RugbyRebels

Argentina beat Spain so it’s a winner takes all game. Ireland lose to Italy which helps England. Got to hope France vs Argentina the losers does not get a bonus point!

Epaminondas Pules wrote: ↑Fri Jul 04, 2025 8:06 pm

Oakboy wrote: ↑Fri Jul 04, 2025 8:01 pm Only watched the highlights. That SA 9 is a bit of a magician.

He is very, very good. If we meet again it will be the final.

The wheels on SA 14 as well, I thought he was going to run straight through the stands and keep going

Epaminondas Pules wrote: ↑Fri Jul 04, 2025 9:50 pm Argentina beat Spain so it’s a winner takes all game. Ireland lose to Italy which helps England. Got to hope France vs Argentina the losers does not get a bonus point!

Oooft. 7-30 to Spain at halftime, and finishing 33-30. That's got to sting. Argentina made 6 replacements in the first 10 minutes of the second half, suggesting they maybe rested a few too many players thinking Spain would be easier than they were.

Puja

Womens U20 6N starts today. All live on YouTube

https://m.youtube.com/@U6NSIXNATIONS/streams

French scrum half is comfortably the best player on the pitch.

This isn't the first time I've typed that sentence in the last 4-5 years.
Either gender, junior or senior.

Felt bad for Fra 12, she was in agony

Looking at the tables France v Argentina is the key game. Both have ten points in the bag. Best England can get to is 10, so we need the loser of that game to get nothing! If we could just have got that fourth try we’d actually have picked up two bonus points and this been in prime position to qualify as best runner up.

And actually we’re most likely to play SA again as they’ll be top seeds barring Scotland pulling off a miracle!

England Vs Scotland, and McDougall is wearing white.

Something feels wrong here.
Good player though.

England v Australia
Wed, 09/07; 5pm

1. Ralph McEachran
2. Kepu Tuipulotu (c)
3. Vilikesa Sela
4. Olamide Sodeke
5. Junior Kpoku
6. Aiden Ainsworth-Cave
7. Connor Treacey
8. Kane James

09. Archie McParland
10. Ben Coen
11. Tyler Offiah
12. Nic Allison
13. Campbell Ridl
14. Noah Caluori
15. Josh Bellamy

16. Alfie Longstaff, 17. Oe Scola, 18. Ollie Streeter, 19. Tom Burrow (c), 20. Seb Kelly
21. Jonny Weimann, 22. Jack Bracken, 23. Will Knight

Having a co-captain in the bench is... interesting

Is it a bonus point for 4 tries and a bonus point for losing within 7 points?

If so, we really fucked it against South Africa…

Yes and yes. And yes we screwed up badly against SA.

Can see why the hooker Tuipulotu is so highly rated.

Slater582 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 5:48 pm Can see why the hooker Tuipulotu is so highly rated.

Definitely.

We are so mistake-ridden in this game.

How the fuck are we going to lose this game?

Well we did our best to throw it away. That Bracken push was incredibly dumb and nearly swung the game against us.

France are banging Argentina at the moment, which is all we can ask for. Argentina have one try, but are 21 pts behind. We need France to deny them any chance of a bonus point.,

Ireland lost very heavily so they’re done. Just need France to be ruthless and at least we get a semi.

Epaminondas Pules wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 8:15 pm Ireland lost very heavily so they’re done. Just need France to be ruthless and at least we get a semi.

Not had one for a while. It’s my age

Argentina have the bonus point and that should be us done! The saffer game did for us!

A really poor return for this group of players!

Am I right in thinking that we only pick players for 2 years at this level regardless of age?

So this is the end at this level for quite a few of these then? Kpoku, Sodeke, James, McParland, Sela, Kepu. Going to be a big turnover and a sad end for those guys if so.

Epaminondas Pules wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 9:24 pm Argentina have the bonus point and that should be us done! The saffer game did for us!

A really poor return for this group of players!

Huge disappointment- they thought this lot were the biz

Captainhaircut wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 10:07 pm Am I right in thinking that we only pick players for 2 years at this level regardless of age?

So this is the end at this level for quite a few of these then? Kpoku, Sodeke, James, McParland, Sela, Kepu. Going to be a big turnover and a sad end for those guys if so.

All depends on birth year. For this years tournament you had to be born in 2005 or later. They go from school year which is a mix of two calendar years to calendar years. We ease the transition at U18s where our summer tournament is done by birth year not school year. So any upper sixth lads born in the first half of the school year are ineligible by our self imposed standards. The other teams in the annual tournament in South Africa don’t do this, which is why you get a slight mismatch at times as we’re heavily lower sixth loaded against other countries packed with lads a school year older.

We do promote lads early; like Friday, Bracken and Hall last year, and Knight and Calouri this year who are still school kids. Bracken and Hall are two old next year whilst Friday can play. Same school year group but different birth years.

Banquo wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 10:32 pm

Epaminondas Pules wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 9:24 pm Argentina have the bonus point and that should be us done! The saffer game did for us!

A really poor return for this group of players!

Huge disappointment- they thought this lot were the biz

Very disappointing. I’ve got to level a decent amount at the coaches who I think have poorly selected this year, both squad and team selection.

Just got over the line but there were bits of our performance that were really poor. The number of turnovers was shocking in particular.

Failing to get anything out of the SA game comes back to haunt us.

Wales up next on Monday.

Epaminondas Pules wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 10:51 pm

Banquo wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 10:32 pm

Epaminondas Pules wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 9:24 pm Argentina have the bonus point and that should be us done! The saffer game did for us!

A really poor return for this group of players!

Huge disappointment- they thought this lot were the biz

Very disappointing. I’ve got to level a decent amount at the coaches who I think have poorly selected this year, both squad and team selection.

The forwards seem to have a lot going for them but the back division just seems far from settled and unable to control the game or find any real fluency. The coaches have to take some flak for that because it's the same issues we had in the 6N and their answer then was Bellamy at 15 to assist Coen at 10 and it didn't work well then and isn't working well now.

At least there's some stellar backs going to be available for the under 20s next season when some of these lot are moved on. Hopefully we'll have some similarly good forwards to give them a platform.