2023 Six Nations

[Blackmac]

Your ma is shite

Do you really think you are funny in any way?

You try way too hard

Your ma isn't very try hard. Its just a thing

FFS, ER go you your bed.

[Biffer]

ER is this tweet

[Camroc2]

Move him to 10

He played 10. I reckon Smith was outside him at at least 75% of phases where both were available. Lord knows why they wore the wrong numbers.

It makes no sense to me. Smith at 1st receiver, Farrell inside centre, maybe. Farrell or Smith at 1st receiver with a proper centre outside them, sure. Smith at inside centre though… no.

It’s more getting rid of Smith in my opinion. Unless he gets it given to him on a plate I just don’t think he has been good enough at this level

The French and Irish BR's must be creaming themselves at the prospect of facing Smith, all lateral movement and hitch kicks. I suspect he'll get a doing both matches.

[Biffer]

Love this

[Ymx]

The old men of Wales were so poor that Gatland must be harbouring thoughts of relegating them to the dirt trackers for the next Lions tour

I'd also say that this was a match that England were on top in for quite some time. It was a good close game - had England grabbed a fourth try and not Scotland, I don't think many Scots would be impressed if we started claiming your players aren't up to it.

[Torquemada 1420]

The old men of Wales were so poor that Gatland must be harbouring thoughts of relegating them to the dirt trackers for the next Lions tour

AWJ, North and Sanjay long past their best and I cannot see the point in coaches playing Canute in this regards. Doesn't matter if youngsters aren't good enough.
Worse for Wales was that Biggar, Faletau and Tipuric all looked done too.

[Torquemada 1420]

Signal failure at Willesden, a fine advert for watching on the sofa and not caring about the result

Is that you Reggie?

[Torquemada 1420]

Very little commentary on what was a key factor in Scotland's win for me: for once their discipline was pretty good and it was Eng who gave away the dim penalties. Question is whether the Scots can avoid reverting to type for 2 matches on the bounce.

[Blackmac]

Very little commentary on what was a key factor in Scotland's win for me: for once their discipline was pretty good and it was Eng who gave away the dim penalties. Question is whether the Scots can avoid reverting to type for 2 matches on the bounce.

Scotland didn't compete at many breakdowns which was clearly a tactic designed to tighten up the discipline. It's hard to watch when it's what you expect your team to do but it certainly paid off yesterday.

[Paddington Bear]

Very little commentary on what was a key factor in Scotland's win for me: for once their discipline was pretty good and it was Eng who gave away the dim penalties. Question is whether the Scots can avoid reverting to type for 2 matches on the bounce.

Maybe perception but England’s penalty count seemed down from the dizzy heights of late as well? As for the Scots it was noticeable that in quite a lot of our attacks in the 22, at the point they normally give away a pen and free ball, they didn’t. Makes a difference.

Good 6N games also have an element of luck to them - how many times again does the ball squirt out a ruck in such a way that White is given all but a free run to the line? Much to criticise in England’s defence but not a lot you can do about that

[weegie01]

ER is this tweet

Out of curiosity I looked on the Bath forum. They were raving about Russell's performance. That he made mistakes was not missed, but the point generally made was the way his passing to players in space was opening up the defence, and how Bath have the backs who can really profit from that.

[Torquemada 1420]

Very little commentary on what was a key factor in Scotland's win for me: for once their discipline was pretty good and it was Eng who gave away the dim penalties. Question is whether the Scots can avoid reverting to type for 2 matches on the bounce.

Scotland didn't compete at many breakdowns which was clearly a tactic designed to tighten up the discipline. It's hard to watch when it's what you expect your team to do but it certainly paid off yesterday.

Good point. You'll need to change that against Ire (especially) and France though i.e. compete and retain discipline.

[weegie01]

ER is this tweet

Out of curiosity I looked on the Bath forum. They were raving about Russell's performance. That he made mistakes was not missed, but the point generally made was the way his passing to players in space was opening up the defence, and how Bath have the backs who can really profit from that.

[weegie01]

In some ways the game yesterday was the culmination of what has been emerging at Glasgow and Edinburgh. Glasgow are attacking from all over the pitch, and if you give them a sniff they will hurt you. Edinburgh have not been as creative, but can go toe to toe with anyone as their games against Saracens showed. Obviously Glasgow's pack sets the platfrom for the backs as well, I just think Glasgow are more dangerous running from anywhere with Edinburgh a bit more 'take it up the guts;.

Either way, despite different players, it all came together yesterday. I still worry that Scotland will do the traditional follow a good performace with a bad, but this performance looked like it was built on a solid foundation of everyone knowing their job and executing it as a team to set the platform for some great individual performances, rather than a few players having a great game and carrying the rest with them.

