General Rugby Discussion II

irishbucsfan

aloooof wrote: »

It might be green tinted specs, but have we had anyone as egregiously bad? (Trevor Brenan is the obvious one that comes to mind). But I don't think we've had anyone as bad captaining Ireland or the provinces, at least?

I've always found him getting the captaincy at odds with his discipline problems. He's got a whole section in his Wikipedia entry titled "Controversy" that starts:

"Hartley has had his fair share of disciplinary problems over the years, amounting to a total of 60 banned weeks since 2007". That's an crazy about of bans for a captain to give away.

I don’t think he ever did anything as bad as Clohessy...

Dave_The_Sheep

Anyone else getting a bit tired of the whole "Who should Japan join, the Six Nations or the Rugby Championship?" conversation (not necessarily here)?

How about neither. They've had a great tournament, but they had some significant advantages along the way. Huge home crowd advantage. An insanely long time in camp beforehand. Let's just say "friendly" refereeing decisions. Last tournament they had one amazing result against SA and two wins against poor USA and Samoa teams.

Fiji and Samoa* have both reached the quarters twice before, nobody's going on about them. I'd be raging if I was Fiji and Japan got a seat at the top table. I get that its a massive audience and buckets of money to be made but let's just wait 4 years to see if they maintain their level of competition (hopefully they do maintain it because they play some lovely rugby) instead of boosting them straight away.

I realise this might sound bitter after our loss to them.

Felix Jones is God.

Neither Fiji, nor Samoa have the finances, or the potential audience that Japan offers the world game

Dave_The_Sheep

Dave The Sheep wrote:

I get that its a massive audience and buckets of money to be made

Felix Jones is God. wrote: »

Neither Fiji, nor Samoa have the finances, or the potential audience that Japan offers the world game

Yes.

ionadnapokot

jr86 wrote: »

Italy away in next year's 6n..

A Scottish wooden spoon could well be on the cards?

No way
They’re going to win it!!

Squidgy Black

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

Anyone else getting a bit tired of the whole "Who should Japan join, the Six Nations or the Rugby Championship?" conversation (not necessarily here)?

How about neither. They've had a great tournament, but they had some significant advantages along the way. Huge home crowd advantage. An insanely long time in camp beforehand. Let's just say "friendly" refereeing decisions. Last tournament they had one amazing result against SA and two wins against poor USA and Samoa teams.

Fiji and Samoa* have both reached the quarters twice before, nobody's going on about them. I'd be raging if I was Fiji and Japan got a seat at the top table. I get that its a massive audience and buckets of money to be made but let's just wait 4 years to see if they maintain their level of competition (hopefully they do maintain it because they play some lovely rugby) instead of boosting them straight away.

I realise this might sound bitter after our loss to them.

I agree with you 100%, but just going to throw some counterpoints out there for the sake of discussion.

There's been plenty of calls for Fiji and Samoa to get proper recognition and the Pacific Islands in general, whether it's player assistance or more games against tier 1 teams, however, to get any of the PI nations into a stable competitive state World Rugby would essentially have to bring in sanctions against the government in these countries, and remove any political involvement in the running of the rugby unions. This poses a problem in multiple forms, one being the money that would be received as a result of being in these competitions going straight into the pockets of politicians and no investment being made in the game or to the players. There's also little to no financial incentive for SANZAAR to take them on.

Japan on the other hand have shown they're willing to invest in their setup, and have a massive market potential, as well as being a relative promise in terms of performances.

Bridge93

Union is going to lose Samoa and Tonga to rugby league in the near future if they just keep ignoring them as they have been. What they do will take time and brainpower to decide but unless things change Union will fall far behind in these places

clsmooth

Whatever happened to that young Irish hooker who went to Saracens a few years back and was dropped from the U20’s? Tadhg McIlroy?

salmocab

clsmooth wrote: »

Whatever happened to that young Irish hooker who went to Saracens a few years back and was dropped from the U20’s? Tadhg McIlroy?

