6 Nations Rugby

[markuk]

But where are Wales to go from here? It is alleged that there is dissent in the squad about loyalty to Scott Johnson, so how can a team function and perform if there are fundamental disagreements? I hope for their sake and for that of British/World rugby that they sort it and don't lose everything they have worked so hard to gain over the past couple of years.

And who will take over the full-time job?

Sir Clive Woodward ....

i hope that never happens

we have proved that our best rugby is under a home grown coach so i hope they can find a suitable welshman to do it

[jackr]

i nearly wish i was scottish today!!

come on boys give the paddies a whacking!

I am Scottish, and ha ha England! Maybe once the star of your one man team is fit you can start winning again!

You won one game in gawd knows how many and start beating your chest, but you're still at the arse end of world rugby.

That's a typical 'nach' ignorant reply which only goes to prove that the English are lower than the arse end of rugby. Not quite sure where that puts you but somewhere like dogshit on our boots?

Ooh, touched a nerve there IKEA boy...let me guess, you were the geaky <deleted> who always got bullied at school right?

Ok, re-appraisal. Win another match when the sun is shining and the gnats aren't biting and we'll see if you're worthy or no.

[sadman]

we have proved that our best rugby is under a home grown coach so i hope they can find a suitable welshman to do it

I think you're right. There are a few good candidates about, but for my money I'd pick Phil Davies, although at present Leeds aren't doing that well, so maybe he'll be overlooked. Good man, though. If he came in and were to be assisted by people such as Colin Hillman and Rob Howley, things could go well, I feel.

Woodward would not be a good choice, for numerous reasons, IMHO.

[hunglikea]

i nearly wish i was scottish today!!

come on boys give the paddies a whacking!

I am Scottish, and ha ha England! Maybe once the star of your one man team is fit you can start winning again!

You won one game in gawd knows how many and start beating your chest, but you're still at the arse end of world rugby.

That's a typical 'nach' ignorant reply which only goes to prove that the English are lower than the arse end of rugby. Not quite sure where that puts you but somewhere like dogshit on our boots?

Ooh, touched a nerve there IKEA boy...let me guess, you were the geaky <deleted> who always got bullied at school right?

Ok, re-appraisal. Win another match when the sun is shining and the gnats aren't biting and we'll see if you're worthy or no.

I doubt if the sun will be shining but the next win will be in Ireland this Saturday.

(I used to protect the more unfortunate from bullies by the way, you obviously weren't around).

[chuchok]

we have proved that our best rugby is under a home grown coach so i hope they can find a suitable welshman to do it

I think you're right. There are a few good candidates about, but for my money I'd pick Phil Davies, although at present Leeds aren't doing that well, so maybe he'll be overlooked. Good man, though. If he came in and were to be assisted by people such as Colin Hillman and Rob Howley, things could go well, I feel.

Woodward would not be a good choice, for numerous reasons, IMHO.

Biggest reason would be that he is a <deleted>.

[jackr]

we have proved that our best rugby is under a home grown coach so i hope they can find a suitable welshman to do it

I think you're right. There are a few good candidates about, but for my money I'd pick Phil Davies, although at present Leeds aren't doing that well, so maybe he'll be overlooked. Good man, though. If he came in and were to be assisted by people such as Colin Hillman and Rob Howley, things could go well, I feel.

Woodward would not be a good choice, for numerous reasons, IMHO.

Biggest reason would be that he is a <deleted>.

He may be a <deleted> but he won the cup

[chuchok]

we have proved that our best rugby is under a home grown coach so i hope they can find a suitable welshman to do it

I think you're right. There are a few good candidates about, but for my money I'd pick Phil Davies, although at present Leeds aren't doing that well, so maybe he'll be overlooked. Good man, though. If he came in and were to be assisted by people such as Colin Hillman and Rob Howley, things could go well, I feel.

Woodward would not be a good choice, for numerous reasons, IMHO.

Biggest reason would be that he is a <deleted>.

He may be a <deleted> but he won the cup

He did well with the cup, but his biggest reason for success, was that he had a number of world class leaders/players in the side.Esp guys like Martin Johnson, who he listened to.

He then managed to <deleted> up all that he had learned, and turn what could have been a great Lions side into a bunch of pussy cats.He was also telling the world how good he was and how he was going to win in NZ.After he was beaten, he still said that the tour was a success. Fck me dead, if he calls that a success,I would hate to see it when he fails.

he was a good coach, that turned into a has been.

[markuk]

we have proved that our best rugby is under a home grown coach so i hope they can find a suitable welshman to do it

I think you're right. There are a few good candidates about, but for my money I'd pick Phil Davies, although at present Leeds aren't doing that well, so maybe he'll be overlooked. Good man, though. If he came in and were to be assisted by people such as Colin Hillman and Rob Howley, things could go well, I feel.

Woodward would not be a good choice, for numerous reasons, IMHO.