[Big D]

Aye but for instance he posted a video of him having a race against his brother on the beach in SA. Full on sprinting. As I say, he can do things no one else in the world can so he can get as much leeway as he needs

I'm all for that.

There are very many worse places for a couple in their twenties to live than Edinburgh, especially with a very good income.

Agreed.

I also don't see the issue of a player who clearly had a wedding planned and agreed with Worcester (diddy cup week?) having a run on the beach. That doesn't mean he wasn't injured before. He's clearly back at full speed now.

[Uncle fester]

Do you really think you are funny in any way?

You try way too hard

Your ma isn't very try hard. Its just a thing

really, is this funny where you're from?

I'm laughing my hole off over breakfast.

[Big D]

The big thing as others have said is backing it up next week which we have been terrible at.

[dpedin]

Richard Cockerill saved Duhan van der Merwe's career. He was out of contract, no club and had a very badly injured hip. No one was interested in him. He failed his medical at Edinburgh, but Cockerill had seen enough from his time in France to make him go to the SRU and press the case for getting van der Merwe into an operating theatre and rehab after.

It was a big personal move from Cockerill, he put a lot of his own reputation on the line for Duhan and it has paid off handsomely.

Cockers ultimately fucked up at Edinburgh, but not everything he did was bad.

England are getting rid of Richard Cockerill, maybe the failings are not all down to him and the previous regime, maybe they are, I don't know, but all I do know is that without Cockers' intervention, we would not have seen van der Merwe on the park for Scotland today

That's very interesting, thanks. Apparently his attitude hasn't been all that impressive since he rejoined Edinburgh but when he can do stuff like he did today...

He had been fucked around at Worcester and had his wedding arranged in SA when there but following collapse of Worcester and return to Embra it ended up slap in middle of a run off games. He was carrying an injury when he came back to Embra and then made it worse just before wedding. He got married a couple of weeks ago and came straight back to join Scotland squad. He took time to settle back in - given above that's fair enough.

[Blackmac]

Your ma isn't very try hard. Its just a thing

really, is this funny where you're from?

I'm laughing my hole off over breakfast.

It was funny because it was just so far off his usual standards.

[dpedin]

Very little commentary on what was a key factor in Scotland's win for me: for once their discipline was pretty good and it was Eng who gave away the dim penalties. Question is whether the Scots can avoid reverting to type for 2 matches on the bounce.

Scotland didn't compete at many breakdowns which was clearly a tactic designed to tighten up the discipline. It's hard to watch when it's what you expect your team to do but it certainly paid off yesterday.

Good point. You'll need to change that against Ire (especially) and France though i.e. compete and retain discipline.

I think we had studied the ref before the game and decided we needed to play that way to avoid penalties. Often playing playing the ref is just as important as playing the opposition - we did it well. Also I think we were waiting for England to kick the ball away, we flooded the back pitch and knew we could field and return their kicks well plus the quality of kicking from England was very poor. For me it was clear we knew England were going to kick long all day - our last try was started off from a high kick from England that went too far and by then the English team were blowing out of their arses so Russell caught and we ran it back right and then left against a disorganised England defence. Ditto VdM try earlier - caught by Hogg and then returned with interest by VdM against an English defence that hadn't got itself organised and was all over the place. Kicking is a reasonable tactic but it does require the team to have a well organised defensive system to make it work - I suspect Borthwick will be all over that in training.

Ireland won't kick as much and if they do it will be of a far higher quality plus they will quickly get defence organised and stop us making so many yards running it back. We will need different tactics I agree.

[Yr Alban]

In some ways the game yesterday was the culmination of what has been emerging at Glasgow and Edinburgh. Glasgow are attacking from all over the pitch, and if you give them a sniff they will hurt you. Edinburgh have not been as creative, but can go toe to toe with anyone as their games against Saracens showed. Obviously Glasgow's pack sets the platfrom for the backs as well, I just think Glasgow are more dangerous running from anywhere with Edinburgh a bit more 'take it up the guts;.

Either way, despite different players, it all came together yesterday. I still worry that Scotland will do the traditional follow a good performace with a bad, but this performance looked like it was built on a solid foundation of everyone knowing their job and executing it as a team to set the platform for some great individual performances, rather than a few players having a great game and carrying the rest with them.

I was having similar thoughts.

The low penalty count and the absence of brain farts were two very heartening things yesterday, but perhaps not quite as heartening as Toony actually picking the guys in form and it paying off in spades.

[Tichtheid]

There’s quite a lot of chat about Farrell going after Russell, looking for massive hits on him left holes in the English defence

Russell wasn’t shy of letting Farrell know that he’d fucked up for Duhan’s first try

[Tichtheid]

Curry is getting a lot of stick for White’s try, Steward gets a free pass for some reason, it was the kind of miss that stuck to Hogg for a long time.

