Rugby Union

[tigerburnie]

3 hours ago, grandadbob said:

Don't know if anyone's seen this but they've scrapped relegation this season and one team will be promoted from Championship to make 13 in the Preniership.  Presumably so Saracens can come back?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/56044619

Stinks really, money men exerting their muscle, serve them right if BT walk away.

[BoD]

So, by how many do England need to win to go some way towards redeeming last weekend’s farce.

[St Enodoc]

17 minutes ago, BoD said:

So, by how many do England need to win to go some way towards redeeming last weekend’s farce.

1.

[Rivercider]

53 minutes ago, BoD said:

So, by how many do England need to win to go some way towards redeeming last weekend’s farce.

It has to be a bonus point win, ideally with some decent rugby along the way,

 

cheers

[rockershovel]

6 minutes ago, Rivercider said:

It has to be a bonus point win, ideally with some decent rugby along the way,

 

cheers

 

Drop two bonus points and you’re effectively out of the running. 

[rockershovel]

On 10/02/2021 at 13:23, 88D said:

I think Scotland have been developing a good team over the years. They have been let down in specific positions in the past ( eg, prop and centre) but have filled these spots now. It didn’t surprise me that they won, but the completeness of their performance did. It will be interesting to see whether EJ plays the same guys to develop form, or new guys to be blooded against Italy.

 

It would be good to see Scotland have a good tournament, if only to emphasise the difference between an inherently top class team, stretched for resources and a second tier team. I suspect that there will be much discussion of such things in the near future, and Scotland would do well to remind people what they are capable of. 

[BoD]

I do wish someone would cut the wires on that ‘flying’ camera.

[tigerburnie]

Satisfactory performance from England and a good show from Italy, they put there hearts into that match.

[grandadbob]

Could be a very long layoff for Jack Willis particularly as he’s already had an ACL reconstruction.  Real shame because he’s been playing so well and has really deserved a place in the England squad. 

[rockershovel]

Well.... that wasn’t the greatest game I ever saw, but not bad by England v Italy standards. The England centres still look at times as though they have no real idea of what is expected, Johnny May was on form, Anthony Watson looks the part. Farrell needs to stop arguing with the ref, and expressing dissent while the camera is on him... Robson in the late-career Matt Dawson/Danny Care role, coming on to speed the game up. His kicking from the hand is much more accurate than Youngs, too. Great start by Jack Willis but could be a while before we see him again; a shame. 

 

Still, the “fat boys” ground out the bonus win, Italy went away empty handed, business as usual. 

 

 

Interesting piece of commentary in the first half, though. The Italian coach is apparently exerting more influence with the clubs, telling them what he wants players coming to the national team to know and be familiar with. If Italy intend to defend their 6N position (and we must assume that they do) then they need to show how they intend to achieve, and sustain improvement. They have a “bye” this year, because the season will be regarded as compromised, so their target date is Feb 2022. They can rely on reverting to five nations as being off the table (for media and sponsorship reasons, after all that’s why they were admitted) and Georgia aren’t really offering anything Italy don’t already provide. 

 

Assuming the “great and good” are committed to someone being the sixth team, then who? Japan will drive a hard bargain and geography is against them. A show of structural development by Italy would allow the 6N Committee to defer the decision. 

 

Lets see what develops. 

 

[tigerburnie]

Discipline cost Scotland the game, not a bad second half, nip and tuck all the way to the last second.

[rockershovel]

It’s an interesting comment on the modern game that Wales have now been run very close by teams playing with 14 men, two weeks running. This isn’t the first time; consider how they squeaked past a 14-man France in Japan. 

 

Scotland also picked up a yellow (for tripping) at Twickenham. 

 

It’s not that long that losing a man was the prelude to a pretty much, automatic heavy defeat. It’s no longer true. 

Edited February 13, 2021 by rockershovel

[tigerburnie]

Well GDB is happy, seems the Tigers were game, but got too far behind, I think we won the second half, but couldn't finish off the scoring.

[Ian Hargrave]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

Discipline cost Scotland the game, not a bad second half, nip and tuck all the way to the last second.

The late Windsor Davies had a response for this . “Oh dear,how sad,never mind “. Would prefer a similar response to those who swing low. We shall see in due course. Pure individual sporting genius and athleticism won this game. I wonder how far this lad will go  ? He has on this showing the Gareth Edwards touch. More of this rather than painting by numbers we need to see in International RU.Nothing is new in this regard. Going back to the time when the RU game as we currently recognise it simply did not exist and “ squad training “ was strictly for the armed forces,I remember a well fancied Welsh side being humiliated at Twickenham by a then unknown outside half from Cornwall,name of Richard Sharpe.He ran literal rings around that Welsh team which I can remember to this day.That was pure athletic and intelligent genius and to watch it from the opposite side support was a chastening experience for which no chariots were necessary. We can do with his like now.
 

Scotland is a great nation . Thrash the English if you will as must the other home nations but no sense of triumphalism applies here. 

[Ian Hargrave]

Just looked him up. He’s around at 82. Twickenham,January 1960  England 14 Wales 6. One of those occasions you don’t forget.He was magic.

