Rugby – 6 nations.

Are you welsh per chance a_a? 🙂

As for defensive patterns from england there defence was dire how many clean breaks did scotland make?

Agreed, the scots had a fair few huge overlaps available that weren’t taken. Strettles chance was the only time England created anything. And yet I’m happy with the performance, expectations were that low!

Well at least we’ve found a decent no. 13 at last. Apart from the win, thats the only real positive.

Perhaps I was distracted by a 5 month old, but that really was a non event in terms of the 6 nations.

Read today Scotland have scored something like 19 tires in 25 matches or something, not surprised England defended inside. Really no excuses for the home side today.

pretty dull game, but the right result, I think
England showing some discipline relative to the last couple of tournaments

Barrit can tackle but so to could tindall.

IMO Today, Scotland just showed their shortfalls – definitely a game they lost. How can you have that much territorial advantage, well over a hundred completed passes and churned through more then three times the phase count and still not score a try.

Crap game – but made up with the result and a great start for Lancaster at Murrayfield.

Barrit is going to be replaced by Manu Tuillagi, Hodgeson by Flood / Farrell with Turner hall in the mix. Put on (can’t remember, Northants #4) and give the team some time to gel and I reckon it’ll go really well.
What the bloody hell were Scotland upto? They looked like England when Andy Robinson was in charge. Oh wait…

Well, not quite sure the match was worth the hassle to fight with iPlayer down here, but good to see some actual discipline from England for a change. Had that match been played a few months back, the scoreboard would definitely have matched the possession and territory stats. Seems the young lot are a bit more adult-like.

Scotland, again, have been taking lessons from the England football team in how to lose matches they really really should win…

Scotland, again, have been taking lessons from the England football team in how to lose matches they really really should win…

Go tell that to spain!

That was probably the worst game of international rugby I have ever paid to see. We threw it away,allowed the English to settle into the ahem, “pace” of international rugby. As soon as Catflap scored we were never going to win. We also really need to put chances away,still at least we created a few for a change.

pre-match andy robinson declared he was fed up seeing scotland being the masters of throwing games away. What did we get? more of the same! In the supposed professional era it was a lack of basic skills that let scotland down again

TJ is conspicuous by his absence after that performance 😆

I will admit that adding lawes, flood, tuilagi and ben morgan to thst line up and england wil be onto something. Question is will they have the confidence to play flood and the coaches son rather than baritt and tuilagi together in the centres.
Ireland by 6-10 today

Given the extent of hot air and false bravado eminating from Edinburgh these days, it was somewhat fitting that England should not only win, but win ugly. Made it all the more pleasurable! 😉

Sad to listen to the usual bad sportsmanship of the M’field crowd with the heckling of kickers (and Robinson’s petulance) and even sadder that the English supporters ended up following suit.

Felt a bit sorry for Messers Denton, Gray and Evans…..but not for too long.

Let’s hope for better rugby and FINISHING from Wales and Ireland today.

That Denton bloke has an interesting accent, which clan does he originate from ? 😉

Same one as mouritz botha?

Ackford in the Torygraph still suffering from that Mendez punch I think, maybe he needs another smack to level him out? Struggle to see what Strettle did better than Max Evans and he didnt seem to notice that Botha was rubbish how he scored higher than Gray is beyond me.

Ben Foden: Strong run from poor Parks’ kick led to first Farrell penalty attempt. A decent match. Still England’s best attacker. 8/10

Chris Ashton: Very conservative for him. Struggled to find space and get free. Caught by Cusiter to give Scotland 6-3 lead but saved a score near the end. 6

Brad Barritt: Defensively sound which was what he was brought into the side to do. Will settle in over the next few games. 7

Owen Farrell: One big hit in defence but couldn’t get his attacking game going. Looked comfortable. An astonishing effort for one so young. 8

David Strettle: Good start. Grabbed kick off and made important early tackles. Gave England confidence to kick on. 8

Charlie Hodgson: Increasingly inventive. Charged down Parks’ clearance kick for first try for new-look England and got better as game went on. 8

Ben Youngs: A mixed effort. Harried into errors and unable to stamp his authority on the game. Is better than this. Replaced by Dickson. 5

Alex Corbisiero: Carried powerfully and dug in well in the tight. For a guy who doesn’t start for his club, did really well. 8

Dylan Hartley: Lineout was a real fight all game. Also penalised for standing up in the scrum. A battler though. 6

