The Silver Fern

England 42 Italy 24. Not a great game but it's beautiful spring afternoon in London.

What a rout:

Depending on your sauces either

Gatland’s resignation will be accepted this weekend and Wales will have an interim coach for the remainder of the tournament

Gatland’s resignation will be accepted at the end of the tournament

Either way Wales has to approach the remaining fixtures with a new game plan and different personnel with which to execute it

If fit, the backs are easy

Liam Williams / Cam Winnett
T Rogers
M Llewelyn
E James
J Adams
G Anscombe / B Thomas
T Williams / E Bevan

Will have a think about the forwards

Karl Dickson would be a better ref if he actually blew the whistle instead of trying to be everyone's mate during and after the hang.

I like continuity, but he goes too far

@dogmeat said in Italy v All Blacks:

Careful - I got pilloried for suggesting the great one was fucking thick.

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Based on current evidence, stupid is as stupid does

@DaGrubster There's a lot of guys in that side that do play for Moana Pasifika and others that played a bit at NPC level, but they weren't even regulars down at NPC level and a fair few of those Moana players aren't regulars for them either. So there are a fair few familiar faces to NZ viewers, but yeah, a lot if them ain't test level. It's a fairly weak Samoan line up, so this result is huge, and as for the heat factor, Italy were the ones camped on the Samoan try line for a lot of the 2nd half, and a lot of these Samoan players play in NZ anyway, unlike the Drua who are a proper Fiji based side made out of locals mostly.

I must say, Samoa's results against 6 nations opposition in the last 9 months or so has shown massive improvement. They could easily have won against Ireland and England and competed well against Argentina at the world cup as well to go with a big upset against Italy today.

It shows the benefits of having Moana Pasifika playing in a professional comp.

@antipodean said in 6N Wales v Italy:

@Catogrande hopefully he gets cited. The game would benefit immeasurably by preventing "waterboys" from entering the pitch. And penalizing substitutes who enter the field of play to celebrate a try.

A blight on the game and Neil Jenkins should have more respect for the games's ethos and the officials. Give Refs the power to award a penalty to the opposition at halfway to stamp out this crap.

I see what @Bones means about Finn Russell. Definitely the fattest skinny first five I’ve seen since Andy Goode retired.

@African-Monkey said in 6N France v Italy:

So what's going on with France?

Their Sevens team seem to be improving

@MajorRage said in 6N - Ireland v Italy:

They are an exceptional team, no doubt.

Can't make it past the quarters tho 🙂

A realistic view of England's performance

Four talking points after England's narrowest-ever win over Italy Four talking points after England's narrowest-ever win over Italy

Steve Borthwick sure has his particular way with words. Save for the well-taken Elliot Daly try that saw the ball flash through numerous hands from one side of the Stadio Olimpico to the other, England were dull as dishwater trying to get across the gain line on Saturday.

I don't consider being genial while making error after error constitutes a good referee.

@Kiwiwomble Clear penalty. You can't have more than 15 players in the playing area during play.

@pakman said in RWC Week 4: All Blacks v Italy:

@Steven-Harris said in RWC Week 4: All Blacks v Italy:

Some of this post match stuff on Sky is utter trash

Bumped into SJK, Goldie and Grant N on bar crawl back to base. Pretty satisfied with ABs but JK was very disappointed ‘with how shit Italy were’. Pretty fair call.

I still haven't watched this game and don't know the score, but judging by the fact the thread doesn't have 800 posts, Italy didn't win.

@Catogrande said in England v Italy 6 Nations:

@Victor-Meldrew said in England v Italy 6 Nations:

@Catogrande said in England v Italy 6 Nations:

@Victor-Meldrew said in England v Italy 6 Nations:

@Bones said in England v Italy 6 Nations:

@sparky said in England v Italy 6 Nations:

@Bones Ollie Lawrence has had a decent game

So has Chessum.

Itoje pretty anonymous. Can't work out if he was engine-room mode or just, well, anonymous.

You sure you weren't watching a recording of last week's game? Itoje played well and came up with one or two really big plays.

Nothing wrong with being anonymous if you're in the tight 5 - means you're doing the hard yakka. Thought it was a pretty uncharacteristic game for him though.

Aah! I take your point. Not as gobby as before. I did pose the question on here during the Autumn series that Itoje is not the whooping, hollering dickhead for Sarries that he is for England and whether that was an Eddie stratagem. Maybe Borthwick doesn't go for the same mind games?

Eddie has openly admitted that he encouraged it. Itoje did buy into it though and it only built on what he was doing anyway.
Let’s hope this is a sign that he’s grown up.