RugbyRebels

Anyone watching France-Italy? France looking pretty clinical atm. Dupont carrying on where he left off. But they're not dominating up front.

Italy doing lots of nice things in attack but being undone by a few loose moments. We might have a few issues this year. Shame Gabrisi is off, he's developing very nicely

Did I see that right? Italy 500+ meters running and no tries?

That sounds reasonable. That mean so and so of a tmo...

Little more than a marginally opposed training run

Italy aren't much closer to a win but I enjoyed that game. Two teams with an attacking plan and both using their back three's.

Cameo wrote:Italy aren't much closer to a win but I enjoyed that game. Two teams with an attacking plan and both using their back three's.

No but a lot of positives, in garabici and carlo/beck they have a great 10/12 combo,

some young players, what they need is a year playing like this for it to click.

Cameo wrote:Italy aren't much closer to a win but I enjoyed that game. Two teams with an attacking plan and both using their back three's.

I was surprised that Minozzi was dropped but I liked the look of the new Italian fullback, Trulla. I see that he has as many Italian appearances (3) as he does for Zebre, but he picked some nice lines and dealt with the occasional high ball.

Have not seen anyone commenting but, what did everyone think of the TMO basically telling the ref it was a forward pass for italys non allowed try

rather than letting the ref make his own decision.

whatisthejava wrote:Have not seen anyone commenting but, what did everyone think of the TMO basically telling the ref it was a forward pass for italys non allowed try

rather than letting the ref make his own decision.

Don't care so long as it is the correct decision.

switchskier wrote:

I was surprised that Minozzi was dropped but I liked the look of the new Italian fullback, Trulla. I see that he has as many Italian appearances (3) as he does for Zebre, but he picked some nice lines and dealt with the occasional high ball.

Minozzi wasn't dropped, he opted out saying he was too physically and mentally tired to live in a 'bubble' for another two months. Have to respect that.
Trulla is one to watch
TBH I'm not sure how much he has played at 15. Think all on the wing at senior level, he was terrific for their U20s on wing last season. And I think now has more starts for Italy than Zebre

whatisthejava wrote:Have not seen anyone commenting but, what did everyone think of the TMO basically telling the ref it was a forward pass for italys non allowed try

rather than letting the ref make his own decision.

he isn't supposed to "tell" like he did. Should suggest ref looks at it and suggest fwd pass. Ref should lead discussion and decide
In a sense does not matter as would have reached the same correct decision, but he should be reminded of his role as a TMO is not same as a ref

So Ireland - Wales, what do we reckon? I'm thinking the Irish by 9 but for it to be a bit of a scrappy game overall. Interested to see whether Bigger can play the Pivac way or if we will see Sheedy early. Could be the end of Bigger if so.

Good decision by the officials. Players get away with that often by luck as they end up missing the head.

Big D wrote:Good decision by the officials. Players get away with that often by luck as they end up missing the head.

Can`t think of a more deserving recipient of an International Red Card...

Ireland with their simple gameplan are probably the most likely of all the 6N teams to handle an early red card. Their gameplan doesn't really change.

If we can’t get a draw, what do we want here?

Wales look rubbish, so even if they win, I’d be confident of finishing above them. Guess I’m going for them, as Ireland will probably finish higher than them. Not that bothered though as Ireland are going to be a tougher test whether they win or lose. All about us this year anyway - if we beat them both, it doesn’t matter!

Wales aren't going to mess this up are they? So much for that massively experienced back 5 of the pack. They haven't generated turnover ball, even with the Irish blindside off the pitch

switchskier wrote:Wales aren't going to mess this up are they? So much for that massively experienced back 5 of the pack. They haven't generated turnover ball, even with the Irish blindside off the pitch

I can easily see Wales losing this. That Irish try, the guy ran thru attempted tackles from both Tipuric and Faletau. Supposed to be 2 of Wales best players are waving the runners thru, shows the whole set up is fucked.

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Donny osmond wrote:

switchskier wrote:Wales aren't going to mess this up are they? So much for that massively experienced back 5 of the pack. They haven't generated turnover ball, even with the Irish blindside off the pitch

I can easily see Wales losing this. That Irish try, the guy ran thru attempted tackles from both Tipuric and Faletau. Supposed to be 2 of Wales best players are waving the runners thru, shows the whole set up is fucked.

