Rugby 2014

Yes, brilliant nailbiting game Jamie, a really tense watch.

On top of the Italy Scotland game earlier, , a great day for watching rugby!

Indeed! Superb stuff. I'm still trying to calm down...

classic game, just wales to beat for the triple crown.

Cracking game, full intensity start to finish. For a change Twickenham seemed to have some of the armosphere (on telly at least) you sense at the other stadiums.

This England team is beginning to add maturity to potential. It is easy to forget that the 11,13 and 14 were debutants this season. I was impressed how the team responded to going behind, and the committment and also the discipline in the last 10 minutes was very impressive. Launcheberry and Lawes beginning to look the real deal too. The game was also well refereed and just for a change we had competitive scrums that stayed up and did not fritter away half the game. Wales/France take note.

Ireland still a very decent team-they should stuff the French who are having one of their spells of looking utterly clueless.

Bruce

Nice to see you've revived the rugby thread, James, in fine old forum tradition, although that honour was usually taken up by Fr James M!

Shame you won't be coming to Welford Rd with us again, although probably sensible after today's performance by Wasps! Like last season, after a promising start, we have faded and put in another abject performance against Sale today, although it has to be said, we have been devastated by injury and left with virtually the reserves on the field for most games!

Maybe by then Wade and Varndell will be back and we can give them a game.

Game? Yes, big game are the Tigers and we will be aiming to shoot them down in April!

Mean while, England are looking good in the 6N and remind me of Woodward's team of 99, promising, but too early for RWC 2015.

Mark

Nice to see you've revived the rugby thread, James, in fine old forum tradition, although that honour was usually taken up by Fr James M!

Shame you won't be coming to Welford Rd with us again, although probably sensible after today's performance by Wasps! Like last season, after a promising start, we have faded and put in another abject performance against Sale today, although it has to be said, we have been devastated by injury and left with virtually the reserves on the field for most games!

Maybe by then Wade and Varndell will be back and we can give them a game.

Game? Yes, big game are the Tigers and we will be aiming to shoot them down in April!

Mean while, England are looking good in the 6N and remind me of Woodward's team of 99, promising, but too early for RWC 2015.

Mark

Looks like I'm off to the England Wales game on Sunday. I got an invite from the CEO to go with him in a box with Sean Fitzpatrick.

I'd call that a bit of a result!

Erm...Room for two?

I'll send you a selfie of me and Fitzy, how's that?!!!

I

Hah! Hope it comes out 'all black'...Geddit? See what I did there...?

Nah, I'm sure it'll be allwhite!

It's not looking like we should expect a favour from France against Ireland

How the heck did Scotland lose that?!!

It could be that the French would rather let Ireland win the thing instead of England!

So - Rugby -  presumably the sport and not the town or school - and the posher one with more players in the team. Oh and "we" means England?

A great England win. They could have punished the welsh rather more but it bodes well for more good stuff from a very coherent England team.  

The scoreline rather flattered the Welsh - they kept kicking the ball over the bar as well - how silly is that? Although I thought the goalposts should have had nets too - perhaps they can't afford them in Rugby.

'We' meant either Wales or England at the time of writing. Of course now it means England!

A great Six Nations, the best in years, I think. Obviously, I am disappointed for England but I think Ireland deserved it overall as they were probably marginally the best team. I think that in England, Wales, Ireland and France you have four teams who are very close together and whoever wins depends on home advantage, confidence and the coach. Ireland have a superb coach, France have one who does not understand French rugby - even though he is French!

Wales will not be far off next year for the RWC, They need a new tight five, I think, but the rest of the team is very good, especially the backline. Ireland are ageing but have a superb coach who will find replacements and keep them right up there.

France need a new coach, but could be scarey if they do!

England have the most exciting future that they have had since Woodward's team. In fact, this team could potentially play better rugby than that team if they develop the way they have started. They are very young and need to improve their accuracy and composure in attack as they still butcher too many opportunities. Against the Southern Hemisphere teams they will not get too many of those. They are also turning over the ball too much at the breakdown at the moment, significantly in the form of too many penalties. I also think that their scrum is not as good as other tier one nations and needs work. However, their defence has been superb as has been their ambition to run the ball and they have a dynamic and mobile pack. They also have a number of injured players to come back, all of whom will add something to the team. It will be interesting to see how they perform in New Zealand and how they develop over the future. I still think the RWC 2015 will be too early for them, but we will see. As long as Lancaster keeps the nucleus of this team and doesn't chop and change too much England could finally have something to cheer about for the first time since 2003!

Unfortunately I only caught the last game, France vs Ireland.  If the previous games were as exciting and close than this must have been a magnificent Tournament.

I work for a French Company in Canada and even the French employees were saying it would take a miracle for the France to win, well they almost got that miracle today (or part of it anyways). 

Looks like the Rugby World Cup will be quite exciting.