Guinness SIX Nations 2021

Paul Smeenus

Ironically, given the (justified) raving about Russell, he was a bit of a liability.

Arduach

Scots Wha Hae!

razorblunt

Eddie has repeatedly stuck with Billy at 8 but the least he could do now is get him back into some sort of shape.

awec

Paul Smeenus wrote: »

Ironically, given the (justified) raving about Russell, he was a bit of a liability.

He was shit. No point beating around the bush.

bilston

Nice touch by Hogg letting the debutants lift the Calcutta Cup

clsmooth

Stuart Hogg: ‘Credit to England, they really brought it to us today’. Most condescending compliment that England have ever received in ‘HQ’?

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

We have lost to Scotland twice in the last decade while racking up a bunch of titles. They haven't won anything in that time period.

'Gutless ball surrendering'... :rolleyes:

We've done **** all but box kick ourselves into oblivion since 2018.

This is 2021.

We're lashing a horse that was sent to the glue factory long ago. We should have been in rebuild mode after the most shameful of World Cups but nah, still the same weary, long passed their prime, players togging out.

bilston

Cameron Redpath looks like he is going to be a top player.

uptherebels

Paul Smeenus wrote: »

Ironically, given the (justified) raving about Russell, he was a bit of a liability.

He is like quade cooper, you never know what you are going to get, a piece of absolute brilliance or an absolute clanger.

joseywhales

England in the churn now, just like us post 2018, they will have to adapt to the churn.

mfceiling

Scotland winning it by doing only what Scotland can do. Absolutely brain dead decision with a minute left on the clock.

Big Billy is exactly that....looked way out of shape. As I said earlier the Scottish forwards played a blinder. Little pull backs, holding on after rucks, lazy rolling away from rucks and just being general pricks. Played the ref perfectly.

Well done Scotland. Any day that England are beaten is great. Any day that England are beaten and denied a chance of a grand slam is even better.

lawrencesummers

The Scots just handed the French the Championship.

topdecko

Russell is so infuriating. He has glimpses of genius but often fails in the execution of the most basic skills. Delighted for the Scots though and Townsend for sticking to his attacking game. Some ferocious tackles today and makes things interesting from here...

dubrov

dubrov wrote: »

Completely wrong idea.
They just had to run down another 30 seconds to close out the game.

It was a great position for a drop goal and it would have put them two scores ahead.

Well played Scotland, dominated from start to finish.

Joma4good

Hamish Watson always impresses, overshadowed Tom Curry who I thought would be Lions starter.

joseywhales

Deleted User wrote: »

It was a great position for a drop goal and it would have put them two scores ahead.

similar to gaa, I think you have to guarantee that your kick at least goes dead if you miss.

That's like bare minimum, it must go dead.

testtech05

[Deleted User] wrote: »

It was a great position for a drop goal and it would have put them two scores ahead.

I thought it was a minute early going for the drop but ya have to say the pass put Russell in all sorts of bother, I think he tried to kick the ball away rather hang give away a penalty for holding on as he was outnumbered

bilston

lawrencesummers wrote: »

The Scots just handed the French the Championship.

Bit early to say that.

Although I do fancy the French do it myself, but sure no one saw them losing to Scotland last year.

lawrencesummers

lawrencesummers wrote: »

The Scots just handed the French the Championship.

We've beaten Italy by similar margins on numerous occasions of late. It was a good performance and France have improved a lot, but if we go well tomorrow and I have a sneaking suspicion we will - then I wouldn't have France more than a 50/50 coming over here.

RugbyLover123

The Scots have very good players but their issue has always been getting some sort of consistency in getting results against the big teams. They played very well today but it would be so Scotland to back this up by losing to Italy.

Russel is also vastly overrated. Does one good thing followed up by 20 brain farts. Wouldn’t want him anywhere near a Lions test team.

testtech05

testtech05 wrote: »

I thought it was a minute early going for the drop but ya have to say the pass put Russell in all sorts of bother, I think he tried to kick the ball away rather hang give away a penalty for holding on as he was outnumbered

When he had to jump to gather the ball he should have forgotten about kicking it and looked to secure possession. But had he made the kick then England would have had absolutely no chance to win it and even if he bucked it wide England still had a long way to get into a scoring position.

PTH2009

Fair play to Scotland

If we can get the win tomorrow it will make things very interesting

Akrasia

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Itoje has been excellent when not giving away penalties. He's put in a huge amount of work but as I've said before - when the rest of the team isn't firing he looks a lot less effective.

Itoje’s game is almost entirely based on pushing the offside line. Today the ref didn’t allow him to get away with it and he didn’t have a plan b

Gwynplaine

Who is the fella with the glasses on the panel?

Rugby4568

Ben Healy must be very tempted to play for Scotland now. Would be a smart move for him he’d be playing international rugby straight away and getting more game time and money with Glasgow.

Akrasia

England kicked the ball away way way too much. The wingers had close to zero possession

Jones’ talk about Ireland being boring has been shown to be the sh1ttalk that we all know it was

Pudsy33

Gwynplaine wrote: »

Who is the fella with the glasses on the panel?

Ian McKinnley, formerly of Leinster and Italy.

Rugby4568

Pudsy33 wrote: »

Ian McKinnley, formerly of Leinster and Italy.

He has one eye

joseywhales

Rugby4568 wrote: »

Ben Healy must be very tempted to play for Scotland now. Would be a smart move for him he’d be playing international rugby straight away and getting more game time and money with Glasgow.

Because they beat England in one game?
I mean come one, there are bigger reasons to play international rugby.

