The Rugby Union thread!!

[Lith]

Someone posted this on Facebook, email sent to the IRB yesterday. Quite funny and worth a read;

Hello IRB.

My name is Matt and I am 27 and a half years old. I enjoy walking my dog, walking my wife, reading the twilight books and watching rugby. I watch as much rugby as I can. Often I have to cover my eyes because I'm afraid someone will get hurt, but the adrenaline this fear gives me is half the reason I enjoy the game.

I am writing to you because I think you may have made a grave error. I was searching the interweb while I was at work (totally on a break) and I was looking at the French team for this Saturday's 6 nations fixture against Ireland. There was nothing strange about this, aside from the uncomfortable and shameful feeling that washes over me when the camera does a close up of Dimitri Szarzewski.
Imagine my shock, then, when I noticed the referee for this game was Dave Pearson!!

This has led me to believe that you, IRB, are one of two things;

1 - You are just a group of normal guys who have made a common error - an oversight. You are so busy enjoying your luck, by living off a sport that you do not play, that you haven't even realised that Mr Pearson is still an accredited referee, and in charge of one of the biggest games of the championship. You probably assumed that by now Mr Pearson was officiating games of the correct standard for his ability - ideally the North Tyneside mixed tag under 9s.

2 - You are a twisted, sadistic group of former people, who have decided that Irish rugby is evil and must be punished for yet to be named crimes against humanity. You have set up shop in Dublin as to get an insider's view on how best to bring down the IRFU.

This leads us to the offender in chief, Mr Pearson.

I have never met someone before who has selective sight. In fact, I'm not sure if it is an officially recognised medical condition. When I have finished with this email, I'll contact some people I know in medical research to check it out. You never know, we may have discovered something here. "Why did you walk into that lamppost? are you ok?" "I'm fine, it happens all the time. I've got Pearsons".
That is a conversation you could potentially hear in the next few years. But I digress.

Did you see the Clermont Auvergne vs Ulster game in the final pool stage of the Heineken cup? I did. At the time I was confused, as I was under the impression that tackling someone who did not have the ball, was not part of a ruck, and indeed was on the defending team was some sort of offence. Selective sight Pearson disagreed, and Ulster's home quarter final was kaput.

But apparently shafting a province was merely an appetizer in Pearson's meal of inadequacy. The main course was saved for Lansdowne road on Sunday. Bradley Davies assault on Donncha Ryan happened right in front of Mr Pearson. This must have put him in quite the pickle. He obviously didn't have selective sight as a viable option this time. I can only imagine the sweat running down his brow as he approached Wayne Barnes, and the sheer relief he felt when Barnes said he didn't see anything. This was Pearson's opportunity. He could downplay the incident, and make sure Wales finished the game with a full compliment of players. It should be noted that this does not exonerate Barnes, who should have treated Pearson's recommendation for a yellow card the way I treat my nephew's recommendation of angel delight for dinner - laughter and pity. Quite how anyone can have the testicular fortitude to recommend a yellow card for something that qualifies as Actual Bodily Harm is actually impressive. You may need to provide him with a wheelbarrow for his massive balls to keep up with play come Saturday.

I am curious as to how Pearson can complete this trilogy of heartbreak, as he is doubtless keen to do. How can he top last Sunday? Is he going to trip Tommy Bowe? Stab Sean O'Brien at half time? Pepper spray Paul O'Connell during the coin toss?

I look forward in anticipation of your response and the naming of a new referee for Saturday post haste.

Yours faithfully,

Matt Lander

[emotion_name]

Bradley Davies has been banned for seven weeks IIRC.

Yeah, and Ferris has rightfully been cleared to play against France!

Gats gave an interview earlier, basically saying the Welsh management are considering introducing "in-house" fines as punishments for players who get sin binned or act a complete moron like Bradley (or Alun Wyn v England tripping Dylan Hartley). Seems a good idea imo.

Earls is also back with the Irish squad now, so Kidney has to decide on chucking Earls in at 13 or go with McFadden again. Hopefully, by the next game, the stars from North bouncing him around will have passed.

Also worth mentioning something else about the game that annoyed me. After Ferris has been penalised, watch what Ian Evans and i think Rhys Gill do to him as soon as the Ref blows, smiling at him, ruffling his hair and general stupid immature behaviour. I get they were emotional at chance to clinch game, but no need to act such a "twinkie" imo!

[Jack04]

Firstly, I don't think Falatau was supporting Evans neck as you say, rather he is positioning himself so as to be able to ruck over most effectively. Secondly, the fact that Evans is brought down on his side and actually pretty horizontally is what makes up my mind. That seems a perfectly reasonable dump tackle to me (certainly I'd be pretty pleased if I managed one as clean as that in a game). If we're going to call that a penalty then I think the IRB have to come out and just say that dump tackles are banned, because there is no clear distinction between that dump and any of a hundred other (unpenalised) ones I have seen.

