6 Nations

[matt83]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/43240056

Typical jocks. Forget carrying on like they’d won the World Cup after the match I only hope stuff like this is played to subsequent English teams to make sure it doesn’t happen for another decade. 

[JAL]

Full credit to Ireland this year though let's hope England can finish on a positive note to what's been a rather flat six nations by winning tomorrow. Watched Wales last weekend against Italy, the Welsh can consider themselves unfortunate not to be going into the final game with a chance of winning the tournament. 

The six nations is such a magnificent tournament roll on next year's.

Edited March 16, 2018 by JAL

[Reedy You're A Star]

Think Ireland are gonna dick us to be honest. But, England could do with a morale boosting win against Ireland on St Patrick's day, then onto the Summer Internationals to get us over this mini slump ready to build some form for next years World Cup. Would be more of a slap in the face to come 3rd to Wales! And surely would see the end of Eddie Jones.

Edited March 16, 2018 by BiggusMickus

[Baz]

Love the six nations, but does it need spicing up a bit?

In my opinion they need to drop the bonus points, it takes away the chances of having last day dramas.id sooner see head to head scores taking precedent above you scoring 3 tries at Murrayfield, and me getting 4 vs them at Twickers.

Also how about a top two play-off in a grand final, or having home and away games each season - which can give you years that are easier than others (e.g Wales theoretically could one year play away in Italy and Scotland, the next away in England, France and Ireland)?   

To develop the game, there should also be a home and away play-off for the 6th position side vs the growing teams in Georgia, Germany, Spain etc...

[matt83]

I’m not that bothered by bonus points if encourages attacking rugby. Although I’m not entirely sure it does as England demonstrated in Paris when knew needed 4 tries before ko and still were happy going for 3 pts. Plus it certainly doesn’t work in England’s favour when every team has their World Cup final vs us. Scotland, for eg, went through brick walls vs England then rolled over vs Ireland.

You’re right with away games. This year ironically should have been England’s (English arrogance coming in a bit here considering 2/3 defeats and already lost it) but with the state of France theoretically 3 easier away games then two home games. The flip side of that coin is next year Italy/Scotland/France at home and wales/Ireland away that’s a tough ask biennially.

To develop the game I’d defo look at 2 6 nations type leagues. Make them feel more part of the bigger picture. Rugby seems to be on the up in Georgia. I would love an away day in tbilisi. They get some decent crowds, have dominated the European b champions league thing over the last decade and have credible wins over likes of Fiji, Tonga, Samoa. However, the problem remains I don’t think they’ve ever beaten a decent rugby nation. Nor are likely to on a consistent basis. 

So if there was a promotion/relegation into 6 nations it would just be Italy and Georgia swapping places and occasionally Romania getting up for one year. 

[matt83]

As for today I was gutted when I was offered a ticket but couldn’t go as I thought beating the Irish at twickenham to hopefully win the grand slam on st paddy’s day would be a hoot.

Now on paddy’s day they arrive to twickenham as champions and I’m sure for them there would be no better place to win the grand slam. Let’s hope we can spoil the party to some degree...

[Baz]

10 hours ago, matt83 said:

I’m not that bothered by bonus points if encourages attacking rugby. Although I’m not entirely sure it does as England demonstrated in Paris when knew needed 4 tries before ko and still were happy going for 3 pts. Plus it certainly doesn’t work in England’s favour when every team has their World Cup final vs us. Scotland, for eg, went through brick walls vs England then rolled over vs Ireland.

You’re right with away games. This year ironically should have been England’s (English arrogance coming in a bit here considering 2/3 defeats and already lost it) but with the state of France theoretically 3 easier away games then two home games. The flip side of that coin is next year Italy/Scotland/France at home and wales/Ireland away that’s a tough ask biennially.

To develop the game I’d defo look at 2 6 nations type leagues. Make them feel more part of the bigger picture. Rugby seems to be on the up in Georgia. I would love an away day in tbilisi. They get some decent crowds, have dominated the European b champions league thing over the last decade and have credible wins over likes of Fiji, Tonga, Samoa. However, the problem remains I don’t think they’ve ever beaten a decent rugby nation. Nor are likely to on a consistent basis. 

So if there was a promotion/relegation into 6 nations it would just be Italy and Georgia swapping places and occasionally Romania getting up for one year. 

The promotion / relegation thing though at least stops the closed shop effect. Yes it may be that some teams swap places regularly, but it helps develop those teams playing regularly against the bigger nations. 

The bonus point is a problem for me, a yellow card / dodgy referee call can have a massive difference in a game. 

To balance the home / away thing, why not introduce a 7th place, played via a cup competition for the developing Euro countries.

[Baz]

Congrats to Ireland though, superb defensive performance today.

[Husky]

Something to brighten up the day. The Champions crushed in their own backyard. Have it!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47103166

[Bigdoggsteel]

On 02/02/2019 at 22:34, Husky said:

Something to brighten up the day. The Champions crushed in their own backyard. Have it!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47103166

Great display by England. No excuses, the better team won. 

Hopefully that's the kick up the backside we need in a world cup year. A few people were getting a bit carried away. Very small margins between victory and defeat at that level. 

