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Six Nations 2011


Gardian

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Well we had to wait a couple of years for this, nine to be exact, to beat Wales on their home turf. I thought it was a blinding match and what a way to start the Six Nations. Trouble is today's matches will pail even further by comparison with easy wins by Ireland over Italy and France over Scotland.

Shame that Jones couldn't score to start for Wales and his points kicked look quite small compared to the Flood from the English side. The only mistakes England made were a couple of stupid side entries and some terrible missed tackles. Anyway to think England normally starts the 6N badly then gets better as it goes on so we could be in for some good rugby.

I cant finish without complimenting Wales on playing such a good game either although if only Jones had his scoring boot on it would have been quite different as the seven points he missed would have given Wales the game, well at least a draw, but then England's should not have given such easy penalties away in the first place.

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I wish you wouldn't bring this up Gardian.  I moved the computer out of the TV room to the kitchen so that I could chat to you all in peace.  I plugged it in and the whole house plunged into darkness and the TV was blanked out.

OH went to twiddle with the switches in the fuse box, then he asked me to walk to the boulangerie to see whether there was a power cut.  Boulangerie was lit up as usual.

Then he said go and ask the neighbour whether there is electricity as it "might just be our street".  When I came back and reported that nobody else had any problems, he twiddled the  switches some more, the TV came back on and Wales had scored SIXTEEN points!

I don't think he was too pleased that he'd missed the action.  I did apologise but then I said that perhaps he shouldn't watch and then Wales might do better!

I don't think that went down any better.....

Men, sometimes there's no pleasing them!

 

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[quote user="sweet 17"]

I don't think he was too pleased that he'd missed the action.  I did apologise but then I said that perhaps he shouldn't watch and then Wales might do better!

[/quote]

Tell him he never missed much.... not great rugby IMO.  Very scrappy.

(btw, I'm referring to the Scotland v Wales game.)

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I think the Wales Scotland match must go down as probably the worst match I have ever seen in the 6N for many a year. The England match was much better, anyone notice how little the English kicked the ball? Nice flowing fast rugby, just how it should be played. You can see now why the bookies give England to win and Wales to come last.
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Typically, Stephen Jones in today's Sunday Times is a bit sniffy about England's performance. Along the lines of Italy making us look good. 

Unjustified in my view. For the first time in years we looked really incisive in the backs, rather than just relying on forward 'grunt'.  No let up until the final whistle either.

12 is still a problem position and I can see Johnson playing Wilkinson there to try to nullify the French centres. Only problem is that he's a great replacement to bring on to steady the ship if you're 6pts up with 20 mins to go![blink]

Let's see how Les Bleus get on this afternoon: hope that the Irish make a better fist of things than last week.

p.s. Where's 'Ulster Rugby 1999'?

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I also fancy our chances against both Ireland and France. France didn't kick the ball so much but their passing was so slow, at one time I am sure I saw six double decker busses go past while they were making their mind up which way to go.

As to the comments in the press about "show boating", well he has not dropped one yet and he scored four excellent tries so I for one am not complaining. Of course he will drop one in the future and I think he will be his own harshest critic but until he does and as long as he keeps 'popping up' and scoring some blinding tries good luck to the man.

England must keep the kicking down and they also must keep with the fast ball and all will be well. I notice the bookies have them in first place with France in second but poor old Wales comes in last. But hey, it's a strange old game, remember Scotland last year against Wales, all those tries in the last few minutes so you never really can tell whats going to happen.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

So how much did Wales pay the touch judge then? [;-)] I can see there will be questions raised about this. People are already 'accusing' Wales of cheating and as much as I would like to say they did because they were not as good as the Irish and did not deserve to win plus I lost my bet I can't. Rule 19.2d says that you must use the same ball, the player didn't know it was the wrong ball and when the ref questioned the touch judge the touch judge told him it was OK to give the try. So in my book there was no cheating (unless Wales bribed the touch judge which is extremely unlikely [:D]) just bad refereeing which resulted in Ireland loosing when they were the better team.

Having said all that my biggest comment would be 'did anyone run the ball' as it seemed to spend more time in the air than on the ground (well being run, you know what I mean). Some of the kicks were truly bizarre. I really love Jonathan Davies, his comment at half time asking why the forwards don't run towards the goal when a penalty is kicked so they can grab the ball if it bounces back off the post. We always did this and I have seen a few try's scored over the years from such a move. He is a very knowledgeable chap and clearly loves his rugby with a passion, possibly one of the best fly-halfs they (Wales) have ever had. Just a shame he had to defect to that 'other game' for a while but then saw the error of his ways [;-)] and returned to union.

As to England tomorrow, it should be a win but there is something nagging me in the back of my head. Perhaps it's the word 'complacent', I hope not.

By the way seems we (USAP) are loosing our trainer next year as he becomes the Italian national coach. Judging by his recent performance with USAP and the Top 14 Italy may be better off sticking with Mallett especially after today.

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Shame that such a glaringly bad decision - spotted by the Irish players at the time but nobody else apparently - should have decided the game. Even if the final point difference had been 30 points this decision would have been awful - but to decide the game? Shameful.
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[quote user="Quillan"]

which resulted in Ireland loosing when they were the better team.

[/quote]

Give over Q - even with our picture breaking up due to the rain, we could see that the Irish were inept.

The Welsh were only marginally better, but just about enough.

One thing we can probably all agree on though is Italy's win. Can't wait to mention "Pasta" etc, to a few of the locals tomorrow!  

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