The Rugby Union Thread

tbm

Watched most of the Eng v Ire game back last night. It really was a cracker. There's been lots of talk about Ireland being overpowered by the aggression of the English attack and defense, but what jumped out to me on second viewing is the English passes sticking in a way that they haven't done in ages. Stuff they were trying and failing to do against Scotland was coming off against Ireland and it provided so much momentum. 

Pjon

koneguitarist said:

Gatland is probably the best coach in NH, working with hands tied behind his back and numpties like Humphries supposedly coaching the forwards. 

We have a very limited stock of quality players at the best of times, a few injuries and we are down to bare bones. When was the last time wales had a bench that added impact and power? I can’t remember. 

The Regions are on their knees with underinvestment and all in lower half of URC league. 

Going to four regions was never going to work with the teams picked. They all look for investment and sponsorship from a small pool of businesses along a 60mile stretch of M4. 

No real identity to the regions either, yet there is a natural identity for two regions East and West. 

Sooner or later WRU has to bite the bullet. Apart. From Scotland we have the smallest pool of players in 6Nations, why do we think we can run four fully professional teams? 

When the regions were introduced, they were meant to be the only professional teams in Wales, with all others being amateur. What we've ended up with is a WRU making money for themselves through summer concerts - we can't play SA in Cardiff this summer because Foo Fighters and Taylor Swift are there. Surely rugby is THE priority for the WRU? - and this money doesn't seem to trickle down. However, there is still money being passed around in the lower divisions. I ride past Waunarllwyd RFC every night and they're in the process of putting up a good-sized stand. One of my colleagues has just signed for Resolven and is getting decent money, as a complete amateur. Dunvant RFC have a full carpark regularly with their age-groups. In the meantime, the level below the regions is struggling to get money or spectators.

 I watched Swansea RFC play a couple of weeks ago with possibly 100 people in the whole ground. This is the level that some Welsh players are being selected from (Mackenzie Martin  most recently.) The Welsh Indigo League manage to get a game every few weeks on S4C Digital. Compare to England - Ealing recently played a televised cup game against Leicester and it felt like they had more well known players on display than the whole Welsh squad.
Compare to NZ - their equivalent feeder level is shown on Sky Sports and has All Blacks playing. 

I'd suggest that there's plenty of money around, just that it's in the wrong places. I'm not sure what the solution is, but it needs work from the WRU, not just a little prayer and Max Boyce.

fretmeister

Balls!

IFW has got concussion symptoms. Not available to play against France!  

digitalscream

fretmeister said:

Balls!

IFW has got concussion symptoms. Not available to play against France!  

Well, bollocks.

VimFuego

fretmeister said:

Balls!

IFW has got concussion symptoms. Not available to play against France!  

well, he's proven he's a test level player, this 6 nations was always about rebuilding, so that's a tick in that box for him. Long term, it's better to suffer a loss now and have players fit for a couple of years time. Let's hope he gets over it soon.

sev112

Daly onto wing?!  Steward to Full back ? Smith to the bench, Tuilagi into centre 
Very forward thinking  

Maybe he’ll do something original, maybe HasellCollns, is Arundel already in France ?

TJT1979

sev112 said:

Daly onto wing?!  Steward to Full back ? Smith to the bench, Tuilagi into centre 
Very forward thinking  

Maybe he’ll do something original, maybe HasellCollns, is Arundel already in France ?

Perhaps Steward back in at FB, and move Furbank to the wing? If not I reckon he'll start Daly on the wing. Both of these options will lose us attacking ability.

Predictions for this weekend?

France vs: Eng: Hard to call. Both have shown improvement in their latest game, but Eng moreso I think. Whoever manages to maintain the most form from last weekend. France have home advantage. Tricky. Eng to win by 3 points. Maybe.

Wales vs Italy: Honestly it's hard to see past Italy after their last performance. Wales have shown glimpses of nice rugby so that would not surprise me too much, but Italy have been good all tournament and look the more settled side. Italy to win by 5 points.

Ireland vs Scotland: After the last result, Ireland will come out like a raging bull. A lot has been made of the (fantastic) Eng win, but we should remember it required England's best game since 2019 to beat Ireland by a single point. Scotland I think have issues with the psychology and last week's implosion will have made that worse. Ireland to win by 15 points.