 

[gumboots]

This was how England should have been playing for ages but we've always seemed too nervy to do so. We've always had the talent but a lot of our players were very inexperienced at this level. Now they've matured a bit and can play to their strengths. Good to see Tom Curry of Sale put in a good performance despite his sending off

[Husky]

Terrestrial ITV is the place to be right now.

Oh lah lah!

[gumboots]

First half was fun. Bit more of a fight in the second.

[joey_big_nose]

Watched the game and England were great. I don't know much about rugby tbh, but always enjoy the six Nations and world cup. 

Could we realistically win the world cup this year or are the southern hemisphere still much better than us?

[Norbert Rassragr]

Australia are mediocre, South Africa are pretty good but not spectacular and New Zealand are not quite the invincible super heroes they were over the last 8 years or so. England, Ireland and NZ are the best teams and the winner in Japan is likely to be one of them.

[Bigdoggsteel]

England looked very good against France, very good indeed. I just wonder how bad France are though. It's always difficult to tell with them.

I would be happy if we eventually got to a semi final to be honest. England could be there or thereabouts no doubt about it. Imagine an England V Ireland final 

Edited February 15, 2019 by Bigdoggsteel

[gumboots]

On 11/02/2019 at 13:21, Norbert Rassragr said:

Australia are mediocre, South Africa are pretty good but not spectacular and New Zealand are not quite the invincible super heroes they were over the last 8 years or so. England, Ireland and NZ are the best teams and the winner in Japan is likely to be one of them.

South Africa have possibly the best scrum half in the world in Faf De Klerk. I watch him week in, week out at Sale and he just never stops trying to drive his team forward. Tackles guys 3 times his size. And he's skilful too. Whether the rest of his team can keep up I don't know. 

 

[Norbert Rassragr]

Big load of blond hair? He is a dynamo if it's the one I'm thinking of. The rest of the team seem good, but not half as good as those great players of previous generations. A lot relies on Le Roux and Faf.

[gumboots]

That's the guy. He's just not scared of anyone. When he first came to Sale he always had a mistake in him but nowadays he makes far fewer and he's much tougher. 

[Husky]

The tournament was certainly a bit of a reality check for pre tournament favourites Ireland and to a slightly lesser degree England.

Ireland were a disgrace against Wales. Talk about thinking about the beach.

England should also be very worried. 2 shocking second half performances v Wales and Scotland). Don't they have the stamina for it? Mentally and physically.

The 38-38 was a great game though (there's no such thing as a dead rubber when England play Scotland). I think it was a record points draw.

As for the England women. Well they blitzed the tournament culminating with an 80-0 win over Scotland. That's the way to do it!

Edited March 17, 2019 by Husky

[joey_big_nose]

Great game yesterday. Pleased for Wales - they deserved it. Would be great for them to go on and win the world cup now.  England and Ireland have a lot of work to do.

Anyhoo... what sets the six Nations apart from any other competition I can think of is just how relentlessly competitive it is.

Shame you can't get the same in football. A six team league round robin of the best European international sides would be tremendous. But how do you pick the best six etc.?

To a certain degree rugby benefits from being a bit of a niche sport. Means you really end up with a lot of competitive games.

 

[gumboots]

Yes unless that moron at Bristol gets his way and they take promotion and relegation out of the equation. Interestingly rugby plays on through international weekends. Good teams do without their big players so the Saracens side today in the cup bears little resemblance to their normal first team.

Edited March 17, 2019 by gumboots

[Husky]

1 minute ago, joey_big_nose said:

Great game yesterday. Pleased for Wales - they deserved it. Would be great for them to go on and win the world cup now.  England and Ireland have a lot of work to do.

Anyhoo... what sets the six Nations apart from any other competition I can think of is just how relentlessly competitive it is.

 

 

I agree. Though Italy seem to have gone backwards. One wonders if their participation these days is just to balance out the fixtures.

[gumboots]

Actually it was easier when there were 5 because everyone got a weekend off. The point with Italy is that you can only progress so far unless you start playing better teams. There are a lot of good European teams around who need better competition to move up. Perhaps a second competition. The Rumanians are good as are the Russians and one or 2 others. I watched them at under 18 level a couple of years ago while on hols in france

[Bigdoggsteel]

On 17/03/2019 at 14:44, Husky said:

The tournament was certainly a bit of a reality check for pre tournament favourites Ireland and to a slightly lesser degree England.

Ireland were a disgrace against Wales. Talk about thinking about the beach.

England should also be very worried. 2 shocking second half performances v Wales and Scotland). Don't they have the stamina for it? Mentally and physically.

The 38-38 was a great game though (there's no such thing as a dead rubber when England play Scotland). I think it was a record points draw.

As for the England women. Well they blitzed the tournament culminating with an 80-0 win over Scotland. That's the way to do it!

I don't think they were on the beach, but something isn't right. Murray and Sexton are so key to what we do, if they don't perform, we don't. I just knew when Stander fecked up the kick and go it was going to be a bad day, 

Overall I think it is the kick up the backside we needed. If we won a grandslam I would be more worried to be honest. The key player just need to go back to their clubs and find some form.