The Batman Posted February 24, 2018 Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 On 22/02/2018 at 12:34, MichaelRobartes said: France by 19. 20 hours ago, Welcome To The Jungle said: France by 15 Both closer than me and both 2 points either side of the actual total. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelRobartes Posted February 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 1 hour ago, The Batman said: Both closer than me and both 2 points either side of the actual total. I think I was six points out in total over the three games last week. Today could totally balls it up though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Batman Posted February 24, 2018 Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 3 hours ago, MichaelRobartes said: I think I was six points out in total over the three games last week. Today could totally balls it up though! Yeah I saw you were pretty close. I thought my predictions were close but you managed to beat it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Batman Posted February 24, 2018 Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 On 23/02/2018 at 08:56, The Batman said: Ireland by 10 Boom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
22A Posted February 24, 2018 Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 Just as today is Clacutta Cup day, the other nations have trophies up for grabs this weekend. France v Italy is for the Garibaldi Cup, England v Ireland = Millennium Trophy and Ireland v Scotland = Centenary Quaich, Scotland v France = Auld Alliance Cup. Dunno the name of the Ireland v Wales cup, but have been told there is one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Posted February 24, 2018 Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 England falling apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Red Posted February 24, 2018 Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 Right Eddie, get some arses kicked. This is pathetic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Red Posted February 24, 2018 Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 State of that disallowed try. If that had been given I doubt anyone from Scotland would have complained. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZiderEyed Posted February 24, 2018 Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 Not our day is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Posted February 24, 2018 Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 Well deserved by Scotland. England were pathetic though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B1ackbird Posted February 24, 2018 Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 Poor first half, waited till 70 mins to play with the intensity needed.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Batman Posted February 24, 2018 Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 It was indeed most menstrual, but Scotland did what they needed to do. England just could not got going. The whole pub erupted when we went through after our try but I knew he'd call it back for a knock on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cotham Brow Red Posted February 24, 2018 Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 Worse performance under EJ. Complacent and undone by a much more up for it Scotland and a slightly helpful Nigel Owens but overall they deserved it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lrrr Posted February 24, 2018 Report Share Posted February 24, 2018 3 hours ago, Northern Red said: State of that disallowed try. If that had been given I doubt anyone from Scotland would have complained. We were very poor but this is very true and if the try had been allowed all the momentum would have been with England after 2 quick tries, 2 points down I would have expected England to go onto winning the game. The Scots did seem to get a few soft penalties at key points, but still as said England were very poor. Suppose we have to keep the competition interesting every now and then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelRobartes Posted February 27, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2018 On 24/02/2018 at 13:01, The Batman said: Yeah I saw you were pretty close. I thought my predictions were close but you managed to beat it. I made up for it by having a shocker this weekend anyway! I was doing quite well until Saturday at least. I was two points out in the first match, miles out for Ireland - Wales and I got the points difference for the last game right but went the wrong way! France v Italy went pretty much the way everyone said it would. On a positive note, Italy's improvement in mentality as much as anything else is pretty clear to see, on the downside they still have a very long way to go. I was a bit annoyed by the Ireland - Wales match to be honest. It was slightly similar to our match in Paris (but with tries) in that we totally dominated possession and territory before letting the opposition back into it at the end and needing to get ourselves out of jail. Honourable mentions for Porter and James Ryan in a very tough match for two such young guys and for John Ryan, who'll have felt hard done by not to get the start, for coming on and providing real scrum dominance for Ireland. I thought Chris Farrell and Dan Leavy - two guys who wouldn't have been near many people's Ireland 23's in the not-too-distant past - were unbelievable and the two best players on the pitch. Sexton leaving so many points on the tee was a bit of a worry but luckily he otherwise had a very good game and Conor Murray can do anything. Scotland - England was a strange game. I was really surprised by England's performance. I don't buy that they were disinterested but maybe they did underestimate Scotland a little bit because they just looked underpowered throughout the entire match and were fairly comprehensively dominated in the contact areas which Eddie won't have liked at all. For Scotland, what a difference having a couple of world class coaches in a row makes. I know we meet them in Lansdown next but I'm really worried about that game, we will definitely need to tighten things up or they could blow us out of the