Article: The Original Rugby Championship - Six Nations 2016
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<p>The Times today</p>
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<p> Joe Schmidt, the Ireland head coach, has called on World Rugby to outlaw the practice of players trying to fly hack the ball from rucks after Mike Brown connected with the face of Conor Murray and left the scrum half requiring stitches close to his left eye.</p>
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<p>Brown will be waiting anxiously to discover whether Douglas Hunter, the citing officer at Twickenham on Saturday, decides today to lay charges. Schmidt accepted that Brown would not have intended to kick Murray, however in repeatedly swinging his right boot the England full back’s actions could be deemed as reckless.</p>
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<p>Jonathan Kaplan, the former international referee, has told <i>The Times </i>that Brown should have been shown a red card, which is the litmus test for any citing to be brought.</p>
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<p>“I cannot agree that Mike Brown’s constant and reckless use of the boot, which made contact with Murray’s head, was one big accident,†Kaplan said. “World Rugby has gone to great lengths to protect the player in the air, it should be no different for the player on the deck. Brown needed to exercise more care when putting his boot there in the first place and a red card would have been more apt. I would be astonished if this wasn’t cited.â€</p>
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<p>Hunter has 48 hours from the final whistle on Saturday to bring a citing. Schmidt said that he would not raise that specific incident with the authorities, although he does have wider concerns about the practice of players trying to kick the ball clear.</p>
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<p>“It is something that appears to be a strategy,†Schmidt said. “There is a lot of kicking the ball out of the ruck and I just think it’s probably something that even the lawmakers or the officials have to have a bit of a look at just regarding player safety.â€</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/rugbyunion/article4701609.ece'>http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/rugbyunion/article4701609.ece</a></p> -
Yeah mooshld, precendents galore. Both in further sanction and in getting away scot free, which it is beginning to look as though Brown has - the citing window must be closing rapidly by now. Leaving aside for now the was it/wasn't it and any one-eyedness about Brown's actions, I find it infuriating that there is still this level of uncertainty about such situations. If the clarification of the law was, well, clarified then one could have no argument about the rights and wrongs - pretty much either guilty or innocent. But here we have many calling for Brown's head on a platter (and if I were either Irish or Welsh I'd likely be among them), the ref and TMOs saying not even a penalty and all colours in between.
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<p>I'd expect him to be cited some time this afternoon as it's probably red card worthy for me. You have to be aware of what your feet are doing when you step over a ruck like that to kick the ball. Was reckless rather than deliberate but he exacerbated it by continuing to try and kick the ball out of Murray's hands when he had dragged it back in to his chest.</p>
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<p>The incident being reviewed on the pitch and not being deemed an issue, isn't always a big indicator of whether someone will end up with a ban. Seen a few that have been reviewed as just pens etc and ended up having the citing commissioner taking a much harder view. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MiketheSnow" data-cid="561413" data-time="1456573664">
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<p>Deserved result but boring as batshit.</p>
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<p>As Ali Williams said at half-time:</p>
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<p>"Wayne Barnes has been consistent. he's consistently blown his whistle" :yes:</p> -
<p>I'm surprised how much the press are loving Billy V. I was at the game on Saturday sitting behind the posts. From my angle, his go forward impact was not as apparent, but what was clear is that each time after he crashed it up, he then went and stood out on the wing or dropped to a second full back position to get his breath back. He didn't hit any rucks (that I noticed) and only tackled if an Irishman ran at him while he was standing at 2nd or 3rd receiver. Zero effort at cover defence, kick chasing or getting involved in any attacking movement. Every now and then he'd just stop and stand still during play to recover or retire out of the line and leave his teammates to it. I was shaking my head when he got MoTM.</p>
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<p>Have since seen the replay and admittedly, from side on, he is very effective at hitting the ball up. But England have to play with 7 forwards for everything else.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Calf" data-cid="561648" data-time="1456749661"><p>I'm surprised how much the press are loving Billy V. I was at the game on Saturday sitting behind the posts. From my angle, his go forward impact was not as apparent, but what was clear is that each time after he crashed it up, he then went and stood out on the wing or dropped to a second full back position to get his breath back. He didn't hit any rucks (that I noticed) and only tackled if an Irishman ran at him while he was standing at 2nd or 3rd receiver. Zero effort at cover defence, kick chasing or getting involved in any attacking movement. Every now and then he'd just stop and stand still during play to recover or retire out of the line and leave his teammates to it. I was shaking my head when he got MoTM.<br><br>
