[sewinfly]

I was glad to see Webb back at N09

 

[pfeul]

Where's Pfeul hu must be over the moon.

Oh yes I have still not landed from there
A great performance!
I was expecting a win before the game but not with 43 points difference!

 

[Handel]

Well done France. It wasn't a great game because it was too one sided, the result was clear after 20 minutes, but some of the French back play was sublime. And France can take from it that they achieved this result despite Dupont not being at his best. If he had played like he did last season I dread to think what the score would have been. And France's lineout was a bit of a mess, the one area where England had the upper hand. You would have thought the French defence was organised by Shaun Edwards...........oh wait. A long time since I saw a French side so committed in defence. By contrast the narrow England defence didn't work, France just ran round the outside of it and the England 15 clearly wasn't comfortable with how it worked.
The starting England 9 was out of his depth, clearly reflected in how early he was substituted. His replacement was much better. But the real gap in personnel terms between the two teams was at centre, France have a proper pair of centres, England do not.

 

[Occasional salmon fisher]

Some great rugby by France albeit aided and abetted by another shambolic defensive display by England.

11 tries conceded in 2 games at Twickenham against France and Scotland ! Borthwick has a huge task on his hands.

Much better from Wales, that should give them some much needed confidence. Italy not at their recent best, 2 yellows certainly didn't help.

Hopefully a good game on the way later today.

 

[mows]

Had to steal.

 

[Aled]

Good test match today, the first half was really impressive as Scotland were totally competitive. Ireland up their game second half, despite losing both hookers! If Ireland dont win the GS next week there is something terribly wrong! Cheers. Aled

 

[mows]

Deserved winners.
Just too strong and fit.
We missed Grant for the lineouts and support in the tackles.
Fair few injuries for Ireland.

 

[ozzyian]

Ireland are good They know how to find a way of winning. In the end they won well.

For the last 10 years the Scottish line out has been consistently terrible. We've had 3 or 4 very good hookers - Ross Ford, McKinally, Brown and lately Turner but it didn't seem to matter. The lineout was always a huge liability and has undoubtedly cost Scotland a good few games. I always argue that line out ball is the most valuable of all - it's been 'placed' in a good position often by a penalty kick and everyone has the chance to get organised to make the most of the possesion.. All that has to happen is the ball delivered reliably from the jumper. Invariably this didn't happen for the last 10 years.

One of the big changes for Scotland this 6N has been the line out revelation. It's been a real weapon, instead of groaning when we win a line out I'm now grinning. This I think is all down to Ritchie Gray who I think has been the best lock of the tournament - certainly in terms of the difference he has made to the team. So, today when he went off at the 10min mark I immediately knew that we were f****d. You can't beat this Ireland with a crap lineout. Entertaining stuff though it was.

 

[Occasional salmon fisher]

Barring a miracle, Ireland should cement a grand slam next Saturday. Could be a big win as well !

I would be happy with a fighting performance from England and losing by less than 10 but I don't think that will happen.

Would be very surprised by anything other than wins for France and Scotland.

 

[Fruin]

I was at Murrayfield yesterday and, needless to say the atmosphere dropped a bit in the second half, despite a very strong Irish contingent in the crowd.
Scotland competed really well in the first half despite being pinned back for a while. With Ireland being consistently excellent just now, Scotland needed a flawless performance to be in with a chance and, unfortunately, couldn't deliver that.
I felt a lot of minor ref decisions favoured Ireland but I will need to watch the game over again, as it always feels that way on the day
Duhan culpable again for stepping in and forward in defence!

 

[Handel]

I was at Murrayfield yesterday and, needless to say the atmosphere dropped a bit in the second half, despite a very strong Irish contingent in the crowd.
Scotland competed really well in the first half despite being pinned back for a while. With Ireland being consistently excellent just now, Scotland needed a flawless performance to be in with a chance and, unfortunately, couldn't deliver that.
I felt a lot of minor ref decisions favoured Ireland but I will need to watch the game over again, as it always feels that way on the day
Duhan culpable again for stepping in and forward in defence!

You had the strongest team of officials out at the weekend, probably the strongest team that World Rugby can field at the moment.

 

[Fruin]

You had the strongest team of officials out at the weekend, probably the strongest team that World Rugby can field at the moment.

Like I said, I need to watch the game over again with the advantages of better vision on the TV. I am open enough to say that Scotland probably got away with a few as well.

 

[Handel]

Like I said, I need to watch the game over again with the advantages of better vision on the TV. I am open enough to say that Scotland probably got away with a few as well.

I wasn't suggesting they were perfect, simply that you aren't going to get any better. What they were very good at was communication, you knew exactly what was going on. I was at Twickenham where we had O'Keeffe from NZ. He hardly signals at all, communication very poor. And the Aussie lad in Rome was all over the place. That doesn't justify the absurd outburst from the Italy coach, particularly as most of what he said was incorrect and the second yellow card against his team was a straightforward red which the TMO was trying to encourage the ref to give.