water as well. I missed the game live but watched it back later and saw that there was some twitter talk about Nigel Owens' performance but to be honest I thought he had a really good game. One of the best I've seen him have this season actually after a few iffy PRO14 matches by his standards. EDIT: I meant to write that I wonder if England's big problem is their lack of ability to respond to situations during the match. If you think back to Italy's "no ruck" tactics against them last season they couldn't work out how to handle it when it was pretty clear that all they had to do was start blasting it up the middle. On Saturday it was clear from very early on that Owens was allowing the defensive side to compete for the ball at the breakdown more than many others refs would and again they couldn't adapt to that. Their back rowers are all good players but none of the starters are genuine opensides. Do they need to parachute someone like Underhill straight into the 15 to give them something a bit different there when they're losing the breakdown? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B1ackbird Posted March 10, 2018 Report Share Posted March 10, 2018 Scotland back to playing their sevens rugby, Ireland must think, thank you very much... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esmond Million's Bung Posted March 10, 2018 Report Share Posted March 10, 2018 England = slow, predictable and naive, just like BCFC for most of the past 2 months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRock Posted March 10, 2018 Report Share Posted March 10, 2018 Watching woman’s rugby France vs England on Sky now ......it’s brutal. Really pretty good stuff as well. Wonder if we could find someone to play in goal for the England football team? Handling seems prettty decent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Maesknoll Red Posted March 10, 2018 Admin Report Share Posted March 10, 2018 Next Saturday could be messy, a grand slam on the 17th.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B1ackbird Posted March 11, 2018 Report Share Posted March 11, 2018 The Irish invasion starts for Cheltenham, England will expect a massive reaction to the last two results, should be epic... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Posted March 11, 2018 Report Share Posted March 11, 2018 Credit to the Irish by far the best team. Last place i would want to be chasing a grand slam is at Twickenham. I fancy England. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
22A Posted March 11, 2018 Report Share Posted March 11, 2018 Disappointing for the England women to lose in France last night. Twice took the lead with converted tries, but couldn't hold on. Idle thought; next Saturday is March 17th - St Patrick's Day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welcome To The Jungle Posted March 12, 2018 Report Share Posted March 12, 2018 Well the wheels well and truly came off at the weekend for England. I was discussing during the Autumn with a friend that even though England were still winning, there no longer seemed to be that feeling of invincibility that existed in 2016. In fact even last years 6 nations, England scrapped past Wales and France and didn't really look comfortable. It seemed that the baiscs were starting to crumble slightly. Creative backs are all well and good, but ball retention and hard work in the pack were lacking. The games against Scotland and France, two teams on paper England should beat, showed a collapse of English discipline and cohesion. Not seen anything like it since Martin Johnson, or maybe even Andy Robinson. Indeed England look set to lose three 6 nations games for the first time since Andy Robinsons tenure. The whole scenario reminds me of Leicester City's Premier League win. The season before they had Pearson (Lancaster) who although had them well drilled and organised, was unable to unlock their creativity hand they had a disappointing season (RWC15). Enter a charismatic foreigner in Ranieri (Jones) who took on this organised if uninspired group, and added the inspiration that took them to the next level. However the basics and organisation brought by their predecessor began to be lost in favour of flair. Flair without foundation is pointless, as Leicester found and England are finding. Jones has to take this side back to the beginning. Look at all the work over the last few years, rip it up and start again. Lets sort our discipline out, as well as our breakdown and set piece. Then we can add the flair back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelRobartes Posted March 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2018 Didn't get around to doing predictions for last weekend, but I probably would have put England to win anyway. I fancied that France would give them a tough game but thought there'd be more of a reaction from England. They looked well undercooked to me and the discipline was a huge issue. I didn't understand Johnson or Paulie's problem with the yellow card and penalty try either, it was as easy a decision as you'll see. I was impressed with France's commitment. They might not be playing great stuff but Brunel certainly seems to have got some discipline into that group, dropping those lads after the Scotland game has been well rewarded. If he can re-integrate the missing guys and instil the same level of discipline and commitment into them then France will be a very dangerous side in the coming years. One of my criticisms of the English team, even when they were doing well in winning the last two Championships, is their ability to offroad in-game. I'm not sure that the way they've been coached by Lancaster and Jones has enabled them to make decisions and change things on the field when it's not going to plan. I've referenced it before but England's first half response to ruck-gate was absolutely baffling and struck me as being the response of a team so stifled by the gameplan that they don't have the imagination to solve problems themselves. I think there could also be a bit of an imbalance in the pack as well. It was commented on that England coule do with Underhill starting after last week. I thought that Robshaw had a really good game at 7 but maybe