Biggest reason would be that he is a <deleted>.

He may be a <deleted> but he won the cup

He did well with the cup, but his biggest reason for success, was that he had a number of world class leaders/players in the side.Esp guys like Martin Johnson, who he listened to.

He then managed to <deleted> up all that he had learned, and turn what could have been a great Lions side into a bunch of pussy cats.He was also telling the world how good he was and how he was going to win in NZ.After he was beaten, he still said that the tour was a success. Fck me dead, if he calls that a success,I would hate to see it when he fails.

he was a good coach, that turned into a has been.

Any predictions for this weekend?

[hunglikea]

Anyway on to more up to date stuff...predictions please for this saturday?

Ireland v Scotalnd - Scotland win with combined score of 32 points

Wales v Italy - Wales win with combined score of 50 points

France v england - France win with combined score of 60 points

Closest wins, farthest away pays.

Anyone from outside LOS don't post scores on Saturday as we only get UBC coverage starting midnight Saturday thro' to the live French/English match at 10pm Sunday. Cheers

[lamphun]

Ireland vs Scotland will be close, but I'd say Scotland by a 10 point margin. 20 points

Wales vs. Italy. Wales by a 30 point margin 40 points.

France vs England. France aren't playing too well this time round, but we've seen that England are looking tired. Too much weight and not enough speed. I'd give it to France by a ten point margin. 10 - 0

[chuchok]

Ireland vs Scotland will be close, but I'd say Scotland by a 10 point margin. 20 points

Wales vs. Italy. Wales by a 30 point margin 40 points.

France vs England. France aren't playing too well this time round, but we've seen that England are looking tired. Too much weight and not enough speed. I'd give it to France by a ten point margin. 10 - 0

I'll almost agree with you.

Scotland by 7 points

Wales by 10 points.(Dago forwards will stick it to wales)

France by 20 (or have a squid each way..England by 7..It is France after all, who knows what French team will come out)

[sadman]

Sorry (and probably ultimately embarrassed) but I'll have to buck the trend. I think that Italy can beat Wales, and will, although not by much. They'll munch them up front and simply batter down the front door. Wales don't know where they are at present, and I think their heads will drop.

If Scotland can fire themselves up, they should beat Ireland. However, IMHO Ireland won't be looking to play a brutal, attritional game, but rather spin it out wide and use the midfield with Horgan coming in off his wing. That could cause Scotland a few problems, because holes will appear and be exploited. On balance, I'm going for an Irish win, although again not by much.

And now the puzzler - France vs England. If, if, if, if, if. You never know which France will turn up, but they really don't seem to know what game plan they need to use. However, if England don't get a grip, it could all go badly wrong. The back row is unbalanced, the captain is being repeatedly undermined by the coach, and the midfield has no creativity or flair. England should win this comfortably, but I wouldn't put money on anything.

As for the comments about Woodward: yes, he won the World Cup (I was there, it was brilliant) but mainly through having an experienced and talented side, the world's most outstanding captain at the time, and by having surrounded himself with good people, which is his real skill (he does almost no hands-on coaching himself). I would agree that he is a <deleted>. He also has few friends in the England camp - no enemies, just no friends. He is a cold, impersonal man who doesn't form relationships well. He was good at his job, but no-one was sorry to see him go.

[Jockstar]

Scotland!!! I dont follow rugby but always love to see Scotland do well. Did we win?

[daleyboy]

Anyone from outside LOS don't post scores on Saturday as we only get UBC coverage starting midnight Saturday thro' to the live French/English match at 10pm Sunday. Cheers

How much is it worth for us not too? I take payment in my paypal account which is daleyboy........

[lamphun]

Sadman pretty much got all the games to a tee, scores and team performance. He might consider a change of career to sports journalism.

Italy 18 - 18 Wales

Ireland 15 - 9 Scotland

France 31 - 6 England

[daleyboy]

So it looks like we will have to rely on Wales beating the French and us beating Ireland by 40 points.

Ohh well forgone conclusion, no need to watch, England to win this year Ohh and then i woke up.

[sadman]

Well done Italy! They put up a fine performance (except the tryscorer who didn't actually score, but there you go!) and fully deserved something from the game. Wales weren't great but at least they created chances, even if they didn't convert them into points.

Nice to see Ireland find their way again. Their forwards were huge, starving the Scots of ball. Sean Lamont hardly had a look in, and not for want of trying.

But England! One of the worst performances I can remember (and I've been going to support them since the early 1970s) - but it's not the loss, but the manner of the loss. France didn't play well at all, were poor in midfield and were guilty of numerous handling errors, but at least they were generally creative and wanted to play. They always looked like they might do something.

England, on the other hand, were awful. The forwards - who had over 1kg a man advantage - were shoved around by the technically far superior French; the half backs went on the missing list; the midfield was static and taking the ball too deep and not at pace, rather than strike runners hitting the line at speed; thus, the wings saw little of the ball. IMHO they never looked like scoring.

