Non-Wallaby RWC Warm Up Matches

[galumay]

and a lot of that comes down to how Joubert refs the breakdown.

Agree with all that you have written, just wondering what your opinion was on how Joubert reffed the breakdown.

I saw mainly just the second half, and as I commented earlier he was letting the Welsh get away with murder in the breakdowns, almost never were they supporting their own bodyweight and in some cases were completely off their feet and playing the ball off the ground.

I think it looked worse because the Irish were not trying too hard to get turnover ball at the breakdown - but there were a couple of very dubious penalties against them in the breakdown. Usually poor refereeing balances out over the game for both sides, but in this case the Irish seemed to get the rough end of the stick.

 

[Gnostic]

Just saw this analysis of the scrums from Ireland V Wales.

http://www.the42.ie/ireland-wales-scrum-analysis-2-2301117-Aug2015/?utm_source=shortlink

I really worry about how the scrums are being refereed. As we saw in the Wallabies v England game a greater degree of scrutiny has to be given to the angles that the props are packing at. Look back on the Analysis of Marler by Gagger, in particular the scrums where Marler packed at 90 degrees before the ball was even fed and the Wallabies were still penalised. Likewise the Irish were penalised for wheeling the scrum when from the footage in the link it clearly shows the Welsh tighthead boring in and driving the scrum across.

Joubert clearly got it wrong.

I said it a couple of years ago that I thought the WRU had made a huge mistake re-signing Gatland and nothing I have seen since has changed my view. The Welsh stagnated 5 years ago and with the retirement and decline of a few key players IMO they are regressing.

 

[mxyzptlk]

I saw mainly just the second half, and as I commented earlier he was letting the Welsh get away with murder in the breakdowns, almost never were they supporting their own bodyweight and in some cases were completely off their feet and playing the ball off the ground.

I need to go through it again, but yeah, Joubert seemed to let Tipuric McCaw all over the place, gates of the ruck be damned. Ireland didn't even really attempt that kind of breakdown work, so who knows if they'd have been pinged. And I agree it looked worse than it probably was because the Irish put so few people in the ruck. By the end of the first half, I was becoming convinced Ireland were testing something rather than out to win a Test.

But right now I'm as concerned about the scrum. About to respond to Gnostic about that below.

 

[mxyzptlk]

Just saw this analysis of the scrums from Ireland V Wales.

http://www.the42.ie/ireland-wales-scrum-analysis-2-2301117-Aug2015/?utm_source=shortlink

I really worry about how the scrums are being refereed.

Have a look at the last two gifs Treacy put up on that article, and look how the scrum is fed. Not even close to straight; in the second to last gif, he feeds it to the flanker James King's foot. What concerns me isn't just that Joubert is allowing feeds into the second and third row -- that's also happening in the ITM Cup -- but that the sideline refs don't seem to care. So either this is a directive, or incompetence.

And I don't know which it is, because my wife was watching the first Italy-Scotland warm-up game last night, and JP Doyle was demanding straight(ish) feeds down the tunnel.

So which is it? There was all that noise about fixing the scrum two years ago, but some refs are watching that part of the game, and others aren't. And it isn't consistent. How the hell is a team supposed to know how they're meant to feed a scrum? I'm not a fundamentalist about perfectly straight feeds where both hooker's have an equal chance at the ball, but feeding into the second and third row just seems cynical.

 

[cyclopath]

^^^^^^^^
And I fully expect the IRB will do nothing to clarify the scrum prior to the RWC. I suspect it will be a facet of bitter discussion after the tournament too.


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[Gnostic]

^^^^^^^^
And I fully expect the IRB will do nothing to clarify the scrum prior to the RWC. I suspect it will be a facet of bitter discussion after the tournament too.


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The cynic in me says to expect the Australian scrum to be penalised off the park against Wales and England even if we see performances like those mentioned involving Wales v Ireland and the wallabies v England with the blatant boring in and penalties on reputation only. I doubt we'll get the visit to the team hotel and personal apology though

 

[Bazarov]

You're right, we may get penalised off the park against Wales and England for those exact reasons.

However, we haven't had a better scrum for a long time so at least things have improved, and they've improved a damn lot this year at national and Super level.