Predictions this week: England by a good 5-10. France by 10-15. Wales by 10 or so.

[Sidus Preclarum]

Yeah, and Ferris has rightfully been cleared to play against France!

Great.
He's got some old friends I'm sure he's looking forward to seeing (while he still has his eyes) when in the Stade de France.

[emotion_name]

To ruck over effectively, you need to get over man and ball creating the rucking platform for others to join onto or compete against. As 1st player at a ruck, your job is drive over or clear away tacklers, how would Falatau do either with his hand positioned where it was?

The England/Italy game is enticing tbh, i mean all England showed at Murrayfield was a more dominant set piece than the Scots. Italy i think may match them here, so it will come down to backs. England will win it, but i think it will be a close one, maybe 5-10 points in it.

Ireland/France i see going only one way --- France win. I just dont think Ireland can "pick themselves" up in a 6 day turnaround, plus the French seemed to have a few higher gears they werent using against Italy.

Our Scotland game should, on paper at least, be pretty one sided. I have memories of 2010 though, that said i think we will win by 12-15 points.

[Jack04]

To ruck over effectively, you need to get over man and ball creating the rucking platform for others to join onto or compete against. As 1st player at a ruck, your job is drive over or clear away tacklers, how would Falatau do either with his hand positioned where it was?

Not when you start so close in. From there, you're going to either pick up the ball and drive on, or get low and over the ball whilst binding to the man on the deck (however legal/illegal that may be). You're only going to drive over if there's someone there to drive against, otherwise, you set yourself in such a position that you're as hard to shift as is possible. Anyway, the citations committee have come out and said it wasn't even a penalty:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rug...a-penalty.html

What I'm worried about as an Englishman is that somehow, Dowson is getting a second chance. He looked massively out of his depth against Scotland and, at 30, isn't exactly someone for the future. Drop him and pick Morgan, who's actually a genuine 8 and looked good in the 12 minutes he was given at Murrayfield.

[emotion_name]

Not when you start so close in. From there, you're going to either pick up the ball and drive on, or get low and over the ball whilst binding to the man on the deck (however legal/illegal that may be). You're only going to drive over if there's someone there to drive against, otherwise, you set yourself in such a position that you're as hard to shift as is possible. Anyway, the citations committee have come out and said it wasn't even a penalty:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rug...a-penalty.html

What I'm worried about as an Englishman is that somehow, Dowson is getting a second chance. He looked massively out of his depth against Scotland and, at 30, isn't exactly someone for the future. Drop him and pick Morgan, who's actually a genuine 8 and looked good in the 12 minutes he was given at Murrayfield.

As to the rucking, we will have to agree to disagree!

I was always taught that 1st man there clears out, if there is no-one to clear out you create a platform to stop the ball being poached and allow your HB time to play.

As to the citing, well, what a goddam mess. When the hell are the IRB going to clarify there rules and reword them so they are simple to understand and implement, and when are they going to ensure the Refs decisions are consistent across the whole game of rugby.

To many pundits, current and ex professionals, former Refs, IRB rules and myself it was a penalty. Soft penalty to give away, but still a penalty. Never a yellow card either, despite the rules making that a given.
Now the citing officer deemed yellow wasnt harsh enough (WTF) so cited him, so the citing officers interpretation of the rule was different to the Refs, and the 6Nations panel interpretation was completely different again - that being it shouldnt have been a penalty.

Bradley Davies tackle = Red Card
Sam Warburton tackle = Yellow Card
Ferris tackle = Penalty

The above is my view of how the rules should be implemented, but how can youw ord rules to explain the difference between all 3 cases? For a start the word "intent" should be removed fromt he rules, as intent not only shouldnt matter but cannot be proved one way or the other. Rules should be black and white, no grey areas.

As for England, i think they wanted an "old" head for experience as murrayfield is not an easy place to go and play. I think Morgan saw how well Falatau developed and realised the Welsh 8 shirt was locked down tight so declared himself for England, which is our loss tbh. We will hopefully get to see the backs in actions ome more against Italy though, as the set piece of the italians is very, very strong so england will get short shrift trying to utilise it to win.

[Erebus Pasha]

The less said about England the better...

[emotion_name]

So, anyone here think England could be last years "France", by that i mean lose to the Italians?

I see Trinc-Duh has come out and said the game may be called off against Ireland, as regular nightime temps in France have been -7 degrees so the pitch may be frozen. Apparantly a few French and Italian complained about the edges of the pitch being frozen last week. If the game does get called off, how would they amend fixture list etc to compensate for it?

[Jack04]

So, anyone here think England could be last years "France", by that i mean lose to the Italians?

