Rugby

[Pogue Mahone]

From the interviews, the lads didn't realise the clock had gone past 80, so that kick is forgiveable as it would have given us a 5 metre lineout at which I would have put money on that Irish pack to maul a try from.

I hadn't seen O'Driscoll's interview earlier, but you're right; they didn't realise. It was verging on devastating to hear it after watching the highlights. We came so bloody close. Is it within the rules to have a sprinter run up and down the line informing the players of how long is left?

EDIT: Ha, pretty much snap there Pogue. You win though, by seconds.

If only I could donate it to the rugby team today. Ah well, if we keep this up we'll win another Triple Crown. Which is OK, right?

[Old Thrashbarg]

Round 1 complete and Super League has again thrown up some huge shocks. Hull KR beating Saints is oviously the biggest and it sounded like a great game, especially the last few minutes. After taking a huge lead, Hull KR allowed St Helens to draw level with not long remaining. A penalty restored Hull KR's lead before Saints were awarded a penalty within range. They went for goal, missed, resulting in a drop-out from Rovers giving Saints the ball deep in their own half as the full-time hooter sounded. A 'Wide to West'-esque piece of play followed and Saints appeared to have won it with a try, only for the referee to consult his touch-judge and be informed of some foul play by Saints in the lead up the score. Rovers were awarded a penalty, ran the ball into touch, and they'd hung on for a remarkable win.

Another shock was Wakefield's win over Bradford, in front of a huge crowd at Belle Vue, holding on for a two point victory despite a late Bradford rally. The results of the other games were a little more predicatable, with Leeds, Wigan and Warrington all winning as expected. Catalans' win over Castleford was also probably to be expected, although it was a close game to call.

At Warrington, Hull battled well with a severley injury-hit team - seven first choice players out, with another going off injured during the game. It was a fairly tight game, although the result never really looked in doubt, with Hull's youngsters not lacking any effort, but, vitally, lacking a little organisational experience which proved costly.

With none of the top four supported teams playing at home and six of the seven highest supported playing away, an average crowd of over 10,000 was a great effort, with Huddersfield, Wakefield and Harlequins in particular enjoying huge attendances, and this increase should continue next week when the teams with larger fan-bases have their first home games of the season.

[actwithoutwords]

No reaction to England earlier? They were fucking awful weren't they? Despite playing a team without a fly half without a kicking game, a lineout that lost more on its own throw than it won, and a backline devoid of any real threat, they still only just managed to just squeak home. Italy will be kicking themselves after that second half performance. Losing at least two lineouts on the English five yard line was just criminal.
I can't help but think that the Italians are more limited than they were last year, yet they have almost beaten both England and Ireland in the last two weeks.

[Sovereign]

Round 1 complete and Super League has again thrown up some huge shocks. Hull KR beating Saints is oviously the biggest and it sounded like a great game, especially the last few minutes. After taking a huge lead, Hull KR allowed St Helens to draw level with not long remaining. A penalty restored Hull KR's lead before Saints were awarded a penalty within range. They went for goal, missed, resulting in a drop-out from Rovers giving Saints the ball deep in their own half as the full-time hooter sounded. A 'Wide to West'-esque piece of play followed and Saints appeared to have won it with a try, only for the referee to consult his touch-judge and be informed of some foul play by Saints in the lead up the score. Rovers were awarded a penalty, ran the ball into touch, and they'd hung on for a remarkable win.

Another shock was Wakefield's win over Bradford, in front of a huge crowd at Belle Vue, holding on for a two point victory despite a late Bradford rally. The results of the other games were a little more predicatable, with Leeds, Wigan and Warrington all winning as expected. Catalans' win over Castleford was also probably to be expected, although it was a close game to call.

At Warrington, Hull battled well with a severley injury-hit team - seven first choice players out, with another going off injured during the game. It was a fairly tight game, although the result never really looked in doubt, with Hull's youngsters not lacking any effort, but, vitally, lacking a little organisational experience which proved costly.

With none of the top four supported teams playing at home and six of the seven highest supported playing away, an average crowd of over 10,000 was a great effort, with Huddersfield, Wakefield and Harlequins in particular enjoying huge attendances, and this increase should continue next week when the teams with larger fan-bases have their first home games of the season.

thats coz they gave away free tickets for the first games of the season. Huddersfield had 20,000 watching them, and only about 3,000 will have paid anything, which is a bit gutting if your a season ticket holder.

[Old Thrashbarg]

thats coz they gave away free tickets for the first games of the season. Huddersfield had 20,000 watching them, and only about 3,000 will have paid anything, which is a bit gutting if your a season ticket holder.