Opinions?

fretmeister

England by a small number. 3-5 ish.

I think Scotland are so embarrassed that they will be up for a fight. I think they are going to surprise everyone and just win it. A real "what the hell" type moment.

I'd love to see Italy beat Wales. Just to get the Italian pride up a bit more and maybe increase the amount of kids playing in Italy. It would be like Japan beating the Boks! 

fretmeister

George North has just announced he is retiring from International Duty after the weekend.

TBH I hope he calls it a day completely soon - far too many bangs to the head. He was a fine player and I do not want to see him join the early onset dementia and CTE statistics.

TJT1979

Big fan of North - an absolute legend. I fear it might be too late for him in terms of head impacts. He's been sidelined a number of times of the years with various knocks.

sev112

For the first time in ages all 3 games could conceivably go either way, even Scotland - Ireland may well have hit their limit this season and mentally not be there (whereas that happened to Scotland last week

Open_G

Welsh club rugby used to be so awesome. I was at uni in Pontypridd in the very late 90’s and there were some cracking players and great games. I also remember seeing Cardiff and Swansea do very well in a bunch of friendlies against the top English clubs when they withdrew drom the league. 

I thought it an error at the time that the top 5 or so clubs didn’t join the English league when given the chance. If I remember correctly Cardiff and Swansea were offered the chance to join tier 1 and maybe Llanelli, Ponty and was it Neath??? to join tier 2. The WRU threw this out as if it was the greatest insult to Welsh rugby ever. Always wonder where the Welsh club game would be now had they taken that gamble. 

exocet

Open_G said:

Welsh club rugby used to be so awesome. I was at uni in Pontypridd in the very late 90’s and there were some cracking players and great games. I also remember seeing Cardiff and Swansea do very well in a bunch of friendlies against the top English clubs when they withdrew drom the league. 

I thought it an error at the time that the top 5 or so clubs didn’t join the English league when given the chance. If I remember correctly Cardiff and Swansea were offered the chance to join tier 1 and maybe Llanelli, Ponty and was it Neath??? to join tier 2. The WRU threw this out as if it was the greatest insult to Welsh rugby ever. Always wonder where the Welsh club game would be now had they taken that gamble. 

Later on WRU could've opted to financially support London Welsh who found themselves in the English Premiership for a couple of seasons (2013 / 2014) . I'm guessing that finances were already too strained by then? 

tbm

Yeah, Scotland will smell blood. But they've smelt blood before. Last year they couldn't beat Ireland in Murrayfield with JvdF throwing into the line out, and Cian Healy at hooker. Absolut must win game at the World Cup, and it was over after 25 mins or so. 

I know what you mean though. At some point Scotland will beat Ireland in Dublin. It could well be this weekend. But as has been said already, Ireland had to be a bit off, suffer a number of injuries that made the 6/2 split come back and bite them, and still it took the best English performance for a number of years to win by a point. Isn't Sione Tuipulotu injured as well? I dunno. it could happen, but I wouldn't bet the house on it. I don't foresee a world cup style blow out though. It'll be tight.

I think England will win in France.

I think Wales will beat Italy. 

VimFuego

Ireland to win
Italy to win
in order to hopefully follow that patter Ingland to win. 

sev112

I’ll go for 3 upsets then : Scotland, Italy and England, although I doubt all of them as much as I think they might happen

Open_G

Referring to my previous post. Looks like I’m not alone in thinking the Welsh should have taken the offer from the English leagues. Interesting article all round though. 

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/sliding-doors-moment-wru-turned-24284725.amp

TJT1979

Daly selected on the wing to replace Feyi-Waboso. Not much of a surprise. Shame that somebody quicker (eg. Radwan) wasn't in the training squad from the beginning, but Daly has plenty of experience and is versatile.

exocet

Ireland by 10 points
England by 7
Italy by 7 but hoping that G North scores in his last international

crunchman

exocet said:

Ireland by 10 points
England by 7
Italy by 7 but hoping that G North scores in his last international

The best thing for North would be to sprain his ankle in the first minute so he doesn't take any more bangs to the head.  He should have retired years ago with his concussion history.