RugbyRebels

morepork wrote:France are surprisingly uncordinated with the ball in hand. Lot's of big dudes, not much practicing.

Woeful hands from both teams.

kk67 wrote:

hugh_woatmeigh wrote:

kk67 wrote:Good fun.

Did anyone else notice Henderson slipping his bind in the scrum before his try..?. Initially I thought he was trying to use his hand to steer the ball to the backfoot but then I noticed the ball had already passed him. Be interesting to see if Ross Ford has a blackeye tomorrow.

Was he playing?

I was surprised that all the 2nd rows were fairly anonymous. Good tackle count from J.Gray but that was about all.

Sometimes I wonder what drugs you are on. Jonny wasn't flashy but dominating the tackle stats like that is hardly anonymous. Richie caused them problems with his carries & in the air all day.

France really do look clueless. Lucky to get a BP really.

Boom!

Big D wrote:Lots of positives out of the game and lots to work on so room for improvement . Ideal really

Well done the Jocks. You approached that game the right way and took your chances. You'd be even better with a livewire SH. Wee Laidlaw is a great goal kicker but not a hell of a lot else. Hogg is in tremendous form - he is really fast, good feet and now looks very powerful/stocky too.

Always surprises me the stick Laidlaw gets. He's got very reliable game management, a fair amount of dog and he's a quality skipper..

kk67 wrote:Always surprises me the stick Laidlaw gets. He's got very reliable game management, a fair amount of dog and he's a quality skipper..

This exactly.

kk67 wrote:Always surprises me the stick Laidlaw gets. He's got very reliable game management, a fair amount of dog and he's a quality skipper..

Indeed, rerun that game with Russell kicking..? A loss..?

hugh_woatmeigh wrote:

kk67 wrote:

hugh_woatmeigh wrote:
Was he playing?

I was surprised that all the 2nd rows were fairly anonymous. Good tackle count from J.Gray but that was about all.

Sometimes I wonder what drugs you are on. Jonny wasn't flashy but dominating the tackle stats like that is hardly anonymous. Richie caused them problems with his carries & in the air all day.

Yeah,..I wasn't having a dig at any of them just that they are 4 guys who I invariably enjoy watching in attack.
It was as if there had been a pre-game agreement to bypass phases where any of them could cut loose. There was a lot of width on the game which made it exciting and led to them getting bypassed, so I shouldn't gripe.
Pleased to see Hamish Watson being so influential. After the AI's I worried that for all his ability he was going to get out muscled at test level and there were a couple of times early doors when it looked like he was going to lose the pill in contact.... but he was clinging on grimly and using his mass to get it on the deck.
Despite taking a couple of big whacks I don't think he made a single mistake today.

kk67 wrote:

hugh_woatmeigh wrote:

kk67 wrote: I was surprised that all the 2nd rows were fairly anonymous. Good tackle count from J.Gray but that was about all.

Sometimes I wonder what drugs you are on. Jonny wasn't flashy but dominating the tackle stats like that is hardly anonymous. Richie caused them problems with his carries & in the air all day.

Yeah,..I wasn't having a dig at any of them just that they are 4 guys who I invariably enjoy watching in attack.
It was as if there had been a pre-game agreement to bypass phases where any of them could cut loose. There was a lot of width on the game which made it exciting and led to them getting bypassed, so I shouldn't gripe.
Pleased to see Hamish Watson being so influential. After the AI's I worried that for all his ability he was going to get out muscled at test level and there were a couple of times early doors when it looked like he was going to lose the pill in contact.... but he was clinging on grimly and using his mass to get it on the deck.
Despite taking a couple of big whacks I don't think he made a single mistake today.

Watson was very good.

Re the locks. Today was the type of game Gray snr would get slated for going missing or being ineffective in he was imo good in all areas where he would formerly be criticised for - "the tough stuff". Gray Jnr continues to have an insane work rate.

