The Official English Rugby Thread

[SaintK]

Yay Saints at Exeter
Controversial finish mind

[Paddington Bear]

Blimey. Stone wall again

[Oxbow]

Yay Saints at Exeter
Controversial finish mind

Great win. What happened at the end, I turned it off in a fit of pique when Exeter went over for the last-minute try

[fishfoodie]

He can't seriously be surprised he got sent off for that ?

[Paddington Bear]

He can't seriously be surprised he got sent off for that ?

Honestly my conclusion from this week is that most players are just really thick

[Slick]

Someone sent me a message saying Hogg has completely fucked his knee, any truth in that?

[Ovals]

Someone sent me a message saying Hogg has completely fucked his knee, any truth in that?

Played the full 80, so seems unlikely.

[JM2K6]

Very disappointed with the commentators doing their best to try and forgive the players for the idiotic red cards. Brookes' one in particular - no, he's not "prevented from raising his arm", he's doing what he and others do all the time - barging someone. Only this time he got him in the head.

[Slick]

Someone sent me a message saying Hogg has completely fucked his knee, any truth in that?

Played the full 80, so seems unlikely.

Yeah, seems like a windup from an idiot mate

[SaintK]

Yay Saints at Exeter
Controversial finish mind

Great win. What happened at the end, I turned it off in a fit of pique when Exeter went over for the last-minute try

Simmons’s had conversion on touchline to win the game. Looked to start his run up stopped and Saints charged and kicked the ball away.
Ref said he had started his run up and no retake
Saints win!!!

[Saint]

Yay Saints at Exeter
Controversial finish mind

Great win. What happened at the end, I turned it off in a fit of pique when Exeter went over for the last-minute try

Simmons’s had conversion on touchline to win the game. Looked to start his run up stopped and Saints charged and kicked the ball away.
Ref said he had started his run up and no retake
Saints win!!!

I'm hoping to see some alternative angles, as he was pretty much off camera at the start. Hogg was arguing at length with the ref at the end, and tbf it's not something you see very often

[SaintK]

Great win. What happened at the end, I turned it off in a fit of pique when Exeter went over for the last-minute try

Simmons’s had conversion on touchline to win the game. Looked to start his run up stopped and Saints charged and kicked the ball away.
Ref said he had started his run up and no retake
Saints win!!!

I'm hoping to see some alternative angles, as he was pretty much off camera at the start. Hogg was arguing at length with the ref at the end, and tbf it's not something you see very often

I was staggered it wasn’t retaken
Gutsy performance from Saints mind

[Paddington Bear]

Very disappointed with the commentators doing their best to try and forgive the players for the idiotic red cards. Brookes' one in particular - no, he's not "prevented from raising his arm", he's doing what he and others do all the time - barging someone. Only this time he got him in the head.

Brookes' was the softest of the three but still very clear. It struck me as a failure of coaching - he didn't need to be anywhere near the tackle but clearly was expected to stick a shoulder in to 'dominate' the tackle area. Every red of the last fortnight has been entirely preventable and not taking said action would have had limited to no impact on the game.

[Saint]

Simmons’s had conversion on touchline to win the game. Looked to start his run up stopped and Saints charged and kicked the ball away.
Ref said he had started his run up and no retake
Saints win!!!

I'm hoping to see some alternative angles, as he was pretty much off camera at the start. Hogg was arguing at length with the ref at the end, and tbf it's not something you see very often

I was staggered it wasn’t retaken
Gutsy performance from Saints mind

From the current camera angles it's impossible to see what happened really, but my gut reaction at the time was that it was going to be retaken. On the flip side though I thought Exeter had the massive rub of the green at the breakdown and offside for the whole 80 minutes of the match to that point; offside in particular

[Raggs]

Group pointing out the issue with the rugbyagainstracism hashtag being pushed, whilst Exeter Chives are still going strong with their branding.

[Un Pilier]

Very disappointed with the commentators doing their best to try and forgive the players for the idiotic red cards. Brookes' one in particular - no, he's not "prevented from raising his arm", he's doing what he and others do all the time - barging someone. Only this time he got him in the head.

Quite. Austin Healey was particularly wide of the mark on this one.

[Un Pilier]

Very disappointed with the commentators doing their best to try and forgive the players for the idiotic red cards. Brookes' one in particular - no, he's not "prevented from raising his arm", he's doing what he and others do all the time - barging someone. Only this time he got him in the head.

Brookes' was the softest of the three but still very clear. It struck me as a failure of coaching - he didn't need to be anywhere near the tackle but clearly was expected to stick a shoulder in to 'dominate' the tackle area. Every red of the last fortnight has been entirely preventable and not taking said action would have had limited to no impact on the game.

