Rugby

Wasn't impress by either sides attacking

Our attack has gone from being lunatic, breath taking and unpredictable to boring and robotic.

The Wales, France game is shaping up nicely.

Urrrgh. Forgetting to update team + loading it up last-minute with Irish forwards didn't quite work out for me there...

Still shocked by Sunday result. BUT England dominance to points conversion still not good enough.

IMO Wales lost it in that period just before half-time (controversy aside).

Italy vs Scotland borefest...

Ireland v Italy cancelled (delayed) over Covid-19 fears.

England dominance to points conversion still not good enough.

Very much this. They smashed us all over the park, but still relied on two daft errors from speculative kicks to win. Should've been a 20-30 point game.

Not sure about speculative kicks, they were clearly a tactic and well executed, if Sexton had got their first one down safely it would have been a 5 meter scrum for England as he carried it over and the second one was with a penalty advantage. England had dominance and these tries were fair reward for that. If they hadn't been scored in this manner it is fair to assume they would have in another soon after. They lost a bit of motivation once they got to 17-0 up but never looked in danger. It was an impressive display.

Looks like the French government has cancelled the Ire v Fra match.

https://www.the42.ie/ireland-france-six-nations-4-5027457-Feb2020/

Do you know what points we get for the walkover?

Walkovers imply that the oppo couldn't field a team.
At this rate the championship could well be abandoned. Or, more interestingly televised but played behind closed doors.

Was discussing with a pal last night and thought behind closed doors was the most likely scenario (based on no information or insight whatsoever).

I had a massive week in fantasy, despite the Irish players averaging about 6pts each. It's all to play for so no worries @Coops if you forget to make changes for the next round. Quins/chiefs was a humdinger today. Terrible decision by the ref to give a penalty try and Quins the win based on repeated infringements

Vinupola our for the rest of the 6 nations as he has to self isolate for Covid-19 fears

Because he flew back through Hong Kong. That would have been a deliberate act...

Forgive my lack of education on this. Is an individual not able to be tested for the virus? I assume not, else money/status would have surely meant he was

As far as I'm aware tests for viruses look for your bodies immune response to specific viruses. Therefore it is possible to be asymptomatic but still contagious and not test positive. Which is why people who may have been exposed are effectively asked to quarantine themselves.

But IANAD so could be wrong and it's been years since I studied this stuff.

Ah, nice, well explained, cheers. Just seen that he's going to play for Sarries at the weekend instead though!

Well then sounds like he may have caught FinnRussellitis.

Underhill out. Biggar, Williams and Navidi back for Wales. Bugger. I might not go and collect those tickets for Saturday now...

Anyone else headed to HQ on Sat?

.

Hahaha! At the moment, I wouldn't put it past me to miss it if it were.

Not quite.
Infection invariably leads to some form of immune response.
However, if small viral load- Still has an immune response but you may not raise (sufficient quants of) antibodies (to be tested) due to the innate immune system. (And if you’re immune/vaccinated the antibodies from memory cells increase the efficacy of the innate immune system whilst simultaneously switching on the adaptive immune system faster).
Again, however, from what I’ve read- we are using rt-PCR to confirm diagnosis (https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/protocol-v2-1.pdf?sfvrsn=a9ef618c_2) . This is a sequence led assay rather than antibody testing. There are attempts to make an ab testing but I don’t know if any are successful.
The rates of false negatives are reported as high as 3%, with many below this.
This is possibly due to a low viral load at initial presentation, or failure of the pcr probes, or something I’ve forgotten from biochem.
WRT to transmission, asymptomatic, I’d hazard a guess that you’re holding enough viral load to spread, but without the symptoms associated with a immune response.

The Americans are using a different assay.

I was going to go, but have to work.

:(

I know, but money talks!

Thoughts on that red?
Either way- gutted to have missed it.
Highlights well worth watching this morning.

Thoughts on that red?

Bit harsh. North was already very low and getting lower because of Slade's tackle. But yellow or red, England were always going to be down to 13 for the rest of the game.

Marler will be in some bother though.

Bit harsh

?

He lead with his shoulder and made no attempt to wrap his arms. Then made contact with another players head it could only ever be a red.

The guidance referees are given is made available to top flight players who are briefed on it endlessly. Intention is not considered and the fact he was tackling like that and hit an opposition player in the head means the ref has no option.