Six Nations 2021

[tamada]

Looks like it's down to France and Wales.

France needs to see off Ireland first. They're handing out these bonus points like sweeties this year.

[AlexO]

Will be interesting to see if our Keltic (deliberate misspell, so no one confuses them with a certain football team) friends can win a match against a full 15 man team. The loss of a player for even 10 minutes can really change the outcome of a game. Apart from the result, a very good test match to watch.

[tamada]

England can't get it up

.
There you have it folks, the sight of 15 sweaty socks didn't give the English roses a woody.

[tamada]

Just heard the French head* coach plus one other member of their non-coaching staff tested +ve for the "other big C". Seven days quarantine so good job it's the long break before they face the sexy Scots.

*corrected earlier post

[tamada]

So far five French first team picks will be out due to Covid when they meet Scotland in Paris.

[tamada]

Another 5 French players, including their team captain, test +ve for Covid. This places the game in jeopardy with the option to be played at a later date. However, the Scots have pointed out that this option could result in their fielding a weakened team due to the limited release that players have from their club commitments. However, I reckon that could also apply to the French team as well.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/56154026

[tamada]

Wales 40-24 England

That'll leave a mark, eh?

[tamada]

Italy 10-48 Ireland

cucchiaio di legno

[AlexO]

English a bit hard done by with the Taffs first try, but the boys from the vallee's deserved their win over their rivals. My question about Wales being able to play/win a full match against 15 answered emphatically.

[tamada]

English a bit hard done by with the Taffs first try, but the boys from the vallee's deserved their win over their rivals. My question about Wales being able to play/win a full match against 15 answered emphatically.

As Eddie Jones has suggested, they lacked the emotional strength to get over the refereeing decisions and get stuck in. Maybe that's more of a comment on Farrell?

Anyhoo, with the French team's indiscipline causing the postponement of the Scotland game and the French referee's shocking mistakes inflating the Welsh scoreline, is anyone else seeing a trend here?

[vlad]

Lacked emotional strength ok eddie suppose the high penalty count yet again had nothing to do with it? England gave awat too many penalties and made there task harder. Some dubiouse refferreing decistions went against them like a Welsh player knocking on ie knocking the ball forward which then resulted in a try should have been a scrum with England putting it in. Then not allowing the entire backline to set there line to defend. Not thinking fast enough all and all a poor effort from England once there heads went down that allowed Wales to dominate them.

[dragonz]

Lacked emotional strength ok eddie suppose the high penalty count yet again had nothing to do with it? England gave awat too many penalties and made there task harder. Some dubiouse refferreing decistions went against them like a Welsh player knocking on ie knocking the ball forward which then resulted in a try should have been a scrum with England putting it in. Then not allowing the entire backline to set there line to defend. Not thinking fast enough all and all a poor effort from England once there heads went down that allowed Wales to dominate them.

Have to understand the rules really .
It is not a knock on until the ball has hit the ground or another player as in when you drop the ball forward to kick it.The ball was hit forward by ree-zammitts hand then hit his leg and went backwards which in fact was really a backwards kick.

"Then not allowing the entire backline to set there line to defend."?????? Why should he do that it is up to england to set their back line not go to have a drink . Why were their water carriers on the field ? There was not a break in play .He had already put time on and the wales scrum half asked him if he could play and the ref said yes. He told this to owen whiner farrell . Ref said i gave you enough time and then put time on it was your fault your water carriers were on the field .
Farrell complained to the ref for every single decision and you could see the ref was angry with him . When i played was always told get the ref on your side , never complain be polite and accept his decisions and there are lots of games i have watched where the ref gives the 50/50 decisions to one team because the other team pissseed him off.
In wales farrell know as the most hated man in rugby. Biggar and rees- webb not to far behind they have cost us decisions with their ref complaints

[vlad]

Im not moaning we were beaten by the better side, but others have stated the french Referee was not fair in the penalty count and his overall refereeing its not sour grapes most of the players were still coming back to the defensive line and was not given time to form up maybe they should have ran back to line up ?.

[dragonz]

Im not moaning we were beaten by the better side, but others have stated the french Referee was not fair in the penalty count and his overall refereeing its not sour grapes most of the players were still coming back to the defensive line and was not given time to form up maybe they should have ran back to line up ?.

I never said you were moaning but the ref was not as bad as barnes has been for wales over the years .Barnes seems to hate wales and we have not won many games with him reffing.
To be honest the knock on was how you look at it .It probably was a knock on but the rules are very vague on it .The rule states if you lose control of the ball it is a knock on so most of the time even if you hit the ball forward with your hand then regather it should be a knock on and always used to be .It was not only the ref who said it was not the TMO said so too so cannot blame the ref as he went on TMO advice.
There is no rule saying the ref has to give the team time to line up and there was 20 seconds from the penalty to blowing the whistle for time on. 20 seconds is a long time to form up and the water carriers should not have been on the pitch . Time to stop that as it is not good to have them running on the pitch to give instructions ie coaching every time the play stops . if the water carriers had not been there england would have been ready. You can see the same thing happen in lots of games when teams go to sleep. Wales have 4 players in the 22 and england had 15 and should have left some players there to stop the quick one .

