Six Nations 2017
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@Disgusted-of-TW said in Six Nations 2017:
The likes of Matt Dawson calling for a law change miss the point completely. The real story here is how sloooow England were to adapt. When they did adapt (intermittently, it has to be noted - wtf? Did they just keep forgetting what the appropriate countermeasures were?) it was oneway traffic. At the risk of sounding like Abe Simpson, this reminds me of a time.... way back in the early 90s I played in the Northampton Business Sevens for my then employer. We were a team of predominantly fatties from various Beds and Northants junior clubs, and definitely not going to terrify anyone by spreading the ball wide. In one of our games we found ourselves playing against a bunch of young tyros from Saints, contemporaries and mates of Dawson. Having been fairly comprehensively outplayed in the first half, at halftime we decided to play to our strengths and scored twice thereafter from a long series of pick and drives up the centre. I'm pretty sure someone in the crowd suggested that our tactics were against the spirit of sevens, but I responded with my characteristic wit ("Fuck off", I quipped merrily).
Reminds of the time ...
... we scored from a 50m rolling maul on our piss trip to the Honolulu Sevens ... -
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@booboo said in Six Nations 2017:
Re the offside line at the tackle didn't we try that with the ELVs? Got kiboshed IIRC
No, can't recall that.
Chiefs have been the team to try it out the most but to start with it failed on not making the ref aware. Then they tried the tactic of yelling out 'no ruck' and sending players up, that kind worked a little at times.
The big difference was that when the Chiefs did it they usually just sent one player up to stand 1 metre away from the halfback and cut off one side, then send another (usually Messam IIRC) up to make a tackle on the other side, therefore pinning the opposition well behind the gainline and behind their forward pack.
what Italy did was to send a swarm up to encircle the halfback and give him fuck all options. It was designed purely to disrupt. -
@booboo said in Six Nations 2017:
@Disgusted-of-TW said in Six Nations 2017:
The likes of Matt Dawson calling for a law change miss the point completely. The real story here is how sloooow England were to adapt. When they did adapt (intermittently, it has to be noted - wtf? Did they just keep forgetting what the appropriate countermeasures were?) it was oneway traffic. At the risk of sounding like Abe Simpson, this reminds me of a time.... way back in the early 90s I played in the Northampton Business Sevens for my then employer. We were a team of predominantly fatties from various Beds and Northants junior clubs, and definitely not going to terrify anyone by spreading the ball wide. In one of our games we found ourselves playing against a bunch of young tyros from Saints, contemporaries and mates of Dawson. Having been fairly comprehensively outplayed in the first half, at halftime we decided to play to our strengths and scored twice thereafter from a long series of pick and drives up the centre. I'm pretty sure someone in the crowd suggested that our tactics were against the spirit of sevens, but I responded with my characteristic wit ("Fuck off", I quipped merrily).
Reminds of the time ...
... we scored from a 50m rolling maul on our piss trip to the Honolulu Sevens ...Where to travel for a tournament, given the choice of those two exotic venues, eh? Honolulu or Northampton? Blimey, that's a headscratcher...
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The42's 6N team of the week (the link has some vids to back up decisions)
They got a bonus point, but only one English player made our Six Nations Team of the Week
Choosing half-backs was pretty straightforward in round three.
- Andrea Lovotti
- Rory Best
- Tadhg Furlong
- Joe Launchbury
- Jonny Gray
- CJ Stander
- Simone Favaro
- Sergio Parisse
- Conor Murray
- Jonathan Sexton
- Tim Visser
- Robbie Henshaw
- Michele Campagnaro
- Tommy Seymour
- Stuart Hogg
Ireland 6
Scotland 4
England 1
Italy 4
France 0
Wales 0 -
@booboo said in Six Nations 2017:
@Disgusted-of-TW said in Six Nations 2017:
The likes of Matt Dawson calling for a law change miss the point completely. The real story here is how sloooow England were to adapt. When they did adapt (intermittently, it has to be noted - wtf? Did they just keep forgetting what the appropriate countermeasures were?) it was oneway traffic. At the risk of sounding like Abe Simpson, this reminds me of a time.... way back in the early 90s I played in the Northampton Business Sevens for my then employer. We were a team of predominantly fatties from various Beds and Northants junior clubs, and definitely not going to terrify anyone by spreading the ball wide. In one of our games we found ourselves playing against a bunch of young tyros from Saints, contemporaries and mates of Dawson. Having been fairly comprehensively outplayed in the first half, at halftime we decided to play to our strengths and scored twice thereafter from a long series of pick and drives up the centre. I'm pretty sure someone in the crowd suggested that our tactics were against the spirit of sevens, but I responded with my characteristic wit ("Fuck off", I quipped merrily).