Apparently (this is second hand information coming from a mate who works for the Giants marketing team), every one of the 15k+ attendees paid to go. There were some getting in cheaper ('bring a mate for a fiver' type incentives), but, nonetheless, they all bought tickets or paid on the gate. With there being probably 5k Leeds fans and the existing Giants support, there will have been a few thousand 'new' supporters, which can only be a good thing (although the performance of the team might not help get them attending regularly).

[Sovereign]

Apparently (this is second hand information coming from a mate who works for the Giants marketing team), every one of the 15k+ attendees paid to go. There were some getting in cheaper ('bring a mate for a fiver' type incentives), but, nonetheless, they all bought tickets or paid on the gate. With there being probably 5k Leeds fans and the existing Giants support, there will have been a few thousand 'new' supporters, which can only be a good thing (although the performance of the team might not help get them attending regularly).

Well me and my little brother went for free coz they gave him two free tickets at school. They gave away most of those tickets at schools in and around huddersfield, So your mate in the marketing team is talking shit.

Giants rarely get over 5k at a home game, Huddersfield Town football rarely get over 10k these days. When Town were top of the old first division/championship we used to pull in about 15k for a big game. When they played Birmingham they had 18k, when we played Liverpool a few seasons ago we had a full house of 23k. There's no way in hell the Giants would get 16k for a normal league game, thats 200% increase over the average crowd.

[Old Thrashbarg]

Well me and my little brother went for free coz they gave him two free tickets at school. They gave away most of those tickets at schools in and around huddersfield, So your mate in the marketing team is talking shit.

Giants rarely get over 5k at a home game, Huddersfield Town football rarely get over 10k these days. When Town were top of the old first division/championship we used to pull in about 15k for a big game. When they played Birmingham they had 18k, when we played Liverpool a few seasons ago we had a full house of 23k. There's no way in hell the Giants would get 16k for a normal league game, thats 200% increase over the average crowd.

They averaged around 7000 last year, with only a couple of matches getting less than 5k, and games against Leeds always draw big crowds, with their huge away support. The figure was obviously inflated over what it would normally have been (which probably accounts for the 'free' school tickets, although my mate has no reason to lie about 'every ticket [being] paid for', in his words) but not to the extent you're suggesting.

Anyway, it wasn't too long ago when free tickets to Giants games were increasing the crowd to 5-6k, so free tickets or not, nearly 16k attendees is a great figure.

[Gulftastic]

I'm a Leeds fan and go to every game, home and away, and I got a completely free ticket to the game, so did three other people I know, all courtesy of a relative at Huddersfield University.

One of our number even managed to lose his free ticket in the pub pre-match. He went looking for a pay turnstile so he could sit with us, and, upon his explanation, they let him in for free anyway!

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

I hadn't seen O'Driscoll's interview earlier, but you're right; they didn't realise. It was verging on devastating to hear it after watching the highlights. We came so bloody close. Is it within the rules to have a sprinter run up and down the line informing the players of how long is left?

I think that the captain (naturally) is allowed to ask the referee how long is left.  There was a mix up with that last year when Wales booted the ball out to snatch defeat against Italy.

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

No reaction to England earlier? They were fucking awful weren't they? Despite playing a team without a fly half without a kicking game, a lineout that lost more on its own throw than it won, and a backline devoid of any real threat, they still only just managed to just squeak home. Italy will be kicking themselves after that second half performance. Losing at least two lineouts on the English five yard line was just criminal.
I can't help but think that the Italians are more limited than they were last year, yet they have almost beaten both England and Ireland in the last two weeks.

Was going to react to the England match, but have been laid low by a fairly rough bout of gastroenteritis which has kept me way from the computer.  Whether or not this was related to the performance of England in the second half is still to be determined.

England were ok, nothing more, in the first half.  Deserved to be ahead, some nice hands from Wilkinson for the tries, some ok handling.  I don't quite know what Brian Ashton's teamtalks are like, but they don't seem to be working.  Quite the opposite.  That, or the half time oranges are spiked with the England rugby player's equivalent of kryptonite.

Both of England's second half performances have been nothing short of awful, tactically clueless, forgetting the basics, handing the initiative back to the opposition.  England could suffer a real hiding against France now, they're not going to get a one-half-worth-of-points head start against them.

Here's the remaining fixtures:

Saturday, 23 February 2008
France v England, 20:00
Ireland v Scotland, 17:00
Wales v Italy, 15:00

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Saturday, 08 March 2008
Ireland v Wales, 13:15
Scotland v England, 15:15

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Sunday, 09 March 2008
France v Italy, 15:00

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Saturday, 15 March 2008
England v Ireland, 15:00
Italy v Scotland, 13:00
Wales v France, 17:00

It's really up for grabs for Wales now I think.

