Not like the BBC to waste a few bob is it www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/16804120

Not like the BBC to waste a few bob is it www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/16804120

Ireland, Scotland and France for me this weekend.

[url=http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3551_7480866,00.html?The future's dull. The future's an awful shade of brown.[/url

Not that anyone will give them credit for it but that was a good defensive display from a quite inexperienced England side today.

I think Jeremy Guscott got it spot on.
"Scotland lost it. How many chances did they have in the second half? This should have been a new beginning for Scotland - Edinburgh have scored tries in European rugby but at international level Scotland just cannot score tries."

I thought that England definitely defended well and didn't give many penalties away in the process.
They still haven't got much of an idea about attacking formations and are woeful in the action and timing of the pass, unlike their RL counterparts, who have mastered it.

A sloppy error-strewn game that either side could have won, but the luck went England's way.
A tremendous effort from England, but fairly rudderless.

There were a couple of beautiful flowing attacking moves from England midway in the second half, a style I would like to see more off.

Some pretty poor stats from the game:

Official match stats (delivered by Accenture)

35 Minutes in possession 23

7 (0) Scrums won (lost) 4 (0)

16 (0) Line-outs won (lost) 10 (1)

9 Pens conceded 9

4 Turnovers won 3

238 Passes made 72

25 Possession kicked 27

62 (2) Tackles made (missed) 142 (16)

16 Errors made 11

3 Line breaks 1

Just 58 minutes of play from 80+. 4 line breaks. 27 errors (maybe due to the conditions) and only 72 passes from England?????

English sides seem hamstrung by the style adopted in their domestic competition, which tends to be pretty forward dominated and orientated around keeping possession, playing low risk stuff and grinding down the opposition.

It's creating a generation of players who lack the basic skills to execute even the simplest of plays. Early on Saturday (so fatigue was no excuse) Chris Robshaw had a perfect opportunity to put Ashton away down the sideline, only to throw the pass four feet above his head. Most of the England forwards lacked the abililty to retain the ball in contact and recycle it properly, leading to plenty of knock ons around the ruck.

Much of England's ball was slow coming back from the breakdown, meaning the Scottish defence were well set and the "safe" option was to hoist a high kick.

I genuinely fear for this England side when the French, Welsh and Irish get hold of it. There could be some record scores on the cards.

Agree with almost everything you say there Andy. Personally I think Robshaw is massively overrated and I was surprised to say the least when he was named captian. England look void of ideas and seem to panic when the opportunity to break out of a set move presents itself. I tipped Scotland to spring an upset but they were beyond woeful. How on earth can anyone justify such negative rugby union?

I thought Ireland were the masters of their own downfall against Wales. They should have had it tied up but Wales were too organised and too strong when it mattered most.

Wales, France and England at the weekend.

I actually think Italy, at home, have enough about them to beat this one-dimensional England side.

With an even split of possession, I'd take a narrow home win.

[url=http://www.sportal.co.nz/league-news-display/switch-pays-off-160377One of the Warriors' rising stars is one of a raft of players converting from union to league - and he wouldn't have it any other way.[/url

[url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/rugbynation/rugby-news/2012/02/08/dragons-hit-with-10-000-fine-and-forfeit-91466-30294876/?Newport Gwent Dragons have received a £10,000 suspended fine and forfeited last Friday’s LV Cup game with Saracens.[/url

[url=http://www.espnscrum.com/rabodirect-pro12-2011-12/rugby/story/159113.htmlAironi admit financial difficulties. Bottom of the PRO12 and and are said to be struggling to pay their playing budget of €6.5million.[/url

As a person who has only recently found an appreciation for rugby union (when they actually play rugby and not turn the game into a glorified kicking tennis international) I was watching England v Scotland at the weekend. Now, England/Scotland games should be highly passionate, highly fierce and highly aggressive - purely and simply because of the intense centuries old rivalry.

How disappointed and bored senseless I was. As you said Catalancs, it was negative rugby throughout. Kicking for penalties when the team should (in more than a few cases) should of increased the pressure on Scotland and gone for the try. I know that kicking in RU is primarily for position, both defensively and offensively but come on - constant kicking? I'm sure there were players stood in the middle of the field just watching the ball being kicked back and forth like a ping pong. I actually got so bored I went and completed a university assignment - 14days before its hand in date (Note. I'm normally one to leave it until the last second).

I recently read Stuart Barnes' article about the SoO II 2011 game, in which he states that league is predictable - albeit more highly skilled and faster than all Union games BUT that a boring game of league much better than a boring game of Union. I actually agree with him in that RL [isometimes[/i can be predictable but that I'd sooner have a boring RL game than a boring RU game. Having said that, after watching SuperBowl on Sunday I'd of took any form of Rugby!

I hope this weekends 6N's fixtures conjure up better games and better spectacles. I dread to think that I will complete another university assignment early!

From BBC Sport - It v Eng

1857: The team upstairs have worked their magic and we now have highlights of England's fight back in Rome, all neatly packaged in an action-packed 3 minutes 57 seconds.

Followed your advice Andy (kind of) and had England to win by 1-5.

