Only two games this weekend, with Ireland treating Italy like a Welsh prop’s face and England facing their sort of nemesis in Cardiff. France and Scotland have had their game postponed as a result of an outbreak of lurgies in the French camp which was due to Galthié being a messiah very naughty boy. Craigsman, of course, would never do this.
Italy vs Ireland – Rome
Gonna be a spanking. I was going to leave it there but to be honest I should explain why. Ireland will be hurting after a disappointing run against Wales and France and will be keen to get back on track by putting a lot of points on Italy (who last won against them in 2013). Ireland also have an almost full strength squad too. They are just missing Cooney who, for some reason isn’t included. No one apart from Big Faz knows why this is and it really needs to be a talking point on the notablog. Has anyone mentioned that? Someone should mention that.
Italy will score one or two tries but are always a few years behind the curve and they don’t have the players. I can see them holding out for the first quarter before the floodgates open and we can all talk about whether they should make way for Georgia.
13 – 45 to Ireland
Wales vs England – Cardiff
I’m not sure about this one. Have Wales been spawny this year or have they been tenacious when behind and fought back valiantly to win? I think it’s both. You have to be good enough to capitalise on your luck and some of the tries have been great. They have fielded a team with a mix of old and new heads and seem to be finally getting to grips with Pivac’s style of play. If they can get it right and build an early score, then it will be tough night for the Saes.
England seem to be wobbling a bit. With Eddie emphasizing defence and several players out of form they haven’t set the world on fire recently. That said, they should be tough to beat and I’m hoping that they will have a bit more confidence about them this week. Expect a lot of kicking and muscle which hopefully will see them home in a tight game. Some might complain about this, but not me.
30 – 22 to Wales or 20 – 15 to England
France vs Scotland – Paris(ish)
So this has been postponed. What a bunch of les muppets, eh (who I hope will fully recover)? I can’t even ask ‘which France will turn up’ just to sound like a knob. Ah well, let’s pretend that it’s going ahead and look into my crystal ball…
I reckon France at a canter. They are looking very good at the moment and will likely stuff the Scots up their holes. There will be some nice stuff from the visitors but ultimately France are becoming more and more evil every year. It started with some strange glasses, then came a blunt talking defence coach and a change of culture a few thought would be unpalatable and then selection of form players and a sensible game plan going forwards. Who’d have thunk it? Witchcraft, I tell you.
I could be wrong. No good ever comes from a postponed game. None at all.
35 – 15 to France
As foretold by Britney Spears
Onna telly this week
Friday 26th February
| Treviso v Connacht | 17:30 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Sale v Exeter | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
| Cardiff v Munster | 20:00 | S4C / Premier Sports 2 |
| Ulster v Ospreys | 20:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
Saturday 27th February
| Edinburgh v Scarlets | 12:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Bristol v Leicester | 13:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Italy v Ireland | 14:15 | ITV |
| Newcastle v Harlequins | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Wasps v London Irish | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Gloucester v Worcester | 15:15 | BT Sport Extra |
| Wales v England | 16:45 | BBC1 / S4C |
| Zebre v Dragons | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 28th February
| Northampton v Bath | 13:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Leinster v Glasgow | 17:30 | Premier Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
And I don’t think anyone would have argued with a knock-on decision: he clearly thought himself he’d knocked it on.
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This is what I thought happened. In which case it’s no knock on but still very very lucky.
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I think they ruled that it doesn’t matter what it did between bouncing off various bits of his body, but that it went backwards off him before it hit the ground (or another player) and that’s what counts. Suspect they may have been right though I’m not up on the laws etc.
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I also thought it was great that England learned the lesson from the first try so well that they conceded another try from a quick penalty in the second half.
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DCI,
It doesn’t meet the requirements for a yellow card from this angle. Nowhere near a red:
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I wondered if Liam knocked it on when grounding it anyway (he ‘s done that a good few times), but was too carried away with the strangeness of it all to pay attention to whether or not they checked that properly.
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@Thaum
Pretty sure I saw a knock forward called vs Ireland (or one of thr provinces) not too long ago after a winger mishandled but managed to volley the ball forwards – I think the call was that you are supposed to have “control” of the ball before the kick…..
Looked and was an atrocious decision….
Poite’s call (or non call) on the Henderson “try” was almost as bad….. Raynal wasn’t in a good position to see but you got the impression Poite had nipped off to the jacks. Anyway, in the end “spielt keine rolle”…..
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Trisk – the Poîte decision was gobsmacking. But, as you say (I think!), it didn’t matter.
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Well the law says:
Body isn’t specifically mentioned and therefore doesn’t provide an exemption (it doesn’t say it’s not a knock if it hits your body on the way, just that if it goes forward off the hand/arm and hits the ground / another player, then it’s a knock on). But they are routinely given when somebody fumbles a catch backwards into their body and then it goes forward…
The Law’s an Ass as they say.
Anyway, well done Wales…
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Brookter – the punctuation’s a bitch in that law: it needs some semi-colons to clarify whether the last clause is the all-important one or not.
