6 Nations

[Nutcase]

I managed to completely miss the England game and struggled to watch the Wales game because the pub I was in was also showing the Arsenal game depsite there being only 1 person in the place with an Arsenal top (my mate)

Apologies to Will I did honestly mean the gracious bit tho

And congrats to Wales. Great to see a country so supportive and enthusiastic about Rugby do so well. You all did yourselves very proud Wish I could be in Cardiff tonight!

[Rich_L]

MOST FRUSTRATING 6 NATIONS EVER!!!

C'mon, we beat Italy, we beat France, we beat Ireland but (no disrespect) throw the bloody game against Wales and play arse against Scotland.

Arrrrggggghhh. We could have won the bloody grand slam this year (albeit perhaps undeservedly). Still, good to see Danny Cipriani come through with flying colours and the newbie back rowers get blooded.

Still flippin' annoying though!

[Matblack]

Originally Posted by Piggymon

Breaaaaaad of Heaaaaavan !!!!

HAVE IT !!!!

EDIT : lol !! Great minds

Very pleased with the result, the Welsh team played well, good to see them up and out and ready to defend, there were times when the ball was on the ground with 6 Frenchies on top and all the Welsh team were back in formation and ready to blitz, very nicely organised and played with passion as always.

Wales seem to go through periods of being either world class teams or absolutely dire but as one of the comentators mentioned they are always fun to watch

MB

[PvtPyle]

Originally Posted by Rich_L

MOST FRUSTRATING 6 NATIONS EVER!!!

C'mon, we beat Italy, we beat France, we beat Ireland but (no disrespect) throw the bloody game against Wales and play arse against Scotland.

Arrrrggggghhh. We could have won the bloody grand slam this year (albeit perhaps undeservedly). Still, good to see Danny Cipriani come through with flying colours and the newbie back rowers get blooded.

Still flippin' annoying though!

Dude to be fair, England were utter gash for 95% of the tournament. The game against Scotland is being heralded as one of the worst that an England team has ever played by some of the newspaper pundits and commentators. It was inexcusably bad, and it was even more inexcusable that Brian Ashton only dropped one player after it.

In the mid week interviews, Ashton claimed that he'd won 7 out of the last 10/11 games that his team have played. He showed now concern for how the squad are actually playing. England aren't building towards anything at the moment. They were in the doldrums when they went to the World Cup, and they had moments of brilliance and a lot of luck that got them to the final. I thought that it marked a turning point, and that they would once again become a side that any team ought to worry about facing, but instead they narrowly missed coming 5th in the Six Nations. You mentioned the Italy game, another fixture where they collapsed in the 2nd half. Against Ireland or France, they'd have lost. Jeez, they were lucky that Italy couldn't string half a dozen passes together, it was close at the end.

As international sportsmen, England need to come away from this Six Nations feeling frankly quite ashamed. There are certain people who must be dropped, including Balshaw, Flood and Shaw.

[PvtPyle]

Originally Posted by Matblack

there were times when the ball was on the ground with 6 Frenchies on top and all the Welsh team were back in formation and ready to blitz

That was because they weren't challenging at the breakdown. Wales played a clever game by keeping their forwards out of rucks and mauls. Against other sides, they'd have been punished for it. Against the French, it was highly effective. That said, the French pack is traditionally strong, so it was a gamble.

[Rich_L]

Originally Posted by PvtPyle

*snip*

No argument from me regarding the Scotland game, we were absolute gash - part of the frustration..!

I suppose it's the inconsistency which is the most frustrating as well - if we played like the 1st half against Italy and Wales throughout (i.e. the whole of the France game), we've clearly got the talent to have won the lot which makes me wonder WTF is going on with the players/coaching setup to make players underperform so woefully.

I'm not convinced about Ashton personally, I don't think he has the character to pull the team up and make effective decisions unfortunately. Also not convinced about Balshaw, especially with Lewsey, Tait etc as alternatives - Flood and Shaw I think are decent players though. Noon had a good tourney but his suicidal-tackling style will be exploited hugely against better teams as it leaves massive gaps if he misses.

Is an annoying time to be an English supporter!

[Goose]

My thoughts exactly, Balshaw out, Lewsey in.

I heard mention of confusion between backroom staff, hence England playing with no fixed plan. Must be tricky if no-one is singing from the same hymn sheet.

Noon has shown consistency, which is a rare thing at the moment. Even if he does make a mistake, the 872 explosive tackles before that probably make up for it.

[PvtPyle]

Rumour this week is that Jonno will come in as an assistant manager...