Dan Cole: Missed an early tackle on Hamilton but fronted up in the scrummage. Was on the pitch at the end still working. 7

Mouritz Botha: Mr Industrious, his red scrum cap was all over the place. A few too many errors for this level, but hugely courageous. 8

Tom Palmer: A quiet afternoon in which he was eclipsed by his second row partner. Replaced by Parling. Needs to find consistency of performance. 5

Tom Croft: Magnificent final quarter when he was in the teeth of the Scots in all areas. Came good just when it mattered. 8

Chris Robshaw: High work rate from the off, including a decent skirmish with Cusiter but missed Ashton with an overlap pass. A proud, proud man at the end. 7

Phil Dowson: Dropped the ball twice in the first quarter and never really recovered. One of the few England players who appeared out of his depth. 4

Replacements: Didn’t affect the result of the match but they were all introduced when Scotland were on almost constant attack and they all defended as if their lives depended on it which they probably did.

Stuart Lancaster: A marvellous start. Now, if he could only sort out the global recession, problems in the Middle East … Just fantastic. 10

Scotland

Rory Lamont: His spilled high ball from Charlie Hodgson ended in England’s opening penalty and he failed to make his physical presence felt in attack enough 6/10

Lee Jones: Looked nervous on his debut when he gave away penalty for holding on early on and had little time on the ball to make an impact 5

Nick De Luca: Part of a solid if unspectacular midfield. Took the ball up to give his back row a target and a rock in defence but lacked creative spark 6

Sean Lamont: Managed to breach the gainline on several occasions but will have been disappointed he could not have put more pressure on debutant Owen Farrell. 6

Max Evans: He looked dangerous every time in possession and his first-half break and chip should have resulted in points. Scotland should have made more use of him. 7

Dan Parks: Should have put more pressure on England but tactical kicking was poor and his charged down kick gifted decisive try to his opposite number 5

Chris Cusiter: Box-kicking at times off-target but snapped at England’s heels all night with brave tackling and sniping break and gave slick service to his backs. 6

Allan Jacobsen: Mixed scrummaging display and dropped pass early on squandered good attacking position. Made amends with several strong carries and toil in the tight 6

Ross Ford: Good accuracy out of touch but appeared to struggle in his scrummaging battle with Dylan Hartley. Lead from the front in the loose however. 6

Euan Murray: Solid performance from the Newcastle prop in the loose but crucially, like his front row colleagues, struggled to contain England’s scrum 5

Richie Gray: The Sale-bound lock was a constant supply of quality line-out ball and generated some momentum for his side with some dashing carries in the loose. 7

Jim Hamilton: Outstanding first-half display by Gloucester lock. Set the tone early on with great carry. Disrupted England’s line-out and showed some deft touches with ball in hand. 7

Al Strokosch: Huge physical presence at the breakdown as part of hugely impressive back row trio. Only blot was dropped pass after fine break by Gray. 7

Ross Rennie: Penalised early on at breakdown but impressive all-around display, slowing up England’s ball and carrying with intent. Failure to put Mike Blair however away was costly. 7

Dave Denton: An outstanding debut from the Zimbabwe-born forward. Delivered some big hits at the breakdown early on and his explosive ball-carrying proved to be Scotland’s biggest threat. 8

Andy Robinson: Put pressure on his side in the build up by telling his side it was time to deliver. Four early second half subs brought new energy but lack of finishing again proved costly. 6

Subs

Greig Laidlaw Crucially TMO refused to give try after his chip and chase. 6 Al Kellock gave physical display. 6 Mike Blair eager moments but little impact. 5 John Barclay. Plenty of energy 6 Geoff Cross. No time to make impact. 5

An outstanding debut from the Zimbabwe-born forward.

Speaks volumes in so many ways 🙂

Let’s hope for better rugby and FINISHING from Wales and Ireland today.

Agreed. Nothing from England or Scotland to worry the other four teams.

Scotland (or more pointedly) Parks squandered too many opportunities and kicking long ball from a deep position gives runners no options to get to the ball and the oppo back three (especially the current england crop) will run it back all day. Some awesome displays probably the best by the two southern african players (one on each side rich).

And teh disallowed try looked good to me but it would have given a win that we probably didn’t deserve.

And the “AULD ENEMEY” guff that is being spouted by the BBC and the papers is really started to “rip ma knittin'”

And teh disallowed try looked good to me but it would have given a win that we probably didn’t deserve.

