Wales v England

[Amobokoboko]

Good game, Wales had some moments of brilliance.

 

[Teh Mite]

On a side note: Everyone complaining about Ashtons "over the top" celebrations can **** right off.

 

[coonor]

On a side note: Everyone complaining about Ashtons "over the top" celebrations can **** right off.

I agree. Why shouldn't he celebrate as long as he didn't try to insult the welsh fans. The intensity is so high what would anyone expect him to do. In my opinion it shows passion,

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

On a side note: Everyone complaining about Ashtons "over the top" celebrations can **** right off.

Exactly. Don't take your anger out on the player who scores against you just because he's the obvious target. "I don't like his attitude, he's got a bad attitude", what a ridiculous thing to say. The worst sort of armchair analysis.

Same thing REALLY annoyed me when youngs was criticised for his try celebration against the scarlets. Anyone who has ever been to a rugby game will know that rugby players in an opposition ground get a hard time of it. There's some pretty horrible abuse of players sometimes by the opposition crowds, but the same crowd gets all up in arms and offended when youngs inevitably celebrates extravagently... You've got to realise the pressure of the enviroment upon the players, and also understand that spectators have no god-given right to judge players' behaviour.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

On a side note: Everyone complaining about Ashtons "over the top" celebrations can **** right off.

I see nothing wrong with what Ashton did, and I hate celebrations.
For the first he starfish dived, then hugged Flood who put him in for the try - that's normal
The other he fist pumped and jumped, big woop
His one-hand-in-the-air-running-in is no different Shane Williams "salute" (i put it in speech marks because I class it more of a "I can't see the last defender because I'm so fast" then a salute )

Ashton's hardly a Ben Youngs-swearing-at-the-crowd celebration guy!

 

[MichaelBoard]

Not nice to admit but I was in the stadium and the English outsang us throughout the match. There was nothing worse come the end of the match than hearing swing low sweet chariot all around the stadium. Of course I shook all the english supporter's hands who were sat near me but I was absolutely gutted by the result. Fair play to England they were the more clinical in the end and had we kicked those 2 early penalties then the match could have had a completely different outlook near the end of the match as we would only have needed a penalty to win it, of course thats a big if so well done to England.

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

Well played England, blah blah. They where the better team on the night, and you can't say fairer than that.

Craig Mitchell impressed me. Tackled very well and carried quite well, even putting in a few nice passes. He contained an extremely strong England front row as well. We might actually be about to stumble upon a back-up to Adam.

As said, Bradley, Warburton and Lydiate where great. Ryan made a huge impact as well. However, I feel that the overall squad has ben picked on form, so it's just a mattter of the first XV being so. Next week I'd go with:

Priestland (Byrne was woeful when he came on), Stoddart (Halfpenny if he's fit in time), Roberts, Davies, Shane; Hook, Peel; James, Rees, Mitchell, Bradley, AWJ, Lydiate, Warburton, Ryan.

Hibbard, Yapp (Who was suprisingly decent), Powelly/JT (If fit), Turnbull, Knoyle (More likely to make an impact), Stephen, Byrne

Roberts stays in there just because I ant Hook playing at 10.

 

[gingergenius]

yeah thought i heard swing low quite a lot. the welsh seemed to be silenced as soon as they realised they'd failed to capitalise on deacon being off.

as for celebrations - the only controversy was because the BBC's token woman doing the interviews kept on going on 'extravagant celebrations' to anyone who'd listen. no one else would have cared otherwise.

 

[cyRil]

Anyone found Jamie Roberts yet?

 

[Intercept King JDV]

Anyone found Jamie Roberts yet?

Don't think so mate, but did you see Simon Shaw 2-stepping with Lee Byrne(I think) near the end of the match, Henson must have been jealous...?:lol::lol::lol:

 

[no-1-rugby-fan]

Wales vs England was a great game of rugby last night, didn't dissapoint as the Six Nations opener. There was hardly anything in it. Wales had more of the territory but England were more clinical, that was the difference. England edged it, well done to them, but unlucky Wales.

