Rugby: All rugby discussion

[Fighter]

Heartbreaking last minute loss for Italy, exactly when it seemed possible to win after a record drought. Tough to swallow, especially when from left and right people is asking if Italy belongs to the Six Nations... Well, not easy to beat team used to fight for the World Cup and, aside of the All Blacks, at the very least three out of those five are even better than those in the southern emisphere! Heck, even this year Scotland was the best I've ever seen.
Congrats to Ireland, they can go very far next year in the World Cup in Japan if they keep this up.

 

[Rocko604]

I'm all but certain I'm 100% out of luck, but I'll ask anyway: How can one get tickets to England/Scotland next year at Twickenham without a) being a friend/family member, or b) being a member of an RFU club? My only hope is my wife's cousin's friend is still on the coaching staff for Scotland by then.

If I'm SOL, Plan B is a Harlequins match as we'll be walking distance to the Stoop.

 

[flyingkiwi]

Warriors fans right now

 

[Morozov]

I'm all but certain I'm 100% out of luck, but I'll ask anyway: How can one get tickets to England/Scotland next year at Twickenham without a) being a friend/family member, or b) being a member of an RFU club? My only hope is my wife's cousin's friend is still on the coaching staff for Scotland by then.

If I'm SOL, Plan B is a Harlequins match as we'll be walking distance to the Stoop.

You'll probably be able to get one you'll just have to pay a fortune for it.

 

[sabremike]

South Sydney looking good today vs St George, up 12-0 near the half. Come on you Bunnies!!!!

 

[Morozov]

The first 30 minutes of Wales/South Africa was the worst 30 minutes of Rugby I've seen in my life.

Perfect way to showcase the game in America.

 

[Siamese Dream]

The first 30 minutes of Wales/South Africa was the worst 30 minutes of Rugby I've seen in my life.

Perfect way to showcase the game in America.

Wales' games against South Africa seem to almost always be terrible for some reason. I literally can't even remember what happened in the World Cup Q/F against them in 2015. Probably second only to England v France for the most consistently boring test fixture.

 

[Morozov]

Finally it is NSWs time again.

f*** Queensland, f*** Chambers UP THE BLUES.

 

[Siamese Dream]

Big international rugby day today with 5 games throughout the day.

Nice to see the All Blacks giving France a good hiding with some fast running rugby.

Something England could learn from, instead of turning up every year with a team that should demolish France on paper but instead play a slow, conservative game which suits France nicely and they just wear each other down, turning the game into a snooze fest as I've mentioned previously.

 

[Siamese Dream]

Tweet of the year



The incident it refers to, in the 2002 Heineken Cup final



The interference of the TMO really does seem to be getting out of hand

 

[Siamese Dream]

Big start for England. Daly booted a penalty over from his own 10 metre line and then they scored a try in the corner with a Farrell conversion in less than 5 minutes

Edit: England were up 24-3 in less than 20 minutes, at half time South Africa now up 29-27

 

[davemess]

Nice to see the All Blacks giving France a good hiding with some fast running rugby.

Feel kinda bad for France, they were in that match until the Ref gave the Yellow card for a high tackle.

It wasn't even a high tackle but the Ref didn't look at the Video, he gave the Yellow straight away.

It did look bad in real time but the replay clearly showed zero contact to the head/neck ........ I did wonder if the ref didn't want to look at the video because he was worried he would have to give a Red.

All Black scored twice with the man advantage and France crumbled.

Refs call was made even worse later when Kane made a bad high tackle on a French player that should have been at least a yellow and close to a Red..... and again the Ref didn't want to go to the Video.

 

[Siamese Dream]

France are just a poor side these days. You look at their current lineup and nobody really stands out other than Bastereaud. They've had a revolving door of coaches and it's obvious that politics has played a big part in some of their baffling squad selections. Even then they don't have any world class players anymore, I wonder how much of that is down to the funny money floating about in the Top 14 and the big clubs like Toulon just buying in foreign players in the twilight of their careers. No that long ago it used to be that teams like Stade Francais and Toulouse were great Heineken Cup challenging clubs with French stars making up the core of their team but that isn't the case anymore, now it's Toulon and Racing 92 with their big name foreign players.

 

[davemess]

The flood of non-French players playing in their leagues is a huge issue for the French national team.

 

[Morozov]

Basteraud is all shit, we have big dudes too, we call them props. So overhyped.

Was a big day for the tri nations teams. France got rinsed. Having Dmac and Laumape come on fresh to feast on tired teams at 60 minutes is almost unfair.

England blew that game. You can't get that lead and lose. Several dumb penalties. A big losing streak for them now after being supposedly the second best team in the world.

 

[Siamese Dream]

Basteraud is all ****, we have big dudes too, we call them props. So overhyped.

Was a big day for the tri nations teams. France got rinsed. Having Dmac and Laumape come on fresh to feast on tired teams at 60 minutes is almost unfair.

England blew that game. You can't get that lead and lose. Several dumb penalties. A big losing streak for them now after being supposedly the second best team in the world.

England's backs looked like world beaters in the opening 20, then were ineffective in attack and Swiss cheese in defense for the next 60. Youngs isn't an international quality 9 to be honest, at this level you've got to bring more than just being a ball distributor. Itoje despite scoring a try had a poor game giving away a lot of those dumb penalties, the back row so invisible I couldn't even remember who started the game, don't think Billy Vunipola had a single carry. Front row didn't really do anything either except Jamie George who was noticeably terrible. They didn't have anyone coming off the bench who could make an impact either, to be fair it looks like those were mostly newer guys they wanted to give a run out.

