feck sake....thats what we get for having fecking Irelands Call as our anthem
Rugby 2017 Discussion
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Good start France, poor discipline England.
Irish TV giving props to your man @Mitchell Nicholas
England is going to win comfortably.
Argh. Hell of a chance for France there at the death.
Nice try France!
If you can't finish you are shite and France can't finish.
I've been thinking Wales was the game to match New Zealand, it's merely for 16! Should be a good un either way. Shame Ireland lost, Ireland vs England both going for the Grand Slam and England 19 would of been unreal, Dublin would of been absolutely bouncing.
Get through that Wales game though and it'll still be insane. Might go over with some of the lads for it, though we're going for Wales vs Ireland game too. Not sure I want too ultra expensive day trips in Dublin within 2 weeks of each other.
Get through that Wales game though and it'll still be insane. Might go over with some of the lads for it, though we're going for Wales vs Ireland game too. Not sure I want too ultra expensive day trips in Dublin within 2 weeks of each other.
Sadly just a matter of time now.Not Six Nations related but former Springbok scrumhalf, Joost Van Der Westhuizen, has been rushed to hospital in a 'critical' condition. He was diagnosed with MND in 2011. Most MND sufferers pass away between 2-5 years post receiving the diagnosis, Joost has had the disease for more than five years now. While one never wants to fear the worst, Joost may not have long left.
Decent effort. Biggest problem may have been getting run into touch so often. Really naive stuff.
Worst performance under Eddie Jones that. It was ugly but the positive I think we did a lot of good things to ensure we were never out of the game even when England were so bad. That old sporting cliche good teams playing bad but still find ways to win.
It's the strength in dept we have, missing key starters and still a strong XV and then with subs who can make an impact on a game
It's probably unrivalled in world rugby
New Zealand?
It's true. 6 first 15 out 7 if you include Man Utd. Didn't think I'd have said this a year ago but I hope Haskell starts next week, like to Maro in 2nd row and maybe Clifford if fit. Thought Wood was poor. Like to Nowell start too unpopular opinion but in place of Brown. Like to see Daly, May on wings Jack at 15. When Watson is back I can see Eddie dropping Brown but hopefully starts next week.
Maybe. I don't think they do though
They just have unbelievable rugby intelligence that when they replace a player, they just slot into the game, but they just don't have the volume of players that England does
I'd be inclined to respectfully disagree. IIRC, Ben Smith, Israel Dagg and Aaron Cruden (All three are top-level players) are joining Top 14 clubs from next season. Moreover, all three have played integral parts in New Zealand's success in recent years. Obviously, they will be able to earn more in France than they would be in New Zealand; however, the main reason why I think all three are supposedly moving to France is because they are not guaranteed a place in the NZ squad for the 2019 RWC. All three will be around 32 at the time which is quite old. However, there will be a decent number of similarly-aged and older players in the English, Irish, Argentinian and Australian squads as well. I just feel that there isn't the same competition for places in the English, Irish, Argentinian or Australian squads vis-a-vis the NZ squad. For instance, Damian McKenzie is generally regarded as one of New Zealand's most outstanding young talents. He will be turning 22 this year yet has only started one game (Vs. Italy) due to the sheer competition for places.
I would have to disagree on Ben Smith, 28 and best fullback in the world. He's a certainty to make the next world cup. I can see him moving for a year or 2 to France get some cash in, but he'd be back in time for the world cup. I did read Ben Smith is staying in NZ, I could be wrong though.
England had no Mako, Kruis, Robshaw, Hask, Billy V, Man Utd and Watson. I'm not saying these England players are better but if you took in the same positions Moody, Whitelock, Kaino, Savea, Read, Fekitoa and J Savea out of the NZ team they put out a better team then England? England weren't great today but big first team injures with the entire back row out yet field a team that can beat France.
No doubt New Zealand have greater top level talent to pick from compare NZ top 20 to England top 20, NZ easily come out on top but past that I'd say England have better players to pick from. England have 60+ international standard players to pick from with the best u20s team in the world.
Wow, don't know much about Nowell but I thought Brown did his usual stuff today. Joseph had a very quiet game I thought. Itoje so solid in the lineout, just sucked the life out of the French challenge. Turning point I think was Farrell's (I think) tackle standing up Picamoles and getting the turnover. He'd been such a rampaging force up to that point that it just deflated them.
Overall, it was a game that you couldn't really say the English were lucky to win, France weren't hard done by even though they could have won. If France had another one or two players who played at Picamoles level, they probably would have won.
The kicks look gorgeous, but is he not a bit small looking for international tests? I'm sure he'll feature more in the future, but could understand him not being involved yet.
They spoke about that quite a bit on Irish TV, how it'd be hard for any nation to deal with the amount of first XV players missing at the moment.
NZ would just select Bird, Lowe, Tamanivalu, Owen or Man Utd(depending on the prop side), Ioane or Squire for the #8 and to replace Kaino there is too many options.
The only spot where NZ could struggle is prop because for the rest they have too many players.
He was decent today. I just think he's 31 now and last year was average for me. When Watson, May, Nowell and now Daly are fit I think Brown is the odd one out. Nowell has been so good at 15 for Exeter he is the future in that spot for me.
To be honest, I think his technical ability overcomes his lack of size. From what I've heard, his best position is probably at #10 so that might mean he may have to deal with much bigger centres coming at him in the midfield. I just cannot envisage him not being a superstar for NZ in the coming years.
