RBS 6 Nations - Scotland Vs England (04/02/2012 - 17:00)

[Saintjay]

Or someone who's not biased.

I am only supporting the opinion of the welsh great Jonathan Davies oh and Andy Nichol. Biased never

 

[big ginger 8]

Well I'm supporting the great Conoe O'Shea on this.

 

[Amobokoboko]

BORING

I'm drunk - possibly the most important point

Me too, but still the games weren't what I expected and you're right about the girls.
I think the Ireland -Wales will be the decider of who will win the 6 Nations ( I'm guessing Wales)

 

[SelimNiai]

Or someone who's not biased.

That too

 

[B10]

Not a great game but I couldn't care less. To go to Murrayfield and get a win with so many new caps and the Scots baying for blood was an incredible result. The quality of the team will improve a lot with the returns of Wood, Flood, Lawes and Tuilagi. Great to see the captain leading by example. Barritt's defence is awesome! Agree with Dickson and Morgan earning a start against Italy. Youngs still looks lost. I would also get Sharples in for Ashton at the moment.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Or someone who's not biased.

I'm biased towards England (blaytz ) but I think it was 50/50. If it had been given then fair enough, and if it hadn't then fair enough. It was incredibly hard to tell whether he grounded the ball with his forearm or not, it would have been a graze at best.

 

[Seaton]

Dear Mr Parks

Please retire.

Kind Regards,

Scotland


If you don't, well you aren't going to be eligible for men's team much longer.

Regards,

The baldy man who sat next to me.

You know, if it wasn't for me spending far too long arguing with some Englishmen over the pronunciation of Botha, and the finer points of whether or not Stuart Barnes is one of the most knowledgeable rugby experts in the world, I might have fallen asleep.

Any other Tier 1 side + Pacific Island teams and Georgia would have put at the very minimum 20 points against England today.

What utter tripe, absolute mother****ing c**ty balls.

 

[gingergenius]

I think people are being a little harsh on England collectively here - it is almost certain that they will improve once they get used to each other and used to playing this level of rugby.

Scrums were OK, lineout was poor but should improve. I think our biggest issue by far is the back row, which was thoroughly outplayed, meaning the backs barely got any good ball (or any ball at all for that matter). Youngs' service was pretty average as well, which didn't help matters.

I keep going on and on about this, but we desperately missed a genuine openside today. Rennie was all over the everything, always in support - a proper breakaway. Robshaw was excellent in a role as a 6 - tackling a lot and carrying a bit. But those times when you need your 7 to be there in support for a break, and first in at the breakdown to secure quick ball, we had no one there.

My only real criticism of Lancaster is his back row selections, and it nearly bit us on the arse today. We can't afford to be that starved of possession in any of our remaining matches, because we'll lose. Dowson was utterly anonymous besides making mistakes, Morgan (or Waldrom) will give us much more go-forward from 8. I have no idea what to do about a 7 since he's not got any with the EPS, so it'll have to be Robshaw and Croft again. But the rest of the pack has to work harder at hitting the breakdowns to make up for the fact that Robshaw is busy playing the 6 role.

Anyway, mistakes and whatnot should begin to be ironed out over time. Not a great start, but not a bad one either.

PS. I don't see why Ashton is getting so much abuse on here, considering his entire game had to be defensive and he didn't put a foot wrong, and I don't remember him getting in any fights. That penalty was poor work from the front 5 in the scrum, from Dowson for not picking it up, from Youngs for passing to the wrong person - Ashton didn't really have anywhere else to go.

 

[B10]

Can Seymour be brought into the EPS or only if theres an injury?

I think Croft played ok today but would play Clark v Italy at 7 and move Robshaw to 6. With Morgan at 8 thats a much more balanced backrow.

 

[stoobart]

Thought Cusiter had a good game to be honest - put good pressure on when his scrum was struggling, Parks was clearly poor. Not a bad result at Murrayfield for a first time out england team, thought Robshaw and Barritt did the job asked of them, but yes need to deal better and far quicker with the breakdown. Dave Denton was superb for the Scots, but like to see more of Morgan for England. Also though Dickson added some zip when he came on - deserves more game time I think.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

My thoughts on England

• I don't think people should get carried away by England's defence, Scotland made plenty of line breaks and any other team would have finished off at least one try
• People say Barritt's defence was immense, but not many team's defences are caused problems by Nick de Luca
• Corbisiero did very well considering it was considered by many that he was out of form
• Botha is a much better option than Deacon and has a good work rate, but won't challenge Lawes when he comes back
• Barritt + Farrell = 0 line breaks, according to the stats from ESPN Scrum England didn't make a single line break and didn't beat a single defender (http://www.espnscrum.com/six-nations-2012/rugby/match/133768.html), England won't get charge down tries every match so need to solve that attack
• Chris Ashton proved correct what TRF_Olyy always says "he gives away a penalty at every ruck he looks at"
• why pick Dowson? he was poor

