2012 6 Nations

[the plastic paddy]

Of course Ireland will miss POC, Donnacha Ryan looks okay though. How are you doing for second row forwards in Wales Cardiff Blue?

 

[Cardiffblue]

Am torn between preferring france and blatant self interest. If sais beat french we win 6n

 

[Cardiffblue]

Of course Ireland will miss POC, Donnacha Ryan looks okay though. How are you doing for second row forwards in Wales Cardiff Blue?

Though Clarteris was excellent when he came on. AWJ and him for French game

 

[Dai bando]

The ref well the least said about him the better, AWJ has'nt fired since he came back from injury, Ian Evans and Charteris might be a better option.

 

[Cardiffblue]

Might be right Dai. Clarteris must start tho. Without him option in lineout limited. Matthew rees not back to his best either. What pissed me off with the ref was not 1/2p incident but the tackle area. There's no way that players on floor with opposition lying all over them can release the ball even if they wanted to. That and the endless talk. People pay 70 to 140 quid for entertainment not for the Clancey show. 13 penalties a piece.

 

[Cardiffblue]

Changed my mind. Allez les bleus. Can't stand the idea of the english poodle press talking about a championship decider involving England

 

[Bardon]

Just noticed this on the BBC Website at the end of the France v England preview. Do you think someone from Wales working for the BBC is having a little joke?

MATCH OFFICIALS


Referee: Alain Rolland (France)

Touch judges: Nigel Owens (Wales), John Lacey (Ireland)

TV: Jim Yuille (Scotland)

Seriously though probably just some work experience kid that knows nothing about rugby who just went by the name. Still made me chuckle.

 

[Bardon]

20 minutes gone France 3 England 14. It's all England on the scoreboard but the game is a lot tighter than it would seem.

Great tackle form Ashon to stop the ball going out wide when the French had a 3 man overlap lead to a mistake from the French and Tuilagi doing really well to sprint to the corner and dot down for the first try.

Brillant break from Ben Morgan and then the offload to Foden for the 2nd try.

France have gone from last years 6Ns where they had the best performing half backs to this year when they have some of the worst. Obviously not the overall worst as Italy win that by streets.

 

[Bardon]

Half time France 9 England 14. A bit of red mist from Aston gave a away an easy penalty, then a late penalty brought France back within touching distance.

The big difference between the teams has been the last ditch cover defence. England's has been excellent while France's has been nonexistant.

I'm really enjoying the contest at the breakdown it's been worth watching the game just for that, very entertaining.

 

[Bardon]

60 minutes gone France 9 England 17, England stretched the lead through a penalty. Currently they're doing very well at running the clock down on a sin bin for Sharples for a deliberate knock on.

France had a chance to score when Fofana made an excellent break but decided to keep going himself rather than offload. Subsequently he knocked on and from the talking to he got afterwards his team mates seemed to think he was more worried about getting 4 in his first 4 instead of creating the try for his team.

On a side note the commentary on the BBC is hilarious, at least they wear their hearts on their sleeves.

 

[Bardon]

France 22 England 24 final score. After the sin bin France chipped away at England's lead with a couple of penalties. Then a gret individual try from Croft, who had a very good game, seemed to have given England a winning lead.

Phil Dowson was rewarded for his try saving intervention 1st by beening knocked out momentarily then by getting an accidental stamp in the face from Croft. From the resulting scrum France exploited the absence of the flanker to send Fofana over in the corner. 4 in 4 for Fofana who's been very impressive in the 6Ns. Today was probably his quietest game not helped by being switch to the wing due to injury. But that switch put him in position to claim the try.

France had a late chance with a Trinh Duc drop goal from the Will Genia school of drop goals. It was never going over once he kicked it.

After that it was pretty easy for England to close the game out. Mathemathically Wales may not be champions yet but being realistic they are 6Ns champions 2012.

We'll see next week if spoiling Wales' grand slam will be enough motivation for France to raise their game.