Have since seen the replay and admittedly, from side on, he is very effective at hitting the ball up. But England have to play with 7 forwards for everything else.</p></blockquote>
He is a one trick pony, but very destructive one when he gets going with the carrying -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Calf" data-cid="561648" data-time="1456749661">
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<p>I'm surprised how much the press are loving Billy V.</p>
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<p>Having read the English rugby press for far, far too long, I've come to the conclusion there is no such thing as a common or garden-type England Rugby player. They are either an England Rugby Hero, England Rugby Sensation or England Rugby Superstar.</p> -
I don't mind us boshing it up the middle as long as we can spin it quickly when the gaps develop. I'll give Eddie the benefit of the doubt at the moment, as we are creating opportunities, just don't have the vision or skills to quite finish them off just yet. We seem to be developing a platform to build on and I keep telling myself that when the passes start to stick we might even be dangerous.<br><br>
Obviously there needs to be a sense of it "coming together" in the remaining games or we will come up short.<br><br>
Victor - I've long since given up on many parts of the press. Anyone would Itoge (sp?) was the 2nd coming after a couple of games in a white shirt. Build them up, knock em down. Gets boring after a while. -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Cookie" data-cid="561651" data-time="1456757455">
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Victor - I've long since given up on many parts of the press. Anyone would Itoge (sp?) was the 2nd coming after a couple of games in a white shirt. Build them up, knock em down. Gets boring after a while.</p>
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<p>Yep. Apart from Kitson in <em>The Guardian</em> and McGeechan in <em>The Telegraph</em> it's pretty poor. </p> -
I appreciate he's a bit of an acquired taste for many but I also like Brian Moore in the telegraph.<br><br>
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/england/12177378/Six-Nations-hopefuls-have-failed-to-heed-lessons-of-World-Cup.html'>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/england/12177378/Six-Nations-hopefuls-have-failed-to-heed-lessons-of-World-Cup.html</a><br><br>
His latest is not exactly cheer-leading the English team (and he's very complimentary about the ABs)
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<p>On the plus side, the TV coverage has improved a lot. Ben Kay is a great comments man and works well with Nick Mullens. Wilkinson is great to listen to as well. </p>
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<p>No citing for Brown.</p>
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<p>Disappointing and expected considering the WC precendents.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Victor Meldrew" data-cid="561654" data-time="1456761699">
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<p>On the plus side, the TV coverage has improved a lot. Ben Kay is a great comments man and works well with Nick Mullens. Wilkinson is great to listen to as well. </p>
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<p>Maggie Alfonsi (sp) is great too.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MiketheSnow" data-cid="561656" data-time="1456763811">
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<p>No citing for Brown.</p>
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<p>Disappointing and expected considering the WC precendents.</p>
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<p>Whilst my view is that it wasn't THAT bad, I'm still surprised with no citing. A totally un-alarming lack of consistency.</p> -
<p>Good decision. We all know running with your knees too high is faaaar worse than kicking a dude in the face. </p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="mariner4life" data-cid="561697" data-time="1456787284">
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<p>Good decision. We all know running with your knees too high is faaaar worse than kicking a dude in the face. </p>
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<p>Yeah but one was Brown and the other was brown.Or Brown, I can't quite figure it out.</p> -
<p>Meanwhile, Castrogiovanni the Italian prop gets a two week ban for <em>directing</em> a stamp towards Duncan Taylor's foot. I can't find a clip of this so don't know how bad or not it was, but it certainly doesn't sound too much - not enough to warrant a ban?</p>
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<p>Welsh XV unchanged. Different bench.</p>
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<p><b>Wales XV:</b></p>
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<p>15 Liam Williams</p>
<p>14 Alex Cuthbert</p>
<p>13 Jonathan Davies</p>
<p>12 Jamie Roberts</p>
<p>11 George North</p>
<p>10 Dan Biggar</p>
<p>9 Gareth Davies</p>
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<p>1 Rob Evans</p>
<p>2 Scott Baldwin</p>
<p>3 Samson Lee</p>
<p>4 Bradley Davies</p>
<p>5 Alun Wyn Jones</p>
<p>6 Dan Lydiate</p>
<p>7 Sam Warburton (capt)</p>
<p>8 Taulupe Faletau.</p>
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<p><b>Replacements:</b></p>
<p>Ken Owens, Paul James, Tomas Francis, Luke Charteris, Justin Tipuric</p>
<p>Rhys Webb, Rhys Priestland, Gareth Anscombe</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35749502'>http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35749502</a></p>
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<p>If Wales don't do anything radically different then we'll scrape through by 3-5 pts.</p>
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<p>If we don't do anything radically different but our accuracy and decision making improves then we'll get home by 12-16 pts.</p>