they need an extra mobile back rower in there and I wonder how necessary it is to have Lawes, Itoje and Launchbury on the pitch at the same time. I didn't think Ireland were great. Scotland blew at least two very good chances and the scoreline ended up flattering us a little bit. I'm not Schmid's biggest fan but you can't really criticise his game plan. It was very clear that, although Ireland are generally exceptional at the breakdown themselves, Scotland's threat there had been drilled into the players for two weeks and Ireland rarely conceded anything there. They're a more powerful side than Scotland and it really showed in the carrying, tackle and ruck stats. I think that Ireland have more gears, but I'm not sure if we'll see that at Twickenham. I haven't seen the Wales - Italy match yet so I can't comment on that. I've heard that Liam Williams tried to puck some lad's head off though. With all that in mind, I'm really expecting England to put it up to us this weekend and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them get a result. I'm certainly not celebrating. Obviously it's great to win the Championship but a defeat on Saturday would take most of the shine away for me. It's also worth remembering that we have stopped England from taking the Slam a few times in the last while, they shouldn't need much motivation now that they have the opportunity to return the favour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelRobartes Posted March 14, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2018 So Eddie thought Gavin Hastings' comments were inflammatory? Eddie Jones: England boss sorry for offensive comments about Wales and Ireland - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/43409476 My feelings about him have been proven right anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Posted March 14, 2018 Report Share Posted March 14, 2018 6 minutes ago, MichaelRobartes said: So Eddie thought Gavin Hastings' comments were inflammatory? Eddie Jones: England boss sorry for offensive comments about Wales and Ireland - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/43409476 My feelings about him have been proven right anyway. I think he might struggle to keep his job. Really is an arrogant tool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelRobartes Posted March 14, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2018 7 minutes ago, Super said: I think he might struggle to keep his job. Really is an arrogant tool. It's the fact that he's bringing some of the more unsavoury elements of football management into rugby that annoys me. I'm not the sort of rugby fan that goes around criticising football at every turn but one thing I really hate is the bullshit 'mind games' in the press. Stop talking shit and let's just get on with the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welcome To The Jungle Posted March 15, 2018 Report Share Posted March 15, 2018 14 hours ago, MichaelRobartes said: It's the fact that he's bringing some of the more unsavoury elements of football management into rugby that annoys me. I'm not the sort of rugby fan that goes around criticising football at every turn but one thing I really hate is the bullshit 'mind games' in the press. Stop talking shit and let's just get on with the game. I think what winds me up most is he is not English. As an Englishman, I give plenty of brief to my Celtic friends, and they give it back. I have no beef with the Kiwis however, but would fully expect a Kiwi and an Aussie to have some good craic around the Rugby Championship time. Eddie seems to have taken a very random and poorly expressed pop at Wales and Ireland. There is no need to, and he can't even create a lighthearted tone to make it sound like he is joking. Either that or he genuinely hates both countries in which case he needs to take a good look at himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelRobartes Posted March 15, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2018 20 minutes ago, Welcome To The Jungle said: I think what winds me up most is he is not English. As an Englishman, I give plenty of brief to my Celtic friends, and they give it back. I have no beef with the Kiwis however, but would fully expect a Kiwi and an Aussie to have some good craic around the Rugby Championship time. Eddie seems to have taken a very random and poorly expressed pop at Wales and Ireland. There is no need to, and he can't even create a lighthearted tone to make it sound like he is joking. Either that or he genuinely hates both countries in which case he needs to take a good look at himself. To be honest I don't care where he's from. There's nothing at all wrong with having a laugh with your mates but I don't particularly appreciate being called scummy by someone I've never met. I'm sure it was meant as a joke but it's a stupid position for the head coach of England to put himself in. The fact is that if England beat us things will look a lot more rosy for him. That's the way it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welcome To The Jungle Posted March 15, 2018 Report Share Posted March 15, 2018 10 minutes ago, MichaelRobartes said: To be honest I don't care where he's from. There's nothing at all wrong with having a laugh with your mates but I don't particularly appreciate being called scummy by someone I've never met. I'm sure it was meant as a joke but it's a stupid position for the head coach of England to put himself in. The fact is that if England beat us things will look a lot more rosy for him. That's the way it goes. I think it does matter where you are from. The banter in the six nations doesn't just come from the Rugby, but also our collective histories. It is for that reason that most Irish, Scot and Welsh fans will say they value a win over England than any other fixture. History. If me and a Scottish mate were chatting 6 nations and an American came over and started slagging off the Irish, my reaction would be something along the lines of "What has it got to do with you?" Eddie is an outsider to this Northern Hemisphere competition and so should, as you said, keep his mouth shut and get on with coaching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.