sob
warburton
grey
? Lawes doc?
Cole
ford
gethin

Who’d want to be a selector, eh?

Just watched the France / Italy game.

Italy will facny beating both Engladn adnScotland.

France Wales Ireland fighting for the championship, England Scotland Italy fighting for the wooden spoon is wht it looks like.

2 division championship

I cant work out how to use sean obrian great player but not 7 and is he a 6. Would prefer more footballing ability in midfield too but resisted the temptation to pick gavin!!!

First game for a new look England. Too early to write them off entirely IMO. I suspect that they will improve but by how much is anybodys guess.

I saw that David Sole in Comely Bank Waitrose today. He doesn’t half walk slowly 😆

I don’t see many lions coming from yesterday’s game tbh.
Denton impressed, but not ahead of Faletau or Heaslip.
Tuilagi would be a possible from England, but the Jonathan Davies/ Desperate Dan combo would be hard to split, even for BOD.
Hooker is up for grabs, Best was best this weekend but not sure if he’s Lions quality.

1st draft:
Kearney
Bowe
Davies
DD
North
Sexton
Phillips
Faletau
Ferris
Warburton
O’Connell
Gray
Jones
Ford
Healy

O’Brien on the bench, covers 3 BR positions

Edit. Today emphasised what a player BOD is, Ireland were half the team without him. Probably a bigger loss than all Wales’ injuries together (Warburton going off at half time excluded)

‘sfunny coz it’s troo.

I could go with that but even sexton has his off days with the boot i also think adam jones is not hitting form so cole gets the nod.

Scots in the frame ( but not any on yesterdays performance really)

Grey
Denton
Ford

Posibles for the future are Laidlaw and Hogg but need to show it. Laidlaw really could become very good indeed. he is the best Scots back I have seen for decades

From England I really like Foden in particular – Strettle as well but plenty of good wingers around, I would be Farrel comes good as well but we need to see it.

Can’t argue too much with many of AAs picks and Ireland and Wales should have the bulk as of right now

Fair enough with Cole.
I’d like to see a bit more consistancy from a kicker before the tour. Sexton and Priestland are the top 2 for FH, but I wouldn’t be totally confident in either for the pens. Just have to hope their off days aren’t in sync, but I think we’d lose to much by leaving out anyone else for a kicker.

Scots in the frame ( but not any on yesterdays performance really)

Grey
Denton
Ford
…
picks and Ireland and Wales should have the bulk as of right now

Had to fix that for you, TJ.

Denton looked very, very good mind you. Very good indeed. Gray could and should be on the tour bus, though.

England need to rethink overseas player thing – not having Sheridan in the front row is appalling.
I read it last month that he “puts fearinto front rows” I can bloody believe that!

15 BOWE
14 BOWE
13 BOWE
12 BOWE
11 BOWE
10 BOWE
9 BOWE
8 BOWE
7 BOWE
6 BOWE
5 BOWE
4 BOWE
3 BOWE
2 BOWE
1 BOWE
We all dream of a team of Tommy Bowes, a team of Tommy Bowes, a team of Tommy Bowes…
🙂

Edit. sorry, couldn’t help it. But Kearney at 15.

Not sure you would lose much having 1/2p rather than Bowe.
Sheridan is yesterdays man.

We all dream of a team of Tommy Bowes

A true Ospreylian, and one of those lovely rugby players who plays with a smile on his face (See also Castagneide, T and Williams, S) Love to watch Bowe play. Great player, and love the way he smiles!

Sheridan is yesterdays man.

Yesterday? Try last decade.

1/2p a good option, but for the bench back 3 cover probably

This weekend highlights two important contradiction in the 6 Nations – (1) it is vitally important to get the momentum rolling from the start with a win but (2) the win/loss actually tells you very little about the team. perhaps that’s why we see swings and roundabouts each year.

(1) is obvious and self explanatory and really key for Wales given the run of home games they have now. They should have excellent momentum

(2) no suprise that Fr > Italy and both the other matches could easily have gone the other way. The headlines and pressures would be very different. I bet if Scotland had won, the performance would have been described as fantastic, exposing England’s inexperience etc. But, having hit the self district button, Robinson and the players are now under much more scrutiny (ESP about scoring tries) whereas England walk away with more heroic (if undeserved) headlines and little pressure. And yet it could have been so different for all of these four.

Like I said above, Denton looks good. His biggest problem is the strength in that area though.
On form, today and WC, Faletau should start at 8.
Heaslip’s ahead of him too, but probably wouldn’t even make the bench ‘cos O’Brien would cover 6,7,8.

CFH – who would you have instead of Ford tho? ( or master samwise as he really is?)

Edit – agree with the strength in the back row in the home nations tho. Funny isn’t it whereas its not a great bunch of standoffs now – sexton is the best IMO but he ain’t a world beater

Interesting little snippet in this week’s New Scientist on a study of in/out of group bias.

Researchers “…divided 24 volunteers into two teams and had them judge the speed of hand actions performed by two people, one from each team.
As expected, most of the volunteers were biased towards their own team, judging their players as faster, even when the two actions were performed at identical speeds.
Surprisingly, brain scans taken during the task showed that this bias arises from differences in brain activity during perception of the hand action and not during the decision-making process.”

So we don’t even decide to be biased, we actually perceive the event (e.g. spear tackle / not spear tackle) in different ways depending on our allegiance.

Well that was really something. I can’t believe Wales won. How many times have we been in a similar situation and choked? This is what really cheers me up. That and having North on the team. Fair play, watching him in slow mo is incredible. Other players put their heads down and take on the tacklers – North has his head up and arms out – coming through! Reminds me of a police horse.

Definite red for Davies though, no question. The disallowed try was also definitely a try but that’s all in the game. It’s not enough to score, you have to be seen to have scored, and I might’ve recycled the ball in that situation if it’d been me. Cos you know, I am such an experienced second row and all.

The pity about Davies was he was playing so well. Special mention to ian evans too who has recovered from serius injury. Last season he looked like he woudnt make it back as he struggled to last the pace for 40 mins for the ospreys. Yesterday he played his part for a full 80 in a proper test match really happy for him

haven’t checked above but have u lot seen the lovely ‘austin healy’ kicking off bigtime on twitter, the backlash after his pre match welsh comments! I bet his agent is happy! oh dear

The only Austin Healey I can see on Twitter is For Sale!!! 😆