[tamada]

When the referee publicly apologizes for being wrong (like he already has) and the authorities say he won't be allowed to officiate over an England game again (like they already have), I guess this game's post mortem is over. The better team did win on the day even if those two tries overly flattered. dragonz has a good point with Farrell's attitude and not getting the referee onside; I think one rugby pundit described his protests as barking. As for the penalties they were giving away like lollies, you would have thought the spanking they got at Twickenham where they gave away four penalties in the opening five minutes would have stopped them doing that again.

[tamada]

Went off the boil after the French got infected, buggered the schedule and the Welsh ran rampant... until yesterday. No Grand Slam but it will take a major miracle (like loads of French tries and bonus points) for Wales to lose this Six Nations.

It's up to a full-strength Scotland now to torpedo them (unless the clubs can't get adequate compensation for the Scots on extended international release).

[AlexO]

Should be an interesting game next week. France have something to play for but cannot see the Scots getting humped enough to prevent Wales winning the Six Nations. Reckon the Scots have enough in the tank to win. Could be a couple of guys in a London Dole Queue next week.

[dragonz]

I think the game is now ruined by the health and safety fanatics . Teams who get the least amount of cards win . ref and cards rule now . Wales perhaps won 2 games because of cards and lost one because of cards .
120 KG player roll away from the tackle in 1 second with 3 players on top of you or yellow card , Tackle a player on the chest hand hits the ball slips up to the head yellow card . tackle a player who ducks to miss your arm so you hit him on the head yellow card .Sprint down the wing after a high ball jump in the air travel 5 metres hit the full backs head with your legs and topple over him he gets yellow card .Put you arm over a players shoulder seat belt style classed as high tackle even though never touched the head.
If they think touching a players head is dangerous why is boxing allowed ?

[AlexO]

I think the game is now ruined by the health and safety fanatics . Teams who get the least amount of cards win . ref and cards rule now . Wales perhaps won 2 games because of cards and lost one because of cards .
120 KG player roll away from the tackle in 1 second with 3 players on top of you or yellow card , Tackle a player on the chest hand hits the ball slips up to the head yellow card . tackle a player who ducks to miss your arm so you hit him on the head yellow card .Sprint down the wing after a high ball jump in the air travel 5 metres hit the full backs head with your legs and topple over him he gets yellow card .Put you arm over a players shoulder seat belt style classed as high tackle even though never touched the head.
If they think touching a players head is dangerous why is boxing allowed ?

Slight difference from a punch in the ring while trained to defend yourself than a 120/130Kg guy coming in at speed and making contact with your head/neck. Some, in fact most are accidental in as far as deliberately trying to maim/damage the player but the bosses are really trying to make the game safer while still a spectator sport. Do we want to see the game go down the USA version where there is so much body armour used its nearly as exciting as netball.

[dragonz]

I think the game is now ruined by the health and safety fanatics . Teams who get the least amount of cards win . ref and cards rule now . Wales perhaps won 2 games because of cards and lost one because of cards .
120 KG player roll away from the tackle in 1 second with 3 players on top of you or yellow card , Tackle a player on the chest hand hits the ball slips up to the head yellow card . tackle a player who ducks to miss your arm so you hit him on the head yellow card .Sprint down the wing after a high ball jump in the air travel 5 metres hit the full backs head with your legs and topple over him he gets yellow card .Put you arm over a players shoulder seat belt style classed as high tackle even though never touched the head.
If they think touching a players head is dangerous why is boxing allowed ?

Slight difference from a punch in the ring while trained to defend yourself than a 120/130Kg guy coming in at speed and making contact with your head/neck. Some, in fact most are accidental in as far as deliberately trying to maim/damage the player but the bosses are really trying to make the game safer while still a spectator sport. Do we want to see the game go down the USA version where there is so much body armour used its nearly as exciting as netball.

I think tyson punching you in the head is far worse than anything on a rugby pitch and i played rugby for 17 years and except for a few stitches and a bruises was ok ,and watched it for over 50 years and have never seen 1 rugby player with head damage in any game i watched .It is now as exciting as netball.
I am not talking about direct contact with the head but the accidental ones ,ie payer tackles around the chest hits the ball with his arm which then bounce up and hit the player in the face or head . initial impact on the chest so secondary impact with not so much power. The seatbelt tackle ie player behind puts his arm over the shoulder and drags him down , no contact with the head just the side of the neck slightly.
The tackle in the air where a running player jumps forward into the static player then tips over him and the static player gets sent off , crazy , now players cannot compete for the high ball .
Then the new roll away rules where the ref blows for a player not rolling away at the ruck in about 1 second of the tackle . these guys are 120kgs and now are being held in so they cannot move and getting penalised ?
Then there is the unfair yellow card situation . faletau and liam williams sendings of for wales were not for the tackles THEY made but because the team had given away to many penalties in the last 10 mins or so . It was liam williams first offence and is it was at the start of the both would have been just penalties . Penalizing them for penalties given away by other players is school stuff .See the ammount of penalaies otojoe gave away for england . Should only penalize the player for giving away to many penalties not penalize a player because other players gave away penalties .
Here this all the time now refs saying to the captain your team is giving away to many penalties the next one goes .
Anyway game is ruined for me after 50 odd years