The Official English Rugby Thread

[sockwithaticket]

Haven't seen any to disagree with.

[JM2K6]

Odd game really. Exeter were pretty shite. Sam Simmonds had touched the ball twice all game before he scored, their attacking play was largely based on hope, and it would appear that all their scrumhalves are fucking shite. Hodge continues to baffle me, I know he's quick but he's terrible at everything that doesn't involve running in space.

[sockwithaticket]

Sale remind me a lot of Gatland's Wales. They're annoying as fuck to play against, pretty stingy in defence and generally stay close enough on the scoreboard to be in a position to take any game. Never look particularly good, but can get a roll of results going.

[Tichtheid]

Odd game really. Exeter were pretty shite. Sam Simmonds had touched the ball twice all game before he scored, their attacking play was largely based on hope, and it would appear that all their scrumhalves are fucking shite. Hodge continues to baffle me, I know he's quick but he's terrible at everything that doesn't involve running in space.

Hidalgo-Clyne needed just one thing added to his game, the accuracy of repetitive passing after twenty, forty, sixty rucks, like the way Exeter play. He has it now, but he also has a brilliant kicking game whilst on the run and he has pace to burn.

[JM2K6]

Odd game really. Exeter were pretty shite. Sam Simmonds had touched the ball twice all game before he scored, their attacking play was largely based on hope, and it would appear that all their scrumhalves are fucking shite. Hodge continues to baffle me, I know he's quick but he's terrible at everything that doesn't involve running in space.

Hidalgo-Clyne needed just one thing added to his game, the accuracy of repetitive passing after twenty, forty, sixty rucks, like the way Exeter play. He has it now, but he also has a brilliant kicking game whilst on the run and he has pace to burn.

Oh, honestly I'd forgotten about him. He's excluded from my criticism. Both Maunders and Townsend are garbage, it's such a huge step down from Nic White.

[JM2K6]

Sale remind me a lot of Gatland's Wales. They're annoying as fuck to play against, pretty stingy in defence and generally stay close enough on the scoreboard to be in a position to take any game. Never look particularly good, but can get a roll of results going.

Sanderson needs to bite the bullet and bin off Ross as captain. He's an absolute joke with his discipline.

[sockwithaticket]

Sale remind me a lot of Gatland's Wales. They're annoying as fuck to play against, pretty stingy in defence and generally stay close enough on the scoreboard to be in a position to take any game. Never look particularly good, but can get a roll of results going.

Sanderson needs to bite the bullet and bin off Ross as captain. He's an absolute joke with his discipline.

100%. Making the breakdown as scrappy and messy as they do runs the risk of running up the pens even without your captain doing dumb shit to add to the tally. It was total luck for him that his dumb fuck yellow wasn't a red. Slightly different fall from the Exeter player, which is out of anyone's control, and Sale are also permanently a man down.

[Tichtheid]

Sale remind me a lot of Gatland's Wales. They're annoying as fuck to play against, pretty stingy in defence and generally stay close enough on the scoreboard to be in a position to take any game. Never look particularly good, but can get a roll of results going.

Sanderson needs to bite the bullet and bin off Ross as captain. He's an absolute joke with his discipline.

Sanderson comes across as a nice guy on the comms on a Saturday during the games, but he is used to winning.

He'll bin anyone who is a hurdle in that objective.

Ross was poor tonight.

[JM2K6]

Sale remind me a lot of Gatland's Wales. They're annoying as fuck to play against, pretty stingy in defence and generally stay close enough on the scoreboard to be in a position to take any game. Never look particularly good, but can get a roll of results going.

Sanderson needs to bite the bullet and bin off Ross as captain. He's an absolute joke with his discipline.

Sanderson comes across as a nice guy on the comms on a Saturday during the games, but he is used to winning.

He'll bin anyone who is a hurdle in that objective.

Ross was poor tonight.

Ross does that in most games, though. As Brazil keeps saying, the guy's a liability. He pisses refs off, and picks up idiotic yellow cards on a regular basis. What was it, 4 stupid penalties today?

[Tichtheid]

Sanderson needs to bite the bullet and bin off Ross as captain. He's an absolute joke with his discipline.

Sanderson comes across as a nice guy on the comms on a Saturday during the games, but he is used to winning.

He'll bin anyone who is a hurdle in that objective.

Ross was poor tonight.

Ross does that in most games, though. As Brazil keeps saying, the guy's a liability. He pisses refs off, and picks up idiotic yellow cards on a regular basis. What was it, 4 stupid penalties today?

All I'm saying is that it won't have escaped Sanderson's notice, and he is no fool

[Tichtheid]

By the way, I hear that Kelly Brown has gone back down to Sarries from Glasgow to take up the assistant coach role there

[Dinsdale Piranha]

My main take from that game is that I'm glad Quins played Sale when Faf was elsewhere.

