Rugby - not set pieces

[Antony]

When I print this page and get it framed in honour of my life's greatest achievement, I'm going to crop your comment out.

 

[mxyzptlk]

In some places "No, I am not an American" can be very useful as well.

Especially if your yer you're American.

 

[Tex]

For context, Melbourne High School has an academic focus and a broad range of sports. The guys get stuck into everything from lawn bowls to rugby to lacrosse to rowing, with varying success.

I learned to play rugby there. We were taught on the oval by an old Welsh guy called Kenny. He was in his late 70s and had heard that the school had a fledgling rugby program, running on the hint of a sniff of an oily rag. He came down one day and offered to volunteer him time coaching. He'd teach us the basics with his lilt, gnarled hands and Sunday driving cap on his head. He *loved* rugby and was passionate about passing it on to us young blokes. Our "scrum machine" was knocked up by a Kiwi guy on the ground staff, made out of 4x2 and some pads scrounged from who knows where. It was basic but did the job.

To get to the point, AIG is running a competition promoting safety in rugby and MHS have entered a video of their 'mayday' scrum procedure. The entry with the most votes wins $20,000.

Get in there and vote. You'll be supporting some underdogs and getting behind a good cause (and excellent safety procedure)! (It's the middle/top video.)

http://www.aig.com/_3171_617635.html

 

[Lee Grant]

We've all seen the hybrid pitches being used in test matches in NH during their season - at Twickenham, Millennium Stadium, Murrayfield and other places.

They are typically 40% synthetic and 60% natural grass.

But the Scotland v. Tonga test was played at Rugby Park in Kilmarnock, which has a 100% synthetic surface.
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[mxyzptlk]

We've all seen the hybrid pitches being used in test matches in NH during their season - at Twickenham, Millennium Stadium, Murrayfield and other places.

They are typically 40% synthetic and 60% natural grass.

But the Scotland v. Tonga test was played at Rugby Park in Kilmarnock, which has a 100% synthetic surface.
.

The Millennium Stadium pitch looks like it could use some refreshing. How long are those hybrid pitches supposed to last, and when will France finally put one in?

 

[Tangawizi]

So when do the Castrogiovanni "Peace & Love. I just don't like c***s" t-shirts come out?

http://m.foxsports.com.au/rugby/mar...ichard-cockerill/story-e6frf4pu-1227149028052

 

[Lee Grant]

The Millennium Stadium pitch looks like it could use some refreshing.

The hybrid pitch at Millennium was used for the first time in November when Wales played Australia - so it has been refreshed.

It certainly worked a treat compared to the same match last year when the pitch looked like a potato field after some scrums.

Murrayfield is also a lot better than before the change.
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[mxyzptlk]

The hybrid pitch at Millennium was used for the first time in November when Wales played Australia - so it has been refreshed.

It certainly worked a treat compared to the same match last year when the pitch looked like a potato field after some scrums.

Murrayfield is also a lot better than before the change.
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Murrayfield looks great. Millennium Stadium looked like it had some bare-ish, muddier patches on it, especially within each side's 22. If it's new, and it's a Desso pitch, maybe some of the grass still needs to take root around the fibers.

 

[Highlander35]

Murrayfield looks as good as it was before the infestation, and that's all you can ask for.

 

[mxyzptlk]

Murrayfield looks as good as it was before the infestation, and that's all you can ask for.

Isn't Murrayfield now a hybrid pitch?

 

[Spieber]

Isn't Murrayfield now a hybrid pitch?

Under-heated (sic) grass I think.

 

[boyo]

Isn't Murrayfield now a hybrid pitch?

IIRC, yes.

 

[Lee Grant]

Isn't Murrayfield now a hybrid pitch?

Definitely yes:

http://www.scottishrugby.org/news/14/07/20/bt-murrayfield-pitch-perfect-champions-league

Same for Millennium:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-29886074

Twickenham is in it's third season with the same type of hybrid pitch.

The improvement in the Murrayfield and Millennium pitches from a year ago have been outstanding. Those who are unsure about such claims should watch replays of some of the tests played at those two venues in November 2013 and compare them with those of this year.
.

 

[Highlander35]

As I've said it is as good as it was before the ringworm got to it. Massive improvement from the shite Scotland and Edinburgh had to play on last season.

 

[USARugger]

@Dctarget to be fair, the conjugations and agreements in French are about as sensible as the number of different pronouns/articles in German

I'm useless with new languages so I guess I'm glad I was forced to learn one of the hardest ones by virtue of being alive.

 

[qwerty51]

Brawl involving former Aus Super Rugby players Grayson Hart and Albert Anae

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

"Burglars have stolen as many as 15 international rugby jersey from former All Black Leon MacDonald."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/64381359/former-all-black-leon-mcdonald-confronts-burglars

 

[Lee Grant]

I see that Wasps have moved their home ground from Adams Park, High Wycombe, north-west of London, to Ricoh Arena in Coventry, which is handy to Birmingham, and incidentally is also close to the birthplace of rugby, Rugby.

It's not their first move: in earlier years the club had been based at Sudbury, west of London.

They will lose many of their fans in shifting their home ground but since their average crowd was only 5,000, it was not a lot to lose. The attendance of West Londoners was diminishing anyway, and Adams Park was difficult to get to for fans from further out.

Since Birmingham is only 40 kms away they should get some crowd numbers from there, and also the fans of the local Coventry club which plays in the third tier of English rugby.

Since it is also 40 kms from Leicester, they may even get some Tigers' fans attending every now and then - and the local derby should be a sell-out. Likewise with Northampton, 50kms distant.

The transition will be difficult for the players whose residences are in or near London but the stadium area has a hotel with a casino attached to it (and a fun park !!) - and the players will get to stay there for match days.

They will still train in the London area for a while, before moving everything before the 2016-17 season.

The change would have been a day-dream for Wasps just 18 months ago when they had only £65 in the kitty; but Irish businessman Derek Richardson came to the rescue.

They now own Ricoh Stadium outright.

The weekend before last I saw their last game at Adams Park on TV, thrashing Castres in the ERCC (the new version of the Heineken Cup)—with a blast from the past, ex-Waratah Ben Jacobs, being influential in the result.

They had their first Premiership game at Ricoh last Sunday when they hammered London Irish 48-16 in front of 28,000 people.

It's a coup for the Wasps' club, which was running up debts, but perhaps Mr Richardson can cough up some more coin for a hybrid pitch because the turf was cutting up badly and the scrums were are a mess.
.

 

[USARugger]

Not strictly rugby, but this thread needs some love and I would buy one of these in a heartbeat if they adapted the product for Rugby. Also if I had Foxtel, but that's another matter entirely.

Actually, maybe Reds HQ should invest in some of these before the boys completely forget what making hard contact is supposed to feel like?

 

[mxyzptlk]

^^^^^^^^^^^
They should make it work both ways, so the player can feel what the fan is going through (indigestion, slight unsteadiness from the beer). Call it the Empathy Shirt.