Rugby

But hit his leg on the way down, so it's as if he kicked it, so it is allowed to go forward.

(So say the various ex-players and "the letter of the law" in the HT analysis.)

He never had control to make it a kick. Bullshit decision, as was the first try. England not helping themselves with the penalty count, but its shabby refereeing and spoiling the game.

Apparently though, he hasn't "passed it" to his foot/thigh but lost control onto his leg, so it is a knock on...

Personally, I think this highlights how important it is for sport in general to avoid getting too picky, the spectacle isn't reduced by allowing or disallowing that try.

Indeed, I think it should have been a knock on. I was just reporting what the telly people said.

The ref will get some stick for the first try too, he got Farrell to call his players in, then gave him a whole 2 seconds before restarting play. No chance for the wingers to get back anywhere near their position.

Of course it's up to England how they play for the rest of the game, they should be able to chase it back.

It’s amateur hour all round in this game

Fuck me, France should just play their B team and they’d still walk this tournament.

Triple crown from a team many tipped to take the wooden spoon.
Not complaining.

As long as we beat the english.

This is when I embrace my Welsh half (despite always supporting England in a match like this.)

No discipline from England, and it cost them dearly.

Awesome last quarter from Wales. Faletau was immense, well deserved MoM.

Fuck me that was an awful game, no rhythm at all and at 60 minutes felt like it still had to get going.

Final score line looks like a proper thrashing but anything but.

Absolutely quality kicks at that point of the game but England totally bone headed in giving away three obvious penalties within range (especially when they’d got back to parity!) - one when they had the ball, FFS!

England fans seem to say Eddie Jones is the problem. His mistake would appear to be picking players who aren’t very good at playing rugby.

I liked that fella who came on at 10 for Wales, I hope he starts the remaining games.

Wales have certainly ridden their luck so far in the tournament, but our household is loving it!

I thought the post-match interviewers were pretty bad, asking so many questions about the referee. An obvious point of discussion, but in a sport that is pretty much the pinnacle of respecting the officials, asking the players to badmouth them was utterly off.

His mistake would appear to be picking players who aren’t very good at playing rugby.

Or more to the point haven’t been playing any top-level rugby for too long - and boy did it show. Warburton was spot-on with his comments about this.

Sheedy has been fantastic for Bris for a couple of years. Was disappointed Eddie didn’t follow up his little stint in the England setup, on the bench vs the Barbarians. Big mistake. Jones not being able to look past the end of his nose again...

England were poor. With no ‘power’ carrier in midfield, it’s not obvious how they’re trying to play. Back line closed the space all afternoon and crabbed across the pitch, giving the wingers nothing to work with. Wasted a couple of 3 on 2 overlaps. Too many penalties. Basic stuff. Wales were competitive in the setpiece (an area England were looking to dominate from their selection), looked dangerous when they did decide to put in through hands and took their chances. Fair result, regardless of anything else.

In my youth, my faded memory was that if the ball hit your hand and you didn't catch it, it was knock on (at least that's the way it seemed to be refereed). Now, one has to check if it went forwards relative to the player's momentum. Which seems much less black and white, and more lenient.

Terrible 'performance' by England and dodgy decisions by the ref but several more by England and their penalty count was atrocious. England seem to have a brattishness that is not doing them any favours at the minute - they don't seem to have to self-control to clear their mind of the feeling of being disadvantaged (whether they are or not) and focus completely on their own game; they need to be able to answer to themselves and not just not be affected by frustration toward the ref, but not feel any frustration towards the ref, if that makes sense. As fr the 2 controversial decisions my view is this:
Try 1 was absolutely horrendous refereeing. He asked him to speak to his players and change behaviour and signalled time off. It is absolutely incumbent on the referee to then ensure both teams are set and prepared before he says time-on. It was made worse by the referee responding to Farrell's protestations by saying "I gave you enough time" - no, you didn't specify any time whatsoever you plank - despicable!
Try 2 - for me it's a clear try. The term "lost control" that we commonly hear is a rugby league term that is adopted by union fans and pundits but actually doesn't apply. The ball went directly from hand to leg/foot (without interruption by another player of the ground thus is essentially a kick; at no point did a knock on occur IMO. Before you say "what's to stop a player running, throwing the ball over a defenders head and catching it again then?" the answer would be that such an act is punishable and can be penalised by 'unsporting behaviour'.
Goodbye Eddie

on the plus side, I'm topping the Fantasy table (for a week at least) :-)

Other things were that Billy V had a much stronger game, outshone just by Faletau but in isolation, a big improvement. Thought Faz defended very well also however at 12 he further stunts England's attack

I'm kind of with you on the second try. It goes in the 'lucky/unlucky' box like one of those short leg catches in cricket when the batsman hits it into his own foot or whatever. But it's probably a 50/50 call, given current interpretation and recent application - and you see them given as knocks on at all levels.

I have more of a problem with the third try when he inexplicably made the penalty mark about 5 yards in front of the offence (I accept he can't make the mark under the ruck!), behind the England forwards and the scrum half tapped from there (nothing wrong with tapping from the mark). But England were switched off and should still have stopped it - Daly hopeless here. But decisions are made and you abide by them.

George passed the ball forward for the Watson try (hell of a finish though - through 3 players). So swings and roundabouts...

Fair result, as I have already said. But some criticism of the officials for that first try is also fair and justified also (done the right way). That said, some of the usual vitriol and goading I have seen in the usual places (the tribal cesspit that is tw@tter) has been ridiculous.

I completely forgot about the fantasy teams until about 14:10 yesterday. And my quick rushing in of all personnel from Ireland and Italy fell flat when I forgot to check the team sheets (Connor Murray FFS...).

Faletau imperious. Never seen him have a bad game.

post-match interviewer

Sonja McLachlan has copped some pretty heavy abuse about the interviews and it is absolutely not on. Granted they were not her finest moments in a very good broadcasting career, but some of it has been foul.

They were not that bad - Farrell in particular handled it well. Bit odd to effectively ask AWJ should he have chalked off the first try. Fine to ask the England captain and coach about pivotal/controversial moments. Maybe not the best bit of interviewing ever though and a bit of soundbite chasing. But bloody hell - compared with some of the Stuart Barnes rubbish over the years...

Daly hopeless here

He also knocked on twice and failed to put May in

Yup. I will try to resist my 'Daly isn't a fullback / isn't international class' broken record reprise...

Malins only brought on for a token gesture at the end too. What's the point of only bringing on a game changer when the game is up? Jones seems determined to fit the Daly-shaped peg into a hole it'll never fit in. And for what, the odd penalty from over halfway?

... damn, failed to resist.

Changing the personnel wholesale at this point in the championship would almost certainly be a fruitless exercise. Jones has made his bed and all that. Media calls of 'pick x and y and z in the key positions and all will be rosy' display a lack of understanding of how much work new players need to get up to speed with systems and what would effectively end up as an England Barbarians side would be roasted by the opposition too.

Disappointed rants over. Well played Wales.

Not on Twitter/insta but have read subsequently, on BBC, about the abuse and effect it had on her. Hope she (and the trolls) move on and I'm sure there's no 'best way' to respond. In the sober light of day 'ignore it' is probably seen as best advice but as the victim she has spoken out and said how much it upset her which obviously was right for her - some classy responses/support from individuals and organisations within the game.

Definitely agree about wholesale changes but utilise the squad (who've all been training together) more now. Start LCD and Malins would be a handy starting point.