Was that before he slapped him on the head?

Yes, and in the audio you can clearly hear Sinclair saying “he hit me first”, it was a hand in the face, not too bad and about the same level as the slap that followed it.
The ‘knockon’ was so clearly a french hand but I’m not at all sure about the penalty try. Gashton was clearly tackled off the ball however I’m not sure he had it under any control at all so would a try have been scored?
Anyway, this England team looks bloody good again. I reckon we’re world beaters again!

Yeah I did hear the audio but thought it was just a bit of hope he didn’t see what I did 🙂

The Ashton penalty one was certainly one of those that looked blatant when he called it first but as you say he had some work to do to actually score, though it made very little difference in the end.

Anyway, this England team looks bloody good again. I reckon we’re world beaters again!

Sigh.  There goes the Grand slam…

I do worry that Gatland will see this and thing about weathering the storm in H1 then coming on strong in H2 as a tactic, it seems and obvious thing to do, which is of course how the AB’s beat us.

France were woeful. Absolutely dreadful.

So Brunel watched England dismantle Ireland with a smart tactical kicking game that preyed on Ireland playing a centre at fullback and – he picked two centres to play on the wing and a wing to play fullback!

England should really have notched 60+ IMHO. A few glaring chances went amiss and I don’t think Tuilagi was all that great. For all his try scoring ability May still tackles like a powderpuff but I guess 3 tries scored to one given away is a good enough ratio.

I did enjoy Lawes knocking Fatty Bastareud backwards though!

Always a pleasure to see the England haters on here. Maybe some marginal decisions did go England’s way….. it’s debatable whether or not Ashton would’ve scored….. Farrell’s try was definitely knocked back by a French hand imo, however it’s great to say that the ref favours England isn’t it!

Here’s how we stand…..

Italy….tier 2 nation, borderline lucky to be in the 6 Nations, if they get a losing bonus point against a piss poor French team then it’ll be an overachievememt

France…..just awful, like watching a cross between an U18 team and a semi pro team play

Scotland…. injuries have decimated them…..not dissimilar to England’s injuries in the back row last year, but England have a lot more players…. from this point if they win another game it’ll be a good return.

Wales…..whom knows….the firm time from the Autumn for the first time ever….next game is HUGE for them, they have a reasonable strength in depth, other than the fact that there’s no clear cut ten, and the only decent 9 isn’t eligible for selection (at the minute)

Ireland…..the form team in the world until a few weeks ago, now the gap to England and Wales isn’t as big as it seemed…..on paper still the best NH team

England…..back to looking like 2016 world beaters…..we have no back up back row though (wasn’t a 6 or 7 on the bench) and our second choice scrum half has played approx 9 minutes of international rugby.

Other than NZ seemingly being that little bit better, I genuinely think that heading into the coming RWC any of the worlds top 7 could beat each other on their day.

England could pick Robshaw or Shields instead of Wilson. Underhill injured or he would be ahead of curry. Hughes after Vunipola.

Jones likes the flexibility of Lawes/Itoje covering 6/7 on the match day bench. With 1/2/3/9/10 bench cover, you only have 3 more spots to cover 10 positions.

At 9, We have Care and Wigglesworth as backup too

I love the fact that we are whinging about having just annihilated France.

They weren’t great today. But maybe we made them look that poor & exposed the weaknesses we were presented with.

People make it sound like we were awful in the second half. We won it 14-0 and could have scored more. Not matching an almost perfect first half is hardly crime of the century.

Farrell’s try was definitely knocked back by a French hand imo

I agree, but just saw it replayed on the news and May looked ahead of the kicker.
I was also slightly surprised that they didnt have a second look at the first try as frenchies seemed to be randomly falling over all over the place and the had a good like at the French try for reasons I couldnt fathom. The pen try seemed harsh to me as it looked like Gashton had over run it.

According to Scrum V, England have never beaten Wales in a year that ends with a 9. 😁

ahead of curry.

Im not so sure, Currys putting a very effective shift in . He looks at home.

Regards the penalty try, even Owens said he “probably ” would have scored . I’m sure the letter of the law is “definitely” and as soon as he said that I thought it would be disallowed.

The next French player was 5m behind Ashton. If he hadn’t been tackled without the ball he could have missed it 3 times and still scored.

This is the way Nige refs games. He always ignores minor technicalities to go with the attackers.

Nope – I went and looked it up

“A penalty try is awarded between the goal posts if foul play by the opposing team prevents a probable try from being scored, or scored in a more advantageous position. A player guilty of this must be cautioned and temporarily suspended or sent off.<span class=”inline”> No conversion is attempted.”</span>

How can you ever say definitely…… we’ve seen some horrendous handling in the in-goal area already this year, who’s to say Ashton wasn’t going to collect it, attempt a Splashdown and f’ it up 😉

Scotland lose Wilson for the rest of The tournament.