For what my opinion is worth (absolutely nothing at all), there are several players who may have seriously damaged their international careers: from what I saw, only Josh Lewsey and Lewis Moody looked like they were worth a place.

I have been banging on about the management since Woodward left. Robinson is a committed and honest manager, as he was as a player. He is not the man to take England to the World Cup. It needs to be sorted out before it's too late. And as an afterthought - can anyone imagine what the score might have been had we been playing the All Blacks?

[sadman]

Ok. Massive humble pie time. We were worthy 4th placers in this year's 6 Nations. It has been interesting, but few emerge with any credit.

France were generally rudderless and error-strewn, and won mainly due to the dreadfulness of the opposition. Scotland showed great commitment and exemplified how to use the blitz defence to it's best effect, but were found out fairly easily. Wales lost the plot, mainly (IMHO) due to their off-the-field problems. Ireland were the curate's egg - good in parts - but Eddie O'Sullivan has a busy time ahead of him.

For my money, the Italians come out of this with massive positives. They were robbed against the Irish, a little unlucky against the Welsh, and quite unlucky against the Scots. A knock-on here and a refereeing call there, and they could have had 3 wins. Their forward play has always been very good but Pierre Berbizier, the old master, has brought an edge to their backs' play that made my mouth water. Good luck to them.

England. I am neither a journalist nor an habitual 'knocker', but simply a fanatical rugby fan and passionate England supporter. When Andy Robinson got the job, I believed him to be the wrong man. I have seen nothing to change my mind. A few wins but nothing very good, with the only scalp of note being the worst Aussie side I have ever seen. He is a committed, honest grafter and is a good assistant, but he is not the man for the job. We now have 18 months before the World Cup, and if we are not to be an embarrassment, he needs to be replace. Joe Lydon and Mike Friday should be there.

[mrbojangles]

England. I am neither a journalist nor an habitual 'knocker', but simply a fanatical rugby fan and passionate England supporter. When Andy Robinson got the job, I believed him to be the wrong man. I have seen nothing to change my mind.

I absolutely concur 100%, sadman.

Although, the coach can't do anything once the players are on the park. Way too many unforced errors in my mind.

Yep, we need to change the coach but the players need to take a good hard look at their own individual performances as well. Otherwise, as the defending World Cup holders, we will be the biggest embarassment in the history of the game

[markuk]

Six Nations Table...

France

Ireland

Scotland

England

Wales

Italy

Good year, shame wales didnt rise to the occassion - i think Italy will be a team to watch next year!!

[sadman]

Although, the coach can't do anything once the players are on the park. Way too many unforced errors in my mind.

Yep, we need to change the coach but the players need to take a good hard look at their own individual performances as well. Otherwise, as the defending World Cup holders, we will be the biggest embarassment in the history of the game

Absolutely. The coach has done the very best he could. I have the utmost respect for Robinson - I just don't think he's the right man for the number 1 slot.

I think there are several players who need to sit down and ask themselves some serious questions. These players will include - but not be confined to - Thompson, Tindall, Cohen (in a big way), Dallaglio, Dawson, Ellis, Grewcock, Worsley, Moody and White.

There are some very good and potentially great players there or thereabouts: Josh Lewsey, Pat Sanderson, Chris Jones, Tom Varndell, Jon Clarke, Olly Barkley, Ollie Smith, Mark Cueto, Simon Miall, Andrew Sheridan - the list continues. If the current players think they are immune from the axe because they have won a World Cup or because they have been around or because the public loves them - beware.

The good news is that we have time - just - to make the changes and be ready for Paris 2007. The other good news is that most of the other countries have their own problems, so we are not alone. This suggests that if everyone hits form late next year, it could prove the best World Cup yet. I just hope that New Zealand don't do their usual trick of peaking between World Cups and underperform during it.

[wolf5370]

Yep, England were dire - especially a certain kicker!!!

On the lighter side - The girls team won (England that is)

[chumbles]

Some of the papers are predicting the return of Sir Clive Woodward & imo the sooner the better!

[sadman]

Some of the papers are predicting the return of Sir Clive Woodward & imo the sooner the better!

The UK papers tend to make these blithe comments because they frequently don't know enough about the potential contenders to discuss them. I saw one comment last week that accused the current England coaching staff of having been found out, as they could no longer hide behind the brilliance of Clive Woodward. This is absolute nonsense, because Woodward's greatest skill was to surround himself with an outstanding backroom team - he did almost no hands-on coaching himself.

I would bet my pension that Woodward won't come back, except perhaps in an advisory role - and even then, I think that's highly unlikely. He's been there, done that and received all the plaudits he could get. He needs other challenges. From England's point of view, it would be a retrograde step, IMHO.

But there must be changes.