Ok boys I know it hurts to lose but it happens. Well done wales and indeed well done England. for 55 mins that was an incredible game. I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately the game was won and lost because of one very fundamental mistake. England underestimated Wales, everyone but the Welsh seemed to have forgotten that Wales won a Grand Slam last year and i reckon that it was as simple as that. I'm positive England were good enough to compete with a rampant Wales if they had been in the right place mentally but i think they were a little naive in there preparation. I'm sure they will learn from it though.
Anyway boys, was a great match. Both teams deserve applause fr that show.
T'was an epic game!
posted on 17/3/13
wales were superb, one of the best wales performances ive seen in a long time, warburton and tipuric were immense
posted on 17/3/13
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posted on 17/3/13
Pps - did you see the second half of France - Scotland, that was fascinating, balls flying all over, out and out attack, tries from everywhere and fullbacks flatening prop forwards, a lovely final fluorish to the tournament
posted on 17/3/13
I didnt watch the french game yet will give it a watch a little later. honestly i was out with some friends yesterday celebrating st paddy have only watched the England v Wales game this morning. I thought it was a great game pf rugby. More that fitting for a finale.Sadly your boys lost and it hurt i know. but they will bounce back being young etc etc.
I did expect wales to win comfortably but by 30 was mighty. They were really and truly playing at full tilt and i don't think England expected it. im convinced they prepared badly for the game nd didn't focus enough on the task and or the difficulty of the task ahead of them. Wales were slowly building to a performance like that. It was clear enough that they were gona be well up for it and lets not forget this is the grand slam champions from last year. I can't stress enough how it seemed everyone was over looking them. How can we overlook a grand slam winning side.
Anyway SARS you will have better days That a really good team in the making, they just need a couple more years to mature.
Like cheese hahha
Yes Madigan has it all and most importantly he is an arrogant little git! in the words of Brent pope. "A good flyhalf is always a little arrogant"
posted on 19/3/13
Hey lads, was away all weekend so couldn't comment and to be honest I was too gutted to post!
Anyways I won't go into too much detail as I'm going to be facing the music this weekend on a stag with 10 Welsh rugby boys......shudder.
I will say i was really dissappointed with the reffing of the scrum - Dan Coles was all over Gethin, so much so that he went straight in on the hooker to relieve the pressure but England got pinged.
Then Adam Jones twigged that he could bind on the arm so did it over and over and again England got pinged...Walsh really was terrible there.
Anyways i still think we would have lost if the scrum was reffed properly and Robshaw should have been getting the ref to watch for those infringments.
Congrats to Wales on the win and ruining my fun this weekend!
posted on 19/3/13
Hey Sporty ye commiserations mate. But you know i see things differently. I reckon England got out thought in the scrum. The players have to play the ref as much as the opposition and i think Wales were way more street smart in this area. If they recognize that the ref is not pining a certain area and thus take advantage of it, well your boys should have done the same. So in that sense i think the opposite to you mate. I think Cole got schooled in the dark arts. Sure enough Cole may have had more grunt but Jones had the grunt where it mattered. The top 2 inches.
A tough lesson to learn for your boys but im sure they will take it on the chin and move on.
posted on 19/3/13
Ding I said something similar to a mate of mine...I actually think Jones was the smart one, he didn't start binding on the arm until the ref started pinging England all the time.
Gethin was getting crunched and didn't have much choice but he was smart to bore in rather than go straight down over and over again.
As you say though you need to play the ref just as much as you play your opponent. At top level I still think almost no refs really understand the scrum so you'll get games like this.
posted on 19/3/13
was reading rugby world mag earlier, and one of the readers wrote in to suggest getting a specialist referee (most likely and ex prop) just to referee the scrum
posted on 19/3/13
Ye sporty. Its actually a real problem and has been for ages! Seems tho that there is no will there to change it. and changing the calls the ref gives is just idiotic.
As MEX mentioned, perhaps a TMO Scrum ref would be a reasonable solution? (ex prop of course)
Or even trial an EX prop as the currant TMO all together. All they need to do then is expand the powers of the TMO to Scrum infringements and hire that loudmouth from the BBC commentary team. U know the one im talking about, can't remember his name right now even tho i read his book. Also a lode of long winded drivel. LOL Sorry gents, just can't take to him.
But that said, he does seem to know the scrum very well indeed!
posted on 21/3/13
I read Roundtrees comments on the game he basically said he doesn't buy in to dark art experience winning the scrum. He trains scrums to contest by the rules and the refs should support that.
It will be tough as nearly all top refs are way off right now at scrum time