International Rugby

[AV84]

Scotland have won the Calcutta Cup 4 years in a row now. I know England are currently pretty awful, but they haven't been for 4 years, have they?

[taylorsworkrate]

Scotland have won the Calcutta Cup 4 years in a row now. I know England are currently pretty awful, but they haven't been for 4 years, have they?

Yes. They've been very poor since the 2019 world cup. England have had 4 consecutive years of only winning 2 games in a Six Nations campaign

[paul_e]

Scotland are a decent side and have some very dangerous playerbut England fell apart after the 2019 world cup when Jones decided that the way to beat SA was to become a wish version of them which cost him his job. Borthwick then came in and did a Gerrardby stepping up a level and hoping the trick that has worked for him before would just keep working.

It means England play the most extreme version of percentage rugby going, with us aiming for 4-5 phases of crash ball to break the defensive line and if that doesn't work kick it away.

On top of that if a crash runner isn't available - kick it away, if the ruck is slow - kick it away, if we're in our own half don't even look for a potential overload - kick it away.

I'm not against kicking in general but with England it's at the expense of any other plan.

[Brazilian Villain]

Scotland have won the Calcutta Cup 4 years in a row now.

Yes, for the first time since 1896, a year in which we won the league title. Could it be an omen?

[Brazilian Villain]

If Ireland get a BP win at Twickenham that's the tournament wrapped up before the last round. Grand Slam would still be on, but it must be a while since things were wrapped up before the last weekend?

Ha ha whaddya mean if?

We never take any win at Twickenham for granted, and England gave us a game at home last year.

Wary of Scotland at home as well as they are a decent side now, plus Russell and van der Merwe are capable of moments of magic at any time. However, the post-match analysis picked up on a point Paul_e made, namely that it was easy for the Scottish defenders yesterday with lone attackers running at them but it will be different against Ireland.

[AV84]

Forza Italia!

[paul_e]

Italy have been excellent this half but France clearly haven't got over their awful world cup. The red card was such dumb play from Danty and let Italy back into it.

Special mention for Galthie though who has created problems by subbing off Tuilagi and Baille who were doing a fantastic job of keeping the Italian defence narrow.

[AV84]

Ahhhhh what a horrible miss!

[paul_e]

Ahhhhh what a horrible miss!

Caused by the ball falling off the tee and having to be replaced, that will repeat in his head for a while. Poor guy.

[PaulWinch again]

To be honest England have been poor, with the exception of a few short phases (e.g. 2019 WC), for 8 years. It’s constant talk of building towards something that never arrives and it’s pathetic. It goes beyond just coaching, it’s very much structural, but even accounting for that the substandard performances that are trotted out year after year are not good enough.

[paul_e]

https://www.rugbydump.com/news/jonny-may-explains-english-attacking-woes-in-fascinating-interview

Not a massive surprise but confirmation that England have done very little attack coaching for years.

[Brazilian Villain]

Not a gambler myself, but notice that France are only 6 point favourites against Wales. Seems pretty generous if you fancy France to beat them.

[paul_e]

Not a gambler myself, but notice that France are only 6 point favourites against Wales. Seems pretty generous if you fancy France to beat them.

France are a bit of a mess right now for 2 big reasons. Firstly Lucu and Jalibert are nowhere near the quality of Dupont and Ntamack which means their attack is really flat and secondly they have a bad world cup hangover which means there's a fragility to them that needs to be fixed.

[Brazilian Villain]

I understand France haven't played well, but still seemed lowish to me when Wales have been no great shakes either.

[PaulWinch again]

Didn’t realise Jamie George is a Villa fan. Good man.