Gimme Hope Jo'anna: Rugby in 2021

[Ray de Galles]

World Cup 2023 pool fixtures released and a massive tournament opener.

Wales' schedule of weekend matches in glorious cities and/or stadia reinforces the Euro 2016 nostalgia trip of the whole thing.

It is going to be a fucking ball, results notwithstanding.

[Logan Mountstuart]

Hee Hee. Somewhere there is a god.

[Tony C]

This French ref does realise that Wales voted for Brexit too?

[Logan Mountstuart]

Does the Triple Crown not matter anymore. Barely spoken of, Get in Wales!

[Ray de Galles]

Oh, don't worry. We're celebrating the Shithouse Triple Crown but have to keep our focus on a potential Shithouse Grand Slam.

[Logan Mountstuart]

If Farrell for once had shut his gob and accepted the obvious, original penalty like he should have done, England would have been set for the early penalty. If his lippiness forced the ref into dodgy decisions then surely that's not rugby. The bloke's a twat, and a liability.

[Eggchaser]

Oh, don't worry. We're celebrating the Shithouse Triple Crown but have to keep our focus on a potential Shithouse Grand Slam.

Only type Wales ever win! ;-)

Seriously, we were fucking idiots and Wales deserved the win. Martin Johnson called it at half time, you can tell how the ref is going to police the breakdown early in the game, if he's going to ping you for looking at the ball, back off and trust your defence to do the job.

Itoje is a moron, great player but sooooo many penalties. According to Jones he will learn from this, like he learned from the Scotland game, and etc.

One bright spark is Watson, he has looked back to his best thus 6N. Dude knows where the try line is.

[ooh aah]

I find it perplexing when his name is repeatedly brought up as likely Lions captain. Your captain needs to possess a brain.

[Antepli Ejderha]

I find it perplexing when his name is repeatedly brought up as likely Lions captain. Your captain needs to possess a brain.

I think it's because he's an almost certain starter, under Gatland he was less of a penalty conceder but I might be misremembering that.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Yesterday morning I woke up nervous about the match with a slight feeling that we had a chance, things have changed a lot since the autumn series.

At 60 minutes with England emptying their 6-2 split bench I thought we'd do well to hang in. In the end we looked quite comfortable.

I'm yet to be convinced by Pivac but I'm happy for him, he's taken a lot of stick, some justified and some not, and in the post match interview it was all about the players. Following on from Gatland was never going to be easy, the sheer number of injuries might have made it slightly easier for him as he then only had a few decisions to make and could coach.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Lots of online abuse for Sonja McLaughlan after her post-match interviews yesterday. Twitter can be an arsepit at times and it brought out the misogynists. But I thought she was overly aggressive in her interviewing and was trying too hard to get a reaction out of Farrell.

[Antepli Ejderha]

I've just seen that, she posted about crying in her car. I'm not sure if she was overly aggressive or just wanted to focus on the talking points.
Farrell and Jones did well in front of live TV cameras so soon after the match when they weren't happy about the referee.
Thankfully for them Itoje and others had made their job easier.

I found that Martin Johnson gave some good insight about the referee and how you have to play to them, saying that in a test match there was a match when he told his team to stop pushing in the scrum because they were getting pinged by the referee shows you have to adapt.

[Eggchaser]

Yes, it's one of the things that makes a great captain.

Daly continues to steal a living at full back, two contested high balls, he knocked one on and didn't get within two feet of the other. And let's not forget his crowbar into contact when he just needed to offload to May and it would have been try time.

At least the finishers did their job. In that they finished us off.

[jameswba]

I've just seen that, she posted about crying in her car. I'm not sure if she was overly aggressive or just wanted to focus on the talking points.
Farrell and Jones did well in front of live TV cameras so soon after the match when they weren't happy about the referee.
Thankfully for them Itoje and others had made their job easier.

I found that Martin Johnson gave some good insight about the referee and how you have to play to them, saying that in a test match there was a match when he told his team to stop pushing in the scrum because they were getting pinged by the referee shows you have to adapt.

Yes, and wasn't it the World Cup final of 2003 when England kept getting penalised and one player (Jeff Probyn?) was on the bench desperate to get on so that he could tell the team what the ref wanted from them?

I watched yesterday's game with Czech commentary, and the ref's performance was barely mentioned. In British media, it seems to be the only talking-point. I really don't understand why. I thought the first try was simply good quick-thinking by Wales, and that there was no knock-on for the second. They were good tries, and the third was better still. England just never seem to think quickly enough on their feet to take opportunities like this, never mind adapt to what the ref wants from them.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Yes, it's one of the things that makes a great captain.

Daly continues to steal a living at full back, two contested high balls, he knocked one on and didn't get within two feet of the other. And let's not forget his crowbar into contact when he just needed to offload to May and it would have been try time.

At least the finishers did their job. In that they finished us off.

