NPR

Big D wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 2:51 pm I worry the deciding factor will be the advantages England have in Dombrandt, Ford and Nowell over the Scotish alternative. Bradbury has been better this year but Dombrandt is better.

I'm leaning towards England by 5 or 6. May just be pre match pessimism though.

That's the way I'm leaning too.

All rugby is currently on hold - I’m watching it with my eldest while helping him sort out the new flat he and his girlfriend are renting. The owner and previous tenant is a former MP of reasonably high profile, it’s furnished and he has left quite a lot of stuff here that we have to move around.

We just found a big bag full of butt plugs and prostate massagers.

Begbie wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 3:06 pm

Big D wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 2:51 pm I worry the deciding factor will be the advantages England have in Dombrandt, Ford and Nowell over the Scotish alternative. Bradbury has been better this year but Dombrandt is better.

I'm leaning towards England by 5 or 6. May just be pre match pessimism though.

That's the way I'm leaning too.

Yep, we are very capable of winning, but much as my heart says yes, my head says no. Just not clinical enough.

Punter15 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 3:19 pm All rugby is currently on hold - I’m watching it with my eldest while helping him sort out the new flat he and his girlfriend are renting. The owner and previous tenant is a former MP of reasonably high profile, it’s furnished and he has left quite a lot of stuff here that we have to move around.

We just found a big bag full of butt plugs and prostate massagers.

Ah come on, you can’t do that. What does his name rhyme with?!

Shite discipline, shite scrum, shite maul, shite decision making

What are our tactics meant to be? Baffling.

Ehh ignore that

Fuck me that was unbelievable.

Nice spammy win. Happy days. Zero percent deserved, which makes it all the sweeter!

KingBlairhorn wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 6:46 pm Nice spammy win. Happy days. Zero percent deserved, which makes it all the sweeter!

I haven’t watched it yet. But who gives a stuff? They all count. Wales won the title last year mostly by playing against 14 men. The trophy still has their name on it.

98% tackle success rate

Fagerson Jnr, Wee Darcy, Finn, Hoggy those were the standouts, Gilcho towards the end of the game too, heros, but that was full squad performance

I will spend some time with a bottle of Bunnahabhain this evening.

Also very important steal from Skinner near the end. Huge intervention.

Thrilled with that, but it wasn’t a performance that will worry Ireland.

Punter15 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 7:04 pm Thrilled with that, but it wasn’t a performance that will worry Ireland.

Let's worry about a wounded Wales 1st.

Tichtheid wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 7:01 pm Fagerson Jnr, Wee Darcy, Finn, Hoggy those were the standouts, Gilcho towards the end of the game too, heros, but that was full squad performance

I will spend some time with a bottle of Bunnahabhain this evening.

Great defensive performance all round. I though Gilchrist looked well off the pace for the first 60 minutes but found a second wind. Need to get more ball in the rest of the games though or it could be a long tournament.

Begbie wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 6:43 pm Ehh ignore that

Fuck me that was unbelievable.

To be fair your first post was pretty accurate.

Big D wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 7:05 pm

Punter15 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 7:04 pm Thrilled with that, but it wasn’t a performance that will worry Ireland.

Let's worry about a wounded Wales 1st.

You know what I meant, but yes, absolutely

Punter15 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 7:04 pm Thrilled with that, but it wasn’t a performance that will worry Ireland.

Maybe not, but that’s a whole other game, and it remains to be seen whether we will get there with anything to play for or not.

Bar one charge down from an offside Itoje I thought White had a very good debut.

Raeburn Shield back home too.

Anyone heard anything about Ritchie’s injury?

We played badly but won ... which makes a change from playing well and losing! Thankfully England were just plain inept with ball in hand, they were very poor with the ball. If we have more ball to play with then I think we could have done their backs some real damage but committed some silly penalties around the park and got on the wrong side of the ref. However I don't care how badly we played, it was worth it to see Eddie with a face like a torn sock in the post match interview. For a man who got both his team selection and game tactics wrong I thought he looked quite chipper!

I've just realised we have all ignored how bloody good Duhan was. Possibly his best game.

Some weird punter somewhere may have earned himself a fortune by predicting Ben White as first try scorer.

Wales were beyond shite today. They are there for the taking next week.