Akrasia

Akrasia wrote: »

Itoje’s game is almost entirely based on pushing the offside line. Today the ref didn’t allow him to get away with it and he didn’t have a plan b

Ah he was a constant menace at the breakdown and put Scotland's halves under real pressure around the fringes. He works very hard and has a great reading of the game.

Lot's of commentary that James Ryan has had a big dip in form, but much like Itoje today if the team isn't firing there isn't much he can do to take control of the game.

We get our breakdown resourcing / timing right and start getting our lineout to stick and a lot of our pack will look more impressive.

Championship wide open now - we really need to show up tomorrow and deal with Wales ruthlessly. Set up a huge clash for next week.

hold my beer

Brilliant performance by Scotland. Really put England under pressure all over the pitch. It's going to be a very interesting 6 Nations.

degsie

Fair play to the Scots for taking Eng's scalp on their home territory

razorblunt

Rugby4568 wrote: »

Ben Healy must be very tempted to play for Scotland now. Would be a smart move for him he’d be playing international rugby straight away and getting more game time and money with Glasgow.

Why? He’d be a blow in they’d discard him as soon as he has half a mediocre game that the likes of Hastings or Russell would do.
The local Scottish lads get the benefit of the doubt far more than the others.

Rugby4568

joseywhales wrote: »

Because they beat England in one game?
I mean come one, there are bigger reasons to play international rugby.

But Andy Farrell seems like he wants to stick with Sexton and there’s already loads of depth with outhalves In Ireland. He’d be playing international rugby for Scotland straight away with less competition for the 10 jersey.

griffinlee

The 4 saracens players looked way off the pace. It's prob been 4 months since a meaningful game for them.. only game was against Ealing trailfinders which they lost..

Rugby4568

razorblunt wrote: »

Why? He’d be a blow in they’d discard him as soon as he has half a mediocre game that the likes of Hastings or Russell would do.
The local Scottish lads get the benefit of the doubt far more than the others.

I think Ben Healy is a very good player and is a better kicker than Russell. Healy would start for Scotland in my opinion and would of got those kicks that Hogg and Russell missed.

RugbyLover123

Rugby4568 wrote: »

Ben Healy must be very tempted to play for Scotland now. Would be a smart move for him he’d be playing international rugby straight away and getting more game time and money with Glasgow.

What? He’d be behind Russell and Hastings for sure and maybe JVDW.

Akrasia

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Ah he was a constant menace at the breakdown and put Scotland's halves under real pressure around the fringes. He works very hard and has a great reading of the game.

Lot's of commentary that James Ryan has had a big dip in form, but much like Itoje today if the team isn't firing there isn't much he can do to take control of the game.

We get our breakdown resourcing / timing right and start getting our lineout to stick and a lot of our pack will look more impressive.

Championship wide open now - we really need to show up tomorrow and deal with Wales ruthlessly. Set up a huge clash for next week.

Oh he absolutely does work extremely hard and makes a real nuisance of himself, but it’s always on the very edge of legal which means when your team get on the wrong side of the referee, or they’re forcing it a bit, he gets pinged a lot

TomsOnTheRoof

Gwynplaine wrote: »

Who is the fella with the glasses on the panel?

Ian McKinley. Former Leinster fly half and Italian international.

Rugby4568

RugbyLover123 wrote: »

What? He’d be behind Russell and Hastings for sure and maybe JVDW.

Well he certainly would of got those kicks that Russell and Hogg missed. Healy makes less mistakes than Russell. Russell makes too many mistakes

Faugheen

Rugby4568 wrote: »

I think Ben Healy is a very good player and is a better kicker than Russell. Healy would start for Scotland in my opinion and would of got those kicks that Hogg and Russell missed.

As flawed as Russell is, he is miles better than Ben f*cking Healy.

Rugby4568

Faugheen wrote: »

As flawed as Russell is, he is miles better than Ben f*cking Healy.

Don’t you think Ben Healy would be a more reliable kicker?

TomsOnTheRoof

Lack of generosity there from McKinley with regard to Burns. He has shown a hell of a lot more than Ross Byrne.

razorblunt

Rugby4568 wrote: »

I think Ben Healy is a very good player and is a better kicker than Russell. Healy would start for Scotland in my opinion and would of got those kicks that Hogg and Russell missed.

Hastings has been in better form than Russell before and they still played Russell ahead of him.
They’d cap him, lock him in and let that be that.

Rugby4568

Rugby4568 wrote: »

Well he certainly would of got those kicks that Russell and Hogg missed. Healy makes less mistakes than Russell. Russell makes too many mistakes

I've seen absolutely nothing from Healy to suggest to me that he would be brought in as a starter for a top 14 club.

Russell is safe as houses in Racing. You're entitled to your opinion but it's bordering on fantasy to be honest.

Akrasia

Akrasia wrote: »

Oh he absolutely does work extremely hard and makes a real nuisance of himself, but it’s always on the very edge of legal which means when your team get on the wrong side of the referee, or they’re forcing it a bit, he gets pinged a lot

He is just one of those players that if he is playing for your team, you love him, if he isn’t, then you don’t.

Rugby4568

razorblunt wrote: »

Hastings has been in better form than Russell before and they still played Russell ahead of him.
They’d cap him, lock him in and let that be that.

Fair point

Paul Smeenus

Aegir wrote: »

He is just one of those players that if he is playing for your team, you love him, if he isn’t, then you don’t.

He didn't look very fit today. And yeah, he does brilliant things and then gives away braindead penalties.

Johnny Gray was fantastic. Recapturing his mojo, maybe.

ScissorPaperRock

Rugby4568 wrote: »

He has one eye

What's your point?