In the exciting battle for the wooden spoon between Ireland, Wales, Italy and England, coaches have not learninged much from their previous selection errors. To be fair to Italy, they don’t have a huge range of players from which to select, and they have played brilliantly; they could and possibly should have beaten Ireland, so we’ll let Quesada off.
As for Ireland, it seems that Farrell has at least learninged that the Prendergast experiment has woefully failed after watching him splash around in the shallow part of the pitch in the first match, and create his own wadi in the second. While Crowley, like his other possible replacements, is dubious with the kicking tee (and by the way, kicking points is only HALF YOUR FUCKING JOB as a fly-half), he’s clearly much more effective on the pitch.
The inclusion of more Ulster players made a clear difference in the second match with Player of the Match being narrowed down to a choice between McCloskey, Baloucoune, Fischetti and Zuliani: two Ulstermen, and two Italians. So of course Farrell drops Izuchukwu, who also performed well, and Timoney remains on the bench.
As for England, the inclusion of Stewart continues to please ABE supporters, and Genge is always on a hair trigger for a card. Maro is looking less saint-like these days. Boris Johnson’s illegitimate son, the Pillock, provides a figure one loves to hate, sadly also because, like most super-villains, he’s pretty effective.
On to Wales. Well. Their set-pieces are functioning well, and I reckon they can beat Ireland. Also first-week Scotland, but not brilliant second-week Scotland. Probably not Italy either, especially if they keep kicking possession away, although possession is often coughed up anyway.
France obviously don’t need any learnings*.
*Have I mentioned how much I hate this horrendous evisceration of the English language?
Ovally Balls 
Oscar Jegou has been cited for his (alleged) gouge on Saturday. The clip I’ve seen doesn’t look great – even seems like he goes back for seconds.
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England’s implosion seems driven by some clear factors:
– off the field:
– poor coaching
– poor attitudes by players who are currently performing poorly (too many happy stories on the internet for example and moronic squad speak (learnings)
– poor selection strategies (short and long term player nurturing) and players playing out of position (a severe snub to those who do play there and a gift to the opposition at highest levels
– on the field:
– lack of clear vision bought into by all
– senior players at odds (kick for line-out or goal?)
– some players drifting e.g. Itoje
– forgotten duty to entertain in exchange for expensive tickets and stop looking so bloody miserable
– utterly crap dictat on tactics.
I could go on …………………. but won’t. It’s all too sad and predictable given Sweeney and the coaches in place.
I genuinely hope that they get a tonking from France (although it’s in France’s interests to keep Borthwick in place.
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Countries with smaller player resources are forced to think imaginatively and long term with a clear vision that all buy into.
Fans and media must realise that no team is entitled.
England must stop pissing about as an organisation who’s parts don’t add up to a satisfactory total.
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Countries with smaller player resources are forced to think imaginatively and long term with a clear vision that all buy into
There’s quote from the Nobel winning physicist Ernest Rutherford which – supposedly – goes “We haven’t got much money – so we’re have to think”
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Good post, Ticht. For some reason, I can’t ” like” a post, good as it is, so there…
About Jegou, I thought in real time that it was a gouge, possibly not intentional, but at least something dangerous. I assume, obviously wrongly, that if Gardner did not bat an eye-lid, it was because it had been reviewed by the TMO who has access to all the images and therefore he had concluded there was nothing in it.
But obviously there was, as a citation almost always means the player is guilty.
The consequences of this mistake, if it was one, are huge. France would never have scored 26 points with 14 men, and wouldn’t lead the board. A 6N win might be in the balance.
Anyway, most fans here don’t care if France win the thing now after last Saturday’s rout.
Tough crowd, huh?
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A reminder that Shane was much better at playing rugby, than he is at describing it
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There are a lot worse commentators than Shane.
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The consequences of this mistake, if it was one, are huge. France would never have scored 26 points with 14 men, and wouldn’t lead the board. A 6N win might be in the balance.
Maybe not 26, but aside from the 3rd try which I thought had a fairly obvious forward pass in it, France definitely had the firepower to score the BP try, regardless of whether they were down to 14 or not. As a neutral, I’d love to see Scotland lift the crown, but also wouldn’t be too upset if this France side won either – they play the best rugby on the planet on their day.
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@Deebee – I agree. It would only really be upsetting if Ireland end up winning it…
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****whistles as he chuckles at CMW stirring the pot****
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Don’t worry, that could only happen if England beat France in Paris and we manage to beat Scotland, which we might manage with home advantage, or not.
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@Deebee – Coventry City are winning the Championship and some Norn Irish bloke must have made a snooker quarter-final or something recently. Surely Thaum should just be happy with that…
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[quote] Test [/quote]
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if Ireland end up winning it…
Would be bizarre after the 1st day blow out….