 

[TVH11]

Fair play your typical high intensity derby match, exactly how i thought it would go (and I knew there was only going to be a few points in it). Not sure why people are complaining about the celebration, in a highly emotional game its what i'd expect. Unfortunately we didn't quite have the edge that England possessed; and those missed kicks cost us hugely. Our centres were non existent (not their fault given a lack of width in our game). Really felt that the subs made an impact. Definitely need to change the half - back combo for next week - Peel and Hook for a bit of spice and unpredictability to our game. Tactics didn't change from the autumn - go across till you can't go anymore, than go in opposite direction (doing the same again). Brave effort by our boys, but in the end England had the edge all over the park. Bring on next week

 

[Draggs]

Rob Howley out, Jonathan Davies in.
He will call it the way it is and I think league experience could actually help.
I don't think Shaun or Gats are the best coaches, but to be honest, its not like there is an immediate successor lined up.
(Phil Davies as forwards coach perhaps?) What is Jake White doing right now?

 

[SelimNiai]

Rob Howley out, Jonathan Davies in.
He will call it the way it is and I think league experience could actually help.
I don't think Shaun or Gats are the best coaches, but to be honest, its not like there is an immediate successor lined up.
(Phil Davies as forwards coach perhaps?) What is Jake White doing right now?

I vote yes but only so Davies annoyingly whiny nasal voice gets off my tv

 

[Duckdee]

The "problem" with Ashton's first celebration, was the chance that he could knock one of those on.

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

If anyone, bring in Mark Jones as backs/attack coach. Look at the job he's done for the Scarlets this season!

 

[dullonien]

Congrats England, deserved the victory. There wasn't much in it, but England were simply more clinical with the chances they got.

I'm going to go slightly against what other Welsh supporters have said here and say that I thought we deviated too much from the normal gameplan here. Hook and Shane Williams were overused as first or second recievers, and we tried going wide without going forward first. For some reason, Roberts wasn't given the ball atall, and that was a big mistake, as he would of given us some direction that we lacked in the backs. Davies wasn't given the ball much either. I doubt this would have been the gameplan, because it's completely unlike Gatland not to use Roberts. Unfortunately, both Phillips and Steven Jones had shockers last night, and it was their decision making, and poor execution that was the biggest factor in the difference between the two sides. Whilst Youngs wasn't great (plenty of mistakes), in general his service was quick and accurate to Flood, who outplayed Jones with ease. Did the knock Jones took in the first few minutes a contrubuting factor to his poor performance? I don't know, but he managed one good thing all match which was his great pass to Davies which set up Stoddart's try.

I thought our pack went quite well, and overall ended quite evenly matched with Englands. Scrum went well, and Mitchell was quite good in general. But his yellow card was stupid. It was unecassary and really cost us at a time when we really needed to up the tempo and take the game to England, with 14 men that was going to be impossible. Bradley Davies was awesome, he's a carying machine! After a fiary start from Alun-Wyn, he seemed to fizzle out. I thought Lydiate was another who had an excellent game, great carying and workrate. Warburton was also everywhere, didn't quite have the dominance at the breakdown I was hoping for, but nontheless another excellent game from him. Ryan Jones was much better than Powell who was useless when he was on the field!

Gutted that we lost, as I really feel there's massive potential in this Welsh team. We just can't seem to clic at the moment. Individual errors, such as kicking the ball away instead of keeping it in hand is killing us at the moment. I think we need a little more structure to our attacks before the likes of Hook and Shane come in to try and unlock the defense. Gatland always talks about earning the right to go wide, but there was no evidence of that in this game.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Congrats England, deserved the victory. There wasn't much in it, but England were simply more clinical with the chances they got.

