2021 Six Nations

[Hesh]

2 minutes ago, 151 said:

 

Okay so almost like a drop ball? But a contested one.

yeah fair comparison, with the proviso the team putting in normally has the advantage 

[Morgan]

1 minute ago, The Frenchman Returns said:

And @NANOJAMBO I am not Ruth Davidson either

Be careful, Frenchie.  

 

He’s a wee bitty touchy.

 

🙄

[Morgan]

2 minutes ago, Smithee said:

That was alright eh?

[milky_26]

37 minutes ago, Hesh said:

Tidy today. Nice to see a few of the England players getting schooled. Watson was immense summed up by his rip at the end. VDM has been a great catch as has Redpath who had been in the frame for an England call up. Doesn’t seem to be as much pressure on Hogg when Russell is in the team 

it does seem having russell in the side takes a lot of pressure off of hogg allowing him to play with more freedom. sort of like in football some players get weighed down by being captain but when not captain perform much better

[Riddley Walker]

48 minutes ago, Hesh said:

It’s a method of restarting play for certain infringements/offences p, these tend to be the things that aren’t foul play e.g. a knock on, so don’t result in a penalty.

 

the reffing of scrums themselves can be really ropey

 

I get this, but it does seem like an unnecessarily dangerous and clumsy way of restarting play. 

 

I'd also add that I'm a fairly casual observer too. I'll watch the big international games and not much more. 

[Riddley Walker]

By the way, I've never seen someone that looks less like a rugby player than the English number 21 sub that came on. 

 

Looks like the wee scrawny IT guy at my work. 

[JackLadd]

Reminds me how old I'm getting when wee Basil Redpath's laddie is starring for Scotland. 

[Boof]

4 hours ago, milky_26 said:

tbf he has just had a thistle rammed up his farter

 

Poetry.

 

 

[NANOJAMBO]

25 minutes ago, JackLadd said:

Reminds me how old I'm getting when wee Basil Redpath's laddie is starring for Scotland. 

Whit ?

[SwindonJambo]

2 hours ago, Space Mackerel said:

Ruth has become a Scotch rugby casual 😁😁😁

 

 

 

Or maybe she's just a fan delighted with her country's famous win just like any other Scot. Can we not park the politics for once? Are you totally obsessed, 24-7?

[BudgeUp]

32 minutes ago, NANOJAMBO said:

Whit ?

His nickname was Basil.

[leginten]

I’ve seen England outplayed plenty at Twickenham and I’ve seen them lose plenty. But I’ve never watched a match there where they had so little possession and never had a sniff of a try. Nothing even resembling a close thing. Superb performance from Scotland. Same style of trying to mix it up and be cleverer and quicker than their opponents but this time with absolute precision in line-out and scrum, excellent discipline and the usually high error-count reduced massively.

 

Interesting reactions to Russell today. BBC: he orchestrated the win. L’Équipe: he had a tactical and technical nightmare. All the comments under the report in L’Équipe: he was shit.

 

He certainly had his WTF moments. Couldn’t believe what I was watching when the attempted drop-goal was charged down.

[Spellczech]

8 hours ago, Tazio said:

I was laughing when he was talking about entertaining rugby. His England team were the most negative rugby team I can remember. Very effective but hardly ever used the excellent backs he had in the team. To the extent most of the good play we saw from most of them was in a Lions jersey. 

Dead right. It always seems to have been the English way to grind out the win with the forwards, and only then release the backs. Thus the only time they ever play entertaining rugby is against really rubbish teams like Italy for the last decade or Scotland in the noughties...

 

As a tactic it has always been reasonably effective but my God when you think of the really wonderful backs England have had and squandered... always kicking no 10s like Wilkinson or Farrell they go with, rather than Barnes or Cipriani...

[sadj]

7 hours ago, Barack said:

Take a look. I don't think it'll be another 38 years before we see this again at Twickenham.