I would agree with all that.

[SaintK]

Great win. What happened at the end, I turned it off in a fit of pique when Exeter went over for the last-minute try

Simmons’s had conversion on touchline to win the game. Looked to start his run up stopped and Saints charged and kicked the ball away.
Ref said he had started his run up and no retake
Saints win!!!

I'm hoping to see some alternative angles, as he was pretty much off camera at the start. Hogg was arguing at length with the ref at the end, and tbf it's not something you see very often

Well, I still can't tell. Guess the ref was in the best position to make the call!!
[media] [/media]

[Saint]

On the Saints supports group on Facebook, someone's found some footage showing Simmons taking a half a sideways step, which you can sort of kind of line up to that footage. If that is the case, then it's fair game, but it'll take BT Sports to line up all the camera work and timestamp it accurately to say for 100% certain.

I think the main reason it's contentious is because it's so rarely seen

EDIT - Ben Kay has tweeted footage show Simmonds taking a half step forwards.

Of further interest is that by the time Simmonds had even got close to moving, he was already well outside the 60 seconds for the kick to take place

[SaintK]

On the Saints supports group on Facebook, someone's found some footage showing Simmons taking a half a sideways step, which you can sort of kind of line up to that footage. If that is the case, then it's fair game, but it'll take BT Sports to line up all the camera work and timestamp it accurately to say for 100% certain.

I think the main reason it's contentious is because it's so rarely seen

EDIT - Ben Kay has tweeted footage show Simmonds taking a half step forwards.

Of further interest is that by the time Simmonds had even got close to moving, he was already well outside the 60 seconds for the kick to take place

Marginal!!! Will take it though. Gutsy performance from Saints
[media] [/media]

[Margin__Walker]

I guess you'd need to see the wide angle shot from the start.

He's definitely taken a tiny step on that close up, but you can't see whether that's the exact second they come off the line.

Either way, Exeter aren't making any issue out of it, so assume it's all good.

[Paddington Bear]

Right, how many reds today?

[Paddington Bear]

Speak of the devil... lucky boy

[sockwithaticket]

That should be red. What's this top of the back bullshit? Head slams into the ground too.

[Margin__Walker]

Well that should have been a red

Every day of the week. His head bounced FFS

[Paddington Bear]

The card is the latest addition to my ‘the players are just thick’ theory. Pointless tackle of a bloke who doesn’t even have the ball. A decade plus of importing rugby league culture and English rugby is largely meatheads looking for contact.

Anyway, excellent finish from Bristol and lots of adventure from Irish. Should be a good one

[sockwithaticket]

Well shit...

Well that should have been a red

Every day of the week. His head bounced FFS

At best, the head hits the ground slightly after the neck/shoulders. Which should still be a red?

Also we've seen instances where a player breaking their own fall with arms doesn't mitigate a red card, so how can the mere luck of how the player lands in this instance be used as such?

[Paddington Bear]

I assume the refs are desperate not to be the story, which of course ends up making them the story. I get it as I bet the head coaches spend this coming week slating the reds rather than absorbing the lessons

[Lobby]

Well shit...

Well that should have been a red

Every day of the week. His head bounced FFS

At best, the head hits the ground slightly after the neck/shoulders. Which should still be a red?

Also we've seen instances where a player breaking their own fall with arms doesn't mitigate a red card, so how can the mere luck of how the player lands in this instance be used as such?

Given that they’ve scored 17 unanswered points during the sin bin period, perhaps Bristol should volunteer to keep him off for the rest of the game.

[Paddington Bear]

That is an amazing try

[sockwithaticket]

This could get really ugly.

[Margin__Walker]

Well at least I have a few quid on Bristol beating the handicap today.

[Ovals]

Bristol are much easier on the eye than most Premiership sides - notably Exeter. Be nice to see their style of play rewarded with some silverware.

[Paddington Bear]

This is a bizarre offence, think the officials handled it pretty well

[Paddington Bear]

Hell of a game, could be a wild finish

[Ovals]

Good comeback this, by Irish.

Could be an exciting finish.

[ASMO]

Bristol play some pretty rugby, but they are dumb as rocks, stupid decisions, dumb penalties. If they cut those out and buy a brain they would be untouchable.

[sockwithaticket]

Fair play., Thought Bris might be targetting the 50, but irish have really come back into it.

[Paddington Bear]

Another game where 2+ of the last 10 minutes are wasted setting up scrums

[Ovals]

Bristol play some pretty rugby, but they are dumb as rocks, stupid decisions, dumb penalties. If they cut those out and buy a brain they would be untouchable.

Their set piece is also a bit fallible.