Gold scrum is going to carve it up at the RWC! (We hope.)

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Agreed, Bazarov. Our scrum is the best it's been for a while and we're going to have to keep it up and keep it square to get any respect from the opposition or the refs. I'm sure an old hand like Ledesma has been giving them plenty of expert coaching on this.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Dusautoir back for warmup v Scotland:

France: Scott Spedding, Yoann Huget, Mathieu Bastareaud, Wesley Fofana, Noa Nakaitaci, Frederic Michalak, Sebastien Tillous Borde, Louis Picamoles, Damien Chouly, Thierry Dusautoir, Alexandre Flanquart, Pascal Pape, Rabah Slimani, Guilhem Guirado, Eddy Ben Arous. Reserves: Dimitri Szarzewski, Vincent Debaty, Nicolas Mas, Bernard

 

[Highlander35]

Scotland team to play France in Paris.

15 Sean Maitland (London Irish) – 15 caps; 2 tries, 10 points

14 Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors) – 17 caps; 6 tries, 30 points
13 Mark Bennett (Glasgow Warriors) – 8 caps; 3 tries, 15 points
12 Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby) – 28 caps; 3 tries, 15 points
11 Tim Visser (Harlequins) – 20 caps; 9 tries, 45 points

10 Finn Russell (Glasgow Warriors) – 10 caps; 1 try, 2 cons, 9 points
9 Greig Laidlaw CAPTAIN (Gloucester) – 40 caps; 3 tries, 43 cons, 85 pens, 356 points

1 Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh Rugby) – 46 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby) – 88 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
3 Willem Nel (Edinburgh Rugby) – 2 caps
4 Richie Gray (Castres) – 45 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
5 Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors) – 14 caps; 1 try, 5 points
6 Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors) – 10 caps
7 John Hardie (unattached) – 1 cap
8 David Denton (Edinburgh Rugby) – 27 caps

Substitutes
16 Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors) – 9 caps
17 Gordon Reid (Glasgow Warriors) – 11 caps
18 Jon Welsh (Newcastle Falcons) – 6 caps, 1 try, 5 points
19 Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors) – 12 caps
20 Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan) – 45 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (Edinburgh Rugby) – 7 caps
22 Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors) – 19 caps, 1 try, 6 cons, 9 pens, 1 drop, 47 points
23 Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors) – 96 caps, 14 tries, 70 points


Near enough best 15. Hoggy in for Visser, maybe Strauss in for Wilson would be the only changes I'd make for the absolute best side. Bench is about 19-22 getting some gametime as the likely "reserve" players in the squad.

 

[emuarse]

Is there any way to watch the England v Ireland game on TV, or streaming?

 

[Highlander35]

11.30pm on BeIN Saturday night.

 

[Marcelo]

Is someone watching the game between England and Ireland at Twickenham?

England seems like a bloody strong side today against a good team

 

[qwerty51]

Cracking game but you watched a different game to me.

Few thoughts:

-England have 3 world class outside backs
-England scrum is shit
-England breakdown prescence is non-existent
-Ireland have shit wingers and fullback and an overall backline that will struggle to score tries
-Ireland pack is immense
-We NEED a world class long distance goal kicker

We should beat both.

 

[Bairdy]

Ireland's backline is basically Murray & Sexton + 5 fullbacks. Only know how to take high balls and chase garryowens.

That being said, our ability under the high ball (apart from Folau) is poor, so of course we need to be wary of the Irish - especially as their pack was somewhat effective in the 30 or so minutes I caught.

 

[Bairdy]

Wales 8-8 against Italy at home lol, with 30 minutes gone. A Welsh player was stretchered off - Biggar I think?

Correction: Rhys Webb.

 

[galumay]

Another insipid performance from ENG, scoreline flattered them in the end. IRE again looked unlikely to win the game at any point, but hung in there. Neither WAL or ENG have done anything that would strike fear into the heart of Wobblie fans.

 

[qwerty51]

Yeah that's his tournament - massive loss.

Italy lead 11-8 at halftime.

Their scrum is destroying Wales. England's got destroyed earlier..

 

[Bairdy]

Parisse is something special.

 

[qwerty51]

Halfpenny and Webb are out of the RWC. Massive.