Rugby - 2012 6 Nations Championship

[Arcadian]

The Welsh onslaught didn`t happen and I think a draw would have been a fair result (no bias there of course). Wales were no better than their last game but England were much, much better. The young team bodes well for the future and Farrel looks like he could be a permanent fixture at 10. See you next year

[Jaime]

Steve Walsh - 'nuff said.

I think Wales deserved a bit of luck and a few ref favours after their unfortunate world cup

Richard, you are a gentleman but in truth I don't think Wales had any favours from Steve Walsh who allowed England to steal the ball at the ruck whilst off their feet on numerous occassions; failed to penalise Lee Dickson for consistently going offfside at scrums (at one point he was actually in the Welsh scrum but still no penalty!), although Walsh did, bizarrely, penalise Youngs for that offence when he came on late in the second half; failed to yellow card Robshaw for a blatant and dangerous pull down of Warburton in the lineout; failed to award a penalty against Botha when, after brilliantly charging down and gathering Priestland's kick, he was tackled, brought to ground and proceeded to play the ball on the ground by presenting the ball (legal), pulling it back in (illegal), representing it (illegal) and then popping the ball up to the onrushing Corbisiero! A blatant penalty. Instead, Walsh penalised Priestland after Corbisiero had already knocked on for being in front of the back foot and sends him off for 10 minutes! However, the supposed 10 minutes actually turned out to be 11 and a half minutes due to the lack of a suitable stoppage in play for him to come back on.

Despite all that, Wales, away from home against a side above them in the IRB rankings for the second time in the championship and fielding third and fourth choice players at hooker and second row, still managed to win at 'HQ' with a side that was even younger than the one fielded by England. Whilst down to 14 men they dominated posession and kept the score to 3 points each. In fact, England only scored 3 points in the whole of the second half and failed to score when it mattered despite a man advantage.

The reality is that England improved dramatically from their previous performances but still didn't manage a single clear line break in the whole match, despite plenty of posession. The only time they got behind the Welsh defence was when Farrell chipped ahead and gathered superbly, only to find himself without support and getting smashed by North.

England's driving lineout was absolutely no threat as Wales dealt with it easily - as evidenced by England's failure to make ground from the series of 5 metre lineouts at the end of the match and England were lucky there were very few scrums in the game as their front five got smashed at the set piece.

I agree that Priestland was off form and it badly affected Wales' continuity and fluency - he seemed to be the one player affected by the enormity of the event and the 'Twickenham factor' but there is simply too much 'dog' in this Welsh team to allow them to let this one get away, even with a flakey outside half.

As for the England try that never was - from the video evidence available it simply wasn't a try! The ball was not grounded and that is the end of that! England fans can choose to see it differently but if anyone can show me the exact moment when the ball is clearly grounded then I will eat my shoes! It is, after all, nigh on impossible to ground the ball when your own hand is underneath it! Strettle's post match assertion that the onus is on the video referee to 'go with the attacking team when in doubt' is WRONG! The job of the video ref, when asked to determine whether a try has been scored, is to do just that - not to guess whether one has 'probably' or 'might have' been scored.

Rather, it was a heroic try saving tackle by the superb Halfpenny, who knocked himself out in the process after spending the match nullifying England's kicking game with his brilliant positional play, tackling manfully throughout, kicking the kicks and even playing at outside half for 11 and a half minutes, throwing dummy switches and orchestrating the back line defence when short by a man. Absolute legend!

I wouldn't have begrudged a draw or even an England win, as it was such a close game but a lucky Welsh win? No way - that would be the sour grapes talking!

Instead, a well deserved Triple Crown returns to its spiritual home!

[Big Boy]

Moving back to the championship, SuperBru seem to have a problem. I've had the winner of all 9 games to date correct, yet my win accuracy is only 88.89%.

SuperBru.jpg (29.34 KiB) Viewed 699 times

C'mon Captain, get them to sort themselves out

[redzonerocker]

Richard, you are a gentleman but in truth I don't think Wales had any favours from Steve Walsh who allowed England to steal the ball at the ruck whilst off their feet on numerous occassions; failed to penalise Lee Dickson for consistently going offfside at scrums (at one point he was actually in the Welsh scrum but still no penalty!), although Walsh did, bizarrely, penalise Youngs for that offence when he came on late in the second half; failed to yellow card Robshaw for a blatant and dangerous pull down of Warburton in the lineout; failed to award a penalty against Botha when, after brilliantly charging down and gathering Priestland's kick, he was tackled, brought to ground and proceeded to play the ball on the ground by presenting the ball (legal), pulling it back in (illegal), representing it (illegal) and then popping the ball up to the onrushing Corbisiero! A blatant penalty. Instead, Walsh penalised Priestland after Corbisiero had already knocked on for being in front of the back foot and sends him off for 10 minutes! However, the supposed 10 minutes actually turned out to be 11 and a half minutes due to the lack of a suitable stoppage in play for him to come back on.

& the Welsh did everything by the book & never broke a single law

Despite all that, Wales, away from home against a side above them in the IRB rankings for the second time in the championship and fielding third and fourth choice players at hooker and second row, still managed to win at 'HQ' with a side that was even younger than the one fielded by England. Whilst down to 14 men they dominated posession and kept the score to 3 points each. In fact, England only scored 3 points in the whole of the second half and failed to score when it mattered despite a man advantage.

But a vastly more experienced side.
We had 7 players playing that had never ever played at Twickenham before

The reality is, Wales came to HQ expecting to win & win comfortably (even i thought we'd get smashed ) against a young & inexperienced England.
As it turned out, they really had to work for their win & that one piece of brilliance from Williams was the difference in the end.