Always a pleasure to see the England haters on here. Maybe some marginal decisions did go England’s way….. it’s debatable whether or not Ashton would’ve scored….. Farrell’s try was definitely knocked back by a French hand imo, however it’s great to say that the ref favours England isn’t it!

Wow, quite a bit of imagination there! I don’t think anyone above has suggested the ref favours England, and for the record I support England. Doesn’t stop me having an opinion when I think they’ve had the rub of the green though. Was definitely May’s hand 🙂

“Was definitely May’s hand”

NO IT WAS NOT

Was definitely May’s hand 🙂

Go on, find a screen grab to back that up…..

They split screened it, showing both angles simultaneously. May didn’t touch it. One angle looks like he does, but split screen shows that was just foreshortening.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47192062

about 4:40 on the video, conveniently JM has wrist strapping on to make it even more obvious

Scotland have injury worries re Jones and Hogg too. Their squad could be really stretched if they’re too broken to play much more.

From the replays that I saw, it did look like it was the French player who knocked the ball back. At the end of the day, what the ref / TMO conclude is all that matters.

Sinkler was very, very lucky to stay on the field with that scrum cap pull. Whether he was hit first or not, he effectively pulled the French players hair (if he wasn’t wearing a scrum cap).

That’s a red card offence. Unsportsmanlike conduct.

The Sinkler incident is frustrating because he’s actually played really well for us over the last two teats; he’s done pretty well at scrum time, carries well and shown up really well in the loose with some good hands.

And then he does something dickish. He got away with it, but that’s not the point. Another ref could easily have reached for a card. On the whole though, our discipline has been much improved so far.

Scotland are in real trouble with injuries. Just too many to cope with.

If we get many more injuries I’m expecting a phone call, used to be pretty handy twenty five years ago.

And then he does something dickish. He got away with it, but that’s not the point. Another ref could easily have reached for a card. On the whole though, our discipline has been much improved so far.

What I found interesting was Farrell coaching him – and clearly as they waked away Sinks was still looking to Farrell for advice, it felt very “junior” from a grown rugby player.

And that’s what players / coaches say about Faz, he really, really is captain material. It’s just us armchair pundits who think he’s a petulant child!

Found a slo mo and it was indeed a French hand 😎

Why are we concentrating on Sinkler patting him on the head as opposed to the French thug who raked his face??

Hamish – I know why you thought otherwise though, the head on shot REALLY looked like May knocked on.

Why are we concentrating on Sinkler patting him on the head as opposed to the French thug who raked his face??

Always a pleasure to see the England haters on here. Maybe some marginal decisions did go England’s way…..

And we get criticised, give me strength!!

The irritating thing about Sinkler is that he appears to have an unofficial role of pissing people off. He does appear to be good at it. So its disappointing to see that he fell for his own tricks. He should have smiled at the bloke and patted him gently on the head. Would have had a much better effect.

I hope Sinkler tries to piss Moriarty off, could see some fireworks!

Looking at this series on ewetube, it looks like England may struggle to get out alive!!

I saw both of those the other day. I always thought of Moriarty as a big cuddly bear. Liam is that nice lad down the road.

no comment

~Actually that does not have some of the worst on it – and Farrell has cleaned up his act

I always thought of Moriarty as a big cuddly bear.

I’m not sure thats what Sanchez was thinking as he felt his life being choked away!!

Why are we concentrating on Sinkler patting him on the head as opposed to the French thug who raked his face??

A- Because it was more than a pat on the head.

B- Because he spoilt the best 60 minutes of rugby that England have produced since god knows when.

C- Because he’s a proper talent that could be properly world class, but seems to be more concerned with taking the crown of Weapons Grade Bellend from Mike Brown*, if he reigned in the niggle and concentrated on what he’s good at. Which on evidence presented is what a modern prop should aspire to be.

* The title was passed to Mike Brown from the repeated winner of Weapons Grade Bellend of The Year, Mike Phillips.

Why are we concentrating on Sinkler patting him on the head as opposed to the French thug who raked his face??

And D he didnt rake him.

1) The first Moriarty irish one was unfair on him, the 23 was heading down fast, he was at least aiming for his chest, but when he got there it was his head.
2) The 2nd moriarty oirish one was insane and I didn’t know he was and England junior. I’ll remember that..
3) The Sanchez neck one, I think once he committed to grabbing him round the neck I reckon he figured it was a red anyway so he may as well carry on and scare the **** out of him. Personally I think he should have been banned from the game for that but then I don’t make the rules.

I thought the french dude was just responding with a gentle slap to the first standard issue Sinkler head pat that was not seen. Sinkler effed it up by over reacting instead of smiling and patting him gently on the head like a good dog.