;;;
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Tom, it’s a head high tackle with a swinging arm. Are you really confident that isn’t being given as a yellow these days? But if they’re looked at it and decided no card fair enough: it was the decision to ignore it that’s inconsistent.
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“But they are routinely given when somebody fumbles a catch backwards into their body and then it goes forward…”
More to the point they are routinely given when somebody fumbles the ball forwards into their body and then it goes backwards before hitting the ground/another player which is what happened here, but it would seem that from the law they are routinely given wrongly. They’ll continue to be given wrongly in this way when they occur in situations that don’t relate to a try because they look like knock-ons and there will be no replays so either we accept that or somehow amend the law.
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@Thaum,
It does, doesn’t it. Or some nice bullet points.
I read it as
When
a)…
b)…
or
c)…
happens and in any of those cases the ball touches the ground…
But no doubt it means something else entirely.
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I blame it on the Yanks, and their dodgy syntax and punctuation in the Second Amendment.
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@flair
That rule about a penalty to the scorers after foul play by defence must still be there as Glaws (Lewis Ludlow I think) went in a bit with his knee whilst attempting to “tackle” a Connacht player in the act of scoring a few years ago in Galway and that was the result.
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You’re probably right, CMW. All moot now — I’m sure some of the outrage was because it came so soon after Bottlecarriergate.
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It depends where the contact’s made, DCI. I think it probably may well have been a yellow but from that angle it’s not clear that he hits him on the head or neck. There was another angle I think but I don’t have access to it at the moment.
https://i2.wp.com/rugbyandthelaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Framework.png?resize=768%2C432
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@Thaum – I think we all know that you can regather if it doesn’t touch the ground or another player so it’s well known that it is the last bit that is all-important.
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@brookter
I acknowledge that period of peak Floyd as a popular choice but whether acid-fried or not PF was Syd’s band and that is when they were never bettered. In the same way that England 2003 were still able to win the RWC by being past their best a post-Syd were able to maintain and produce some really good work but definitely that which was more ‘worked’ than inspirational.
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and not funny.
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I don’t know why folks can’t just accept “Six Nations: Third Time Lucky/Unlucky (Delete as applicable)” like what it says up there.
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@Beadle,
They had their moments with Syd, but I think there was a feyness there which didn’t really outlast the 60s. Some good songs, but period pieces really. The 70s stuff was more lasting, I think.
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“goes forward, and the ball touches the ground or another player before the original player can catch it”.
Based on that…it was a knock on…. it went forward and then Rees-Zammit doesn’t catch it before it hits the ground…
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@Trisk – so if you knock the ball up in the air in front of you and then bat it backwards before it touches the ground you’d give that as a knock-on? It regularly isn’t when it comes to gathering kicks so that can’t be right. I agree that everything about this incident feels like it should be given as a knock-on, but can’t see any real reason to say they were wrong.
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…. Ireland were good enough and all the criticism here for 60% possession and no go-forward ball seems to have brought a response… we seemed to be looking to get the ball away before in the tackle.
There’s a long way to go though… I still got the impression that some are not up to speed (maybe never will be) and are still happy with the one-out runner and looking to recycle…
Beirne had a good game (poor Garbisi), Connors too – old school 7. I think the forwards were still too eager to bash away – we try to get our young lads into “3-ruck rotation” with the aim to spin it out once you’ve sucked in the defenders – we seem to be addicted to this close quarters arm wrestle…. the 2 quick passes on the final try are what we want to do….
Great to see Casey get a run….nearly put Lowe in and want to see him against England and Scotland….
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@cmw
I think the fact he never catches it is the key thing …
England can feel hard done by (a bit anyway) though I recall they got the rub of the green vs Italy – hint of forward in both the 1st two tries (and maybe double movement by Hill)…
I guess sometimes you want the luck not to come in games vs Italy where you won’t want it….
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Trisk – there were little things penalised like May getting penalised for rolling too much which would have been fine in other games which I thought were very harsh. We didn’t adapt though and it killed us.
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@Trisk – I don’t see what never catching it has to do with it. As I said: if you knock the ball up in the air in front of you and then bat it backwards before it touches the ground you’d give that as a knock-on?
Regardless it was an exceptionally lucky try. I’m minded to think the first one was a bit dodgy though very funny and the second just a stroke of luck. It still ended up level with about twenty minutes to go and Wales stepped up while England fell to bits. Thought it was pretty marvellous chaotic stuff even if the rugby wasn’t often that free-flowing.
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I’d be careful before making this Wales/England game all about the refs. FWIW, I thought it was a clear knock-on. And so did LRZ. Refs seem to understand the law differently. Why? I still don’t know.
To me, that was the only arguable decision. First try was perfectly fine, time was on, England asleep. For the rest of the game, Gauzere was consistent and clear. Actually, Maro was lucky to stay on the pitch,
Anyway, England clawed their way back into contention. 24/24 with 20 minutes to spare, right? Maybe, just maybe, this England team does not have what it takes. Tcup and all that.