The disallowed try, is that an argument for or against using technology?

It’s for the scots to lose IMHO.

And they did just that! It really was like watching england a while back; loads of ball and territory but no penetration.
The england pack were very poor in the line outs and at the breakdown. Far too many missed tackles. Dowson was a wet blanket but once morgan has more time, that’ll be his spot. What’s going to happen in the back row?
Wood, Morgan, Croft and Robshaw; who’s going to play where?
It felt like a competition of who has the worst fly half, with englands being slightly less shit.
Dire game of rugby. High hopes for this afternoons though! Good luck Ireland.

Well back in the day the benefit of the doubt would have gone to the attacking player but it was up to the ref to decide whether there was a doubt to benefit from.

I think in this case depending on where the ref was and what he could see he could have awarded it. (50/50 ball)

Also interesting the way the questions can be worded. So on second thought probably not awarded as the questions was “Is it a try? as opposed to “can i award the try”

“disallowed try”

That is a misnomer because the Scots player didn’t get a hand on the ball let alone deliver downward pressure. Watch the slo-mo replay and the ball hits the pitch, bounces backwards and the Scots hand goes above and beyond it. The ball ends up in the English lad’s gut. I can understand Scots unhappiness at once again forgetting how to score but that wasn’t a try.

md.
Watch it carefully and the ball seems to stall it’s spin when the hand is at the top of the ball one point in contact with hand and one with the ground.

I think there were ground to award it.

Hoping to watch a game of rugby this afternoon rather than the dross I saw yesterday. How Scotland can dominate possession but **** it up so badly is beyond me.

What a painful game to watch, you just knew every time Scotland would break the line they’d **** it up, I wasn’t even getting excited in the end I just knew they’d lose it every chance they had.

Interesting from England though, show’d some discipline and guts. Not worried about them anymore.

I think Italy can beat Scotland and finally claim an English Scalp.

BBC iplayer 2hours almost exactly. In fact at the 2 hour mark exactly.

Why no penalty from the advantage. Think we were a bit unfortunate but the ref is the sole arbritor of the law.

Moore makes a good point.

England should be worried that a limited scots pack totally dominated territory and possession

Even if he’d grounded it, you could argue he’d played the England player off the ball before that point.

TJ will be well pleased this moorning by the performance of his favourite player, Parks. 8)

i thought a few of the Scots pack played ok – Big Jim and harm man Stroks a given. 😀

Yep you could also argue they were both vying for the ball. But is wasn’t awarded (i assume that the chip over the top was the advantage).

We’ve been told repeatedly that scotland have a pack to match anyones.

Guess so.

Onehundred – saw that stall several times and i never saw the Scots hand actually touch the ball, came close but his hand went over the top as the ball came back underneath him. I would have said the same had it been the other way around with an English player going for it. The attacking player doesn’t get control on the ball and the defending player gets lucky as the ball stalls/bounces back into his chest allowing him to ground it. The TMO was correct in saying no try as the the attacking player did not have control or downward pressure at any time.

Yep you could also argue they were both vying for the ball.

I don’t think that would be a valid argument. Vying for a 50/50 ball is one thing, climbing up someones back (who is clearly closer to the ball) is quite another. Even if he had grounded it, it should have been an english penalty.

Some awesome displays probably the best by the two southern african players (one on each side rich).

Sorry, the point I was trying to make is that the article has a blatant English bias, Denton was head and shoulders above any other player on the park, so the journalist was undermining that in the only way he could. No mention at all made of nationality in the other 30 individual reviews!

If it had been the other way round (or indeed any team bar the one i’m supporting) i’d have thought it unlucky that the try wasn’t given. There is a shot looking side on to the posts where the hand does appear to go over the ball but the “stop” to the ball’s rotation would indicate that contact has been made. (anyway we’re not going to be awarded it now and overall played the wrong game to get a win(actually probably just the wrong starting 10)).

Rich, aye sorry fella, does on inspection look a bit odd.

Rich penny. Comments are different in paper version with no mention of nationality in one I am reading. Plus rankings split between Gavin Mairs (Scottish?) and Ackford. Sure those aren’t Mair’s comments? And Denton got the highest score of anyone. Of course he had 2 points deducted for the offence of the 80s mullet. Apart from that he was best player on both sides.

Grounding happens when the ball is on the ground and The player’s hand is on the ball.

RFU rules. What is not clear?