Rugby 2019 Discussion

Best England performance for years considering the quality of the opposition. A nice balance to this starting XV compared to last year.
 
Oh that's a great feeling. Feels like (and probably is) forever since we beat Ireland away
 
Still to one side and a penalty no? Weird even so as it's literally never penalised

Wow what hands there
It is still technically a free kick but it's never given, the idea of the rule is to stop team's throwing it to their own side so ref's don't care when it's slightly inaccurate the other way. As I say it doesn't really matter though, the vastly superior side won. Suddenly there's a few questions for Schmidt while Jones has maybe found some answers (the centres were brilliant and the back row was much more successful generally and particularly at the breakdown than they have been at times against Ireland).
 
Well done England - ye smashed us in every area of the pitch! Well deserved and emphatic victory!
 
England were about 5 miles down the coast so it shouldn't have made too much difference really

Oh right! They did it too?

I'm not as gutted as I could be - I think, given it's a WC year, I was expecting us to hit the ground floundering :lol:

All set now to look with foreboding towards Japan.
 
Replay of ‘forward’ pass? IE how did it leave his hands

And surely the Mako Vunipola ‘try’ should have counted first half?
 
On Irish TV they showed the pass was ok but the runner was ahead of the kicker so shouldn't have been awarded.
He looked to be ahead of the kicker; but not the ball and foot. What’s the rule?

Definitely didnt seem enough evidence to overturn from what the TMO saw, and not from what I’ve seen

Feel free to share any definitive evidence if anyone has one
 
He looked to be ahead of the kicker; but not the ball and foot. What’s the rule?

Definitely didnt seem enough evidence to overturn from what the TMO saw, and not from what I’ve seen

Feel free to share any definitive evidence if anyone has one

Not sure what the rule is, but they drew a line and he was ahead of kicker, ball, foot, whatever.
 
Wow, didn't see that performance coming from England. A hard fought and well earned victory.
 
What a game. That win was built on an incredible defensive performance and ridiculous line speed. Suffocated Ireland's game denied them any real momentum. Slade was brilliant but Mako was a wrecking machine. Twenty-five tackles! Mako, Billy and Tuilagi the missing links of late.
 
England came out fighting from the very start and kept it up the whole game. Their tackling was unbelievably good.
Pissed off but not at the same time no complaints.
 
England were impressive in Dublin, arguably their best performance since they put 60 on Scotland two years ago. A tremendous, high intensity game that hopefully is a sign of things to come. England's 3rd try appeared to be fair in my book in terms of the last pass and the issue of Slade being onside or not.
 
In hindsight, it was a bit naive to be hopeful yesterday based on last year's performances. Bullet points!

  • England came with a good game plan and executed it with ferocity. They pinned Ireland in their own half for almost the entirety of the second half, and when we managed to get out they almost immediately kicked us back in again and pinned us there with great tackling. Ireland must have had only 2 or 3 meaningful incursions into the England half in the entire second half. It was ironic that Ronan O'Gara was in Irish TV yesterday because he would have been the perfect man to play some territory, turn the English around and get them to waste some energy moving. Surely this should have been the tactic when faced with a physically bigger team.
  • On that note, it was extremely worrying from an Irish perspective that we didn't change up the tactics. It was still box kick after box kick, first up runners off the ruck getting smashed. England coped with both of these extremely well with only maybe Tadhg Furlong getting anything out of them and Daly doing extremely well.
  • On box kicking, I thought during the game that there seemed to be something strange about the way Murray was doing it. Maybe it's always this way, but he seemed to be very stiff about it and kept his head down after the ball was gone, never following the flight of it. After reading here yesterday that he got a knock to the neck in the Exeter game, I wonder if that was related to it. If I'd watched that Exeter game, I'd probably have been less hopeful about yesterday!
  • Rob Kearney probably slept well last night. It was perhaps naive to throw Henshaw in there and expect him to do well, but in the past he has done well at Centre when he's come straight back into the team after a spell out. It was very worrying that Schmidt didn't consider changing it up for quite a long time, which I suppose means he doesn't trust Larmour or Carbery. If he was keeping Carbery in reserve in case Sexton took a knock, then he should surely have used him there a lot earlier.
  • Considering how crucial it was, it was shocking that Poite didn't check the controversial pass on that try. Ireland have been in that position before (Peyper refusing to check a forward pass for a try against ABs in 2016, in addition to dodgy tackles). I also reckon if there hadn't been a yellow card shortly before it, Itoje might have been in the bin for crocking Keith Earls.
  • Apart from that, the game turned on some bad luck and perhaps naivety from Jacob Stockdale. We managed to fight our way back into the game in the first half, then Stockdale tried to play it in his own try area. He'll probably be content to aim to run it dead and give away a five metre scrum in the future.
Overall, Ireland will be crossing their fingers to get back Kearney, Leavy and Henderson in particular and look to get back to winning ways, but probably won't change things up too much. Hopefully not an ominous sign for the WC, but it probably is.
 