Wales having a much better game than last week against Argentina so far, they're missing a lot of their first choice players in many positions

 

[Siamese Dream]

Softest red card I've seen seen since Warburton in the 2011 semi-final, in fact this one was probably even worse

I've seen much worse challenges in the air be penalty-only or yellows at most

Edit: Brilliant example at the start of the Australia v Ireland game. Koroibete gets a yellow for a tip tackle that a more overzealous referee would have easily given a red, the commentators were certainly worried it might be

 

[Siamese Dream]

And meanwhile in the Springboks v England game, Mako Vunipola smacks someone's head into the ground and it's a penalty only. Itoje also kicked de Klerk in the balls immediately after but nobody noticed because they were too busy looking at what Vunipola did

 

[Siamese Dream]

Are Argentina this shit in the Rugby Championship? Wales have got like their 3rd string team out against these guys

 

[Morozov]

Softest red card I've seen seen since Warburton in the 2011 semi-final, in fact this one was probably even worse

I've seen much worse challenges in the air be penalty-only or yellows at most

Edit: Brilliant example at the start of the Australia v Ireland game. Koroibete gets a yellow for a tip tackle that a more overzealous referee would have easily given a red, the commentators were certainly worried it might be

That was 100% a red card because he fell on his head. That's the rules. He wasn't in a position to contest the ball, he didn't give Barrett a safe zone and Barrett fell on his head. All of that equals a definite red card. If you follow Super Rugby you'd have seen many being sent off for less. That's the rules now.

And the reason we have these rules is because of exactly what happened. Barrett wiped out of the game, is experiencing concussion symptoms now and potentially not playing this week. It could even be much worse.

Nothing soft about that at all, it was the exact right decision by the rules of the game.

 

[Siamese Dream]

That was 100% a red card because he fell on his head. That's the rules. He wasn't in a position to contest the ball, he didn't give Barrett a safe zone and Barrett fell on his head. All of that equals a definite red card. If you follow Super Rugby you'd have seen many being sent off for less. That's the rules now.

And the reason we have these rules is because of exactly what happened. Barrett wiped out of the game, is experiencing concussion symptoms now and potentially not playing this week. It could even be much worse.

Nothing soft about that at all, it was the exact right decision by the rules of the game.

The France player barely left the ground, had eyes on the ball the whole time and didn't make any arm movement to initiate contact. Barrett literally just jumped into him and ended up toppling over.

I'm not saying it's not the rules, just that the rules are getting a bit ridiculous, I have a hard time buying into these red cards for stuff like this which is just incidental contact. As a hockey referee we often talk about what is called "the spirit of the rule" which for this one is to stop players deliberately tackling in the air and the interpretation of the laws is starting to go way beyond this now.

High tackles are starting to go the same way as well, in recent years the players are being coached to tackle more and more the upper body rather than the legs, which has resulted in more and more accidental contact with the head by stray arms, but instead of addressing this issue properly and coaching it back out of the players, they just get the refs to throw out cards left right and centre to ruin the game.

 

[Morozov]

The France player barely left the ground, had eyes on the ball the whole time and didn't make any arm movement to initiate contact. Barrett literally just jumped into him and ended up toppling over.

I'm not saying it's not the rules, just that the rules are getting a bit ridiculous, I have a hard time buying into these red cards for stuff like this which is just incidental contact. As a hockey referee we often talk about what is called "the spirit of the rule" which for this one is to stop players deliberately tackling in the air and the interpretation of the laws is starting to go way beyond this now.

High tackles are starting to go the same way as well, in recent years the players are being coached to tackle more and more the upper body rather than the legs, which has resulted in more and more accidental contact with the head by stray arms, but instead of addressing this issue properly and coaching it back out of the players, they just get the refs to throw out cards left right and centre to ruin the game.

The fact he barely left the ground literally counts against him in the rules because he wasn't in a position to compete and that is reflected in his meek contest. If you aren't in a position to compete, you have to give them a safe space.

The player didn't follow the rules, as a result another player suffered an injury. That sort of situation can be career ending, concussions can be career ending. I know someone who played for the All Blacks who was forced to retire prematurely due to concussions. That's why we have these rules.

How anyone can see the results for Barrett and say it's soft is ridiculous. It certainly isn't anywhere close to the softest send off, but I'm assuming you don't follow Super Rugby to be making that comment.

Players in Union aren't being coached to tackle higher.

 

[Morozov]

One of the great Origins #uptheblues

Also, in case anyone has questioned McKenzie's credentials lol. Couple of iffy passes but nobody else has someone capable of what he can do. So much fun to watch. Still want Beaudy and Smith at 10 and 15 but off the bench he is going to be such a huge factor at the World Cup.

 

[Siamese Dream]

Wales and Lions captain Sam Warburton has retired at age 29.

He didn't play at all in the 17/18 season because of injury so it isn't really surprising but still 29 is quite an early age to go. On his day he was probably the 2nd best pure natural 7 in the world behind Richie McCaw. Really fell of the cliff recently though because of his injuries, Wales won't really miss him much in that position with Justin Tipuric who was always good enough to be a starting 7 on a tier 1 nation but always behind Warburton, and they obviously really rate Ellis Jenkins who they picked to captain the 2018 summer tour.

It's also extra delicious that he could've potentially played for England, who haven't had a decent 7 since Neil Back. I can't resist mentioning how glorious it was watching them get utterly smacked about by the Wallabies who sent out two proper 7s in Hooper and Pocock at the same time in the World Cup against their zero proper 7s in that match.

 

[Ivan13]

Crusaders are so, so good.

As for Warburton, damn shame that his most memorable play on the field is that red. Loved that Welsh team and wanted them to play the AB in the finals.