No, not really. I don't really see how England can play any worse than they did against Scotland and I think that this new, slightly more expansive, Italian side is probably more fragile than the one that beat France last year.

[emotion_name]

Believe it or not, England could play a lot worse. Imagine if the set piece collapsed, or the forwards couldnt get a head of steam going!

I think they need to approach this game as the chance to play some expansive rugby, to get it quickly to the backs and let them show what they can do on the world stage.

As for fragility, whilst it was a good Italian performance last year, i would still say France lost it more than Italy won it!

[Jack04]

Believe it or not, England could play a lot worse. Imagine if the set piece collapsed, or the forwards couldnt get a head of steam going!

Neither of which are particularly realistic from where I'm sitting. England probably have the second best lineout (after Ireland) in the competition (whilst Italy's is awful) and the scrum simply isn't a competition these days (what with the feeding problem). Whilst England's forwards didn't really build up any momentum for the Scotland game either, they were poor at the breakdown and their carries were hardly brilliant.

I think they need to approach this game as the chance to play some expansive rugby, to get it quickly to the backs and let them show what they can do on the world stage.

Definitely. However, I don't think the Calcutta cup match is the sort of occasion that such an approach can realistically arise, especially at Murrayfield. They have always been slug-fests. So I don't think that you can judge England's future approach off the back of such a match.

As for fragility, whilst it was a good Italian performance last year, i would still say France lost it more than Italy won it!

Yes, but the Italians themselves are (or at least are making an attempt at) playing a more expansive game with more risks being taken. They aren't quite as solid as they were last year. Also, however bad England may be, they always seem to be able to raise their game just enough to beat sides like Italy. Its only when they run into the real heavy-weights that they struggle when off form.

[emotion_name]

I agree about Calcutta matches, especially at Murrayfield.

I got a feeling, a horrible horrible feeling, that the England team are going to "click" and bring there club form to international level just intime for our visit to Twickers!

[Godfrey I of Leuven]

YES! YES ITALY!

[Jack04]

Well, that was a lot closer than it really should've been. I expect we'll never see a full-back of Foden's quality make two mistakes like that in such a short space of time again. Italy were alright, but they never really made anything happen. The same can largely be said of England, although there were a few times where they had overlaps and ballsed up the final pass. Again, the win was all that mattered in those conditions. I hope we'll start to see some more expansive England back's play once we get to Twickenham and once Flood and Tuilangi return to the team. As it was, they've navigated two difficult away fixtures in difficult conditions and come away with 2 from 2. You can't really ask for a huge amount more from such an inexperienced team.

I suspect there are going to be three teams on 2 wins by the end of this weekend. Which pretty much leaves it as a three way shoot-out for the title and I wouldn't rule England out just yet (although obviously France and Wales must be favourites).

[Halbard]

Well, that was a lot closer than it really should've been. I expect we'll never see a full-back of Foden's quality make two mistakes like that in such a short space of time again. Italy were alright, but they never really made anything happen. The same can largely be said of England, although there were a few times where they had overlaps and ballsed up the final pass. Again, the win was all that mattered in those conditions. I hope we'll start to see some more expansive England back's play once we get to Twickenham and once Flood and Tuilangi return to the team. As it was, they've navigated two difficult away fixtures in difficult conditions and come away with 2 from 2. You can't really ask for a huge amount more from such an inexperienced team.

u mad bro?

Italy scored 2 tries. england scored 1.

[emotion_name]

Well, what a scrappy little game eh??

England did what they had to do then, which was score early in 2nd half. Italy were turning over ball and getting confident, Hodgsons charge down try changed everything. Farrell is a great kicker as well for such a young lad, gotta give it to him.

So, after 2 games on the road, england now get ready to go home to Twickers and await the Dragons arrival, but should England be concerned that they havnt scored a try from phase play or a set piece in 2 games???

I hear the IRB officials will check the pitch in France at 6:15pm UK time before deciding if match should go ahead, so lets hope it does coz that one could be game of this weekend.

[Godfrey I of Leuven]

Wales will smash England, methinks.

[ccllnply]

Ireland-France match called off. There's going to be ing war over this

[emotion_name]

I understand the reasons why the France game was called off, but now when will they reschedule it?

Surely during the 2 week "break" they will have to play, as they are getting a prolonged rest now that no other team is getting so imo shouldnt be allowed another 2 weeks rest.

I also think, when they do play the game, Ireland will fancy it tbh and i reckon now they may clinch it. A 6 day turnaround and bad memories of Wales wont be as dominant in irish minds anymore. So im going to change my mind, if they played last night i reckon France would have smashed them, now i reckon Ireland will win by 8 points or so.

Now to wait for todays kick off, this should be good if the Scots play as adventurously as they did against england.