Back with Clontarf I think, went on loan and then was released. It was talked about a few weeks back somewhere around here.

Squidgy Black

clsmooth wrote: »

Whatever happened to that young Irish hooker who went to Saracens a few years back and was dropped from the U20’s? Tadhg McIlroy?

Playing with Clontarf in the AIL, went out on loan last season from Saracens to Bedford in the Championship and was released on his return.

Dog Botherer

Sarries win away at Gloucester as expected but fail to get the bonus point. another point dropped.

jr86

Dog Botherer wrote: »

Sarries win away at Gloucester as expected but fail to get the bonus point. another point dropped.

They haven't won there in 4 years until today...

Very emphatic result, without the big guns

OldRio

I watched some of the game and Glaws were awful.

Dog Botherer

jr86 wrote: »

They haven't won there in 4 years until today...

Very emphatic result, without the big guns

well i expected them to win, didn’t check the odds.

haven’t been overly impressed with Glaws this season and Sarries were out to make a statement following the deduction. agree that the result was emphatic, not getting the BP when they were very close to it will irk them.

Bazzo

Cheetahs picked up another red card for a shoulder charge to the head at the breakdown.

Exclamation Marc

Bazzo wrote: »

Cheetahs picked up another red card for a shoulder charge to the head at the breakdown.

Outrageous "challenge". Long ban should follow. Despicable stuff.

b.gud

Glaws may have lost today but their fans certainly won, credit to reddit

ScrubsfanChris

For all the hype around Bristol the last two seasons, they're still looking very ordinary once again.
Good enough at home, mixed to poor away.

Burkie1203

ScrubsfanChris wrote: »

For all the hype around Bristol the last two seasons, they're still looking very ordinary once again.
Good enough at home, mixed to poor away.

Basics are crap.


Tigers are going down. They look completely clueless. Need Youngs and Tuilagi back in ASAP.

OldRio

ScrubsfanChris wrote: »

For all the hype around Bristol the last two seasons, they're still looking very ordinary once again.
Good enough at home, mixed to poor away.

Well well. Top of the league. Great win by Bristol.

Burkie1203

OldRio wrote: »

Well well. Top of the league. Great win by Bristol.

Crazy stuff. Exeter just butchered so many good positions in the 2nd half. Bristol barely got out of their own half for the 2nd 40.

ScrubsfanChris

Well Bristol end up winning by the slimmest of margins,kind of ruining my point
But Exeter where hopeless in the 2nd half.

ScrubsfanChris

Burkie1203 wrote: »

Crazy stuff. Exeter just butchered so many good positions in the 2nd half. Bristol barely got out of their own half for the 2nd 40.

Blowing a 17-0 half time lead at home in inexcusable

Scythica

Bristol did look good. Very much the same template Lam brought in with Connacht.

London Irish looked mightily impressive against Tigers. Naholo was a helluva signing, phipps and PJ looked pretty sharp and one of their other backs had serious gas for a full pitch intercept

Clegg

Quite honestly one of the most unexpected tweets I've ever read.

https://twitter.com/EricIdle/status/1193285172768034816?s=19

Burkie1203

Xrated from Toulouse

https://twitter.com/bencoles_/status/1193633678510960647?s=19

ScrubsfanChris

Clegg wrote: »

Quite honestly one of the most unexpected tweets I've ever read.

https://twitter.com/EricIdle/status/1193285172768034816?s=19

Try reading some of the replies. There really are some delusional Sarries fans out there.

thomond2006

"...popularising of rugby generally"

That's more nutty than anything ever written on this forum.

prawnsambo

thomond2006 wrote: »

"...popularising of rugby generally"

That's more nutty than anything ever written on this forum.

Well it is a Monty Python sketch.

errlloyd

Burkie1203 wrote: »

Xrated from Toulouse

https://twitter.com/bencoles_/status/1193633678510960647?s=19

Arguably scored two of the three sexiest tries all weekend.

https://twitter.com/forcatdubitume/status/1193261794774716417?s=09