Winters coming;all inclusive rugby thread.

YES!!!!

took your bloody time you bunch of farmers! 🙂

Now i need a bath for shouting for Glaws…

It would be better if Welsh got relegated by themselves,rather than with a bit of help from the RFU Tbh.

Too true.
But also:

It would be better if Welsh got relegated attempted to stay up by themselves,rather than with a bit of help from the RFU “rogue employees” Tbh.

Anyway, Sale and Irish did what they needed to.
Oxford Ineligibles didn’t.

And Leinster on top thanks to
Ian Madigan 22 – Glasgow 17
Lions Wildcard 🙂

The problem for welsh was the inability to recruit prior to the season as they didnt know where they were going. I didnt think they’d win a game. They started well but have faded due to injuries to player like Hudson Tonghuia.

Need some Orange to cheer me up.

The conspiracy theorist in me isnt too happy that one of the better Welsh players signs for Sale next season and then gets injured for the run in too!

Henson always looks like he has time on the ball – sign of a quality player. So much rugby potential unfulfilled there.

What next for Henson? Will he stick around in the Championship?

I’ve heard Tango are planning a new` series of adverts…..

With all the faff that goes on around Henson it is so easy to forget his talent. Some of those clearance kicks were devastating! A Hook tribute would look much the same with similar effortless time on the ball yet what are these two really doing nowadays? Nowhere near their potential. It would be amazing to see a calm and dedicated Henson back again but there just isn’t enough motivation in the world to get him back on track rugbywise

It would be amazing to see a calm and dedicated Henson back again but there just isn’t enough motivation in the world to get him back on track rugbywise

Everytime I have seen him play for London Welsh this season he’s been a class apart. Too few starts though. I read a comment on gwlad attributed to a former Ospreys team mate who said “for someone who doesnt really like rugby he isnt half bloody good at it!” If they can afford to keep him he might stay with Lyn, if Lyn goes I wouldnt be suprised to see him follow, he seems to struggle away from Lyn’s “care”.

Henson is the Welsh equivalent of Keith Earls.
Very similar records, domestically and Internationally, just Keet’s achieved his in 5 years less.
Only major difference is Keet has a Heineken cup medal to Gav’s Strictly achievements .

“for someone who doesnt really like rugby he isnt half bloody good at it!”

Sums it up! To be fair, as you say a_a the London Welsh comeback has been far and away his most successful comeback 😀

Henson is the Welsh equivalent of Keith Earls.

Except that Henson doesn’t continually spurn overlaps. Numbers!

Henson is the Welsh equivalent of Keith Earls.
Very similar records, domestically and Internationally, just Keet’s achieved his in 5 years less.
Only major difference is Keet has a Heineken cup medal to Gav’s Strictly achievements .

Except ones shit and has used his talent to full potential and the other is a prodigiously talented rugby player who has won two grandslams, started Lions tests and won Celtic league titles and hasnt achieved half what he could of done had the top two inches worked as well as the rest.
[
Here is his response to Lord Balds decision to play St Johnny at 12 in the first test. How did Keet get on for the Lions?

Saffas giving Quins a stuffing. Ashton has had another shite game and has been yellowed for a high tackle 5 mins from the end-pretty nasty one I thought too.

Thought he was going to get a red for that.

More fuel for the fire:

“Before the championship, we had a meeting with Joel Jutge, the IRB’s Match Official Manager and we continued to have dialogue with him throughout the tournament, post and pre-match.

“But I didn’t meet the referees on any occasions on a Friday, which I did in the autumn.

“I decided before the championship that I wouldn’t meet them and I didn’t.

“I feel the messages you try and get over from a coaching perspective sometimes inhibit their space.

“They are the best referees in the world, so let them go out and referee the game.

“Whether it’s paid dividends or not, the results probably suggest it might.

“What I’ve constantly tried to do is give Joel Jutge feedback, not only from our games but others as well.

“It’s just a case of picking out elements of the game, little snippets of technical things, whether it’s at scrum-time or the contact area and asking the question.

“We had really good dialogue between myself and Joel and hopefully that will continue.

“As coaches, referees and players we all have the responsibility to work together to enable a better product for the supporters to watch.

“And I thought Steve Walsh (pictured) played a huge part in that last week.

“It takes three to tango with the game which everyone saw. I thought he was very intelligent in promoting positive rugby.

“The speed of the ball enabled both teams to play.

“I thought he was consistent in the breakdown. He allowed the tackler maybe one or two seconds on the ball.

“I thought he was equally consistent with both sides with penalising for not rolling away.

“It’s clearly speed of ball at the contact is what they look for and he promoted that, positive rugby.”