Well-deserved MotM for Matt Fagerson, he was immense as a ball carrier today. Defensively this Scotland team is something else - they never really looked too flustered. A shame that the attacking play didn't really click, the two tries excepted.

clydecloggie wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 8:26 pm Some weird punter somewhere may have earned himself a fortune by predicting Ben White as first try scorer.

Wales were beyond shite today. They are there for the taking next week.

Well-deserved MotM for Matt Fagerson, he was immense as a ball carrier today. Defensively this Scotland team is something else - they never really looked too flustered. A shame that the attacking play didn't really click, the two tries excepted.

I thought MF had a cracker of a game, his best performance for Scotland imo, he gets better every year and he's still on 23.

@Blackmac, Duhan was tremendous with the ball coming at him from above his head, I think England thought he was going to be weak there, but he certainly was not.

We won that off scraps, we have to do better in securing possession and territory in the coming games, we looked really quite good when we got a couple of phases strung together

Agreed TH.

According to ESPN pending updates, our centres touched the ball 5 times. Tells the story of the match a little.

3 wins in 5 Vs England and one draw that was really a win. These are happy days.

Watching these Tandy led defensive displays makes it all the more maddening we kept Taylor for so long.

We look calm and composed 1-15 now in defence and looks like we enjoy it now.

Watched the game back.

We were certainly on the back foot for most of it. However, we looked comfortable in defence (Hoggy’s high risk stuff in the corner excepted) and England didn’t have many real chances to score.

Obviously the game changed on the penalty try, but I’m glad to see nobody is seriously arguing it shouldn’t have been given. If LCD isn’t there and doesn’t do the deliberate knock on, Darcy has an easy catch and scores the try.

I do suspect England would have had a penalty from that succession of scrums if the clock hadn’t been red. I don’t agree with it, I hate scrum penalties, but you see them given all the time. On the other hand, Duhan was penalised for holding on twice, without being given any time to recycle at all - the whistle went the moment he hit the deck (along with refs who give a knock on for any handling error even if it goes backwards, this is one of my bugbears).

Russell was brilliant. Very few opportunities,but managed what we had, two beautiful kicks for the penalty try, having forced the non hooker to throw it in from the line out, which England duly fucked up. Proved he’s the best FH in the NH today.

That was far from a complete performance but grinding out a win v England is commendable. Tandy needs a raise.

Blackmac wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 8:17 pm I've just realised we have all ignored how bloody good Duhan was. Possibly his best game.

He does need to look for a pass occasionally though

I’m going to enjoy watching that clip of Darcy doing Marchand up like a kipper for a very long time.

Also worth saying that Toony got all the big calls right again.

Fagerson at 8, White at 9, Tuipoolotu came on at just the right time and rattled them a bit

Slick wrote: ↑Sun Feb 06, 2022 9:53 am Tuipoolotu came on at just the right time and rattled them a bit

I thought he did little. But I know I'm not a huge fan so I checked the stats:
1 carry for 3 yards and no tackles.

Big D wrote: ↑Sun Feb 06, 2022 10:26 am

Slick wrote: ↑Sun Feb 06, 2022 9:53 am Tuipoolotu came on at just the right time and rattled them a bit

I thought he did little. But I know I'm not a huge fan so I checked the stats:
1 carry for 3 yards and no tackles.

That's surprising, I thought he made a couple of decent carries. Guess not.

I somehow managed to watch that game completely sober, I don't recommend it for future games.

Big D wrote: ↑Sun Feb 06, 2022 10:26 am

Slick wrote: ↑Sun Feb 06, 2022 9:53 am Tuipoolotu came on at just the right time and rattled them a bit

I thought he did little. But I know I'm not a huge fan so I checked the stats:
1 carry for 3 yards and no tackles.

Oh. I’m quite surprised at that, was sure I remembered him crashing a couple up, obviously not!

Slick wrote: ↑Sun Feb 06, 2022 9:53 am Also worth saying that Toony got all the big calls right again.

Fagerson at 8, White at 9, Tuipoolotu came on at just the right time and rattled them a bit

Yep. Amazing what happens when your coach isn’t a mental despot.

Well I enjoyed that a lot more this morning than I did watching it live. My reaction after the match was that we had somehow scraped a win having been battered. Am now of the thinking that it was a very impressive win based on fantastic defence. And very good line breaks leading to points on the rare occasions we got some possession.

Watched it in a pub surrounded by Wales fans, they made a Hell of a lot more noise for our game than they did for their own