Reminds of the time ...
... we scored from a 50m rolling maul on our piss trip to the Honolulu Sevens ...Reminds me of the time we once got to the final of a 10s tournament despite having a team of mostly slow loose forwards. Final was played in torrential rain against a team of fleet-footed speedsters who cut us to ribbons in the first few minutes. We fluked a try and kicked a long range penalty, then spent the entire second half scrummaging in a bog to wind down the clock. Won 8-7, brilliantly foreshadowing the 2011 RWC final that occurred year later.
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Well that was certainly a more interesting game than I thought it would be. Fair play to Italy for trying something different and it certainly worked for most of the game. Pretty disappointing to see how slow England were to react, when they should really have started trucking it up the middle as soon as it became clear what was going on. Eddie should just smile and turn the other cheek after the game and any calls for changes to the law are a touch on the hysterical side. Despite the scoreline, England definitely failed the thinking under pressure test in that first half especially.
That said I think Italy were pretty lucky to get away with a ref approaching it very sympathetically. There had obviously been discussions with Poite before the game at their intentions (which is fair enough), but I think he got a little caught up in the fun. Italy used the tactic at pretty much every tackle that wasn't on their line and only got pinged once (when the player shadowing the 9 attempted to charge a box kick) from memory. There were several occasions where an Italian seemed to engage briefly creating a ruck, before backing off as players flooded round. A few penalties probably would have kept them a little more honest and watching the Chiefs using the tactic (more sporadically) a few seasons ago, I seem to remember refs being a lot stricter on potential infringements.
All good fun though
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@booboo said in Six Nations 2017:
Re the offside line at the tackle didn't we try that with the ELVs? Got kiboshed IIRC
Apologies, I misunderstood your post earlier. My memory has been prodded and you are correct.
What the Twickenham Old Farts are now considering asking WR to do is one of the ELVs they so vehemently opposed.
That particular one didn't work though. It basically meant that once a player made a break and was, say tackled by the last defensive player, he could throw the ball loosely back and no one but his teammates could take possession.
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@Crucial said in Six Nations 2017:
That particular one didn't work though. It basically meant that once a player made a break and was, say tackled by the last defensive player, he could throw the ball loosely back and no one but his teammates could take possession.
Yup, that was the first thing I thought of when people started talking about rule changes. Here is a good example of the unintended consequences:
http://www.rugbydump.com/2008/03/414/the-offside-line-at-the-tackle-under-the-elvs
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@Duluth Excellent example of unintended consequences. For all Eddie Jones' reputation as a thinker of the game, that one change would ruin rugby.
And that's what he was calling for, because his players were too thick to pick and go and offload to beat the Italians.
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Has been an interesting tournament so far. England have Scotland and Ireland to finish and neither will be easy games. The Dublin game could well be the ambush 2011 was when Sexton and Co put a grand slam seeking English side to the sword, winning emphatically.
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@Rugger-Quizzes assuming the English beat the Scots at Twickers (doesnt look like the Scots have won there at all in the 6N* and not since 1983 in the 5N) the Dublin game will be to make a new win record wont it?
*Maybe 2017 is the year for the Scots!! What you say @MN5
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@taniwharugby said in Six Nations 2017:
@Rugger-Quizzes assuming the English beat the Scots at Twickers (doesnt look like the Scots have won there at all in the 6N* and not since 1983 in the 5N) the Dublin game will be to make a new win record wont it?