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/rugbyna…#ixzz2OSE5By00

As much as I appreciate that as a coach you have to back your boys I was surprised England came out and criticised the referee so much,” Jones said, referring to the midweek barbs aimed by Rowntree and his England boss, Stuart Lancaster, at Steve Walsh’s handling of the scrum and breakdown in Wales’s 30-3 thrashing of their team in the Six Nations’ Championship decider in Cardiff. “I was surprised [to hear it] from ‘Wig’ [Rowntree]. We’ve always got on – when we played against each other and when he was a coach with the 2009 Lions. It’s frustrating when Wales have done well, but it’s as if people don’t want to see us do well and just want to think of any excuse.”

Jones was even more unimpressed with Johnson, the interim Scotland coach. “He said we were cheating in the scrum at Murrayfield. But there’s three calls – crouch, touch, set – and if you go before ‘set’ you’re cheating the engagement and it was blatantly obvious that’s what Scotland were doing.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/international/lions-tour-pack-mentality-shows-scrum-still-has-big-role-8547195.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/21918373

Matt Stevens?

It’s not April 1st today is it?!?

He was up against James Johnston,a very good prop

No Mark,that would be his brother Census. Just a coach building up his own players that is.

On the Ashton yellow, the tackle wasn’t as bad as how he would have left his team exposed if he hadn’t knocked him down.I don’t understand somebody who,especially with a league background, just jumps up so much.

Stevens has put weight on to aid his return to tight head 😕 He was ok yesterday….gave Marler a bit of a stuffing, but at international level he is an absolute penalty machine!

Vunipola was excellent again…his first start in a prem game was this season which is crazy!

The Richard Hibbard interview on the link above is pretty funny

Asked if his tattoos have significance

As a typical Welsh teenager growing up I just got the normal random tattoos everywhere”

Asked about the hour of one on one tackling sessions on “crazy Tuesdays”

The under 20’s come in and train, at the end of that session we have an hour of tackling… you choose your group. If you are a tad sore you go with the less hitter boys. If you are keen you go in your Alun Wyn group. He’s a machine!

The clip is then Alun Wyn pushing Ashton off his feet around a ruck and then pushing Steve Walsh almost off his feet to tackle Youngs darting around the ruck 😀

Ashton’s was a shocker, maybe not actual damage, but he had no intention of going low and was left exposed on his wing through bad positioning.

Stay inside the man, position hips and shoulder at angle to line force attacker outside you. Failing that angle in and drive the tackle. He was left flat footed and flung the arm out. What happened to attacking the ball? Maybe it’s because I’m short but going high is poor technique even if you make the tackle stick.

onehundredthidiot – Member
Ashton’s was a shocker, maybe not actual damage, but he had no intention of going low and was left exposed on his wing through bad positioning.

I didn’t see the Ashton tackle but in S15 Reds v Bulls, the Bulls no 14 was yellow carded for a tip tackle but it looked to me as if the player he tackled – the Reds n03 iirc – jumped over his shoulder and momentum did the rest.

There was also an interesting call earlier in the S15 weekend where a player went up for a high ball and seemed to see the tackler coming towards him so threw his foot up, effectively karate kicking the tackler in the head/chest area.

prop at fault here IMO

I agree *shudders*

That’s the one a_a. Even the Aussie commentators struggled to keep their bias.

cant see too much to complain about here

both this and the one above were yellows to the tackler, second one probably fair yellow the tackler did lift when he didnt need to

Roberts did well here not to drop Tuilagi on his bonce:

London Welsh lose their appeal, although the suspended points deduction is removed the 5 point deduction & £15’000 fine stay in place.

Excellent news 8)

Alway going to happen,it is not as if it was one or two games,it was most of the season. Still,they have improved a fair bit; it would be nice to see them go down and come straight back up again,well nice if you like the underdog, not so nice if you are a blazer at the RFU.

So Sale the incompetent buch or morons get lucky this year, you must be very proud Dwarf 😉

Better than cheats 😛

Ho hum. I can’t say that I’ll be that bothered to see Welsh relegated. I’d like to see Irish gone to….get some some Northern teams back in!

Lego genius

I was just gonna post that…

Genius! 😀

So Lions vs Baa baa’s in the warm up match. Lions scrum coach = Rowntree, and the ref is……. that’s right – Stevie Walsh….

This is a bit worrying about a legend of the game 🙁

http://tvnz.co.nz/rugby-news/jerry-collins-released-japanese-jail-5386836

The back story is weird

“When they saw how big he was they called for back up.” 😀

He is actually supposed to be a top bloke, has he not turned out the odd time for Cornish Pirates because he played for them when he was a young guy travelling? Hope this isn’t a sign of wider issues for him.

Hmm that Jerry Colins story is a bit odd.

Some decent looking matches in this weekends Pro12

Glasgow v Munster
Leinster v Ulster
Blues v Ospreys
Dragons v Scarlets

Jerry played for Barnstaple 2nd XV whilst visiting relatives. Wore the Barnstaple socks in the Baabaa game too. The back story is brilliant.