I'm going to go slightly against what other Welsh supporters have said here and say that I thought we deviated too much from the normal gameplan here. Hook and Shane Williams were overused as first or second recievers, and we tried going wide without going forward first. For some reason, Roberts wasn't given the ball atall, and that was a big mistake, as he would of given us some direction that we lacked in the backs. Davies wasn't given the ball much either. I doubt this would have been the gameplan, because it's completely unlike Gatland not to use Roberts. Unfortunately, both Phillips and Steven Jones had shockers last night, and it was their decision making, and poor execution that was the biggest factor in the difference between the two sides. Whilst Youngs wasn't great (plenty of mistakes), in general his service was quick and accurate to Flood, who outplayed Jones with ease. Did the knock Jones took in the first few minutes a contrubuting factor to his poor performance? I don't know, but he managed one good thing all match which was his great pass to Davies which set up Stoddart's try.

I thought our pack went quite well, and overall ended quite evenly matched with Englands. Scrum went well, and Mitchell was quite good in general. But his yellow card was stupid. It was unecassary and really cost us at a time when we really needed to up the tempo and take the game to England, with 14 men that was going to be impossible. Bradley Davies was awesome, he's a carying machine! After a fiary start from Alun-Wyn, he seemed to fizzle out. I thought Lydiate was another who had an excellent game, great carying and workrate. Warburton was also everywhere, didn't quite have the dominance at the breakdown I was hoping for, but nontheless another excellent game from him. Ryan Jones was much better than Powell who was useless when he was on the field!

Gutted that we lost, as I really feel there's massive potential in this Welsh team. We just can't seem to clic at the moment. Individual errors, such as kicking the ball away instead of keeping it in hand is killing us at the moment. I think we need a little more structure to our attacks before the likes of Hook and Shane come in to try and unlock the defense. Gatland always talks about earning the right to go wide, but there was no evidence of that in this game.

Stephen Jones was clearly not in the game after that hit and should have come off.

Phillips is absolute dogshite, and last night proved he needs some gametime under his belt.

Roberts I don't think is 100% fit and there are grumblings he was injured for the last 20 mins of the game.

Powell I felt had his use last night, he did kick that ball down the wing, it was his only option and had it bounced the other way then it would have been an English lineout close to their tryline. He also straightened the attack when we went to lateral, something we did far to often last night.

The reason why we are not clicking because Gatland's game plan does not suite the players he selects to starts with. England had a basic plan and did it well. The only problem for England was the Hape-Tindall ... they were not at the races.

Where Wales ... well have a few issues, id look to play Paul James at 3 now despite me saying lets not, Mitchell did well mind, and play Duncan Jones at 1. Ryan Jones was a better option at 8, when he came on you could see when he came on off the bench he had a look of determination in his face. Peel needs to start at 9 with Knoyle on the bench, Phillips just needs to be sent back to the Ospreys to get some gametime. Stephen Jones was most definitely concussed from that hit from Foden, he did not know where he was, I was not impressed with Hook at 10, but would play him at 13 opposite Jon Davies. Still not sold on Stoddart, he scored the try but almost ballsed it up, and just felt with that cross field kick he should have done better and caught it.

Time will tell, Wales biggest problem is giving Gatland a 4 year deal after the World Cup.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Apparently Stoddart and Powell are out injured now,
Stoddart with a broken hand, and Powell with the shoulder injury (Powell said he'll be out around 3 weeks, but hopes to be fit for Italy)

We'll also find out tomorrow whether Davies and Lydiate will be cited

Anyone know when Halfpenny's due back?
Could mean Prydie starts next week...

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Apparently Stoddart and Powell are out injured now,
Stoddart with a broken hand, and Powell with the shoulder injury (Powell said he'll be out around 3 weeks, but hopes to be fit for Italy)

We'll also find out tomorrow whether Davies and Lydiate will be cited

Anyone know when Halfpenny's due back?
Could mean Prydie starts next week...

Powell and Stoddart: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/9388335.stm

John Davies: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/9388529.stm

When I saw it live and close at the stadium I thought it was fine from Davies, the fact that Rolland and the linesman said play on will hopefully go in Davies favour, but I have not seen the replay so I don't know, but when I saw it live, thought nothing of it.

What has Lydiate done?