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@brookter
well they were all written in the 60s and there was feyness in the rare compositions from the other band members too. Limited feyness on the two Syd solo albums suggest to me that he could have bridged the move towards more serious compositions, certainly it was him and Rick Wright who were the better improvisers with a greater intuitive feel. I appreciate that life events had their impact so there’s a lot of whatiffery here.
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@Flair – No, the first try was all wrong because the referee instructed the England captain to talk to his players. The players came in for him to talk to them, as the referee had instructed. Water carriers were still on the field for both sides. Without warning, the referee then called time on. It stank.
The amazing thing is that England managed to stink worse than the ref.
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I’ve no issues with England losing the match – we conceded too many penalties and some of the individual performances were shocking, to say the least.
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Dab, I disagree. Water carriers need not be there and had no influence on the action. Ref looked at England players, clearly said ” time on”, blew the whistle and that was it. Nothing wrong with that. England wingers on the right side were in position, but on the left side, noone. Only Ford understood and moved quickly, albeit too late.
On the other hand, the “knock-on, not knock-on” still bewilders me. Whether the ball went backwards after hitting his thigh or not, I thought LRZ had lost control of the ball off his hand. Three international refs disagree with me, so I’m probably wrong but its a bit freak.
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Agree with you Dab. England were hung out to dry for the first try although they were a bit naive maybe. Nonetheless given this was in the first quarter and that the scores were equal at the start of the fourth quarter it was England that coughed up the defeat all by themselves.
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@Flair – if the referee has told the captain to talk to his players, he has caused the team to go out of defensive shape. He therefore needs to give them time to go back into shape before calling time on. He looked at the England players, knowing that the kicker was looking to try something, saw they weren’t even looking at him and called time on.
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Morning all!…………’tis a beautiful sunny day!
Pretty sanguine about yesterday – it’s been coming, only the manner was strange. Plus, 3 penalties for 9 points at 24 – 24 was just plain stupid and crucially, typical.
My great worry is that nothing substantial, coherent or forward-looking will be done about England’s:
– squad membership
– leadership on and off the field
– attitude
– lack of focus and wit.
Oh dear – better go and do some gardening!
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Jones out!
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Pivac out!
Was the cry last year
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Nigel Owens is saying the first two Wales tries should have been chalked off, the first for the reasons Dab has said, the ref told Farrell to gather his players, then called time on before they had the chance to reset themselves.
The second was a knock on
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The only thing I would say about the first try is that at no point had Wales indicated that they were taking a shot at goal. I think England assumed that they were and that Farrell had more time to talk to his team than he had. Wonder what Nige would have said if he’d been reffing and, say, Finn had asked about taking a quick penalty in a similar position. Also, this thing about the water carriers annoys me. They are on the pitch more often than some of the players, and I’ve seen plenty of instances where they are running off the pitch because play has restarted.
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@ticht
It’s ok, England let the ref off being potentially responsible for the result by being utterly dreadful in the last 20 minutes.
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The Middle One is not pleased with her team at all.
“I am not pleased with England AT ALL” is what she said.
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40 points is loads of points apparently. And they lost by 16 so it’s no good me saying it was a close match. You only get five for a try and two for that kick afterwards if you don’t miss it and otherwise you only get three so that’s loads of things you’d need to do to get sixteen and even then it would only be a draw.
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OT, yeah but no but, it’s a totally different game without those tries.
I’m completely neutral on this, no axe etc, but those were both terrible decisions, the knock on is a shared responsibility because the tmo called it legitimate, but there is just no way it wasn’t a knock on.
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Wales are not as bad as horrible India in the cricket.
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I can see the next captain asked to “speak to his players” leaving them in place and walking between them to address them individually…..
I got the impression that because the pen was given against him Farrell got distracted from ensuring he knew what Wales had opted for….
My impression (no stats or analysis) has been that England have been happy enough to give away penalties – risk / reward has generally fallen on the reward side….it always looks dreadful when the risk doesn’t come off… the whole team (or particular players) look like a bunch of idiots who can’t control themselves….
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I would imagine back three players in particular might not join the (pointless) huddle. The ‘speak to the players’ thing is a bit of a joke anyway I’ve always thought. Watched a replay just now and they could have got back into position a fair bit quicker, but it does look harsh.
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Anyway got to be happy from a Wales point of view.
Seem to be on the way to finding a new 9 & 10 who look like they might be able to cut it.
Pack didn’t get bullied. Thought Beard had a good game yesterday.
Back row all back to form.
Back three all scoring tries and looking good this tournament and LRZ has been exciting.
Didn’t really think we’d be competitive before it all began so even though we’ve ridden our luck everything is better than expected.
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Ok so it we go by Nigel’s ruling, 14 points are called off. At the end of the game England aren’t trying to force the game so Ford different throw that intercepted pass and Wales don’t score the last try. I make that Wales 19 – 24 England. Surely we can all shake on that and move on?
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Apologies for the autocorrect nonsense.
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