A game of two Englands.
I honestly couldn't see the aim of the way England played in the first half.
Someone will no doubt justify the pointless boring spectacle it was from England.
Second half, we attacked and made things happen and won.
But still the handling, timing and direction of passes is embarrassing to watch.

I was mightily glad that Ben Youngs was substituted. He was hopeless (correction ... is hopeless). He's just like a robot, no awareness of where the ball is, very little spatial awareness and lets the ball get nicked while he spends eternities looking where to throw the ball.
We perked up big-time after he went.

He is one of many in English rugby union.

I think the whole English team is vastly overated. The forwards are slow, ponderous and couldnt punch a hole in a wet paper bag with the ball in hand. The I.talian pack pushed and bossed them all over the park even after their two best players, Castrowhatever and Parise were crocked. The backs had no clue and kicked away possession with monotomous regularity. In fact all these 6 nations teams do that. They are stuck in a time warp and seem inacapable of realising that keeping possession and running at the opposition will gain you rewards in the form of a line break or a penalty and constant tackling will tire out the opposition. Kicking the ball back will reverse that situation and put you at a disadvantage. How the press can prattle on about a wonderous comeback when the Italians gifted them a try and then missed two very kickable penalties which would have won them the game is a mystery to me. This is Italy, people.

The Wales, Scotland game was better but the Welsh pack is overated. The shaggy haired prop is useless and even in the scrum, he should have been penalsied for collpasing right under his own posts but the referee bottled it and ordered a reset.The Scottish one underated. They have some very powerful runners and tacklers who would not be out of place in RL. The Welsh backs are pretty good but even they kick way too much. The Welsh also manage to have a player lying on the wrong side of every ruck being allegedly unable to roll away and slowing down the Scottish ball, I kid you not, check it out and the ref was completely oblivious. He was conned. The Scots have been robbed against England and unlucky with the sin binnings against Wales. Before that they were on top. They have improved out of all recognition since the world cup when they were dire but still should have beaten England.

I watch pretty much all the Unions internationals and fair a bit of the Premiership. What I think frustrates me the most is the utter lack of creativity in the midfield – this is most evident in the internationals where the defences are usually well drilled and the defending teams never commit more than two bodies to the breakdown unless a turnover looks possible due to an isolated runner

This results in phase after phase of forward barges or a big centre hitting the gain line. I sit through so many phases of attack but don’t see anybody looking to beat the line with clever ball handling or an off load. The New Zealand team try to do this but even they are stifled by the defence for long periods. I’m sure this will continue until the fly half and inside centre become more creative rather than a kicker and runner respectively

Of course one answer would be to remove a couple of defensive players from the line – maybe the flankers – to open up the space for creativity but for some reason I can’t see that happening any time soon

[url=http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/local/9529289.Garvey_in_race_row_tweet/Worcester rugby union player in race-row tweet.[/url

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17015533?Ireland and Ulster rugby union player Stephen Ferris has agreed to be "bound over to keep the peace" over charges of assaulting two men.[/url

If ever evidence were needed that close games aren't always "exciting", this weekend's 6 (or should that be 4?) Nations showed plenty of it.

England are so sterile and predictable. Stuart Lancaster - for all his words - played a very forward dominated style at Leeds, mainly due to the players he had at his disposal. Nothing I've seen so far with England convinces me that he's going to be any different at international level.

That 160 minutes of rugby has produced two charge down tries is embarrasing.

Gateshead will return to Kingston Park, the home of rugby union side Newcastle Falcons, to play Leigh Centurions next month.
With Gateshead International Stadium unavailable, Thunder will host last season's winners in their final Northern Rail Cup group match on March 4.
They previously played at the ground in their final home game of the 2008 season, when the side lifted the National League 2 trophy in front of a bumper crowd and the SKY TV cameras.

[url=http://m.smh.com.au/rugby-league/canberra-raiders/sonny-bill-will-follow-me-back-to-league-20120215-1t6rd.htmlRugby union is boring, claims expert.[/url

Quote ="Catalancs"[url=http://m.smh.com.au/rugby-league/canberra-raiders/sonny-bill-will-follow-me-back-to-league-20120215-1t6rd.htmlRugby union is boring, claims expert.[/url'" interesting Cata but the next subject down is just taking the p*** ! m.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league ... 1t7fh.html

Quote ="Catalancs"[url=http://m.smh.com.au/rugby-league/canberra-raiders/sonny-bill-will-follow-me-back-to-league-20120215-1t6rd.htmlRugby union is boring, claims expert.[/url'" interesting Cata but the next subject down is just taking the p*** ! m.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league ... 1t7fh.html

To be fair, it's a little bit of a stretch to proclaim Dimitri Pelo as an "expert" on the basis of six months in the game.

dead right,he was fed up with the RU game after the first few weeks and regretted the move but was a little bitter at being 'released' by the Catalans so abruptly...

the 'expert' to consult who is still playing IMO would be someone like Craig Gower ?

Expert




Anything that comes from the SMH is bollox........as I have been told but never witnessed, Sydney is RL central.........is it FCUK!