[Paddington Bear]

Watched the game on catch up, yet again you’ve got a player sent off for something there was absolutely no need to do. At the moment players seem programmed to fly in, he was never winning the ball or changing momentum there. Just hit someone. Madness

[Kawazaki]

https://www.ruck.co.uk/sir-clive-woodwa ... selection/


Woodward spot on here. Saying what we have been.

I'm still never sure how Youngs never gets a mention though.

[Kawazaki]

Watched the game on catch up, yet again you’ve got a player sent off for something there was absolutely no need to do. At the moment players seem programmed to fly in, he was never winning the ball or changing momentum there. Just hit someone. Madness

The constant slow motion repeats don't help to be honest. In real time Yeandle had committed to that ruck, he had little time to change his line. I'm not defending it but reviews should be real speed only.

[geordie_6]

Apologies if Red Rebel:

Simmonds, speaking to the Rugby Journal, revealed why he continues to be left out by Jones despite his stellar form in the Gallagher Premiership.

“He (Eddie) said, at the moment I don’t fit into his squad and how he sees me, and how I play for Exeter, doesn’t fit into his team.

“And, that is quite tough to take, but at least I get to play for Exeter Chiefs. This is a great club and team.”

https://www.ruck.co.uk/simmonds-reveals ... -pick-him/

[JM2K6]

Watched the game on catch up, yet again you’ve got a player sent off for something there was absolutely no need to do. At the moment players seem programmed to fly in, he was never winning the ball or changing momentum there. Just hit someone. Madness

The constant slow motion repeats don't help to be honest. In real time Yeandle had committed to that ruck, he had little time to change his line. I'm not defending it but reviews should be real speed only.

The ref asked for a real speed one. I get your point but there's no defending Yeandle - he decided to go in to wipe out a player that was miles away from the ball, sitting on his arse, and not impacting the ruck at all. At best all it was ever going to be was a cheap shot.

[JM2K6]

Apologies if Red Rebel:

Simmonds, speaking to the Rugby Journal, revealed why he continues to be left out by Jones despite his stellar form in the Gallagher Premiership.

“He (Eddie) said, at the moment I don’t fit into his squad and how he sees me, and how I play for Exeter, doesn’t fit into his team.

“And, that is quite tough to take, but at least I get to play for Exeter Chiefs. This is a great club and team.”

https://www.ruck.co.uk/simmonds-reveals ... -pick-him/

"You're not a crash tackler or a 130kg lump of PI fat and muscle"

[sockwithaticket]

And/or "Despite the amount I'm being paid for my services I'm either unable or can't be arsed to find a way to incorporate you"

[Kawazaki]

Watched the game on catch up, yet again you’ve got a player sent off for something there was absolutely no need to do. At the moment players seem programmed to fly in, he was never winning the ball or changing momentum there. Just hit someone. Madness

The constant slow motion repeats don't help to be honest. In real time Yeandle had committed to that ruck, he had little time to change his line. I'm not defending it but reviews should be real speed only.

The ref asked for a real speed one. I get your point but there's no defending Yeandle - he decided to go in to wipe out a player that was miles away from the ball, sitting on his arse, and not impacting the ruck at all. At best all it was ever going to be was a cheap shot.

Yeandle couldn't get much lower. The Sale hooker was on his knees playing the ball ffs! We're talking a split second here after the first Sale player arrives before Yeandle does.

Listen, I hate Exeter, I've no skin in the game but I think a red was harsh.

[Kawazaki]

I totally agree with Clive Woodward in this article at well...

https://www.ruck.co.uk/sir-clive-woodwa ... selection/


Christ, defending Exeter and now agreeing with woodentop. I need a sit down.

[JM2K6]

The constant slow motion repeats don't help to be honest. In real time Yeandle had committed to that ruck, he had little time to change his line. I'm not defending it but reviews should be real speed only.

The ref asked for a real speed one. I get your point but there's no defending Yeandle - he decided to go in to wipe out a player that was miles away from the ball, sitting on his arse, and not impacting the ruck at all. At best all it was ever going to be was a cheap shot.

Yeandle couldn't get much lower. The Sale hooker was on his knees playing the ball ffs! We're talking a split second here after the first Sale player arrives before Yeandle does.

Listen, I hate Exeter, I've no skin in the game but I think a red was harsh.

Other angle shows he was miles away from the ball.

[JM2K6]

As Yeandle is just about to start dipping and raising his arm, here's how far away the player was:



Nowhere near. He's the other side of the tackled player AND the tackler, sitting on his arse, being pulled even further away.

At the actual point of contact, the ball is under Yeandle's foot, yards from the player.


There's just no excuse.

[sockwithaticket]

Scrappy game at the Ricoh, Wasps with a narrow lead. Umaga looking heaps better than he has recently (not hard...).

[JM2K6]

Quins' changes costing us at Newcastle. Morris proving again he's a much better wing than fullback, Landajo with a properly dreadful performance that's seen him hooked after 46 minutes, and the sort of defensive insecurity you might expect from 8 changes and a bunch of experience gone.