Peak 1/2p makes that tackle

[Paddington Bear]

Curry is getting a lot of stick for White’s try, Steward gets a free pass for some reason, it was the kind of miss that stuck to Hogg for a long time.

Peak 1/2p makes that tackle

Maybe I’m being too kind to both but I see White’s try as just one of those things. Loose ball creates space, rest is history. Far more annoyed about the other three tries

[sockwithaticket]

There’s quite a lot of chat about Farrell going after Russell, looking for massive hits on him left holes in the English defence

Russell wasn’t shy of letting Farrell know that he’d fucked up for Duhan’s first try

Not the first time Farrell's fucked up our defensive alignment by looking to smash someone. Thought it was a problem left behind in the Gustard days, though. Evidently not.

[Slick]

Scotland didn't compete at many breakdowns which was clearly a tactic designed to tighten up the discipline. It's hard to watch when it's what you expect your team to do but it certainly paid off yesterday.

Good point. You'll need to change that against Ire (especially) and France though i.e. compete and retain discipline.

I think we had studied the ref before the game and decided we needed to play that way to avoid penalties. Often playing playing the ref is just as important as playing the opposition - we did it well. Also I think we were waiting for England to kick the ball away, we flooded the back pitch and knew we could field and return their kicks well plus the quality of kicking from England was very poor. For me it was clear we knew England were going to kick long all day - our last try was started off from a high kick from England that went too far and by then the English team were blowing out of their arses so Russell caught and we ran it back right and then left against a disorganised England defence. Ditto VdM try earlier - caught by Hogg and then returned with interest by VdM against an English defence that hadn't got itself organised and was all over the place. Kicking is a reasonable tactic but it does require the team to have a well organised defensive system to make it work - I suspect Borthwick will be all over that in training.

Ireland won't kick as much and if they do it will be of a far higher quality plus they will quickly get defence organised and stop us making so many yards running it back. We will need different tactics I agree.

I actually thought our kicking was pretty bad and England won most of those battles

[JM2K6]

I am also unsure of the narrative that Scotland packed the back field and were happy for us to kick. Malins and Smith found grass repeatedly and Scotland were often pushed back. It was a positive for England for a large part of the game.

[Yr Alban]

Good point. You'll need to change that against Ire (especially) and France though i.e. compete and retain discipline.

I think we had studied the ref before the game and decided we needed to play that way to avoid penalties. Often playing playing the ref is just as important as playing the opposition - we did it well. Also I think we were waiting for England to kick the ball away, we flooded the back pitch and knew we could field and return their kicks well plus the quality of kicking from England was very poor. For me it was clear we knew England were going to kick long all day - our last try was started off from a high kick from England that went too far and by then the English team were blowing out of their arses so Russell caught and we ran it back right and then left against a disorganised England defence. Ditto VdM try earlier - caught by Hogg and then returned with interest by VdM against an English defence that hadn't got itself organised and was all over the place. Kicking is a reasonable tactic but it does require the team to have a well organised defensive system to make it work - I suspect Borthwick will be all over that in training.

Ireland won't kick as much and if they do it will be of a far higher quality plus they will quickly get defence organised and stop us making so many yards running it back. We will need different tactics I agree.

I actually thought our kicking was pretty bad and England won most of those battles

I didn’t think it was terrible, but I’d agree England’s was generally more accurate.

The difference yesterday was that for once it was Scotland who were the clinical finishers. It’s been the other way round so many times that I can’t actually believe I’m even typing the words. Other than that it was a pretty even game, with England having the edge in many areas.

[Big D]

I am also unsure of the narrative that Scotland packed the back field and were happy for us to kick. Malins and Smith found grass repeatedly and Scotland were often pushed back. It was a positive for England for a large part of the game.

Agreed.

We didn't do anything unusual. Mostly the back 3 plus occasionally Finn. Which is how it usually is.

[Slick]

I think we had studied the ref before the game and decided we needed to play that way to avoid penalties. Often playing playing the ref is just as important as playing the opposition - we did it well. Also I think we were waiting for England to kick the ball away, we flooded the back pitch and knew we could field and return their kicks well plus the quality of kicking from England was very poor. For me it was clear we knew England were going to kick long all day - our last try was started off from a high kick from England that went too far and by then the English team were blowing out of their arses so Russell caught and we ran it back right and then left against a disorganised England defence. Ditto VdM try earlier - caught by Hogg and then returned with interest by VdM against an English defence that hadn't got itself organised and was all over the place. Kicking is a reasonable tactic but it does require the team to have a well organised defensive system to make it work - I suspect Borthwick will be all over that in training.

Ireland won't kick as much and if they do it will be of a far higher quality plus they will quickly get defence organised and stop us making so many yards running it back. We will need different tactics I agree.

