Winters coming;all inclusive rugby thread.

As for Steve Walsh – we struggled with the Wales pack, and struggled again with his biased interpretation of how we play and then an inability to explain which rule we’ve transgressed. He shouldn’t be allowed to ref again until he’s changed his bias. He didnt lose us the game, we did, but he didnt help matters.

argh bless, so which calls did he get wrong? England were lucky he didnt want to give pens at scrum time,he allowed england to collapse a number and forced wales to play it. Most refs wouldnt.

Werecker, Tom B, Kryton, graham1980, Hurtmore, piemonster, winston churchill, magaret thatcher your boys took a hell of a beating 😆

Listening to that driving on the M5 in a downpour is seriously bad for your health.

Really didn’t expect to win like that, Spikey played a blinder well done Wales very very proud.

Just seen BOD’s stamp… pretty nasty that

Yes I knew Wales would win, but the way they beat up on England was something else. Just taught them a lesson in rugby, very impressive. Saying that Wales needed 16 players to beat Scotland last week. 😆

Petty yes, nasty no.

As an Irish fan I thought Walsh gave Eng a few dodgy pens tbh. Wales were outstanding and front rows still win matches!!

I wouldn’t say Walsh was biased, rather that Wales were better at reading his interpretation of the (very open to interpretation) rules!

Plus, England do themselves no favours by delaying the put in so much of the time.

IMO England lost the game by not committing to the breakdown. OK in defence but they need to commit faster and stronger at other times.

First pen in the scrum….Hibbard stood up, England got penalised. It went downhill from there.

Petty yes, nasty no.

living up to your name there!

Yes the taffs won and won in style. England forgot to turn up. Why and how did the scrums go so wrong?

I agree psling why we don’t get the **** ball in sooner I’ll never know

Why and how did the scrums go so wrong?

Three reasons;

Jenkins
Hibbard
Jones

The English front row players were handed their arses on a plate.

First pen in the scrum….Hibbard stood up,

you mean after Wales had marched them back and splintered the england scrum? England were screwed at the scrum, maybe not fair and square as that never happens but Wales were far stronger.

IMO England lost the game by not committing to the breakdown. OK in defence but they need to commit faster and stronger at other times.

Utter rubbish, did you watch the game? Wales won the game, were better in every area and stopped England from playing.

Nah Hibbard was popped up as I saw it.

Utter rubbish, did you watch the game?

Well, yes.

England forgot to turn up.

😆

Why and how did the scrums go so wrong?

Wales have been stronger in the scrums than england for sometime (as long as Adam is fit. Hibbard is a very strong scrumaging hooker. Adam had his side easily secured leaving Hibbard free to splinter the hooker and loosehead.

no doubt Tom B would ping Wales here for the hooker standing up!! Walsh didnt see it that way!!

living up to your name there!

Nope it wasn’t nasty, the Italian made a meal of it

Nasty nasty man! Stamping on a mans chest is nasty you big thugs!!! 😉

Did anyone catch Ashtons petulant footwork?

By the way, I can’t remember an international played at that pace for a long time in either hemisphere.

England players who need to worry are Haskell,Care, Ashton and Croft.

Ones who need to address some technique issues are Cole for scrummaging too high, Ben Youngs (I have a real problem with scrum halves who CANNOT pass without taking a step) and Tuilagi (he’s too explosive to be running such obvious line and not hitting more inside balls at pace).

I would have liked to see Twelvetrees earlier, I think he could be the first heir to Greenwood in terms of creativity. I don’t think his impact would have been that great today, though, the pace of the game closed down nearly all space in midfield (most breaks came from broken play or mistakes).

Did anyone catch Ashtons petulant footwork?

It was about the only thing he did all game, I think.

I would have liked to see Twelvetrees earlier, I think he could be the first heir to Greenwood in terms of creativity.

Agreed. However, he’s not a south sea islander, and therefore doesn’t fit the current selection profile. 😉

I do like the way he plays though. Inventive, good lines, and a great rugby brain. Like Mike Catt, I’d say.

Still, he didn’t get on. And the England midfield remained stilted, stunted and uncreative as only that brand of trundlemuppet can be.

Nowt wrong with Cole, it was the other two not being strong enough that was the problem. Youngs and Marler especially at least Vunipola has an impact in the loose.

And the England midfield remained stilted, stunted and uncreative

no less creative than Wales, they just lack front foot ball that game was won and lost in the front five and then backrow.

@ anagallis_arvensis

Spot on about Hibberd. I thought he had an excellent game. Ben Youngs perplexity as the scrum splintered around him shows his naivety, he didn’t seem to be running the front row as an experienced hooker would.

The hooker should be telling the props how he wants them to scrummage.

nigel ownens the only sober welshman!!

the Italian made a meal of it

I thought the biggest meal was made of that clash in the air where the Italian lad who looked a bit like Novak Djokovic got accidentally upended. He landed well enough, and was fine, but he lay there still for a bit to see if he could get the other chap sent off.

OK, can we all agree on one thing – The first person picked for the Lions touring party is 1/2p.

Superb today, I thought.

I disagree about Cole. Even if you are perceived to be the alpha prop, when you are under pressure, you should be able to go lower than your opposite number to nullify his advantage.

Check out Domingo (admittedly at loosehead) to see how an old-school technical prop can out-scrummage the out and out power scrummagers. It helps if the ref knows what he’s doing as well!

Only just managed to watch the 2nd half… Wales were brilliant today.

Maybe the England selectors will look at it and think “Hmm, wingers. Now there’s a good idea.”

England were completely out played in the second half – and weren’t that great 1st half.

England’s unbalanced back row of 3 blind sides were exposed although it’s always hard to perform as a back row when your tight 5 are getting stuffed…

With 20/20 hindsight one of the key moments from an England perspective was Tuilagi’s knock on in space early in the 1st half; England needed to nail any try scoring opportunities to stand any chance.

Ultimately however it was a great performance from Wales and it would be churlish not to congratulate them as worthy winners.

When are commentators going to stop describing Michalak as ‘talented’?

The word is ‘gash’.

He’s having a shocker……again

😀

Wtf has Gabby Logan on her head? A squirrel?

Well that went well!
Watched it all with some Taffs and Crims – we all thought it may be really tight after the first half – 3 points in it, then we forgot to come out after half time.
Loads of basic errors and I get really frustrated when we keep kicking away possession, if you don’t have the ball you cannot score. Did we forget to bring the wings this week?

edit: Well done to the Taffs, great performance, all chances taken and a deserved victory.

Did we forget to bring the wings this week?

But, he’s teh awsumz, isn’t he?

rogerthecat – Member
Did we forget to bring the wings this week?

Not just this week.

I was thinking that England would play 10 man rugby. I bet they wish that many had turned up today.

I’ve not read any of the last few posts/pages but after crying into my beer for the last few hours I’ve only deduced that Ashton is the Wayne Rooney of rugby internationals!

so how about a team of the tournament?

Huget
1/2p
Tuilagi
Fofana
Cuthbert
Gavin Henson
Phillips
Faletau
Warburton
Robshaw
AW Jones
Parling
Adam
Best
Healey

too many English I know but what can you do.