Two crap games, really.
Rugby Union 23/24 Discussion
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran discuss a horrific month of December and a depressing FOUR defeats in a row - the latest coming against Wolves and Newcastle.
They discuss how much blame is on Ruben Amorim and rank our squad against other Premier League teams.
Do we have any chance of avoiding defeat at Anfield?
The scrums have been diabolical.
Ireland tomorrow won't be much of a spectacular event either
If I was a bookie, I wouldn’t take bets on an Ireland GS
Yep, it'll probably be a shitshow too to be honest
What the feck are you doing you moron?
In the air
Wales just don’t do anything in attack. Nobody running onto the ball at speed. Just allowing the English line to close them down.
So dull to watch.
England just squeezing past the two worst teams in the competition.
So dull to watch.
England just squeezing past the two worst teams in the competition.
Is that not a Welsh penalty though?
Ford made no effort to compete in the air, he just took him out.
Ford made no effort to compete in the air, he just took him out.
Better team won.
Too negative, silly mistakes at crucial times.
Poor 6 Nations quality outside Ireland
Too negative, silly mistakes at crucial times.
Poor 6 Nations quality outside Ireland
City win, Liverpool win, spurs win at the death, France win when they shouldn’t, England scrape a win.
Today is cursed.
Today is cursed.
I think Wales did well, especially first half. Just got bullied physically in the second and mistakes crept in. Understandable though given the inexperience.
I doubt it’d have made a difference but as clear a pen as all game. You can’t deliberately hit a man in the air with zero attempt to challenge for the ball… it’d be a very soft penalty but so.
Wed have probably missed touch
Over the last couple of years… Halfpenny, AWJ, Williams, Tipiric, Faletau (?), Biggar, couple more and Speedy Gonzalez going to NFL (tart).
The experience is missed, the ability even more so.
Said earlier, we’re on a 2-3 year transition and hopefully competing 26 onwards.
England the better side. Both sides made loads of silly errors. Wales lacked any real visible strengths to their game. One paced and unimaginative.
Bar Italy, definitely the two worst teams in the tournament so far. Shame for the tournament that Scotland were robbed, the longer teams can go unbeaten the better overall. Hopefully England can win against Scotland and set up an exciting match with Ireland.
Don’t come at me with the truthMy daughter met this lad on New Years Eve and they’ve been messaging and he asked her on a date (sounds old fashioned but he did).
Lad “shall we get something to eat?”. Daughter “yes, that sounds good”
Lad “with alcohol?” Daughter “yeah fine”
Lad “great, I’ll reserve a table at the pub on Saturday… we can watch the rugby”
Little does he know she actually likes rugby (I’ve brought her up to) and she’s got her Welsh top on under her smart jumper.
And he couldn’t be worse than the last two… both City fans!
should know dating a Welsh less means dating a rugby fanto be honest it was such an awful game we’ve agreed never to speak of it againYou should be happier now mate
I'm not convinced anybody enjoys scrums anymore. Just such a dull part of the game right now. Set the scrum, collapse the scrum, wait 30 seconds, reset the scrum, collapse the scrum, wait 30 seconds, set, collapse, penalty.
No, I was wrong. They were shocking.
Both sides looked awful and I’ve little hope against Scotland away.
What would you change?
I don’t think much can change overall as I don’t really rate Borthwick, plus there’s a lack of top quality in key areas. Hopefully Ollie Lawrence is back and adds some power to the back line. Smith to come back too, but I don’t think Ford has been a problem.
Yes to both Lawrence and Smith.
I think we really need a ball-carrying forward. Sacrificing Genge for Marler’s scrummaging is only ok if you’ve got some genuine ball-carriers in the back row and we don’t. Earl is our best and that’s asking a crazy amount from him as neither roots nor underhill are breakdown specialists.