My thoughts on Scotland

• will Scotland ever be able to score tries
• Nick de Luca is pants and should be nowhere near this Scotland team
• Matt Scott, Duncan Weir, Stuart Hogg and players from the Scotland A team last night should come into the side
• Blair and Laidlaw should have started, Cusiter and Parks were poor
• Denton was very good
• Georgia would have taken their chances and beaten this crap side who can't score to save their life

Huh ... Cusiter was pretty good in me eyes today. Not his fault that Parks was dire. What annoyed me was Rennie's involvement at the Scottish breakdown. When Cusiter was there and the ball available, Rennie would slow the ball down by producing the little flick to Cusiter or decide he would be scrum half instead, killing any momentum.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Can Seymour be brought into the EPS or only if theres an injury?

Only if there's injury, but he'd be way down the list of players to bring in seeing as it took two call ups/injuries to make the Saxons, and even then he sat on the bench all night and got no game time.

 

[big ginger 8]

Suprised there's been no mention of Scotland's back three's performance particularly Rory Lamont's performance.

 

[psychic duck]

Huh ... Cusiter was pretty good in me eyes today. Not his fault that Parks was dire. What annoyed me was Rennie's involvement at the Scottish breakdown. When Cusiter was there and the ball available, Rennie would slow the ball down by producing the little flick to Cusiter or decide he would be scrum half instead, killing any momentum.

maybe ... but by Cusiter's standards I didn't think his passing was like it was normally like, I think Blair should start next week alongside Laidlaw and Weir

on the second point I agree there were plenty of stupid decision taken by Scotland at crucial times, slowing down ball just as they got momentum, it's no wonder there was no hair left on Robinson/Townsend heads

 

[Peat]

I think people are being a little harsh on England collectively here - it is almost certain that they will improve once they get used to each other and used to playing this level of rugby.

I agree, but neither should we get carried away.

I keep going on and on about this, but we desperately missed a genuine openside today. Rennie was all over the everything, always in support - a proper breakaway. Robshaw was excellent in a role as a 6 - tackling a lot and carrying a bit. But those times when you need your 7 to be there in support for a break, and first in at the breakdown to secure quick ball, we had no one there.

My only real criticism of Lancaster is his back row selections, and it nearly bit us on the arse today. We can't afford to be that starved of possession in any of our remaining matches, because we'll lose. Dowson was utterly anonymous besides making mistakes, Morgan (or Waldrom) will give us much more go-forward from 8. I have no idea what to do about a 7 since he's not got any with the EPS, so it'll have to be Robshaw and Croft again. But the rest of the pack has to work harder at hitting the breakdowns to make up for the fact that Robshaw is busy playing the 6 role.

What we do about a 7 is pray very hard for one of Kvesic/Wallace/Gibson/Saull/Nutley/Welch to make the grade very, very quickly. And tell Robshaw that while he has a 7 on his back, he asks one of the tight five to make the recycling carries. And get Croft following the ball that bit more (good but can do better). And pick Morgan, who'll free Robshaw to do more breakdown work. And carry better. I am happy enough personally with the way the back-row functioned, particularly for its first game together, but there's no doubt that one of the named players making the grade would be a massive boost.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Suprised there's been no mention of Scotland's back three's performance particularly Rory Lamont's performance.

I though Evans was great with ball in hand today

 

[big ginger 8]

I though Evans was great with ball in hand today

Yeah though he has annoying habit of nearly always kicking ahead instead of just taking it up and keeping the ball.

 

[dullonien]

My thoughts on England

• Barritt + Farrell = 0 line breaks, according to the stats from ESPN Scrum England didn't make a single line break and didn't beat a single defender (http://www.espnscrum.com/six-nations-2012/rugby/match/133768.html), England won't get charge down tries every match so need to solve that attack

I don't trust ESPN's scrum.com stats. Quite often they've been completely different to the stats reeled out during the match itself. Maybe they get the stats wrong during the game itself, but sometimes some of the stats just don't make sense on scrum.com.

 

[psychic duck]

I don't trust ESPN's scrum.com stats. Quite often they've been completely different to the stats reeled out during the match itself. Maybe they get the stats wrong during the game itself, but sometimes some of the stats just don't make sense on scrum.com.

I can't comment on the reliability of ESPN scrum.com's stats as I don't know, but just by watching the game England hardly broke the line and really threatened the Scottish defence

 

[TRF_Cymro]

England only made 3 line breaks in total according the official statistics provided by the 6 Nations Press Area but does not say who provided those 3.