I wouldn't have begrudged a draw or even an England win, as it was such a close game but a lucky Welsh win? No way - that would be the sour grapes talking!

Yes, i wouldn't say the Welsh were lucky nor would i use Walsh as an excuse.
Had it been a boxing match i think the Welsh would have won on points, with a split decision.

All in all though & disposing of the sour grapes, what a cracking game it was

[redzonerocker]

I've had the winner of all 9 games to date correct, . . . .

Judas . . . . . . .

[Big Boy]

[Jaime]

Richard, you are a gentleman but in truth I don't think Wales had any favours from Steve Walsh who allowed England to steal the ball at the ruck whilst off their feet on numerous occassions; failed to penalise Lee Dickson for consistently going offfside at scrums (at one point he was actually in the Welsh scrum but still no penalty!), although Walsh did, bizarrely, penalise Youngs for that offence when he came on late in the second half; failed to yellow card Robshaw for a blatant and dangerous pull down of Warburton in the lineout; failed to award a penalty against Botha when, after brilliantly charging down and gathering Priestland's kick, he was tackled, brought to ground and proceeded to play the ball on the ground by presenting the ball (legal), pulling it back in (illegal), representing it (illegal) and then popping the ball up to the onrushing Corbisiero! A blatant penalty. Instead, Walsh penalised Priestland after Corbisiero had already knocked on for being in front of the back foot and sends him off for 10 minutes! However, the supposed 10 minutes actually turned out to be 11 and a half minutes due to the lack of a suitable stoppage in play for him to come back on.

& the Welsh did everything by the book & never broke a single law

Despite all that, Wales, away from home against a side above them in the IRB rankings for the second time in the championship and fielding third and fourth choice players at hooker and second row, still managed to win at 'HQ' with a side that was even younger than the one fielded by England. Whilst down to 14 men they dominated posession and kept the score to 3 points each. In fact, England only scored 3 points in the whole of the second half and failed to score when it mattered despite a man advantage.

But a vastly more experienced side.
We had 7 players playing that had never ever played at Twickenham before

The reality is, Wales came to HQ expecting to win & win comfortably (even i thought we'd get smashed ) against a young & inexperienced England.
As it turned out, they really had to work for their win & that one piece of brilliance from Williams was the difference in the end.

I wouldn't have begrudged a draw or even an England win, as it was such a close game but a lucky Welsh win? No way - that would be the sour grapes talking!

Yes, i wouldn't say the Welsh were lucky nor would i use Walsh as an excuse.
Had it been a boxing match i think the Welsh would have won on points, with a split decision.

All in all though & disposing of the sour grapes, what a cracking game it was

Yes, I forgot to mention that it was a superb test match and I know both sides transgress the Laws but wanted to illustrate the 'view from the other side' with some examples of Walsh's decisions in favour of England - pretty big ones too - to counter the one-eyed 'Wales were lucky' posts.

But anyway.... Wow! Reading your post it looks like we actually agree with each other on all points! Is this a first?

[redzonerocker]

Yes, I forgot to mention that it was a superb test match and I know both sides transgress the Laws but wanted to illustrate the 'view from the other side' with some examples of Walsh's decisions in favour of England - pretty big ones too - to counter the one-eyed 'Wales were lucky' posts.

Fair comment & the points were valid, definately not lacking in depth .

But anyway.... Wow! Reading your post it looks like we actually agree with each other on all points! Is this a first?

It could well be
Though minor differences of opinions are part of a good healthy debate

[redzonerocker]

Luck my hairy @rse....... NO TRY - "simples" Either way, would still have been a touchline conversion for a draw.

Can't believe people describe it as a disallowed try

At the end of the day, for me Wales were a bit disappointing, but England certainly raised their game and quite frankly are looking pretty bl**dy good.

Forget the rankings, Wales are one of top 3 sides in the world & will be for years to come.
We pushed them all the way with pretty much a 'new' team & i have to admit i was pleasantly surprised.
Encouraging for the future.

Never believed we would put a lot of points on England - I'll take any win at HQ!!

Yep, sometimes it's a case of not how you play but if you win or lose.
I'll take an ugly win over a pretty defeat all day long ( must be my Arsenal genes trying to kick in )
I did take a few quid off my Welsh buddies, their over confidence giving me a 10 pt start & i have to be honest, i still wasn't overly confident

[pharvey]

Moving back to the championship, SuperBru seem to have a problem. I've had the winner of all 9 games to date correct, yet my win accuracy is only 88.89%.

SuperBru.jpg

C'mon Captain, get them to sort themselves out

You've been awarded the correct points - the only thing I can think of is that the "accuracy" also has the "margin points" etc. taken into account. Another thing I've noticed is that the France vs Ireland game has been marked as a loss even though it has not been played (re-scheduled for March 4th).

We'll see what SB say anyways.......

[Big Boy]

Another thing I've noticed is that the France vs Ireland game has been marked as a loss even though it has not been played (re-scheduled for March 4th).

That's what it probably is, although that must have only happened this week - thanks.

[pharvey]

The re-scheduled France vs Ireland game will be played this coming Sunday (4th). You need to make your predictions once again, so don't forget!!

Come on the Paddies!

[PeteC]

Not good news for the Irish. Pete

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17264787

[redzonerocker]

France 22-24 England

Yes, yes yes, or should i say oui oui oui?

[pharvey]

Stuck on a mine in Laos with you could say under-speed Internet.... so didn't get to see the games this weekend

Great win for England - and Wales still on course for the Grand Slam.... although it sounds like we'll have to up our game a tad.