Bad news for Scotland if this is the case
True but Aldritt was at it too if I remember. Some nonsense about James Ryan not making eye contact at the coin toss or something like that.
Agree. It needs to be everything (including things like the jackler had hands on the ground first, tackled player never released the ball) or very little.
A second lovely score from the Italians. That'll silence HQ for a while.
Wow Italy, getting worried for Ireland now 😬
What the….
I honestly looked down to refresh the laptop… looked up.. try Italy..
They have a real chance of beating us next week .
Don't see it. They are scoring some nice tries but they concede some very soft ones giving up acres of space too easily constantly.
No. They really don't.
It depends on how Ireland handle the defeat and what the coaching staff do in terms of selection. Do they try a new or less experienced player or keep with POM, CH, etc? Do the players go into their shell? I am hoping they throw caution to the wind, give some younger players a chance and play some good attacking rugby
Very clever from menoncello
Doubt it. They can't defend. As much as they look good in attack they are hopeless defensively.
In your opinion are Irish fans reputed for being gracious? The leading light that shows other countries how to behave?
I actually hope they make changes. We're not going to win the championship now and essentially can't finish worse than 3rd (which regardless of a win or loss is where we'll more than likely finish assuming France beat Scotland).
It's an ideal time to give some lower capped players a free hit out in a 6 nations game. In saying all that I've never seen Ireland do something like that even when it makes sense so I expect very few surprises in selection.
Who said anything about any fans? Or Irish fans in particular? Feel free to start an argument by yourself if that's what you're looking for, but I'm not interested.
We currently sit 3rd on the table with a PD of 13. Certainly didn't expect that at the beginning of the tournament.
it has been a poor tournament for Ireland tbh. We have come third out of the three potential winners.
Results before the French game papered over the cracks somewhat, but France had our number yesterday big time.
The Tommy Freeman try we conceded in round 1 is looking particularly costly now.
Yes but what hurt us more is not getting a TBP v Wales, we were shocking poor against them.
Yes. Refs do it all the time when a defender at the ruck moves back causing the player clearing out to go off his feet. Instead of the attacker getting penalised for going off their feet, the ref says play on. It was basically an extension of that. And I think once the French player realised he was well past the ruck, he threw his arms out to show he wasn't holding POM so the ref said play on. For me it was a 50:50 call. can see why Irish fans think it was a penalty but I can also see why it was let go.
Tackle.off the ball, or at best obstruction. Try should never have stood
I get the notional logic, but the French player wasn't close to the ruck at the time. It was for all intents and purposes an open field tackle. Now in normal circumstances, could understand if a ref just ignored it as immaterial, but POM being knocked down cleared a gap for the French to run through and score. You can't ignore the impact of what is an already illegal act, which then directly contributed to a score. Baffling decision by Gardner, one of a number on the day.
The rule you are quoting is correct.....once the player is at the ruck. POM was about 3 yards behind it.
It was a very poor call.
I think the fact that the French player who ran into the gap created by the clear out of POM, was tackled pretty much immediately lead the ref to say play on. If the ref had penalised it, I wouldn't have disagreed but I can see why he let it go. As I said, 50:50 call and in those situations Gardner nearly always sides with the attacking team.
For me, I really don't think it was a 50/50 call, not even close. The fact that the attacker was tackled shortly after is irrelevant. POM was out of position and that would have affected other defensive players too. I've never seen a player so blatantly tackled off the ball and it just ignored. The fact that a try was scored aggravates the offence if anything. He was plainly not in the ruck.
Ultimately I'm glad that the winning margin was much greater than that one score but it was a flatly outrageous call from the referee.
Gardner had a shockingly bad day but I would stress that I don't think the result would have been much different without him given how bad Ireland were and how galvanised the French were - but it doesn't excuse how awful Gardner was.
We're clearly not doing well looking at the last few games, Its in Italy's backyard … they absolutely do have a chance of beating us. If Wales can rattle us and run us that close then Italy definitely can too.
All it would take is a few early tries from them and we're in the sh!t again and playing catch up. I wouldn't bet the house on us.
"I've never seen a player so blatantly tackled off the ball and it just ignored"
I'd have said the same about POM's shoulder charge in the first half.
To take this slightly off the 2025 tournament for a second (but not really worth a new thread) UK TV rights for 2026-2029 have just been announced, BBC and ITV retain with the same 1:2 split of games but now ITV will have all England fixtures. So no threat now of the rights Igoing to TNT or any other pay tv broadcaster and you’d have to expect RTE and VMTV will renew the ROI rights.
https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/en/m6n/news/uk-free-to-air-tv-deal-announced-for-six-nations-rugby
So, with one round remaining who do posters think will win the 6Ns Championship and has your opinion changed since the start of the tournament.
At this stage, it's France to lose. At the beginning of the tournament I was hopeful that we could win it, maybe not a GS but could put enough points on teams to win it with PD. Unfortunately, the sluggish start v England and Wales not lying down for us meant our game v France was almost an all or nothing game. France weathered the storm against us in the first quarter and after that it was all France til it consolidation try time.
I'd be astounded if France don't win it from here. I genuinely thought Ireland were going to win it this year, especially as the rounds went on.
I can't see past.
1st France
2nd England
3rd Ireland
4th Scotland
5th Italy
6th Wales
The uncharacteristic dropping of bonus points from Ireland whilst giving cheap ones away (England in the first round looks like it's going to cost over €1 million in lost prize money), is the undoing of Ireland this year.
That's a shame. Would much rather TNT than RTE or Virgin.