 

 

I only just saw the score. Clean forgot til my neighbour messaged me drunk singing Scottish songs. I actually have tears after watching the highlights. ❤️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿❤️

[sadj]

4 hours ago, 151 said:

Guessing folk on this thread love their rugby so i'll ask it here.

 

Can someone please explain to me the purpose/point of a scrum?

 

Albeit I watch about one match a year but any time I do watch it seems to take a few minutes to sort out, and then almost always results in the referee blowing his whistle for a "penalty" for some random infringement. 

Scrums used to be a lot more fun as back when I were a lad in the days in Yorksheer as a flanker you could bind on by a the lightest pinkie tip. Soon as the ball came out youd leather the ball carrier until they were laid on the ground like a cartoon character thats just been run over by a steamroller 💁🏻‍♂️

4 hours ago, Hesh said:

It’s a method of restarting play for certain infringements/offences p, these tend to be the things that aren’t foul play e.g. a knock on, so don’t result in a penalty.

 

the reffing of scrums themselves can be really ropey

And don’t let the hooker stick his head in the wrong side...😏 Its incredibly dangerous and if the ref is paying attention its a red card all year long #ididntdothatvhawickcausetheyweredicks 

Edited February 7, 2021 by sadj

[HMFC01]

Great match.   I enjoyed it immensely.    

 

The commentators' suggestion that we can all come out of hiding at the result made me laugh.    I called it from the start we'd win.   Enjoyed it throughout, wasnt nervous.   Was shocked at the reversal of fortune for penalties if anything.    

 

Absolutely smashed them.   Good game.   🏉

[sadj]

10 minutes ago, Spellczech said:

Dead right. It always seems to have been the English way to grind out the win with the forwards, and only then release the backs. Thus the only time they ever play entertaining rugby is against really rubbish teams like Italy for the last decade or Scotland in the noughties...

 

As a tactic it has always been reasonably effective but my God when you think of the really wonderful backs England have had and squandered... always kicking no 10s like Wilkinson or Farrell they go with, rather than Barnes or Cipriani...

Very good post...I hate hearing about the class of the English game and how expansive it is. Its always been a very forward driven boring grind them down but effective game. 

[ri Alban]

9 hours ago, 151 said:

 

Okay so almost like a drop ball? But a contested one.

Personally I think it shouldn't. It works in Rugby league, so I'd take the contest out of scrums, safer and better game time management. But that's just me. 

[Harry Potter]

10 hours ago, 151 said:

Guessing folk on this thread love their rugby so i'll ask it here.

 

Can someone please explain to me the purpose/point of a scrum?

 

Albeit I watch about one match a year but any time I do watch it seems to take a few minutes to sort out, and then almost always results in the referee blowing his whistle for a "penalty" for some random infringement. 

Always been part of the game, i was scrum half for Craigmount high.

[Hesh]

9 hours ago, JackLadd said:

Reminds me how old I'm getting when wee Basil Redpath's laddie is starring for Scotland. 

we were saying same 

[leginten]

9 hours ago, 151 said:

Guessing folk on this thread love their rugby so i'll ask it here.

 

Can someone please explain to me the purpose/point of a scrum?

 

Albeit I watch about one match a year but any time I do watch it seems to take a few minutes to sort out, and then almost always results in the referee blowing his whistle for a "penalty" for some random infringement. 

It used to be a competition to try to win the ball after an infringement such as a knock-on or forward pass. It’s now, as you say, a competition to try to win a penalty. Because of the immense weight of the players now and the huge pressure in the front row of the scrum, the last thing international referees want is for the hookers to strike (lift/move one foot) to win the ball, as this risks even more scrum collapses and injuries. 
 

So, laughably, after inordinate amounts of time spent setting and resetting the scrum with whatever binding and engagement protocol is in force in any given year, the referees will stand and watch the scrum-halves blatantly ignore one of the basic laws of the game by feeding the ball squint more or less straight into their own second row, which makes it pointless for either hooker to strike.