I recall we won in 1974 in old 5N – lost to France, drew with Wales in first two games – somehow results fell in line and we topped the table with 5pts…
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okay so that’s not how you do the italicisation for quotes. Hey ho
The consequences of this mistake, if it was one, are huge. France would never have scored 26 points with 14 men, and wouldn’t lead the board. A 6N win might be in the balance.
Maybe not 26, but aside from the 3rd try which I thought had a fairly obvious forward pass in it, France definitely had the firepower to score the BP try, regardless of whether they were down to 14 or not. As a neutral, I’d love to see Scotland lift the crown, but also wouldn’t be too upset if this France side won either – they play the best rugby on the planet on their day.
Deebs, I’m trying to be as objective as I can here, yes there was a forward pass for the try, it was clear and obvious and I have no idea why it wasn’t pulled back by the TMO. On the other hand I’m not convinced Schoeman ground the ball for his score, we only saw a couple of replays and it looked like olivine may have managed to get his hand/wrist under the ball.
Having said that, we see huge swings in games all the time, momentum carries a team and they can score a bucket load of points on the back of it.
Scotland scored immediately after the hands-in-the-face from Jegou, that put the home side 47-14 up with 20 minutes to go.
It’s a different match with France also reduced to 14, the momentum was all with Scotland at that point.
That changed with the Dupont try, featuring the forward pass, the impetus swung the other way and it was all France from then on. Of course we’ll never know but it’s far less likely that France would go on the score as many as they did if they had been further disheartened by losing a player to a red card, away from home, twenty minutes left on the clock and over thirty points down.
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Thaum, do you think all seven Ulster players will be in the squad for Saturday?
There is the little matter of the league game on Friday night. I don’t think Edinburgh will have any back from Scotland for the match, Duhan vdM is injured out of the squad and the others will be retained, I think.
If the injury dogs are good to us we should have a decent side out – we’re not contributing to Scotland nearly as much as we used to.
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Ticht, a quote is like this:
No idea on the seven Ulster players! Who knows, it could be eight if Izuchukwu is fit again.
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When Kyle Steyn got injured trying to prevent the Dupont try, we had to bring Freddy Douglas on as we’d already brought on both backs subs. I think it meant that Rory Darge (or maybe Douglas himself) had to play in the back line. Think that disruption, plus we were knackered, may have had a little bit to do with the late French tries, plus the fact they can score those types of tries for fun anyway. There may have been a bit more space than they’d had in the game previously.
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Very good point, BB. It was Darge who moved out into the backs, Bayliss had to play in the second row.
France are always capable of scoring those wonder tries, against a defence that is sticking fingers in bursting dyke they are going to run riot – and they did.
It’s one the downsides to going 6/2 on the bench
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Hmm
Chessum in for Underhill the only change to England’s 23 for France.
Will the players perform for Borthwick?
The choice appears to be between a bad and an honorable loss.
Only the latter is acceptable and both should be Borthwick’s last.
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Stuart Hogg has been stripped of his MBE.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8ww783d99o
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Saw that a few days ago. Main thing about that article was that it mentioned that he was one of a few that had had honours removed. Was more interested in who the others were.
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Clicked on the link. No idea who the others are – wonder what they did?
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Looks like it was mostly criminal convictions. The Basildon Echo has the full list – https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/25923918.former-essex-business-owner-stripped-mbe-king-charles/
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Good old Basildon Echo! Investigative journalism with a cutting edge! Looked at the list and the only name I recognised was that of Hogg. I didn’t see one Peter Mandelson there?
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Stripping someone of a peerage has to be done by Act of Parliament, apparently.
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On a non-rugby note, you’ll probably all enjoy (if that’s the word) this https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-cabinet-worst-ever
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Also meant to send this
Rhys Carre eat your hear out….
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4 weeks for Jegou’s gouge.
Means either there wasn’t much in it or he’s a very lucky boy.
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Lucky boy, I would say.
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It was mitigated down to 4 weeks due lack of injury to the player, or some such. I’ve written many times on the various iterations of this not-a-blog how much I hate gouging, it’s one of the worst things a player can do – to endanger a fellow player’s eyesight.
Fuck anyone who does this, regardless of where they are from or who they play for. I will never respect that player again. Parisse was possibly the most disappointing because he was so good otherwise
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It makes me shudder and think of King Lear: Out, vile jelly! Ugh.
I don’t suppose anyone feels like writing an ATL for the weekend?
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It’s the fact that the ref IS RIGHT BLOODY THERE AND LOOKING RIGHT AT IT that gets me. Also, why didn’t the TMO look at it?