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

Fucking hell, Saints are were battering Bradford at Odsal at the moment, it's 16-0 to Saints in the first half (now 16-4).  Can't see the Dragons doing anything in Leeds (heh, as I type that they score a try) so I'd have thought it'd be as you were at the top of the Super League after this evening's fixtures.

Has anyone seen this?



Decent films about rugby are fairly hard to find I'd imagine, I can't think of any others off the top of my head.  This is quite interesting:

When Richard Harris is roughed up behind the scrum, rugby league legend Derek Turner, who was playing the character who punches him, was asked by the director to make the contact look real. So he did. He punched Harris for real and knocked him out completely, shooting for the day had to be stopped while Harris recovered.

I'm nervous about England tomorrow, they seem to have forgotten what got them to the World Cup final.  Their only hope is to bully the French pack and deprive the French backs of ball.  Vincent Clerc is on fire at the moment - 5 tries in 2 matches - so if he gets the ball he will score.  Shane Geraghty being injured is a fucker, he looks like a class act and plays like no other England player, I think he'd be a brilliant inside centre and much better equipped to face France than the solid, but unspectacular Toby Flood.

A major plus point is that France are going into the match without a specialist goal kicker, Damien Traille is going to kick apparently, so this could give the England back row licence to cheat if he starts missing.

Andy Gomersall's column is fairly interested, the lad looks like he's really fucked off (to say the least!)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/7253910.stm

Wales, Ireland and France should win tomorrow.  Would be interesting if they didn't though!

Where's the tractor pulling thread?!

[Old Thrashbarg]

Has anyone seen this[This Sporting Life]?

Somehow, no, I've managed to 'avoid' seeing it, despite it being something I'd really like to watch.

In other (vaguely related) news, Hull got their first win of the season tonight, putting in a good performance (considering the number - and quality - of injured players) against a fairly poor Wigan side. Despite neither team being particularly strong, it was a hugely entertaining game and just what the team needed to help get their season on track after a rocky start.

Saints v Bradford also looked like a decent game, although the result never really seemed to be in doubt after the early Saints onslaught gave them a 16 point lead. Bradford did well to get back within 6, though, and when they get Solomona back from injury, they'll pose a bit more of an attacking threat.

[Pogue Mahone]

A fairly convincing win for Wales against Italy there. Wales might well win the Triple Crown unless Ireland can maintain the momentum they built up in the second half versus France against Scotland today.

I just heard an RTÉ analyst say that Ireland once went for over 600 line-outs without losing the ball on their own throw. It's extraordinary how they've been so terrible at them recently.

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

Wales were chucking it around for fun in the second half and looked like they were going to score at will.  Italy missed a great chance in the first half but I don't think it would've affected the result, there's a hell of a lot of steel in the Welsh now.

I just heard an RTÉ analyst say that Ireland once went for over 600 line-outs without losing the ball on their own throw. It's extraordinary how they've been so terrible at them recently.

That's amazing.  Did they say who the hooker(s) was/were?

[Pogue Mahone]

Nah, he didn't go into any further detail; just left it at that. It mightn't even be fully true for all I know. He said it in a sort of passing fashion as a way to criticise just how poor Ireland have been with their recent line-outs.

The first half of the Ireland-Scotland game hasn't been too bad. Ireland have just gone through a fairly desperate spell of last-ditch defending. Scotland came very close to scoring a try on a number of occasions, but, thankfully, they've been held out. Ireland's first try was well-worked, although poor Scottish defended gifted us the opportunity to score. The second try was fantastic. Kearney looks like a very promising talent. In spite of Ireland's superior points tally, Scotland have had most of the possession. Still, what counts is Ireland's clinical ability to utilise what little possession they've had into scores. Hopefully, they can hold onto the ball for a bit longer in the second half.

[Pogue Mahone]

Brilliant. What a try. I love that cross-field kick from O'Gara. It reminds me of his kick across to Horgan last year against England at Croke Park.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo5TnGiWx0Y[/youtube]

[Pogue Mahone]

I was worried when Scotland were let through far too easily to score their try, but I'm now at ease as Ireland have just notched up another fabulous try. The lead-up play was terrific, especially the O'Gara and Trimble passes. O'Gara needed to be very swift with his transfer and Trimble timed his perfectly, leaving it until he'd drawn the man in. Lovely to watch.

It looks like the team may have regained some old form.

[Pogue Mahone]

Overall, I thought that was a pretty good performance. The game against Wales should be exciting if Ireland can keep this up.

[fanny splendid]

Brian Moore, please, please, please...

SHUT THE FUCK UP!

[buttgammon]

Ah wow, a nice big win today. Things are really looking good for Wales but the games against Ireland and France are crucial. I think if we beat Ireland, then the final game against France may well be the deciding match which would be thrilling but I might shit my pants in the process and I would probably end up disappointed.