It’s an existential problem for rugby union and one which makes the game look more than slightly ridiculous. By effectively removing the element of fair competition in the scrum, those in charge of the sport are also simply encouraging the inclusion of even heavier and bigger forwards and therefore increasing the impact risk in the game as a whole - resulting in longer recovery times after games, bigger squads being needed, a massive number of substitutions and loss of continuity in the second half of top-level matches.

 

And the supertanker player model means less room on the field for creative players and the “importing” of massively bulky forwards if your club/country doesn’t have enough of its own.

 

My view on this is quite obviously shaped by learning and watching the game in the pre-professional era. The scrum wasn’t perfect then either, and it was dangerous for many different reasons. But it’ll  have to be faced up to sooner or later. WTF is the scrum actually for?

[Hesh]

9 hours ago, Riddley Walker said:

 

I get this, but it does seem like an unnecessarily dangerous and clumsy way of restarting play. 

 

I'd also add that I'm a fairly casual observer too. I'll watch the big international games and not much more. 

That’s a fair point, the scrum was very different in the amateur days before it all went gym bunny. Now there has to be a lot of management to avoid injury. There’s also some teams that use it as a tool to win penalties which doesn’t really add to the game 

[Maroon Sailor]

9 hours ago, SwindonJambo said:

 

Or maybe she's just a fan delighted with her country's famous win just like any other Scot. Can we not park the politics for once? Are you totally obsessed, 24-7?

 

You are asking a lot there from Space Sturgeon the copy and paste king.

 

His brain is politically fried

[Maroon Sailor]

The only disappointing thing from the match is the scoreline not being more reflective of the match.

 

It was a 6-11 mauling

[DETTY29]

9 hours ago, SwindonJambo said:

 

Or maybe she's just a fan delighted with her country's famous win just like any other Scot. Can we not park the politics for once? Are you totally obsessed, 24-7?

I suppose if Sturgeon had tweeted that, would she have been accused of being classless or worse for someone in her position?

 

#rhetoricalquestion

 

You could fire off the names of a significant number of posters on here that would do that at the drop of a bunnet.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 7, 2021 by DETTY29

[DETTY29]

Is it ok to say that I don't mind Eddie Jones that much, now.

 

The arrogance he has and passes on to his team surely is one of these marginal gains they talk about in sport and why he has so much success.

 

Just makes the occassional fall that a bit little sweeter.

[John Kimble]

Superb Performance-

I thought George Turner was excellent, 💯 arrows and great around the park, with real physicality.

Watson and Jonny Gray also very strong. Never thought Matt Fagerson would be an international 8 but he was also outstanding yesterday! 
Still in shock 

[Seymour M Hersh]

10 hours ago, BudgeUp said:

His nickname was Basil.

 

I never knew that. Why Basil? Was he an Hotel owner or just a fan of fawlty towers? 

[Seymour M Hersh]

1 hour ago, DETTY29 said:

I suppose if Sturgeon had tweeted that, would she have been accused of being classless or worse for someone in her position?

 

#rhetoricalquestion

 

You could fire off the names of a significant number of posters on here that would do that at the drop of a bunnet.

 

 

 

 

 

I'd suggest Davidson is a big rugby fan whilst Sturgeon, as we know, is not a sports fan at all. 

[Maroon Sailor]

38 minutes ago, Seymour M Hersh said:

 

I'd suggest Davidson is a big rugby fan whilst Sturgeon, as we know, is not a sports fan at all. 

 

Yep

 

One tweet was as a Scotland Rugby fan, the other as an opportunist politician.

[milky_26]

56 minutes ago, jonnothejambo said:

Farrell looked like someone had pished in his soup.

 

Mind you that's probably normal practice for our egg chasing friends.

 

Joking apart, what a wonderful performance by the Scotland team.

 

Gatland was in the stand and he has food for thought now re the Lions.

 

Another win next week.

gatland will be thinking it was strange england played in a blue strip to avoid picking scots for the lions

[Dusk_Till_Dawn]

2 hours ago, DETTY29 said:

Is it ok to say that I don't mind Eddie Jones that much, now.

