The Rugby Thread

[Paddingtonwolf]

Hmmm - I wouldn't be at all surprised if England hit 80 today.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Wales scrape past Japan 33-30. Very VERY lucky to get away with that one.

Meanwhile ITALY 20 SOUTH AFRICA 18. Awesome result for the Azzuri

 

[Bit on the shaggies]

France 11 Aus 13. Decent match so far, I do have one complaint though: there are more Fijian wingers playing tonight than there were during the England match earlier today.

 

[Dinowolf]

Launchbury has been cited for 'reckless' play and has been banned for 2 weeks, so that's the end of his Autumn Internationals.

 

[Dinowolf]

Kruis has been included in the England squad against Argentina, but no place for Roko as Jonny May returns from a knock.

England's full 24-man squad

Forwards

Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Charlie Ewels (Bath), Jamie George (Saracens), Teimana Harrison (Northampton Saints), Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints), Nathan Hughes (Wasps), George Kruis (Saracens), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Joe Marler (Harlequins), Chris Robshaw (Harlequins), Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins), Billy Vunipola (Saracens), Mako Vunipola (Saracens), Tom Wood (Northampton Saints)

Backs

Mike Brown (Harlequins), Danny Care (Harlequins), Elliot Daly (Wasps), Owen Farrell (Saracens), George Ford (Bath Rugby), Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby), Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby), Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs), Ben Te'o (Worcester Warriors), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Very disappointing crowd for Wales v South Africa.

I would expect this to be a tough ticket to get normally, but there must be at least 15,000 empty seats. At least.

South Africa 3-0 early doors, and Wales given a penalty for deliberate knock on that wasn't so much generous as absolute bloody larceny. 3-3

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Wales have ended up beating South Africa pretty easily. What a poor Bokke side this is. Dreadful standard for a proud rugby nation.

 

[Dinowolf]

What a game England had against Argentina, notable for 2x red cards and 4x yellow cards.

We won 27-14 but from the 5th minute, lost Elliot Daly to a red card, which was deserved IMO, and Billy Vunipola to a leg injury late on.

 

[Dinowolf]

Well played Ireland who won 27-24 despite their growing injury list.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Daly absolutely deserved his red card.

England absolutely deserved their win. Pretty efficient Autumn from Eddie Jones and Co.

Ireland got a good win against the Aussies, and a magnificent one against the All Blacks. Scotland just about beat Argentina.

Wales - 3 out of 4 wins. But Argentina was close, Japan was stupidly close, the Boks were shit, and Australia took us to the cleaners.

England v Ireland for the Six nations I think. Wales are clueless under Howley.

 

[Donegal Wolf]

Something to cheer people up on this miserable morning, look what happens when they ask a winger to go into a scrum

https://twitter.com/FR_union/status/802981993805856768

 

[Donegal Wolf]

As for the autumn internationals, just shows how things can change this time last year much fretting about how far ahead the SH are of the NH in playing the game etc, now looking at it NH sides coming out on top (8-6) in the autumn internationals and a case can be made that England and Ireland are 2 & 3 in the world.

Agree with Paddy, 6N should be between those 2, Wales do look poor under Howley.

That performance against Argentina for England was excellent when down to 14 men for most of the game, will beat the Aussies next week as well.

Far better autumn for Ireland then could be expected not only the results but the amount of young players coming into the squad and performing well Ringrose, Carberry, Van Der Flier will be around for a long time, plus our new cult hero Furlong.

Conflicting thought looking at South Africa, nice to laugh at the arrogant bully boys predicament, but like them or not, its not good for the game seeing them falling so low, especially when its due to political interference.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Bonus points introduced for the 6N. Stupid idea, devaluing the grand slam. Bleeuurrggghh

 

[Donegal Wolf]

Load of shite,

simple fact that unlike the other competitions where it has been introduced, teams play an uneven amount of home/away games each year, it will add to the advantage for teams playing 3 games at home each year.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Saying that, there are three bonus points for getting the grand slam.

Soooo

Team A Wins 5 games (no bonus points) = 5 x 4 + 3 grand slam bonus = 23
Team B Wins 4 games (all bonus points) + loses by less than 7 to the grand slam team = 4 x 5 plus 1 = 21

As far as I can see there is no way a team winning the grand slam cannot win the title so that is one good thing. Totally agree on the uneven home / away games problem.

This also may not encourage attacking play. It could encourage the opposite from teams as they try and hold on to losing bonus points by preventing tries against.

 

[Dinowolf]

Saying that, there are three bonus points for getting the grand slam.

Soooo

Team A Wins 5 games (no bonus points) = 5 x 4 + 3 grand slam bonus = 23
Team B Wins 4 games (all bonus points) + loses by less than 7 to the grand slam team = 4 x 5 plus 1 = 21 and scores 4 tries in losing = 4 x 5 plus 2 = 22

As far as I can see there is no way a team winning the grand slam cannot win the title so that is one good thing. Totally agree on the uneven home / away games problem.

This also may not encourage attacking play. It could encourage the opposite from teams as they try and hold on to losing bonus points by preventing tries against.

Just a slight addition, Paddy, for the sake of accuracy. The rest is spot on.

http://www.skysports.com/rugby-unio...ons-to-introduce-bonus-points-system-for-2017

They say in this article that it is a trial and although they want the competition to fall in line with others, they don't want the unique last week games dynamic to be taken away.

 

[Dinowolf]

Eddie Jones has settled on this side to play Australia on Saturday k.o. 2:30pm

England: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Marland Yarde, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 Jonny May, 10 George Ford, 9 Ben Youngs; 1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Dylan Hartley (c), 3 Dan Cole, 4 Courtney Lawes, 5 George Kruis, 6 Chris Robshaw, 7 Tom Wood, 8 Nathan Hughes.

Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Joe Marler, 18 Kyle Sinckler, 19 Charlie Ewels, 20 Teimana Harrison, 21 Danny Care, 22 Ben Te'o, 23 Henry Slade.

Two changes, Hughes in for the injured Billy Vunipola, and Yarde on the wing for the banned Eliot Daly.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Decent side that. You should absolutely destroy Australia.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Horrible start by England, wake up.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Bath beat Saracens. Absolute bonus that is.