@Crucial would've liked to see an aerial/zoomed out view - look to be some nice deception with maybe some of the inside backs on the right sweeping left too. Would open up huge space anywhere on the field.

This game showed there's three teams and then everyone else.

@Nepia nobody needs to live there.

You could say nobody actually "lives" there...

@Bovidae said in France v Australia:

Holloway is the player who has really stood up this year with his physicality . Fainga'a has a habit of missing key lineout throws.

The try on HT was the real killer blow.

I think there was a knock on by Fickou.

@mariner4life said in France v England:

The damning thing for Eddie is I think England are playing less than the sum of their parts. That's on him.

Has he ever kept a job this long?

Yet Ian Foster is still in his job.

I think this game suggests you can gas the big French forwards. Biggar's kicking game was superb and turned around the big munters at times.

@nta said in Scotland v France:

@catogrande said in Scotland v France:

@majorrage said in Scotland v France:

@nta said in Scotland v France:

@antipodean said in Scotland v France:

I liked @Tim's description of him as 'a particularly adenoidal teenager'. His videos are fucking irritating.

His primary audience are Poms and people who don't know much about rugby... which are sort of the same thing. Oh sure, he pulls out the odd interesting tactical tidbit, but I find his breakdowns rubbery.

History of rugby union matches between Australia and England - Wikipedia

I don’t have to open that link to know that was a cruel response.

Good work.

It's pretty even, actually. The last few years have tilted it toward England.

Of course it would be just in Australia's favour if the TMO could have correctly overruled Dan Luger's try in 2003, and not been hamstrung by the home director. 😉

And Deans did score!

@steven-harris interesting comment because it aligns with what I think of the refs. I can mostly follow Gardner and Barnes rulings and processes. Others less so.

France - Ireland on Saturday should be a cracker.

@cgrant said in All Blacks v France, 2021 NH Tour:

Pita Ahki

Played for Tonga and NZU20s and NZ 7s? We could use someone like him. And Moala.

But if they fix their injury worries I'd have no problems with twin midfielders, just imagining what dummy running tactics one could come up with, with twins that could almost look like.

@stargazer said in France v Black Ferns 1:

@bovidae Yep, I'm definitely going to watch one of the replays of that England v Canada test.

There are replays on Monday:
1.25pm (Sky Sport 9) and 10.30pm (Sky Sport 2)

The scoreline doesn't really reflect the game & worth remembering that Canada were 2 years without a test as well until they met the USA a few weeks back. Canada were well in the mix during the first half - 7-5 up on 23 minutes and brought it back from 15-7 to 15-12 on 35 mins. A good number of the Canadian squad have been playing in England & France recently, so maybe not as rusty as the Black Ferns. Full game is on YouTube (British BBC coverage)

@arhs said in France v Argentina:

Gardner and Carley are pretty good.

Gardner is a terrible referee.

@stargazer said in Wallabies v France 3:

@gibbonrib said in Wallabies v France 3:

@steven-harris where did you find that?

Sadly that statement doesn't clarify the decision at all. I'd like to watch that video to see if that helps (fully expecting that it won't though).

@stargazer said in Wallabies v France 3:

@gibbonrib It's only the media release. Not the decision.

Oh, shit, I forgot that if a red card is dismissed, there won't be a written decision. Just the media release.
So the media release is all we get. It has been published on the WR website now, btw.

Forget getting a further clarification of the decision.

For those nerdy enough to care, WR have released a written decision:

https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2021/07/21/231213a5-9cec-4fe5-9fbd-82ec2b9f40f9/HRM000.1.996-Decision-M-Koroibete.pdf

It's a bit wordy, but I've read it so that you don't have to. Key points it makes are:

There was no contact to the head Initial contact was to the shoulder There was contact to the neck This means it is technically foul play The degree of danger was not high, so it should not have been a red

Things it doesn't clarify are:

Whether the degree of danger was low (starting sanction: penalty) or medium (yellow card) Whether there was significant mitigation (it mentions both players dipping into the tackle, but doesn't rule on whether that was relevant to the decision) Whether the correct decision would have been a yellow, or just a penalty

Things it doesn't say, but strongly implies:

Jelonch is a cheating git

@booboo said in Wallabies v France 2:

@mariner4life said in Wallabies v France 2:

Until last night the only rugby i had watched all year was the first 50-odd minutes of the Super Rugby TT final (and taht was on a small screen with no volume, through a boozed up haze, while simultaneously punting on harness racing and asian gallops), but that test reminded me why i love this game.

I know it's not great for the purists, or if you actually are supporting one of the teams, but errors make good rugby. Errors offer up opportunity, and when both teams are willing to have a crack at that opportunity, it makes for a spectacle.