 

The arrogance he has and passes on to his team surely is one of these marginal gains they talk about in sport and why he has so much success.

 

Just makes the occassional fall that a bit little sweeter.

I kind of sympathise with Jones and England in the way that other nations expect them to act. It’s okay for Scotland/Wales/Ireland to be massively patriotic and to make a big deal of games like yesterday’s but England are supposed to be humble, low key and only moderately passionate, purely because they’re traditionally stronger and often pre tournament favourites. 

 

Jones always tries to make the point that it matters to them as much as anyone else and I think that’s fair enough.

[Dusk_Till_Dawn]

1 hour ago, jonnothejambo said:

Farrell looked like someone had pished in his soup.

 

Mind you that's probably normal practice for our egg chasing friends.

 

Joking apart, what a wonderful performance by the Scotland team.

 

Gatland was in the stand and he has food for thought now re the Lions.

 

Another win next week.

Gatland’s Lions selections can be very weird and very slanted. Wales are in a bit of disarray and he’ll have a nightmare on his hands if they’re out of form and he’s trying to pick loads of them 

[Seymour M Hersh]

26 minutes ago, Maroon Sailor said:

 

Yep

 

One tweet was as a Scotland Rugby fan, the other as an opportunist politician.

 

As much as I detest Sturgeon I don't think her post was overly opportunist more a post of a non sports fan feeling the need to say something. 

Edited February 7, 2021 by Seymour M Hersh

[ri Alban]

26 minutes ago, Maroon Sailor said:

 

Yep

 

One tweet was as a Scotland Rugby fan, the other as an opportunist politician.

Don't talk pish. 

[BudgeUp]

1 hour ago, Seymour M Hersh said:

 

I never knew that. Why Basil? Was he an Hotel owner or just a fan of fawlty towers? 

Basil Fox apparently.

 

I only read about it the other day as his Cameron apparently inherited the nickname Boom Boom due to it.

[Seymour M Hersh]

1 minute ago, BudgeUp said:

Basil Fox apparently.

 

I only read about it the other day as his Cameron apparently inherited the nickname Boom Boom due to it.

 

Basil Brush I think you mean unless Fox is his Sunday name. 

[I P Knightley]

12 hours ago, JackLadd said:

Reminds me how old I'm getting when wee Basil Redpath's laddie is starring for Scotland. 

Likewise when Scott Hastings's nephew started. 

 

I played a couple of, very junior (primary), school matches against Watsons with Scott in their team. Definitely marks the passing of the years. 

[Tazio]

26 minutes ago, Dusk_Till_Dawn said:

I kind of sympathise with Jones and England in the way that other nations expect them to act. It’s okay for Scotland/Wales/Ireland to be massively patriotic and to make a big deal of games like yesterday’s but England are supposed to be humble, low key and only moderately passionate, purely because they’re traditionally stronger and often pre tournament favourites. 

 

Jones always tries to make the point that it matters to them as much as anyone else and I think that’s fair enough.

Conversations about “pride in the jersey” always top reminds of a studio preamble during on of the big football tournaments. The pundits were going on about the lift England players get from wearing the three lions and it being an advantage for them. Then one of them piped up, quite rightly, that it was ridiculous as a concept and did they really believe a Frenchman or an Italian didn’t get a massive lift and feeling of pride pulling on their national jersey. And the idea that it was a uniquely British thing to be proud to play for their nation was patently ridiculous. 

[ri Alban]

44 minutes ago, Dusk_Till_Dawn said:

I kind of sympathise with Jones and England in the way that other nations expect them to act. It’s okay for Scotland/Wales/Ireland to be massively patriotic and to make a big deal of games like yesterday’s but England are supposed to be humble, low key and only moderately passionate, purely because they’re traditionally stronger and often pre tournament favourites. 

 

Jones always tries to make the point that it matters to them as much as anyone else and I think that’s fair enough.

