International Rugby

[nigel]

Amongst my (our) whingeing, it has to be said Scotland were superb.  I’d be happy if they can maintain it and win the 6-nations.

Scotland were excellent but their 2 best players are Hogg and Russell and we played in a way that gave those 2 time and space to control the match.

When ever I’ve watched him, Russell is either a 10/10 or a 2/10
Next game he’ll probably play as if he’s never seen a rugby ball in his life.

[Gareth]

Amongst my (our) whingeing, it has to be said Scotland were superb.  I’d be happy if they can maintain it and win the 6-nations.

Scotland were excellent but their 2 best players are Hogg and Russell and we played in a way that gave those 2 time and space to control the match.

When ever I’ve watched him, Russell is either a 10/10 or a 2/10
Next game he’ll probably play as if he’s never seen a rugby ball in his life.

Basically he is like every 10 who has played for France in the last 20 years :-)

[luke:lamf]

Amongst my (our) whingeing, it has to be said Scotland were superb.  I’d be happy if they can maintain it and win the 6-nations.

Scotland were excellent but their 2 best players are Hogg and Russell and we played in a way that gave those 2 time and space to control the match.

When ever I’ve watched him, Russell is either a 10/10 or a 2/10
Next game he’ll probably play as if he’s never seen a rugby ball in his life.

Basically he is like every 10 who has played for France in the last 20 years :-)

I think a lot of the French followers would ask where the 10/10 games were from the likes of Beauxis, Trinh Duc and Michalak. Some proper over-hyped, if not exactly dross, 10s over here. Without forgetting the kid they put in who was so young he was basically a foetus in a blue shirt and promptly got injured about 3 seconds into his debut, such was the desperation to find "the" 10. The Dupont-Ntamack does look damn good though (despite Ntamack looking like he could be made of glass and spend half his career on the physios table).

Edit: looked it up, Jalibert was the foetus (albeit 19 years old), and lasted 29 minutes on début.

[paul_e]

Russell plays on the edge, he throws a lot of passes that are try scoring chances if they come off but are a chance at a counter-attack try if they don't. That means he'll have stinkers every now and then but he's been hit more than miss for the last couple of years. For me he's the best 10 in the NH right now.

On the game today o'Mahony is a fucking idiot but Ireland were unlucky not to get something out of it, played really well for a team that was a man down for over an hour, Keenan at full back was exceptional.

[Meanwood Villa]

Amongst my (our) whingeing, it has to be said Scotland were superb.  I’d be happy if they can maintain it and win the 6-nations.

Scotland were excellent but their 2 best players are Hogg and Russell and we played in a way that gave those 2 time and space to control the match.

When ever I’ve watched him, Russell is either a 10/10 or a 2/10
Next game he’ll probably play as if he’s never seen a rugby ball in his life.

I think he's overrated and was poor yesterday. Bad place kicking, got himself in the bin and one out on the full.

[Jon Crofts]

What an uninspired starting 15 that is.
At least Ford is back at 10 assuming fucking Youngs hasn’t box kicked it.
Still the 5 unfit Saracens players in there again.

[paul_e]

What an uninspired starting 15 that is.
At least Ford is back at 10 assuming fucking Youngs hasn’t box kicked it.
Still the 5 unfit Saracens players in there again.

He's got players like Lawrence, Odogwu, Randall, Malins and Willis in the squad who could all do with some caps in a lower pressure game and yet he picked pretty much the most experienced side he could and only put 2 of them on the bench, he's unravelling quickly now and falling into the same pattern that almost all managers in all sports do where he's scared to drop players who've been good for him even when they're no longer working.

It's scary how similar to Southgate it is, started well by focusing on the strengths of the squad and bringing in players based on form that expand on that. Have a decent tournament despite some issues but then instead of addressing those issues go off on a tangent and end up with a squad that isn't so suited to how you're trying to play but that you 'trust' so they keep their places regardless whilst the form players in the league are left twiddling their thumbs.

[nigel]

What an uninspired starting 15 that is.
At least Ford is back at 10 assuming fucking Youngs hasn’t box kicked it.
Still the 5 unfit Saracens players in there again.

He's got players like Lawrence, Odogwu, Randall, Malins and Willis in the squad who could all do with some caps in a lower pressure game and yet he picked pretty much the most experienced side he could and only put 2 of them on the bench, he's unravelling quickly now and falling into the same pattern that almost all managers in all sports do where he's scared to drop players who've been good for him even when they're no longer working.

It's scary how similar to Southgate it is, started well by focusing on the strengths of the squad and bringing in players based on form that expand on that. Have a decent tournament despite some issues but then instead of addressing those issues go off on a tangent and end up with a squad that isn't so suited to how you're trying to play but that you 'trust' so they keep their places regardless whilst the form players in the league are left twiddling their thumbs.

Was saying something along these lines today.
What has Sam Simmonds done to upset Jones?
9 and 10 of Robson and Umanga (?)
Watson at 15

[paul_e]

England have been very poor to start, yes we've scored to get back in it but there's no fluency here, compare how France handled these last week and the difference is stark.

[taylorsworkrate]

Pathetic discipline again too

[paul_e]

Pathetic discipline again too

I think Cowan-Dickie was unlucky for the one they scored from though, should've been a pen the other way for a neck roll in my opinion, what the Italian was doing was dangerous, what LCD did was a minor technical infringement.

[paul_e]

Youngs is, yet again, pissing me right off here. He just can't pass, if you're running on to the ball at pace you want it in a box between waist and shoulder height and about a foot in front of you but he hardly ever passes there. He throws loads that people either take my their side or in front of their face and it means the receiver constantly has to drag their feet to not overrun the ball and all our line breaks become about physique rather than running lines and footwork. It's why we're so predictable.

[paul_e]

Italy have played into our hands after the first 10 minutes really, their kicking game has been awful and has let us carry back at them too easily.

Even with that Farrell and Billy V have bene peripheral at best and Youngs and Daly have made silly mistakes.

[luke:lamf]

Following on from last week's moaning about Billy V, this week I'll pick on Elliot Daly. Has he beaten a man with ball-in-hand in the last year ? Everytime I see him he runs up to the line, looks great doing it, then either passes or gets wrapped up. I understand no player will slice through the defensive line every time, not even Jason Robinson, but could he do it just once ?

[paul_e]

Following on from last week's moaning about Billy V, this week I'll pick on Elliot Daly. Has he beaten a man with ball-in-hand in the last year ? Everytime I see him he runs up to the line, looks great doing it, then either passes or gets wrapped up. I understand no player will slice through the defensive line every time, not even Jason Robinson, but could he do it just once ?

Agreed, he shouldn't be anywhere near the squad right now.

Robson on earlier that expected, lets see if he can have an impact.