Turning his back allowing Hardy in was the worst. He's got a decent boot but not much else. No wonder Mike Brown is going for Eddie in the press, he's better than Daly for sure.

[Sporting]

Can anyone take me gently through why or why not the "knock-on try" should or shouldn't been awarded?

[Antepli Ejderha]

Yes, and wasn't it the World Cup final of 2003 when England kept getting penalised and one player (Jeff Probyn?) was on the bench desperate to get on so that he could tell the team what the ref wanted from them?

I watched yesterday's game with Czech commentary, and the ref's performance was barely mentioned. In British media, it seems to be the only talking-point. I really don't understand why. I thought the first try was simply good quick-thinking by Wales, and that there was no knock-on for the second. They were good tries, and the third was better still. England just never seem to think quickly enough on their feet to take opportunities like this, never mind adapt to what the ref wants from them.

Nigel Owens has said both tries shouldn't have counted. The first because England needed to time to reset because of the team warning and the second because LRZ wasn't in control of the ball therfore dropping it and kicking isn't allowed.

I think Wales played to the referee and have learnt from their previous issues with the post Covid-19 refereeing.

[NickSTFU]

I don't think McLaughlan was aggressive either, but asking those types of questions immediately after the game isn't going to get any sort of insight, or considered response.

The real issue of course is the abuse she received and whether having these types of interviews are any use in terms of timing.

[Tony C]

I don’t think she was aggressive but she was trying to goad a reaction from Farrell that might then have been something for the pundits upstairs to talk about afterwards. As it happens Farrell didn’t bite which in the circumstances was quite admirable but he won’t get much credit for it. Any abuse aimed at McLaughlan is despicable but that’s twitter, I suppose.

[Ray de Galles]

I think the thread below is very good on the McLaughlin issue and I largely agree with it. I though her post-match interviews were unusually poor for her and combining them with a clickbait tweet was a very bad look. Her/the programme's thrust and attempt to impose a narrative on the game reminded me of Laura K at her worst.

Sadly, again like Laura K, direct abuse on Twitter (much of it with a misogynistic tone, I'm sure) is completely out of order :

https://twitter.com/thedeadballarea/status/1365924550219857920?s=21

[Ray de Galles]

Turning his back allowing Hardy in was the worst. He's got a decent boot but not much else. No wonder Mike Brown is going for Eddie in the press, he's better than Daly for sure.

They didn't even opt for his long-range kicking when there was a penalty only just inside the Wales half (which Farrell missed in what was a generally patchy kicking performance) so picking him is even more redundant.

Brown is definitely a better full back than Daly but was a penalty magnet in his last few seasons for England and would make their discipline problems even worse. Surely they must have someone young coming through they can turn to, though I suppose this *is* Eddie Jones we're talking about.

[Ray de Galles]

I watched yesterday's game with Czech commentary, and the ref's performance was barely mentioned. In British media, it seems to be the only talking-point. I really don't understand why. I thought the first try was simply good quick-thinking by Wales, and that there was no knock-on for the second. They were good tries, and the third was better still. England just never seem to think quickly enough on their feet to take opportunities like this, never mind adapt to what the ref wants from them.

What has really annoyed me about what I've seen of the broadcast and print media's take on the game so far is that exact narrowness of focus. I watched much of the game and the BBC analysis back again last night and there was almost no attempt to discuss anything outside of the two contentious tries and England's ill discipline and doziness.

Those two aspects were clearly important but there was barely a mention of how crucial Faletau and Beard's performances were (I know the former got MOTM from Jiffy but nothing more was said about him), about how North gave his most complete performance at centre (and how much that contrasted with Jonathan Davies' anonymity), how well LRZ's defensive play is coming on and how Sheedy's distribution and kicking were vital at the end of the game (even if he still isn't following the defensive system).

There wasn't even much talk about how England played the more coherent attacking rugby for the first sixty minutes before imploding. As it is I'll have to wait for Scrum V for much analysis about actual rugby rather than talking points,

[Antepli Ejderha]

They didn't even opt for his long-range kicking when there was a penalty only just inside the Wales half (which Farrell missed in what was a generally patchy kicking performance) so picking him is even more redundant.

Brown is definitely a better full back than Daly but was a penalty magnet in his last few seasons for England and would make their discipline problems even worse. Surely they must have someone young coming through they can turn too, though I suppose this is Eddie Jones we're talking about.

Didn't Watson play 15 for a while? I agree with your take on Brown as well.

Did you hear about the little bet between him and Scott Baldwin? Whichever national side one the other would wear the other's national shirt for a week.

I know it's not gambling as such but surely Scott Baldwin shouldn't even be doing this.

[Antepli Ejderha]

I wonder who's on Scrum V today, it can be a decent program if they've got the right guests.

[Ray de Galles]

Amidst all of Genge's arsery and tantrums yesterday I wonder if he might pick up a citing too :

https://twitter.com/rnrrugby/status/1366036298461552643?s=21