Six Nations Rugby 2018

I don't really know what happened to Scotland, that team looked more like the Scotland of five years ago than the team that played so well in the Autumn internationals. Wales were the better team but I fear we flattered them by how poorly we actually played.

For Ireland vs Wales - great kick to win it after 40(?) phases of play but I'd struggle to say either side played well.
 
Team of the weekend for me are Italy..hear me out..from where they have come from they are playing outstanding rugby for the level of game their players play in. Having two Italian teams in European rugby is really helping. Some of the Italian backs where excellent in their tenacity.

Im pleased France have some bite and the young guns have something about them.

Scotland had a shocker, built up due to autumnal form but yesterday they where just dire. I was hoping they would have a fantastic 6 Nations this year I fear they will be 5th or 6th after that performance.

France and Ireland cancelled each other out for 90% of the match but Jonny Sexton...get in..that is some calm head on that shoulder.

Im pleased that an almost makeshift England have done well. Im not sure but something isnt quite clicking, Im hoping our defence out wide isnt as glaring against Wales next weekend.


rotters
 
rotters said:
Scotland had a shocker, built up due to autumnal form but yesterday they where just dire. I was hoping they would have a fantastic 6 Nations this year I fear they will be 5th or 6th after that performance.
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Has a Welsh fan I was pleased with the win but was really disappointed with Scotland, started off well but once Gareth Davies scored that intercept try their heads went down. Also they didn't have a plan B when the style they played in the Autumn wasn't working.

I always had a sneaky feeling Wales would win but not by that much.
 
I did only see the second half in the France-Ireland game due to being on night shifts but that was a pretty good half I think. Didn't really expect that result though, but then, I didn't see France scoring their try so shouldn't think too much ahead :D Unfortunately I will miss most of the Six Nations due to work, but will try catch up with it as much as I can. And if not I'm taking my parents to see Saracens-Harlequins at the Olympic Park in March. That will be my parents first ever rugby match in real life after only seen a few games on tv from the last World Cup.
 
well it was a humdinger of a game. Unlucky wales, TMO fluffed that decision. Wales also had a very strong last 20 mins, but other than that they had to be very defensive against a rapid English team, changing up the attacks and some awesome hands/interplay. Im not really a Johnny May fanboy but he's got some wheels and scored two crackers today.
 
I can see what you mean, but the technical play from England in the rucks and the interplay was excellent.

Todays match was electric. Kudos to both teams for being really up for this match.

Now only England or Ireland can still achieve the Grand slam.
 
Very open first half, yet again Scotland coughing up a try in the first couple of minutes had me a bit worried but the team was very professional in the second half with lots of good decisions made about just taking the points and some very solid kicking from Greig Laidlaw. Finn Russell is a bit frustrating at times, he can make some great passes and when he's on his game his kicking can be excellent but it was a bit off again this week.

I was out and didn't manage to watch either of the matches yesterday but having viewed the replays for the Welsh "try" that Watson stopped - I had thought in those situations you gave the benefit of the doubt to the attacking team or have I just got confused about the rules again?
 
rotters said:
I can see what you mean, but the technical play from England in the rucks and the interplay was excellent.
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This is the important lesson for me this weekend. Wales could not get over the gain line without a missed tackle in the whole game. England made several 30 to 50 metre drives through traffic routinely crossing the gain line and recycling. They varied the point and style of attack from the rucks and tackles extremely well. Their tackling was uncharacteristically poor and flattered Wales.

George Ford had his best game for England in a long while. His kicking game was in another class to the poor effort from Wales. England can still score tries through excellent execution but did lose attacking fluency in the second half.

Wales were unlucky with the TMO decision I would like to be reminded what the requirement is for grounding as it has been changed numerous times over the last few years. So whilst my gut feeling is Anscombe should have been given a try I want to be clear I understand the current interpretation. Anscombe played well at flyhalf and looked much more the player I remember from the Chiefs than the player we've seen in Wales.

edit: ok checked the law, if you are not holding the ball you require downward pressure to score. I can only assume the TMO didn't think Anscombe applied downward pressure, which isn't such a harsh decision.
 
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That was a try from Wales, it was a question of who got a hand to it first which the TMO claimed was England and photographs show this is incorrect, the TMO got it wrong.

I doubt Wales would have made the conversion but they had a penalty later in the game which they never took because obviously it wouldn't have made much difference to the result, with the extra 5 points it would so England were very lucky.

No idea what the TMO was watching.
 
At the time I was fairly confident it wasn't a knock on but that video is interesting. It clearly hits his knee but you can also see the ring finger unnaturally jerk backwards as well which may indicate the ball hit his finger too.
 
rotters said:
Its all a rather moot point on the grounding as the TMO missed this just prior meaning that it was knock on anyhow.

https://www.facebook.com/inattheside/videos/1564587733596622/
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It does look as if it touches his finger so maybe it was the right outcome but for the wrong reasons - in fairness to the TMO it's something that seems to have taken a number of replays and a frame by frame step-through to spot but then again if that's not the reason they didn't award the try then what reason did they give? The TMO is a great system in theory and often also in practice but sometimes it feels like they've given you quite a lot of transparency about how the decisions are made without giving you quite enough to completely satisfy the need for certainty.
 
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