Rugby 2018 Discussion

JPRouve said:
And that's my point, the problem isn't foreign recruitment but the weird fetish for enforcers particularly in the back line, because the front rowers are generally sligthly undersized technical players. Also I meant Priso not Pelo(who is french, Wallis and Futana is France), we had a problem with the previous generation of french coaches who put a lot of emphasis on a certain type of player and they killed our backline selection, we are starting to see normal players make their comeback among the younger players but they are around 18-22 years old.

Now, we could do with less has beens and more young french players, I won't argue against that but we can't use the recruitment excuse when we completely failed in terms of player development.
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Fair enough and I hope it does make a comeback because free flowing French rugby is a thing of beauty. It's going to take a real change of mindset across the league though - one or two sides deciding to stick with the big, ugly enforcers could feasibly be quite successful while injuring the nice players in the other, more forward thinking sides.
 
Any interest in Fantasy 6 nations?
 
Looking forward to seeing how Scotland fare in Cardiff this weekend. If they're any hope of challenging for the silverware, they really must beat Wales preferably with a bonus point as we can assume England will beat Italy scoring four tries or more. Now is the time for Scotland to go from admirable improvers to 6 nations title challengers.Ireland will beat France to in my opinion but won't do so with a bonus point.
 
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Presumably Rassie Erasmus will take over? This suddenly makes a potential quarter final against the Boks in the World Cup more daunting.
 
Coetzee actually did well to last two years in the role. There were multiple occasions during his reign when SARU would have been justified in sacking him.
 
Super Rugby starts in two weeks folks. We'll see 16 weeks of a regular season, a few weeks worth of finals to find out that the final will probably be an all New Zealand affair. Can't see any of the 10 teams from outside New Zealand proving me wrong.

There's big pressure on all four Australian teams to improve. Winning against Kiwi and South African teams is a must. 0 wins from 26 matches vs Kiwi teams can be best described as unacceptable.

Results against South African team weren't pretty either. I'm hoping last year's record of 6 wins, 13 losses and a draw against teams in the South African conference can be improved on too.
 
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For those who find this sort of stuff interesting, the roof will be shut at the Principality Stadium for Wales vs Scotland.
 
Anyone watching the game? Scotland looking so frail at the back, doesn't look good.

This new feeding in rule/stamping down by the refs for the scrums looks like it'll be a bit of a game changer, 2 mistakes already
 
Scotland are toothless at the moment.
 
They are barely playing rugby here.
 
Finally, a ray of sunlight for Scotland.

Edit: The speaker speaks in Welsh?
 
So, weird thing a concussion protocol for a knee collision...

Edit: Defensively France are way better than they have been in the last couple of seasons.
 
It's a great year for France, every good player does his knee or a break a leg.
 
Scotland were truly dreadful. Ireland have showed a real lack of ambition in this game so far. France deserve to be ahead. All in all, looking very good for England.
 
Whatever the outcome, I liked the discipline.
 
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