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BB – when I saw it live I was fully expecting either the ref to whistle it, or for the TMO to bring it to his attention. Baffled at the lack of real time intervention.
Moving on to this weekend, I think we all know how it’ll pan out:
Wales will show another improved performance against Italy and may actually snatch a win, especially if Italy have a “fuck yeah! we finally beat England” hangover from last week. Or, as is more likely, this Italian side has more steel and ambition than previous iterations and finish the season with a flourish.
Scotland will show another improved performance against Ireland and may in fact snatch a win, especially if Ireland have a
“fuck yeah! we finally beat Wales” hangover from last weekbad day at the office. Or, as is more likely, Ireland gird their loins for one last big push and an unlikley 6N title after their pummeling in Paris a few weeks ago.England will show another impr… oh who am I kidding. France gonna hammer them out of sight, with England either kicking down the throats of the French back three and not able to defend against the France of the last 20 minutes of last weekend, or they’ll swing it wide with gay abandon and derring-do and be picked off at will through intercepts and turnovers of the ball when the carrier is isolated.
Final standings:
France – 21 points (full house of points)
Ireland – 18 points (win, no try bonus point)
Scotland – 18 points (lose, but try and 7 point bonus points – lose out on points difference)
Italy – 15 points (full house)
England – 6 points (bugger all)
Wales – 3 points (lose, but try and 7 point bonus points)
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We have lost several Ulstermen. Scotland by 25.
Ireland (v Scotland):
15. Jamie Osborne (Naas/Leinster)(14)
14. Rob Baloucoune (Enniskillen/Ulster)(7)
13. Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster)(73)
12. Stuart McCloskey (Bangor/Ulster)(27)
11. Tommy O’Brien (Blackrock College/Leinster)(8)
10. Jack Crowley (Cork Constitution/Munster)(34)
9. Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster)(50)
Replacements:
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Looks weak etc etc
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There are a couple of Munster/Connacht replacements I’m not familiar with, so perhaps he’s giving some others a chance.
Disappointing that Timoney is back on the bench, but at least he’s on the squad.
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Just watched this week’s Scrum V, which was as engaging, entertaining and informative as ever. Specifically, in addition to the usual guys, Steve Tandy put in an appearance. Welsh granny side was hugely impressed, he really projects an openness and positivity, and was really quite specific ( for a sports manager) about where his team is, how they are working on improving, and what areas they need to develop next, whilst maintaining/ improving on their recent gains, early days, but you can see a bright light on the horizon.
Steve Borthwick not so much.The guy projects the persona of a League 2 football manager who is desperately trying to eke out a career in the sport after retiring from playing whilst being sadly equipped on just about every skill front, without the self knowledge to spout anything but the usual platitudes about the boys dun good, a few things need to click, I have full backing of the management.
Foxy said that he thought the England players were looking tired very early in games, and questioned if they were being pushed too hard in training prematch, as well as mentioning that it looked as if Lee Blackett wasn’t being allowed a free rein as attack coach.
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Fixing the Irish 10 problem
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Still haven’t seen how Owen Farrell becomes IQ – I’d always thought the Irish connection was a further back than a grandparent
Farrell pĂ©re makes a big deal of not giving caps just to capture players – so there’s a dilemma (maybe)
[Brophy is probably tongue in cheek and Jenkins is something of troll with respect to Irish rugby]
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Apparently Owen Farrell’s mother is called Colleen, so it could be a grandparent qualification.
I would be gobsmacked if he plays for Ireland, though
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There are a couple of Munster/Connacht replacements I’m not familiar with, so perhaps he’s giving some others a chance
Milne has played vs France, and Wales – rumour had it he was sidelined after a big impact off the bench vs France cause he mentioned the ‘big impact’ of subs vs France – which apparently implied the starting XV wasn’t right
Murray – pronounced Moo-Ray (you get localised pronunciations here, but that’s a new one on me) has been around camps a while but odd to send Izuchukwu who was good vs Italy back to Ulster , ignore Edogbo, then call up Henderson and ignore him too.
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Hadn’t thought it might be the mom’s side – oddly enough I’d say “Colleen” would make me think of a tenuous connection – while Colette would scream Irish parents….
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I would be gobsmacked if he plays for Ireland, though
Would have it’s funny side though
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I so wish Farrell Jr to Ireland rumour were true! The Dad’s army epiteth would never be more appropriate.
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Farrell’s mother is from Wigan and so is her father – a Wigan RL player in the 70s. Don’t know about the grandmother though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiron_O%27Loughlin
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Dear oh dear, Ulster trying hard to lose this match.
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Less than 3 minutes in, and we’ve lost one player to the bin and another to injury.
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Not sure how it took Embra 5 minutes to score a try.
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