6N 2018
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I'm still to see evidence of Itoje being better than just 'very good'. IMO he hasn't reached 'great' and if he is to be rated as 'world class' then he needs to play at BBBR or Whitelock level. He certainly doesn't push either of them out of a world selection and would even have to fight past others.
I do think he is not getting the chance to fulfil his potential though under the three lock selection policy. It always looks like none of them really know what they should be doing instead of having clear roles. -
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@catogrande said in 6N 2018:
His form since the Lions has not been up there and I'd guess that is for a mixture of reasons.
See I thought he was rubbish in the Lions, having watched almost nothing but highlights prior, I was expecting this colossus and was left thinking he was all hype and no substance.
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TBF Itoje is well good enough to be in the team and it is the press that talk him up as he makes good copy.
Visually he is a target for photographers and looks all beach muscle with great contrast of skin and jersey. They want to write about him a lot.
But yeah, overhyped. -
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@taniwharugby said in 6N 2018:
It’s a good story. I know and have met McLaughlin a few times through a couple of people and he’s a smart cookie. Likewise Heaslip in spotting the potential.
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@pot-hale the analysis side has been about for a while I believe, but its using the information better is the key, and the tone of the article is that England isn't and hasn't been...I know when I was living in England in the early 2000's they were talking about player burnout in the English comps then, seems little has changed.
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@taniwharugby said in 6N 2018:
@pot-hale the analysis side has been about for a while I believe, but its using the information better is the key, and the tone of the article is that England isn't and hasn't been...I know when I was living in England in the early 2000's they were talking about player burnout in the English comps then, seems little has changed.
You’re right about it being around for a while. What puzzles me is that it seems as if Irish playing time management has only been “discovered” this season in the UK. In reality, the 15 central contract ‘A’ players have been robustly managed since early 2000s and the wider squad players too at club level. The max limit is 25 games or 2000 minutes and in the pyramid system, the league gets least time. It’s the inverse in England.
When the European Cup wars were going on in 2012/13, the Premiership organizing body was trailing stories about how Irish provinces were resting and rotating player for the Heineken Cup and competing in the PRO12 without relegation was too easy. So they thought that by changing relegation rules and reducing comp size that the Irish players would have to play more often and be as equally played out/tireder as their Premiership equivalents. Despite plenty of evidence that R&R was due to IRFU playing guidelines, they went ahead. Irish players are still operating to the same playing time limits.
There’s a lot more talk about developing some kind of central contract system mixed in with ringfencing the league and removing relegation to change the Premiership dynamic. There was a recent announcement from the English Players Rep Association that they’d managed to get the longer season idea post 2020 binned. They’re now going to start later in September and finish in second or third week of June and hopefully create rest breaks for players.
We’ll wait and see.
This is a good article on Kitman with more detail on the info it tracks.
Kitman Labs breaking into US sports market after excelling in Irish rugby
We spoke to Stephen Smith, one of the company’s co-founders, about their growth in the States.
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Little story just breaking in UK newspapers
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... and a bit more of the wheels falling off:
*England head coach Eddie Jones has "apologised unreservedly" for offensive comments he made about Wales and Ireland.
At a sponsors' talk in July 2017, the Australian described Wales as a "shit little place" and spoke about how disappointed he was by a recent defeat by the "scummy Irish".
Jones, 58, said he was "very sorry for any offence caused" and added: "No excuses. I shouldn't have said what I did."
A spokesperson for English rugby union's governing body said the remarks were "inappropriate" and the RFU would apologise to its counterparts in Ireland and Wales.
England's next match is against Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday.
Referring to their 13-9 defeat by the same opponents in the 2017 Six Nations, Jones said: **"We've played 23 Tests, we've only lost one Test to the scummy Irish.
"I am still dirty about that game. We'll get that back, we'll get that back don't worry. We've got them next year at home, we'll get them back."**
The video of Jones' talk was uploaded to YouTube by Fuso - the Japanese parent company of England sponsors Mitsubishi - in July last year but has only now gained wider public attention.
Earlier in the talk, Jones discussed Japan Under-20s losing to their Welsh counterparts 125-0 shortly after he took over as Brave Blossoms head coach in 2012.
"Who knows Wales? Are there any Welsh people here? So it's this little shit place that has got three million people. Three million!" he said.*
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What’s funny about the clip in the scummy Irish reference is he’s talking to the guy who’s seated - a former SAS commander, Mike Lynch, who is Irish.
But that detail may not get reported as much...
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I think the funniest part of the speech is his coaching brilliance in selecting 13 "7/10" type players and 2 brilliant but inconsistent ones.
Hey Eddie, when your 7/10 guys don't play at their max levels you get a majority of 5 or 6 out of 10 performances in your team. -
I think the funniest part of the speech is his coaching brilliance in selecting 13 "7/10" type players and 2 brilliant but inconsistent ones.
Hey Eddie, when your 7/10 guys don't play at their max levels you get a majority of 5 or 6 out of 10 performances in your team.Yeah, yeah but look at the percentages
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@nzzp Storm in a tea cup. He's clearly just taking the piss. The same bloke who said New Zealand was just a shitty little island off the south coast.
If anyone's getting upset about his comments, they're showing they have remarkably thin skins.
@pot-hale said in 6N 2018:
What’s funny about the clip in the scummy Irish reference is he’s talking to the guy who’s seated - a former SAS commander, Mike Lynch, who is Irish.
Who laughs.
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It's the fucking 6 Nations!! We're constantly told how we can ignore the "quality" of the rugby on display because of the "history" and the "hatred".
So a coach totally buys in to it, says what every fan says, and you get "outrage"?
Fuck me dead.
I like Eddie, i really do, he's a funny bugger.
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@mariner4life said in 6N 2018:
It's the fucking 6 Nations!! We're constantly told how we can ignore the "quality" of the rugby on display because of the "history" and the "hatred".
So a coach totally buys in to it, says what every fan says, and you get "outrage"?
Fuck me dead.
I like Eddie, i really do, he's a funny bugger.
Joe should stick it on the shed wall and say is that the best he can do. Let’s give him something to really moan about.
Then he can use it again for the Australian tour.
Two for the price of one. 😏
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@pot-hale said in 6N 2018:
@mariner4life said in 6N 2018:
It's the fucking 6 Nations!! We're constantly told how we can ignore the "quality" of the rugby on display because of the "history" and the "hatred".
So a coach totally buys in to it, says what every fan says, and you get "outrage"?
Fuck me dead.
I like Eddie, i really do, he's a funny bugger.
Joe should stick it on the shed wall and say is that the best he can do. Let’s give him something to really moan about.
Then he can use it again for the Australian tour.
Two for the price of one. 😏
it's not the fucking 1980s, international teams don't need "psyching up" to win tests.
"well, it was just another Test, but then Eddie called us "scummy", so then we just knew we had to win".
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@antipodean said in 6N 2018:
@nzzp Storm in a tea cup. He's clearly just taking the piss. The same bloke who said New Zealand was just a shitty little island off the south coast.
Was it Eddie? Or are you confusing your abusive Ockers? Scott Johnson and "poxy islands"?
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@booboo
“Sorry, I meant to say two shitty little islands.”
Eddie Jones, England rugby union head coach, when asked to apologise for calling New Zealand “a shitty little island off the south coast of Australia”.
When all’s said and done
Since Boxing Day is a time for reheating favourite morsels, I asked Grant, the TMS hobbit, to burrow around in the Diary cuttings folder and pull out some of ou