*Maybe 2017 is the year for the Scots!! What you say @MN5
Yes. England have been living on a great deal of luck (and poor opposition) in this tournament. It seems all you have to do is stay close and wait for the other team to implode or go to sleep.
Kudos to them for not doing the same I guess.
I think though that they will probably find a good patch of form at the end and the record will be theirs alone. -
@Crucial said in Six Nations 2017:
@taniwharugby said in Six Nations 2017:
@Rugger-Quizzes assuming the English beat the Scots at Twickers (doesnt look like the Scots have won there at all in the 6N* and not since 1983 in the 5N) the Dublin game will be to make a new win record wont it?
*Maybe 2017 is the year for the Scots!! What you say @MN5
Yes. England have been living on a great deal of luck (and poor opposition) in this tournament. It seems all you have to do is stay close and wait for the other team to implode or go to sleep.
Kudos to them for not doing the same I guess.
** I think though that they will probably find a good patch of form at the end and the record will be theirs alone.**Whilst I would be ecstatic if that were to happen I don't think it will. Scotland will not be pushovers but I'd take England to sneak it due to the Twickenham factor - a plus for England and it must be a ton weight for Scotland. Ireland in Dublin though I feel will be a step too far for this particular England side. We might have taken it if we were playing like we did v Aus in the summer but not as we are now.
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@Catogrande said in Six Nations 2017:
@Crucial said in Six Nations 2017:
@taniwharugby said in Six Nations 2017:
@Rugger-Quizzes assuming the English beat the Scots at Twickers (doesnt look like the Scots have won there at all in the 6N* and not since 1983 in the 5N) the Dublin game will be to make a new win record wont it?
*Maybe 2017 is the year for the Scots!! What you say @MN5
Yes. England have been living on a great deal of luck (and poor opposition) in this tournament. It seems all you have to do is stay close and wait for the other team to implode or go to sleep.
Kudos to them for not doing the same I guess.
** I think though that they will probably find a good patch of form at the end and the record will be theirs alone.**Whilst I would be ecstatic if that were to happen I don't think it will. Scotland will not be pushovers but I'd take England to sneak it due to the Twickenham factor - a plus for England and it must be a ton weight for Scotland. Ireland in Dublin though I feel will be a step too far for this particular England side. We might have taken it if we were playing like we did v Aus in the summer but not as we are now.
That's all fine but do you know what day/time the victory parade is scheduled for?
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@No-Quarter said in Six Nations 2017:
@Catogrande said in Six Nations 2017:
@Crucial said in Six Nations 2017:
@taniwharugby said in Six Nations 2017:
@Rugger-Quizzes assuming the English beat the Scots at Twickers (doesnt look like the Scots have won there at all in the 6N* and not since 1983 in the 5N) the Dublin game will be to make a new win record wont it?
*Maybe 2017 is the year for the Scots!! What you say @MN5
Yes. England have been living on a great deal of luck (and poor opposition) in this tournament. It seems all you have to do is stay close and wait for the other team to implode or go to sleep.
Kudos to them for not doing the same I guess.
** I think though that they will probably find a good patch of form at the end and the record will be theirs alone.**Whilst I would be ecstatic if that were to happen I don't think it will. Scotland will not be pushovers but I'd take England to sneak it due to the Twickenham factor - a plus for England and it must be a ton weight for Scotland. Ireland in Dublin though I feel will be a step too far for this particular England side. We might have taken it if we were playing like we did v Aus in the summer but not as we are now.
That's all fine but do you know what day/time the victory parade is scheduled for?
We're more of an understated lap of honour just after a loss really.
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I do like this quote about England's performance the other day...
''At times it was like watching 15 Daleks stuck at the bottom of an unexpected staircase.''
England’s players must develop quick wits however odd Jones’s complaints | Robert Kitson
Eddie Jones tried to divert attention from the tactical bafflement shown against Italy and this week’s new location for squad training offers a chance to make brains match brawn