[Pogue Mahone]

What was Brian Moore harping on about? I'm watching the game on RTÉ.

I find myself in the unusual position of willing England on to win. It's the only way Ireland can have a hope of winning the Six Nations really.

[Garfield And Friends]

En-ger-land!

[mikeyg27]

Well, that went better than expected. Kudos especially to Lipman, someone I've thought should've been playing for England a lot more.

And Quins been Wakefield in a good second half so good day all round!

[wheatgod]

Brian Moore, please, please, please...

SHUT THE FUCK UP!

I now watch on TV, but listen to 5 Live. Even Matt Dawson trumps Brian Moore.

[niat]

I have to admit, I thought Brian Moore was hilarious tonight!

[actwithoutwords]

Was at Croke Park today. Decent Irish performance. Desperate line-out, too much kicking away of possession and lack of continuity, but great to see some fluency from the back line. Some lovely scores and an extremely clinical use of our possession. Paul O'Connell looked very good when he came on, hopefully his return and, fingers crossed, Flannery against the Welsh will restore some order to our line-out. Should be interesting next week.

In the meantime, very interesting in Paris, didn't see that coming at all. It just didn't quite come off for France tonight and they had no plan B. England spoiled very well though, as they did in the World Cup. It was a very similar match actually. Early English try followed by France taking over. Complete French dominance early in the second half failing to produce a try, and then England slowly coming back into it again.

As for the rest of the six nations, I think we'll beat Wales in two weeks, England will win, but not by a large margin and France will put a lot of points on Italy. Which will make for a fascinating last day. I can't see beyond the winners of Wales-France for the Championship, unless England or Ireland win very big on the next weekend. As for Ireland, I still don't fancy us to win in Twickenham. I'm just not seeing it. Even if we are looking like a good side again.

[mikeyg27]

In the meantime, very interesting in Paris, didn't see that coming at all. It just didn't quite come off for France tonight and they had no plan B. England spoiled very well though, as they did in the World Cup. It was a very similar match actually. Early English try followed by France taking over. Complete French dominance early in the second half failing to produce a try, and then England slowly coming back into it again.

Yes, my thoughts when Sackey scored early were 'here we go again'. Typical really, you wait seven years for a win in the Stade de France and then you do it twice in four months. I thought this win was much more convincing than the win in the World Cup where I think England got a bit lucky, whereas today I felt it was actual outplaying of the opposition that led to victory. France were outmaneuvered and it was also interesting to see England try things like flinging it wide earlier. It seemed a lot more controlled performance compared to pretty much any other England performance in the last few years and I include the games at the World Cup in that.

Of course, this leads to the question WHY THE FUCK COULDN'T THEY PLAY LIKE THAT AGAINST WALES????!? I think the key is in the Back Row. Lipman is a class proper open-side, something England haven't had for a while. With Lund, Rees  and even Moody (who should be blind-side) ahead of him in the pecking order he's never really had a chance to cement a place (and I'm not sure he'll even get a chance after this since Rees and Moody appear to be the coach's favourites). Easter's a big lump which is always good to have at No 8, and with Croft and Haskell the Back Row had an injection of pace that's been missing. Also, Wigglesworth had an assured debut, which helped considering Parra did too.

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

Gah, too pissed and elated (still).  Will post in the morning.  What a fucking performance by England, completely brilliant.  If they'd have played half as well as that, shown half the balls, against Wales they would be on for the Slam.

France were bizarre, even by their own standards, in the second half

[actwithoutwords]

Oh, that moment in the last few minutes when France must have had about ten players wandering around in a cluster in the centre of the field was comical beyond belief.

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

I get why people might not necessarily like Brian Moore (I like him, love the way he slates England a fair bit), but why has there been no criticism of the awful, often one-eyed, Eddie Butler.

The way Butler commentates irritates me to the core, particularly the way he says some of the French players names like a precocious child.  He seems to love saying Thierry Dusautoir's name a fair bit at the moment.  Sure, Dusautoir is around the ball a fair bit, but nowhere near as much as to justify the frequency of Butler's mentions.  A couple of seasons ago it was Harinordoquoy who he kept tediously bleating on about (another fairly tough surname for the average British 8 year old to pronounce), now his focus has changed to Dusautoir.

YES EDDIE BUTLER, WE FUCKING GET IT, YOU CAN PRONOUNCE THIERRY DUSAUTOIR'S FUCKING NAME, NOW GET ON WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.

The people who I watch rugby with are now running a book to see how many times Butler, the cunt, says Dusautoir in his next commentary.  I have 25-30 mentions, but I fear that might be on the low side.