I actually thought our kicking was pretty bad and England won most of those battles

I didn’t think it was terrible, but I’d agree England’s was generally more accurate.

The difference yesterday was that for once it was Scotland who were the clinical finishers. It’s been the other way round so many times that I can’t actually believe I’m even typing the words. Other than that it was a pretty even game, with England having the edge in many areas.

Another big difference was dominating the lineout which meant it didn’t really cost us much. In the end England were scared to throw it anywhere but 2 which made defending easier

[Torquemada 1420]

I think we had studied the ref before the game and decided we needed to play that way to avoid penalties. Often playing playing the ref is just as important as playing the opposition - we did it well. Also I think we were waiting for England to kick the ball away, we flooded the back pitch and knew we could field and return their kicks well plus the quality of kicking from England was very poor. For me it was clear we knew England were going to kick long all day - our last try was started off from a high kick from England that went too far and by then the English team were blowing out of their arses so Russell caught and we ran it back right and then left against a disorganised England defence. Ditto VdM try earlier - caught by Hogg and then returned with interest by VdM against an English defence that hadn't got itself organised and was all over the place. Kicking is a reasonable tactic but it does require the team to have a well organised defensive system to make it work - I suspect Borthwick will be all over that in training.

Ireland won't kick as much and if they do it will be of a far higher quality plus they will quickly get defence organised and stop us making so many yards running it back. We will need different tactics I agree.

That really surprised me. At that stoppage where they had bodies strewn over the park and were then clearly time wasting to get a breather! One thing you never expect of England is to be questioning their fitness.

[Jim Lahey]

What was the general consensus about the Ireland game?

Seemed that Ireland never really had to get out of 1st gear given how shite the Welsh were. I was in and out of the room a bit checking on the BBQ but it seemed to be a catalogue of Welsh penalties and other errors. Will need to rewatch later in more detail.

How did Murray and Big Stu get on?

[Slick]

What was the general consensus about the Ireland game?

Seemed that Ireland never really had to get out of 1st gear given how shite the Welsh were. I was in and out of the room a bit checking on the BBQ but it seemed to be a catalogue of Welsh penalties and other errors. Will need to rewatch later in more detail.

How did Murray and Big Stu get on?

Game over by half time, probably before. Wales were very bad. My only concern if I was Irish would be that the best teams wouldn’t have slackened off in the 2nd half, but it’s a hard thing to do when you are so dominant

[Torquemada 1420]

ER is this tweet

Out of curiosity I looked on the Bath forum. They were raving about Russell's performance. That he made mistakes was not missed, but the point generally made was the way his passing to players in space was opening up the defence, and how Bath have the backs who can really profit from that.

FM. Bath will have to change their all round attitude and their ability in the fwds for there to be any chance of that happening. It's the key reason they've been sh*te for so long despite their glitterazi squad lists. My bet is Russell will see far too little quality ball. The fact that Bath fans think a superstar FH is the panacea to all their ills is probably reflective of the general cluelessness that has surrounded the club for so long.

[Torquemada 1420]

In regards Eng, WTF has happened to Itoje? Can't be another current player in world rugby who has fallen so far, so quickly. In the space of a few years he's gone from world beater to anonymous. Is it a Sampson thing i.e. take away his clapping toy monkey nonsense and his superpowers are stripped?

[lemonhead]

ER is this tweet

Out of curiosity I looked on the Bath forum. They were raving about Russell's performance. That he made mistakes was not missed, but the point generally made was the way his passing to players in space was opening up the defence, and how Bath have the backs who can really profit from that.

FM. Bath will have to change their all round attitude and their ability in the fwds for there to be any chance of that happening. It's the key reason they've been sh*te for so long despite their glitterazi squad lists. My bet is Russell will see far too little quality ball. The fact that Bath fans think a superstar FH is the panacea to all their ills is probably reflective of the general cluelessness that has surrounded the club for so long.

I did hear on one pod they've one of if not the slowest ruck speeds in the premiership. Doing flip all till they sort that.

[Hal Jordan]

I actually thought our kicking was pretty bad and England won most of those battles

I didn’t think it was terrible, but I’d agree England’s was generally more accurate.

The difference yesterday was that for once it was Scotland who were the clinical finishers. It’s been the other way round so many times that I can’t actually believe I’m even typing the words. Other than that it was a pretty even game, with England having the edge in many areas.

Another big difference was dominating the lineout which meant it didn’t really cost us much. In the end England were scared to throw it anywhere but 2 which made defending easier

George was throwing in like he was still concussed.

[PCPhil]

Forza Italia!

I need you to promote me to a stunning 66% prediction success rate.

[sturginho]

Fuck!

[Torquemada 1420]

Settles back for 70 mins masterclass of how to cripple a backline.