 

[qwerty51]

The drop goal was ridiculous, way too early. Keep driving to get closer, at least try and score a try.

 

[Nusadan]

The drop goal was ridiculous, way too early. Keep driving to get closer, at least try and score a try.

It was a poor kick to start with, most of the time it would normally slot over, Trinh Duc had all that time in the world to do it! The commenators were saying that Beauxis should have not been replaced at that stage of the match.

 

[Cardiffblue]

Guess that means we've won. We have a points difference of about 40 over the orcs

 

[the plastic paddy]

Might be right Dai. Clarteris must start tho. Without him option in lineout limited. Matthew rees not back to his best either. What pissed me off with the ref was not 1/2p incident but the tackle area. There's no way that players on floor with opposition lying all over them can release the ball even if they wanted to. That and the endless talk. People pay 70 to 140 quid for entertainment not for the Clancey show. 13 penalties a piece.

Most of the pens were for closing off and coming in at the sides but anyway it is always the refs fault. Hope France beat you next weekend but can't see it happening, if it does it will all be blamed on Joubert anyway: "you can never beat the Welsh at rugby, the best you can hope for is to score more points than them". Shame for the talented players that the fans let them down with the constant, ignorant whining about the refs. So congratulations to the Welsh team for a deserved championship.

 

[Cardiffblue]

Well as I said in the RWC in fact I quite like Joubert. Just think Clancey and Pearson were awful and am not a fan of Nigel Owens either- but then it's the rest of the world that has to worry about him. Notice from the press that we the whingeing-welshmen-who-spoil-the-game-of-rugby are not the only ones questioning what Clancey was doing. Am relieved that you are backing France. will pass on your best wishes to the bois

 

[Cardiffblue]

And lest anyone claim that bagging the ref is a purely welsh perogative,glance at the world's press reveals rest of the world is in raptures of Alain Rolland's performance.

 

[qwerty51]

I didn't understand the penalty for the first deliberate knock down. I was under the impression if you knock the ball in an upwards motion even if you have no intentions of regaining the ball it was allowed?

 

[Bardon]

Under the laws - Law 12 covers knock ons

A knock-on occurs when a player loses possession of the ball and it goes forward, or when a player hits the ball forward with the hand or arm, or when the ball hits the hand or arm and goes forward, and the ball touches the ground or another player before the original player can catch it.
‘Forward’ means towards the opposing team’s dead ball line.

The only exception is a charge down which by definition is from an oposition kick and has to be immediately following the kick.

In terms of intentional knock ons that's covered under 12 (e)

(e) Intentional knock or throw forward. A player must not intentionally knock the ball forward with hand or arm, nor throw forward.
Sanction: Penalty kick. A penalty try must be awarded if the offence prevents a try that would probably otherwise have been scored.

So no mention in either of knocking in an upward motion. Of course knocking upwards would make it easier to regather the ball which wouldn't be a knock on.

It's also important to note from the France v England game is that one intentional knock on was given by the touch judge and the other by the referee.

 

[the plastic paddy]

Under the laws - Law 12 covers knock ons



The only exception is a charge down which by definition is from an oposition kick and has to be immediately following the kick.

In terms of intentional knock ons that's covered under 12 (e)



So no mention in either of knocking in an upward motion. Of course knocking upwards would make it easier to regather the ball which wouldn't be a knock on.

It's also important to note from the France v England game is that one intentional knock on was given by the touch judge and the other by the referee.

Think his perception was that Sharples was a professional foul that prevented a clear 2 on 1 for France. As he was a lot closer to the action than I was I will trust his judgement. Inevitably the incident will be used as a rod to beat AR with by the whingers who still blame him for Stephen Jones bottling the drop goal opportunities in the RWC semi final. Sad but Wales use abuse of the ref as a tactic at pro 12, Heineken and International level; maybe it is the way to go as the refs seem to be intimidated by it.