[Margin__Walker]

Scrappy game at the Ricoh, Wasps with a narrow lead. Umaga looking heaps better than he has recently (not hard...).

Jesus, we made that hard at the end, but got it done.

Very scrappy game though.

[sockwithaticket]

Scrappy game at the Ricoh, Wasps with a narrow lead. Umaga looking heaps better than he has recently (not hard...).

Jesus, we made that hard at the end, but got it done.

Very scrappy game though.

It's a good 4 points to tough out.

Felt that for all your territory and possession you probably should have won by more. We seem to have completely lost the ability to do anything with the ball and spend most of the game defending at the moment, it's like the basketball game against Bath blew our attacking circuits.

[Margin__Walker]

Scrappy game at the Ricoh, Wasps with a narrow lead. Umaga looking heaps better than he has recently (not hard...).

Jesus, we made that hard at the end, but got it done.

Very scrappy game though.

It's a good 4 points to tough out.

Felt that for all your territory and possession you probably should have won by more. We seem to have completely lost the ability to do anything with the ball and spend most of the game defending at the moment, it's like the basketball game against Bath blew our attacking circuits.

Yeah, it would have been a bad one to lose given the possession and territory. Almost managed it.

Over to the joys of watching England now.

[Double]

Decided to spice things up for tomorrow

And the week you post this Youngs decides to have his one good game of the year

[Paddington Bear]

Decided to spice things up for tomorrow

And the week you post this Youngs decides to have his one good game of the year

This has occurred to me. Hard to read to much into that

[Kawazaki]

As Yeandle is just about to start dipping and raising his arm, here's how far away the player was:



Nowhere near. He's the other side of the tackled player AND the tackler, sitting on his arse, being pulled even further away.

At the actual point of contact, the ball is under Yeandle's foot, yards from the player.


There's just no excuse.

In your still, Yeandle is traveling at circa 15kph, he's about 90cm away from the Sale player and all his weight is forward ahead of his hips, very low and dropping further still.

I hate to dip in to the old "have you actually ever played rugby" line but what the hell do you think he can do from his position in that still shot?!

[JM2K6]

He has every opportunity to put the brakes on, use his arms to push the player, not smash the guy, or basically do anything that isn't follow through regardless and smash the vulnerable player in the face, miles away from the ball. It's yet another case of trying to justify player behaviour that if applied anywhere else simply assumes that they're completely incapable of thinking for themselves or reacting to circumstances or not, y'know, deciding to take a huge run-up on a dynamic ruck and damn the consequences. If we're going to forgive situations like this, we might as well throw the rule book out of the window.

This is the view he has when he's fucking miles away. Note that the ball here is his side of the player in white, and being pushed back at this stage:


So he lines up the guy who's on the floor, away from the ball, and being pulled backwards.

Absolutely no excuse.

[notfatcat]

Why do you argue with Toga?

[JM2K6]

Why do you argue with Toga?

Because 1-2 looks better than 0-2 on a day like today.

[notfatcat]

More like 0.25 - 2. It's Toga.

[JM2K6]

[Kawazaki]

He has every opportunity to put the brakes on, use his arms to push the player, not smash the guy, or basically do anything that isn't follow through regardless and smash the vulnerable player in the face, miles away from the ball. It's yet another case of trying to justify player behaviour that if applied anywhere else simply assumes that they're completely incapable of thinking for themselves or reacting to circumstances or not, y'know, deciding to take a huge run-up on a dynamic ruck and damn the consequences. If we're going to forgive situations like this, we might as well throw the rule book out of the window.

This is the view he has when he's fucking miles away. Note that the ball here is his side of the player in white, and being pushed back at this stage:


So he lines up the guy who's on the floor, away from the ball, and being pulled backwards.

Absolutely no excuse.

He's not miles away. That's just such a dumb description. Try looking at the moving image, that's not speeded up.

[Kawazaki]

Why do you argue with Toga?

Hi stalker.

[Hal Jordan]

This is basically the helmet to helmet rule in NFL. Can't do it, idiot players keep jamming their helmets in anyway because that's how they learned to hit.

[JM2K6]

So. Where does Eddie go from here? I assume we're too cheap to fire him.

Here are the problems:

a) His "banker" players are more liabilities than plusses most of the time. There were signs of improvement but we have so many players who simply are just present or giving ok-to-middling-to-poor performances, with a lot of downsides.

b) His tactical approach appears to be dead in the water; teams are not losing the kicking battle and we have a fullback who's weak under the high ball and rarely makes an impact running it back (v notable that Billy got that job a lot of the time today)

c) Discipline has gone out of the window. This might be in part down to these players kinda knowing they're not going to be dropped.

d) Defence is starting to leak a lot of tries.

This is starting to feel a lot like Quins under Gustard...