What i saw was a young Aussie team with deficiencies in key areas having a real fucking go. You can't fault their endeavor, just their execution let them down at precisely the wrong time. Veletini was bloody good i thought, made repeated dents in the defense and never stopped throwing himself at the French. With the ball the Aussie forwards had a heap of vigour, problem was they couldn't muscle up on defense. And their ruck work was very ordinary. That little 2nd pop pass really is more miss than hit. They played most of the rugby, but could never make it count on the scoreboard. They were still full of running at the end too.

The French were pretty good too. Not much on attack outside of some eye catching counter. it was route 1 football and it was often brutally effective. The hooker had approximately 58 pick-and-goes, the 7 was in to everything, and i was impressed with the work of the skipper at #8. The fullback looked fucking classy as well.

Short turn around to the final test will be interesting. World Cup pool-of-death sort of stuff.

Front paged

Great. Cements the evidence that a certain poster doesn't even watch rugby but has lots to say about it 😉

@cgrant said in Wallabies vs France 1:

@act-crusader
Couilloud is ranked Nr.3 in France, behind Dupont and Serin.
Irribaren, who replaced him during the later stages, is not even the fourth best halfback in the country. Machenaud and Lucu (and Kockott and Parra, but these two are not in contention for Les Bleus) are rated higher than him.

I watched all the French 6Ns matches and what impressed me was the speed of the ball from the ruck from DuPont and Serin.

Speaking of the 6Ns, like last night the French had some last minute heroics and last minute heartbreak - the Wales match and the 80th minute try to win, Scotland scoring in the last minute to win, England snatching a win from them in the final couple of minutes.

@ACT-Crusader said in France Vs Ireland, Six Nations 2020:

Really enjoyed this match. Fickou on the wing didn’t go too bad. Looks like he’s put on a bit of muscle.

French halfback Dupont was superb.

French attack was well organised with lots of ball runners and support players in motion.

And Edwards has given them steel

@MiketheSnow said in Wales Vs France, Six Nations 2020:

As with all our 'close' matches the past 12 months, outplayed for most of the match but still in with a shout then we force it and lose.

Had more than enough opportunities to win that especially when France were down to 14 men but we lacked critical composure and clinical decision making Dan Biggar.

Disappointing.

FIFY.

This Italian team has a bunch of very good players (Canonne, Steyn, Polledri, Minozzi) but a majority of very bad ones who are not even M10 level. Hopefully some of their U20 promising players could join the national squad soon (halfback, 1st Five, centre, Nr.8, one of their locks, hooker, both props).

nig.jpg

Let's just take a moment to consider how self unaware the moron is who posted the picture online. Jacques says thanks mate! Nice reward for playing along for your joke.

d02b1239-0655-4d34-908e-4b2f08243319-UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_dbc.jpg /Users/harrybailey/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/resources/proxies/derivatives/0d/00/dbc/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_dbc.jpg

@Frank said in RWC: France v Tonga (Pool C):

Typhoon can be tracked here. (cool site)

Windyty, SE Windy as forecasted Windy as forecasted

Wind map and weather forecast

Nice. Probably the same api as used by https://earth.nullschool.net which I've always liked.

But for predictive path, I use https://www.jma.go.jp/en/typh/

@Steven-Harris Both halfbacks are SA-born too. De Haas looks promising for a 20 yr old.

Extended highlights video:

Parkinson was the stand out player IMO. Safe target in the lineout, probably solid at scrum time (the Highlanders' scrum had the upper hand), effective driving and great workrate. It is quite odd that it was his first start of the season. How such a player could have been ignored by Hammett ?

@nepia I think they will change mid-game, and I'm not suggesting we would move DMac on early, but Beauden for all his brilliance in some areas isn't the most flexible player. If he could play up closer to the line he already would (at least sometimes).

Various people have commented how SBW looks good with a first five who plays up. If that is where you want to change to, then BB doesn't seem to work.

@taniwharugby Goldie was about as good a coach as I am. Surely no-one, even school coaches, think you should play your pre-game plan consistently when it isn't working. That's mental!

@taniwharugby said in Crusaders Team v French Barbarians:

@chris-b I stopped watching for a bit, what did Macilai do to himself?

Couldn't watch the game properly last night with a room full of people, so watched the first half again and saw Macilai tripping over a French foot/leg. That was all that happened, but he seemed to have injured his ankle.

@pakman forearm to head, knocked the guy out or at least needing HIA IIRC.

Ahh - A is for Aaron! 🙂

@bones said in AB Test Team v France.:

Maybe SBW is mistaken and Gardiner said he's sorry about the card, but that thems the rules.

Thats what i thought , he probably said something along the lines of sorry to have to do that to you mate , but didnt mention it was the wrong decision ,

SBW jumps to the wrong conclusion ,

later , Gardiner is probably reading it in the media , and thinking you fucking dickhead , I didnt say that .

@Stargazer said in France:

Good rugby genes right there

Barrett family

Posted by BB on FB

Proudest Dad in NZ right now.