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In fairness Wales have mostly got their shit together in this half, still not looking great but much better than the first half

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Wales is the international version of a Rube Golding machine


Loads of effort put in to look competent while achieving nothing

So, next week target the line out. Keep discipline and don't defend too narrow. Hopefully Faegerson and Turner carry direct and well again.

I thought Ireland looked quite good. Seemed to find half gaps even if they couldn't finish them. Was impressive considering the red card.

Wales weren't terrible but we're very stilted. They also got away with flopping onto a lot of rucks right in front of Barnes but that's a different story. Can't see us running away with it next week but we must be favourites.

Cameo wrote:I thought Ireland looked quite good. Seemed to find half gaps even if they couldn't finish them. Was impressive considering the red card.

Wales weren't terrible but we're very stilted. They also got away with flopping onto a lot of rucks right in front of Barnes but that's a different story. Can't see us running away with it next week but we must be favourites.

I thought Healy was borderline with a lot of his ruck entry, not much effort to stay on his feet (if any) and flying in recklessly on a number of occasions. There was one where Tipuric came in from the side and stayed 90° to it right in front of Barnes that sticks out in my head.

I saw plenty from Ireland to suggest if they can get things to click they'll be dangerous but Wales really didn't offer much. North playing OC is really indicative of where they're at

stevedog1980 wrote:

Cameo wrote:I thought Ireland looked quite good. Seemed to find half gaps even if they couldn't finish them. Was impressive considering the red card.

Wales weren't terrible but we're very stilted. They also got away with flopping onto a lot of rucks right in front of Barnes but that's a different story. Can't see us running away with it next week but we must be favourites.

I thought Healy was borderline with a lot of his ruck entry, not much effort to stay on his feet (if any) and flying in recklessly on a number of occasions. There was one where Tipuric came in from the side and stayed 90° to it right in front of Barnes that sticks out in my head.

I saw plenty from Ireland to suggest if they can get things to click they'll be dangerous but Wales really didn't offer much. North playing OC is really indicative of where they're at

Yeah, Ireland are amongst the worst for dangerous entries. Wales seemed to enjoy the flop. Even if refs let someone away with that on the basis that sometimes it is inevitable you will lose your footing, I wish they made them then get to their feet or roll away. The defenders should have someone on their feet to ruck against.

Anyway, agree on Ireland. They seemed to be able to manipulate the defence. A few times, their ruck ball just slowed down when they were looking like breaking Wales but an extra player would have helped with that. They'll be tough for anyone to beat if they can keep the pace up.

Interestingly, five out of the six teams mainly tried to play ball in hand rather than just focusing on territory. Easy to just laugh at England but all teams were very one dimensional in November. Good to see them shift the emphasis a bit.

Rewatched the Ireland game last night

Barnes was interpreting the ruck area funny
Several times wales had hands on ball and a clear lift but Barnes went back to the stupid interpretation that you have to survive the first hit

Ireland lost that game with some really brain fart rugby from ringrose, trying offloads in your own 22 when they are not on. It brought a tear to my eye. At least someone is playing like Scotland of old.

Wales got 2 try’s from 2 mistakes , zammits try is good but is a defensive cock up of lowe
North’s try is from a ringrose fuck up and then Henderson being a lazy bastard and not getting in the right position.

Murray was so much better on second watch and ringrose so much poorer but Sexton created nothing for his team

You can argue that henshaw created their try as Sexton at key bits kept going into rucks????

Not sure if this a 14 man thing but Ireland would attack really narrow and then flatten up before going wide, it didn’t work and led to some chances really not getting exploited

On wales
One of the areas that really allowed Ireland to stay in the game was attacking the guard at rucks, quite a lot wales didn’t have the posts properly guarded and a pop to a player led to 3-4 welsh forwards all getting sucked into the tackle, then the fast ball would get sent out to Sexton who

I really don’t know how wales are trying to structure their attack. They seem to either go wide really early or have a couple of forward moves and then find they are still numbered up because they have sucked no one in.
Their breakdown work is excellent though and a different ref would have punished Ireland much more.