Someone elsewhere raised a good point. Gray squared, Wilson and Fagerson deserve enormous credit for the intensity they kept for 80min in those circumstances. Easy to forget Fagerson was at the u20 world cup 7-8 months ago. How many THs his age do the full 80 at this level?

Kudos Scotland. That is one hell of a result!

It was great to see Scotland take their AI form into the 6N .It was also a great advertisment for the NH rugby. Hoggy has moved the marker up a few more yards an the back 3 in genetal gave a good performance.
I dont know how much time the ball was in play ..it seemed it was a lot and played at high intensity.
I thoroughly enjoyed the match.

Agreed, agreed, agreed. and this is a Lions year.
Not a good start for either Toner or Henderson.

Fucking yes. Gutted I couldn't see it but had it on the radio. Sounds like Laidlaw bossed ting.

On to France.

I think Reid has to come into the pack
Brown needs to hit his targets in training because Ford played well coming on as a sub
Think Wilson to 8 and barclay to 7

I think come Monday after the the glow of the win wears off a bit the players and coaches will have to, and will to be fair, critically at what happened in that 30 min period.

We missed far too many tackles, had no real control when we had the ball, and after dominating the back row exchanges in the 1st half let theirs get on top.

My team for next week would swap Dell/Reid and Ford/Brown. The France tight 5 is massive so think we should go with the best scrummaging unit and then bring the mobile guys off the bench.

Back row is Watson, Wilson, A N other for me. Was Strauss injured?


Jones looked reasonable given he hadn't played in months. Should be better next time out.

Big D wrote:I think come Monday after the the glow of the win wears off a bit the players and coaches will have to, and will to be fair, critically at what happened in that 30 min period.

We missed far too many tackles, had no real control when we had the ball, and after dominating the back row exchanges in the 1st half let theirs get on top.

My team for next week would swap Dell/Reid and Ford/Brown. The France tight 5 is massive so think we should go with the best scrummaging unit and then bring the mobile guys off the bench.

Back row is Watson, Wilson, A N other for me. Was Strauss injured?


Jones looked reasonable given he hadn't played in months. Should be better next time out.

Strauss often cramps 55-60 mins into a game. I've little faith in him doing a full 80 so Watson must have taken a knock otherwise that's pish poor from VC.

I'd swap Strauss for Barclay and also go with the front row changes you suggested. Some merit in swapping Bennett & Jones around but Bennett didn't really do enough to take the shirt (what could he have done anyway...?).

Daily Mail ratings are bonkers. Laidlaw and Dunbar having a higher rating than all the forwards.

Joe.ie gave SOB 9/10!!

According to the telegraph Gray Jnr set a Scottish record with his 28 tackles.

Stats updated. Gray squared had 50 tackles between them. Immense.

Noticed a rather sour note from "Blood and Soil" Morrison in the Scotsman recently..
Described Huw Jones` Scottish qualification as "an accident of birth" and the player himself as "an adopted son"..
Lovely..

Big D wrote:Joe.ie gave SOB 9/10!!

According to the telegraph Gray Jnr set a Scottish record with his 28 tackles.

Ah now, I'm not sure he was a 9, but I thought him and Jackson were superb for Ireland. I general it's good to see SOB not being, or getting injured, I was starting to think he was going to go the way of Ferris.

Edinburgh in Exile wrote:

Big D wrote:Joe.ie gave SOB 9/10!!

According to the telegraph Gray Jnr set a Scottish record with his 28 tackles.

Ah now, I'm not sure he was a 9, but I thought him and Jackson were superb for Ireland. I general it's good to see SOB not being, or getting injured, I was starting to think he was going to go the way of Ferris.

I really like SOB, he'd probably be my lions 7, but IMO their back row was 2nd best in the 1st half by a good bit. He was good in the second half but that doesn't mean the 1st half didn't happen. He was probably a 9 in the second half but a 6 or 7 in the 1st.

Well played Scotland. A classic case of taking your chances vs not taking them. But well deserved - a lot of Ireland's NOT taking their chances was due to excellent Scottish defence.

Shame France couldn't produce a similar upset.