I also think the backrow is unbalanced, I’m not sure what the value of Underhill was as Wales weren’t ever going to be a running threat though I’d keep him for the remaining matches. I’d much rather see Earl as a 7 and a specialist 8, Mercer or I’d love for Barbeary to get a crack….seeing as we’re not winning it may as well have a go.
I can only assume Borthwick wants to have as good a set piece as possible but that’s hardly working and we’re doing sweet feck all with ball in hand
Agree with all of that. Underhill has always been really good in the breakdown but I think he’s probably played as many games for England as he has Bath this season. That’s what I mean about lack of quality, I’m not sure Underhill and Stuart get in Bath’s best 15 at the moment.
Barbeary would add a lot, still quite raw but you can see genuine potential to be top quality there. I think his suspension was three weeks so I guess he’s okay to be added to the squad now?
I can’t remember when it was.
Tightheads been a problem for us for years so I can kind of make peace with Stuart…though not sure why we’re not seeing Finn Baxter from Quins. Having a dodgy back row is inexcusable though….weve had so many good back row options, it’s the only area of the pitch we’ve been stacked in but we’ve managed to leave out Dommers, Mercer & Ludlam, and still end up looking shite
Might be worth giving this a watch before YouTube takes it down. Wayne Barnes was going to do the 2019 final if England didn't make it, his did a pretty good job countrymen ruining his dreams again. He would have been conflicted during their semi final.
Angus Gardner doing shadow matches looked weird. Nic Berry seems like such a nice bloke. Paul Williams and Ben O'Keeffe are tight. Jaco Peyper's career had a sad end on the field but he'll begin an off field career as South Africa, sorry Rassie Erasmus's laws advisor.
Angus Gardner doing shadow matches looked weird. Nic Berry seems like such a nice bloke. Paul Williams and Ben O'Keeffe are tight. Jaco Peyper's career had a sad end on the field but he'll begin an off field career as South Africa, sorry Rassie Erasmus's laws advisor.
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I don’t know what to think of England. Watched a bit of the European club games on Viaplay and they’re a so many talented English backs shining against the best club sides in Europe, why aren’t they being selected for the test side??? The English test rugby team is currently the polar opposite of the English test cricket team.
Borthwick believes in conservative, percentage based rugby which is at odds with how the Premiership's top sides play, hence the disconnect.
If you’re going to play blitz defense then you need to get points on the board because there’s always going to be 2 or 3 moments in the game where the opposition will evade the defense. England should have been up 2 scores yesterday, instead at one point they found themselves 14-5 down with 13 players on the pitch. Only a blunder by the Welsh allowed them back in the game. The reason the Spring Boks have been so successful is that they combine the defence with creativity in the backs, they play the percentages but it’s the creativity which puts the points on the board.
I always wonder why Northern Hemisphere teams don't move the ball enough near the line,feels like they try to charge it too often which leads to dodgy TMO calls but probably wrong
Ireland are good at scoring from near the line. They’re not afraid to move it around.
Yeah and France too at times
Poor Joe McCarthy was put on the spot by the camera there for not knowing the words of Amhran na Bhfiann.
I was shouting for them to go wider but I agree, they insist on some big lump to just power through headfirst with 5 guys pushing through his anus.
I missed most of the first half. Catching up now.
Crowley is looking very good.
Crowley is looking very good.
Yeah, seems in the mood today. One lovely soft no-look pass that stood out.
How quiet this thread is during an Ireland game says a lot about Italy’s hopes in this game
How quiet this thread is during an Ireland game says a lot about Italy’s hopes in this game
Its about as quiet as the stadium
If you listen carefully you can hear Tristan and Fintan discussing who's going to the bar next
How quiet this thread is during an Ireland game says a lot about Italy’s hopes in this game
It's quite odd. Italy doing ok and Ireland not fully on it, yet it might finish 30-0
I watched England Wales yesterday with my mate and his dad was over from Wales….said he’d stopped doing to the national games in Cardiff because the shite atmosphere wasn’t worth the hassle and expense