International Rugby

[paul_e]

Better in a lot of ways but too many handling errors and still gave away a lot of soft penalties.

Youngs summed up perfectly why I don't like him within minutes of coming on, England catch and drive 10-15m up to halfway the ball comes out and Youngs kicks it to nowhere for absolutely no reason. We really need to fuck him off now, Randall was much better and I'd argue he isn't even then right choice to be starting.

[nigel]

Better in a lot of ways but too many handling errors and still gave away a lot of soft penalties.

Youngs summed up perfectly why I don't like him within minutes of coming on, England catch and drive 10-15m up to halfway the ball comes out and Youngs kicks it to nowhere for absolutely no reason. We really need to fuck him off now, Randall was much better and I'd argue he isn't even then right choice to be starting.

Had a bit of a giggle at that, as I pictured you typing exactly that 😂

Seriously, though, I don’t mind Youngs in certain games and situations, but I was screaming at him.
We were in a great field position, too.
So, I think Jones has to start with Randell. I have a feeling, though the Youngs will start vrs Wales

[UK Redsox]

Wales run out to that traditional Welsh anthem 'Enter Sandman'. Taking a leaf out of Virginia Tech's book and who can blame them?.

The only athlete allowed to run on to Enter Sandman should be Mariano Rivera

https://youtu.be/rUTirIk75vg

[Jon Crofts]

Youngs first touch was a knock on. Says it all really.

[paul_e]

Better in a lot of ways but too many handling errors and still gave away a lot of soft penalties.

Youngs summed up perfectly why I don't like him within minutes of coming on, England catch and drive 10-15m up to halfway the ball comes out and Youngs kicks it to nowhere for absolutely no reason. We really need to fuck him off now, Randall was much better and I'd argue he isn't even then right choice to be starting.

Had a bit of a giggle at that, as I pictured you typing exactly that 😂

Seriously, though, I don’t mind Youngs in certain games and situations, but I was screaming at him.
We were in a great field position, too.
So, I think Jones has to start with Randell. I have a feeling, though the Youngs will start vrs Wales

4-5 years ago I thought he was massively overrated but given the competition was people like Care and Wigglesworth I accepted him as worthy of the shirt. His last 30-40 caps though have been at the expense of better players and seem to be entirely based on him being a tigers player who has a lot of caps. I just see nothing in his game that other 9s can't bring as part of a more complete package.

The shit kicking (and it is shit, they're always too long to be anything other than playing territory) is annoying but the 2-3 steps before he passes after taking 3-4 extra seconds to pick his options is what pisses me off the most. Teams know that you can get at England by closing the gate and rushing up on the 10 because the ball out is always slow. Every now and then he'll spot it coming and make a break but most of the time we just get caught with no room to play in, over and over again.

2 from Quirke, Randell, Mitchell or Van Poorfleit should be the options now, and Randall and Mitchell should've been sharing the shirt for 18 months before the other 2 left the U20s.

[Villa Lew]

Daily Mail are saying South Africa are in line to join the 6 Nations in 2025 in place of Italy.

[Jon Crofts]

Hmmm can't see that working unless they're willing to play home games out of Madrid or Amsterdam, personally I'd prefer Georgia or Romania, why would northern hemisphere rugby want to help develop the south? Oh yes, money, screw the fans.

[UK Redsox]

I'd like to see some kind of play-in tournament for the 6th place in the 6N, but it'll never happen for fear of one of the '5 Nations' having a bad run of games, coming sixth and getting relegated

[paul_e]

They need to do something but adding SA is a terrible idea. I think I'd go for some sort of 2 level solution but that runs the risk of creating an international equivalent of Worcester/London Irish/Newcastle who tend to yoyo between the leagues most seasons.

[luke:lamf]

Given that most Saffer fans are probably in London, could they use Wembley as a base, perhaps ? In any case, I wonder what the effect would be on the Rugby Championship - will NZ and Aus be happy to play each other more regularly in between stuffings of Argentina ? The Tri-Nations was good with three equally matched teams. With one powerhouse, one who fluctuates, and one obvious weakling, what becomes of it ?

[paul_e]

I've just seen an idea on facebook that I like.

You have a playoff match every year between the the bottom placed 6n side and the top placed european championship side (so Italy and Georgia currently).

Whoever wins that plays in the 6N the following season with 5 home games whilst the other 5 teams play 2 home and 2 away.

I think that's about the best solution I've seen offered because the home advantage (in terms of finance if nothing else) helps close the gap, it doesn't solve the yoyo problem and it potentially widens the gap between the best 7 and the rest but you'd need other solutions there.

[luke:lamf]

Rather than doing a league, could they run 2 "mini-leagues" and a finals ? So, each year 10 teams go into the pot - the usual 6, plus SA, Georgia, then whoever the next best 2 in Europe are - maybe Germany because it'd be good to grow the game there and you'd have to imagine they're not short of enormous Teutons, and AN Other.

2 pools of 5 = 4 games. Italy, Georgia, Germany + AN Other play all games at home (that does seem like a really good idea - both in terms of giving them even a small chance of winning and gaining revenue). Top 2 in each group go on to semi-finals / final set-up.

Each year the groups are mixed up a bit to keep a bit of freshness in the fixture list. Don't know if this would sharpen or dull rivalries, mind.

Fantasy sports administration. Sure beats work...

Edit : A quick look at the rankings suggests that Germany are utterly terrible, so it would seem Romania and Spain and the next cabs on the rank

[paul_e]

I like the idea of 2 leagues side by side as well, but you'd have the problem of not having a calcutta cup game every year (personally I don't care but a lot of people would be against that).

I don't want SA anywhere near it though, I'd rather we invited the US and Canada before we let SA get involved, in fact I'd be all for reducing the influence SA rugby has in the NH from where it is, not going the other way. I see them as little better than the Russian Olympic association right now.

[luke:lamf]

Is that from a doping standpoint ? I vaguely remember hearing of a High School rugby doping scandal there when I was out there about 10 years ago, but not aware of anything at senior level.

I wouldn’t necessarily have SA either, might as well make it a European thing, just throwing them in because that is apparently the way things seem to be moving.

[UK Redsox]

Time zones, innit

SA might be southern hemisphere but they're European timezone.


As for other European rugby, there was a time a few years ago when half of the Malta national team were blokes from clubs around Gloucester