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He looked to be ahead of the kicker; but not the ball and foot. What’s the rule?

Definitely didnt seem enough evidence to overturn from what the TMO saw, and not from what I’ve seen

Feel free to share any definitive evidence if anyone has one
So long as he was behind the ball, or level with the ball, then he was onside - which he was.
 
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Berghan and Strauss replace injured Nel and Skinner, Gray & Maitland return from injury for Toolis and Kinghorn who move to the bench.
 
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Berghan and Strauss replace injured Nel and Skinner, Gray & Maitland return from injury for Toolis and Kinghorn who move to the bench.


WP Nel is going to be a huge miss unfortunately. The number of injuries to the forwards is crazy especially with the depth in those forward areas ain’t the greatest.

Then again, our record at Murrayfield has been very good and I’m hoping that continues tomorrow!
 
WP Nel is going to be a huge miss unfortunately. The number of injuries to the forwards is crazy especially with the depth in those forward areas ain’t the greatest.

Then again, our record at Murrayfield has been very good and I’m hoping that continues tomorrow!
If I were kinghorn I'd feel a bit aggrieved with that selection.
 
If I were kinghorn I'd feel a bit aggrieved with that selection.

I agree that Kingy didn’t deserve to be dropped. Maitland is our best winger and was bound to come back in to the starting XV. I'd have dropped Seymour before Kinghorn.

Oh well, he is a great option to have off the bench.
 
WP Nel is going to be a huge miss unfortunately. The number of injuries to the forwards is crazy especially with the depth in those forward areas ain’t the greatest.

Then again, our record at Murrayfield has been very good and I’m hoping that continues tomorrow!
Yep, my biggest worry is that we get monstered in the forwards. We do have big guys but they often don't front up to the more physical packs.
I'm also worried about our defence. Not so much because of the Italy match but because it's not been great for a while now.

That being said, I think we can score tries against anyone.
If the Grand Slam is still on in 48 hours I'll be a happy man.
 
The loser of Scotland vs Ireland can kiss goodbye their chances of winning this year's 6 nations.
 
Yep, my biggest worry is that we get monstered in the forwards. We do have big guys but they often don't front up to the more physical packs.
I'm also worried about our defence. Not so much because of the Italy match but because it's not been great for a while now.

That being said, I think we can score tries against anyone.
If the Grand Slam is still on in 48 hours I'll be a happy man.
I saw Rob Kearney in his comeback match for Leinster and he looked like a man showing his age. I think you could get change out of him if you can run at him and no better man than Hogg. I think the Irish forwards will have a big game. After being battered by England they have to show a bit of pride here. Furlong, O'Brien and possibly Conan with either points to prove or reasons to hit hard and establish themselves in the team. I think the second row battle could easily be won by scotland with Johnny Gray back and us missing Toner, Henderson and Roux not quite being the influence of the lads mentioned. It will be interesting seeing how Ryan adapts to being the more senior of the second rowers. I think it will be a very close game and can go either way.
 
I agree that Kingy didn’t deserve to be dropped. Maitland is our best winger and was bound to come back in to the starting XV. I'd have dropped Seymour before Kinghorn.

Oh well, he is a great option to have off the bench.
Hang on there. I have Seymour in my fantasy rugby team. Back the feck up!! :)
 
SOB off to London Irish, should be dropped in my books, otherwise your saying it's one rule for munster players going abroad and a different for leinster.