 

[Fruin]

Officiating at Rugby is very difficult and I would imagine in most games the teams will leave the field thinking that some decisions have went against them... and they probably did. Sometimes, the ref must make a best guess as to what went on, especially in scrums and the contact areas. Nowadays, I think good linesmen and TMO are as important as the ref; the ref can only ever see one angle in real time.

 

[salarchaser]

I was glad to see Webb back at N09

Compared to previous 9s of late, Webb had better ball. In the 1st half our ball carriers got across the gainline, even with a few 'pick and go'. It gave Webb some front foot ball. Second half Italy stopped that and his impact waned.
No doubt he had a good game, but felt he had a boost in achieving that.
I strongly feel our problems at 9 and 10 stems from our lack of ball carriers up front.

 

[salarchaser]

Officiating at Rugby is very difficult and I would imagine in most games the teams will leave the field thinking that some decisions have went against them... and they probably did. Sometimes, the ref must make a best guess as to what went on, especially in scrums and the contact areas. Nowadays, I think good linesmen and TMO are as important as the ref; the ref can only ever see one angle in real time.

Its a good shout. Officials work as a team. There is trust between officials and there is the confidence by touch judges to step in and advise the ref, being international refs themselves. We've had instances in this tournament of touch judges (or are they called assistant referees?) talk a ref up from a yellow to a red (almost everyone except the ref thought it was a red) and talking down from a red to a yellow, correctly in my view. They also get heavily involved at scrum time and often you will get a touch judge walking a long way onto the pitch to get closer to the action.
The trust is seen at scrum time when a ref gives a penalty when on the opposite side to the offence, relying solely on the touch judge.
TMO's are also integral, not just in finding footage at the request of the ref, but in identifying things that were missed in real time. Several times on the weekend, ref's were called back to an incident 30seconds earlier with the TMOs justified in their intervention.
And in the spirit of inclusion, many of the top TMOs in the Gallagher Premiership are women.
Real teamwork.
And its not luck, these guys have away days / weeks to work on their technique. Real professionals.

 

[ozzyian]

Officiating at Rugby is very difficult and I would imagine in most games the teams will leave the field thinking that some decisions have went against them... and they probably did. Sometimes, the ref must make a best guess as to what went on, especially in scrums and the contact areas. Nowadays, I think good linesmen and TMO are as important as the ref; the ref can only ever see one angle in real time.

It's hard not to think there is a pecking order of who gets away with most. Always used to be said (in the NH) that it was the ABs, now it's the Irish and before them it was Farrell. Even if it's not true it's a vital part of the sport

 

[Handel]

Its a good shout. Officials work as a team. There is trust between officials and there is the confidence by touch judges to step in and advise the ref, being international refs themselves. We've had instances in this tournament of touch judges (or are they called assistant referees?) talk a ref up from a yellow to a red (almost everyone except the ref thought it was a red) and talking down from a red to a yellow, correctly in my view. They also get heavily involved at scrum time and often you will get a touch judge walking a long way onto the pitch to get closer to the action.
The trust is seen at scrum time when a ref gives a penalty at scrum time when on the opposite side to the offence, relying solely on the touch judge.
TMO's are also integral, not just in finding footage at the request of the ref, but in identifying things that were missed in real time. Several times on the weekend, ref's were called back to an incident 30seconds earlier with the TMOs justified in their intervention.
And in the spirit of inclusion, many of the top TMOs in the Gallagher Premiership are women.
Real teamwork.
And its not luck, these guys have away days / weeks to work on their technique. Real professionals.

It was noticeable on Saturday that the TMO in Rome thought (rightly) that the second yellow should have been red but couldn't talk the ref into it. The team on Sunday was exactly that, they have worked together a lot.

 

[salarchaser]

Gatlands 'pick names out of a hat' selection policy continues.

Wales: Rees-Zammit; Adams, North, Tompkins, Dyer; Biggar, Webb; W Jones, Owens (capt), Francis, Beard, AW Jones, Wainwright, Tipuric, Faletau.

Replacements: Roberts, Thomas, Lewis, D Jenkins, Reffell, T Williams, O Williams, Halfpenny.

 

[Handel]

Gatlands 'pick names out of a hat' selection policy continues.

Wales: Rees-Zammit; Adams, North, Tompkins, Dyer; Biggar, Webb; W Jones, Owens (capt), Francis, Beard, AW Jones, Wainwright, Tipuric, Faletau.

Replacements: Roberts, Thomas, Lewis, D Jenkins, Reffell, T Williams, O Williams, Halfpenny.

Tompkins must be thinking “can’t get a game and then Fickou and Danty “.