Rugby

Anyone find that a bit weird? TMO sounded like he was about to give it then just as the ref was about to change his on-field decision he seemed to change his mind or get a shout from someone else.

A brown envelope mysteriously appeared in front of him.

I kinda get that maybe by the absolute letter of the law you have to stay with the on-field. But that looked for all the world to be grounded.

"Nic, there is the ball on the ground", says the TMO.

From the beeb before he change his mind ^

The Scots do love to bite the pillow ay

looked for all the world to be grounded.

That's what at least 50% of everyone watching thinks.

But yes I definitely feel it was grounded. It was in the footage.

Ugh

Edit: ha!

This looks like a game between the 4th and 5th best sides.

Tbf Scotland should have not let France be that close to them, the ~15 minute of kick tennis before hand was a waste of time and Scotland needed points. But …. Fuck me that was gutting

Another close game.

Ben Earl the difference.

Monster try.

Wales to lose every game by as few points as possible?
1 last week, 2 this.

Shocking naive from us. Why try and run the ball from your own try line even against 13? Gats must have been raging.

You can see the inexperience in the squad.
I see a lot of potential, but also the need for some old hands to steady the ship (as it were)

Rio Dyer would have about a dozen more tries if he could consistently catch a ball.

I am missing Biggars holding the middle of the field together (and agitating every fucking player he goes up against)

One pass and they'd have the freedom of Twickenham with 2 extra men. Tiny hesitation and superb aggression from Itoje saved that for England, but it was small, small margins. Worth the risk imo.

There was a phase before though where they tried to run it. To try again on back foot ball was so silly at that stage of the game.

This drive. #cough

https://twitter.com/EnglandRugby/status/1756366487890067801?t=TwwuekaG_7pvOiHX7Cn5Zg&s=19

Shocking naive from us. Why try and run the ball from your own try line even against 13? Gats must have been raging.

Now you know what it's like watching Bristol every week...

Like Dallaglio on Jenks and Mark Taylor(?). ;)

Rest of the game wasn't so good though. Thought Wales should have had a pen at the end to give us some squeaky bum time...

As in said, I’ve seen dozens of examples where despite the semantics and language used, they’ve overturned a decision based on significant likelihood of probability of a set outcome, having happened after viewing video evidence. In fact I’ve never seen a ref stick with no try when that level of probability has been evident. I’ve seen them overturn them and give a try on a lot less!!

Maybe we should go back to ‘is there any reason I cannot award a try?’

Maybe we should go back to ‘is there any reason I cannot award a try?’

I reckon this is about right. We want to benefit attacking sides for the entertainment value, surely? (likewise binning the silly kick tennis we saw earlier in the game)

That protracted game of pong was new to me. Hope I never see it again

26-man melee and a red card in under 40 minutes. Must mean Super League is back...

(That were diabolical, etc, etc.)

Make that two red cards.

And a couple of sin bins to boot.

Bloody hell (heads to YouTube highlights)

It was a little less dramatic that I made it sound. First red was plain daft (though it was strangely reminiscent of Kelvin Skerrett in the famous Mick Morgan commentary) . Second didn't look much on first view, but got worse each time. The other fella could have been done for making contact with the eyes too.

The melee was a bit more than most union ones though. Definitely a few punches thrown, rather than the usual pushing, grimacing and smiling matches...