Really!? I'd be pretty humble anaw if Scotland was beaten beaten by a nation 10x smaller. As for Scotland we can enjoy a victory, but I'd rather we seen it as normal, rather than once every 40 years. 

As for England not showing patriotism in rugby or football, tell that to Carling, and Moore or when they beat the Aussies or All Blacks. Stop with the myths, England also have that same chip on their shoulders. 

[Roxy Hearts]

1 hour ago, Maroon Sailor said:

 

Yep

 

One tweet was as a Scotland Rugby fan, the other as an opportunist politician.

Only one is wholeheartedly Scottish.

[Beni]

8 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

Really!? I'd be pretty humble anaw if Scotland was beaten beaten by a nation 10x smaller. As for Scotland we can enjoy a victory, but I'd rather we seen it as normal, rather than once every 40 years. 

As for England not showing patriotism in rugby or football, tell that to Carling, and Moore or when they beat the Aussies or All Blacks. Stop with the myths, England also have that same chip on their shoulders. 

 

I used to hate Brian Moore with a passion when he played, but think he's a good pundit and gives a fair and honest opinion, unlike some who are just fans with microphones.

Also got to have a sneaking admiration for Carling given what he allegedly got up to with Lady Di.

[ri Alban]

29 minutes ago, fancy a brew said:

 

I used to hate Brian Moore with a passion when he played, but think he's a good pundit and gives a fair and honest opinion, unlike some who are just fans with microphones.

Also got to have a sneaking admiration for Carling given what he allegedly got up to with Lady Di.

Those lads played for the Jersey. And my God I hated them. But I must admit, I broke out in a smile when Carling was gotcha'd, when he says The Jocks, not the Jocks, (Or something similar) because I'd be the same. 

Edited February 7, 2021 by ri Alban

[JJ93]

42 minutes ago, Roxy Hearts said:

Only one is wholeheartedly Scottish.

Please explain?

[Cruyff]

There's other threads for Politics. 👍

[Dusk_Till_Dawn]

59 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

Really!? I'd be pretty humble anaw if Scotland was beaten beaten by a nation 10x smaller. As for Scotland we can enjoy a victory, but I'd rather we seen it as normal, rather than once every 40 years. 

As for England not showing patriotism in rugby or football, tell that to Carling, and Moore or when they beat the Aussies or All Blacks. Stop with the myths, England also have that same chip on their shoulders. 

Of course they do. It’s the fact that they’re constantly told that they shouldn’t which is ridiculous. It’s alright for you to sleep in your saltire jammies but not for them to do the same

[Dusk_Till_Dawn]

1 hour ago, Tazio said:

Conversations about “pride in the jersey” always top reminds of a studio preamble during on of the big football tournaments. The pundits were going on about the lift England players get from wearing the three lions and it being an advantage for them. Then one of them piped up, quite rightly, that it was ridiculous as a concept and did they really believe a Frenchman or an Italian didn’t get a massive lift and feeling of pride pulling on their national jersey. And the idea that it was a uniquely British thing to be proud to play for their nation was patently ridiculous. 

It’s even less relevant these days anyway because athletes are more and more programmed and all of them are ultra competitive anyway. You don’t get anywhere if you aren’t. 

[Maroon Sailor]

17 minutes ago, jonnothejambo said:

Bit of a stooshie with regards to a number of Scotland players not 'bending the knee'. 

 

A couple of England players did similar. 

 

Not as big a stooshie had it been football players, I feel.

 

I wish they would stop doing it.

 

They are there to play sport

[Roxy Hearts]

33 minutes ago, JJ93 said:

Please explain?

Ruth Davidson is a rabid Britnat who does nothing for Scotland but denigrate with her actions and comments at times. That's how I see it but you may interpret things differently. 

 

Anyway, Scotland were brilliant to a man. Hope we can do it to the rest!

[graygo]

Just now, Maroon Sailor said:

 

I wish they would stop doing it.

 

They are there to play sport

 

Probably should have it's own thread but I agree with you. When does it stop? Does it carry on forever because you can be sure that some will be up in arms if it does stop.