From an "ask the oppo" point of view, Brown just has the cnut factor. He's a player you don't like to play against because he's got ability, but also the ability to have the cheap shot or pull off some cnut move. For instance, he very, very possibly should have had a yellow within the first two minutes today for taking a French player out off the ball after a kick up the touchline. Late, dropped shoulder, no arms, taking out the kicker. I haven't seen Nowell, so I can't say anything about him to be honest.
Oh yeah, for sure, if the video's accurate then I would totally agree with you. He just looks from those clips like he'd get smashed at test level.
The thing is though, shouldn't England be the best international side in the world considering the sheer pick of players they have to choose from compared to other countries. The link below shows that England have 1.99 million registered players (Including referees, U-13 Boys and Girls, Teen Boys and Girls, and Senior Men and Women). The next best country? South Africa with 650,000. New Zealand are 4th with 157,000 with Ireland just behind them (153,000). If you want to compare senior men versus senior men, England are again 1st (132,000), with France a close 2nd (124,000). New Zealand are 7th with 28,000!!!! England have over 370 % more senior males playing rugby than New Zealand. Surely considering the amount of players who play the game in England, they should have aspirations to be the next NZ i.e. Win basically every game they play (Although I acknowledge that is what Eddie Jones has set out to do).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rugby_union_playing_countries
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As a Chiefs fan, I will tell you that he is fearless and handles himself well in defense, his size isn't a problem because like Milner-Skudder he does everything faster than almost every other players.
Yep, totally willing to defer on this to ye. He looks slight, but then so does Simon Zebo I suppose. He just does look very slight in that video.
He was 75kgs last year, he is slight but he always play on the shoulder and as a knack to see and exploits space where others can't. Now like you said, he might not play at international, I mean even someone like James Lowe doesn't when he is as good as the current wingers.
That's the same weight as me
and I wouldn't like to get some of the hits from today.JP by the way, how are you feeling about today's match? Do you think you should have snuck a win in the end?
That's the same weight as me
All commentators mention his weight at every single game, they can't believe that someone like him plays like he does because he is punished all the time but just stand up and continue.
Fair enough, fair play to him then. Does he ever get hit hard in club matches?
Also, how did you feel about today's game?
By club rugby, you mean Mitre 10 cup? I only watch a little bit and it's about the same but less intensive than Super Rugby and the big players don't play all the time.
As for today's game, I'm not exactly happy. Rugby is all about what you can do in the 22 and France can't score but can concede. So we are piss poor, it's cute to have great stats between the 22s though.
Ahhh ok, is he not in Super Rugby yet? I don't know where he's playing.
Reckon ye could sneak a result against us if both teams play like they did today though. I reckon Ireland will step it up a lot from today though - do you think France can sort themselves out?
He is in Super Rugby, he plays for the Chiefs. It's just that club rugby in theory is the level below Super Rugby which is provencial rugby. He is arguably the best back in Super Rugby look at the stats at player rankings. http://www.sanzarrugby.com/superrugby/
And I don't know about France, I don't like some of the players selected. Paillaugue is injured so we will have to do with Machenaud backing up Serin, Fickou was useless, Wizniewski should probably be selected instead of Doussain who should disappear forever after that penalty. But even then I'm not optimistic there is a lack of intelligence in the team.
Cheers, thanks!
Yeah, Machenaud did seem like a big drop today, you lost a lot when he came on. I agree on the intelligence, like I said earlier, getting knocked into touch so often today on the wing was really naive.
Angus Gardner had a decent game at Twickenham yesterday. Was understandably tough on the French scrum for moving before the ball had been put in. Not sure about the yellow card he gave in the first half but i'm still getting used to the new tackle laws. At Murrayfield, Romain Poite could have been tougher on Scotland's early ill discipline i reckon. Still Ireland can't use that as an excuse - they weren't good enough for long enough.
Interesting games yesterday - Scotland vs Ireland the typical game of two halves and Scotland's excellently efficient first half was good enough to see them home. Ireland will learn a damn good lesson - you can't just play well for 25-30 minutes and expect to win against a good team which Scotland are now. No longer are Scotland's games against Italy a playoff for 6th, big challenge for Gregor Townsend to maintain the improvement they've made under Vern Cotter. Winning close games had been their achilles heel against Australia twice and against England last year, so to win one will be great for them.
England were underwhelming last night - they were underwhelming against South Africa (first 25 minutes) Australia first half during the Autumn series. That needs to change if they're to beat New Zealand in 2018 (i know they have a year to rectify that). Good sign to a point, that they were able to hang in there despite being outplayed for much of the game. France ought to have scored more than one try for the game given the possession they had. Interesting that their scrum improved when the replacement props came on.
England were underwhelming last night - they were underwhelming against South Africa (first 25 minutes) Australia first half during the Autumn series. That needs to change if they're to beat New Zealand in 2018 (i know they have a year to rectify that). Good sign to a point, that they were able to hang in there despite being outplayed for much of the game. France ought to have scored more than one try for the game given the possession they had. Interesting that their scrum improved when the replacement props came on.
I don't think your man did much wrong yesterday. In Murrayfield, I'd agree with what you've said but it's still no excuse.
Just switched on this match now, fair play Italy. Commentators saying Wales have been all over them?