[rockershovel]

That try from a kick ahead, while running full tilt, was quite remarkable.

 

That said, Johnny May’s diving try was a bit  special; Italy’s second score was well worked... it’s been a good weekend for tries, all round, so far. 

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Ian Hargrave said:

Just looked him up. He’s around at 82. Twickenham,January 1960  England 14 Wales 6. One of those occasions you don’t forget.He was magic.

Just before my time. Calcutta Cup 1965 was the first international I went to - Andy Hancock's match. We were in the North Stand and his run was directly towards us.

[tigerburnie]

Only games I went to Twickers to see were Tigers winning the old John Player Cup, been to Murrayfield a few times for internationals and one Euro Cup when Edinburgh played the Tigers.

ps forgot the Heineken Cup final at Murrayfield when Tigers were robbed by Leinster.

Edited February 14, 2021 by tigerburnie

[Ian Hargrave]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

Only games I went to Twickers to see were Tigers winning the old John Player Cup, been to Murrayfield a few times for internationals and one Euro Cup when Edinburgh played the Tigers.

ps forgot the Heineken Cup final at Murrayfield when Tigers were robbed by Leinster.

 
Anyone remember The Middlesex Sevens,once an April event at Twickenham ? That was a great day out to watch some glorious rugby played in a great spirit.For several years it was a date with my Uncle Elwyn,one of the tribe of London Welsh whose proudest boast was that he’d met a drunken Richard Burton in the gents of the London Welsh club who apparently asked him if he wanted Liz’s autograph. That was when they were still an item. I remember the first year we went,,,,must have been in the early 1960’s.....Hawick made a great impression ,Border sides than making a speciality of that form of the game . Can’t remember if they won it though 

 

[grandadbob]

Definitely a good day out at the Middlesex 7s. I was there (still at school) in the 60s when Hawick were in it.*  Also there in 1974 to support my club, Mitcham.  Unusual that year l think as a couple of other junior clubs got through as well. We were beaten rather convincingly in the first round by North of Ireland FC who featured one C.M.H. (Mike) Gibson ! Been there a few times in years gone by to see a couple of Varsity matches and a few England games v Scotland, Ireland, France, Australia and Samoa . Also been a couple of times to watch the double headers at the start of the season.

 

Just found this: 

http://www.rugbyrelics.com/Museum/topics/middlesex-sevens.htm

London Scottish won 4 years running from 1960

 

And also this:

 

http://www.rugbyrelics.com/images/Programmes/zu/66-mi74.jpg

Edited February 14, 2021 by grandadbob

[tigerburnie]

Being an ex forward, I found 7's rather un interesting, lack of scrums and lineouts lol, the game was developed up here in the Borders, originating at Melrose at the Greenyards, I visited a few years back when the Tigers played Edinburgh in a pre season friendly, the main reason I remember it(the rugby match wasn't up to much, Tigers won it, just) Doddie Weir was walking around the ground with dozens of kids following him round like he was the Pied Piper, we exchanged "hello's".

[rockershovel]

I never played 7s or took much interest in it, being also a front-row forward but I did encounter it when No 2 Son was playing juniors. It’s a very good format for one-day tournaments, and the older juniors liked it. There was also a ten-a-side format with rucks, mauls, uncontested scrums, no lineouts which was popular with the U16s. 

[St Enodoc]

41 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

I never played 7s or took much interest in it, being also a front-row forward but I did encounter it when No 2 Son was playing juniors. It’s a very good format for one-day tournaments, and the older juniors liked it. There was also a ten-a-side format with rucks, mauls, uncontested scrums, no lineouts which was popular with the U16s. 

Tens is a brilliant tournament format. Very popular in Asia when I was reffing there. The format was slightly different though - standard Sevens variations but with five-person scrums.

[Dave Hunt]

The only bad injury I ever had playing rugby was during a sevens competition in RAF Germany when I was playing for Wildenrath against a team from the RAF hospital at Wegburg. My normal position was No. 8 so I didn't usually get involved with sevens but this time I was persuaded to despite my better judgement. I was crocodile rolled off the ball but my arm was still across it when someone sat on my hand and there was a crack. Altogether there were five doctors on the field and all agreed that it was just sprained, despite my elbow blowing up like a balloon. It wasn't until three days later that our SMO agreed that it should be x-rayed and lo and behold it was broken. Thirty years later it came back to haunt me and I ended up needing an operation.

 

Dave

[tigerburnie]

I was lucky injury wise, as a second row my shoulder popped out when a scrum collapsed and one of the opposition was a surgeon, he popped it straight back in and told me it would be fine, our skipper asked me to stay on the pitch as there was about 5 minutes to go and it was a close game, so they stuck me on the wing where I tried to tackle one handed. We won the game and my shoulders alright to this day, though as a loose head I couldn't lift the left arm to bind higher the oppo's shoulder, as was the norm back then, so I grabber his shirt instead, some refs didn't like it. Cauliflower ear was one of my more sore injuries, stung like hell for days.