Apologies Saints fans but...!

If that is the way your side play, I have really only seen this game and the lv= match vs the ospreys but saints are probably the dirtiest side in european rugby. How they didn't get severalplayers binned I am amazed. They scrummages illegally all night and the ref was naive, off the ball they were terrible.

There should be citings for Hartley holding Davies by the scruff of the neck for about a minute behind the refs back, for Ashton for picking up Norths leg at an angled that pulled his hamstring, and several other for fighting off the ball.

Young Gareth Davies took more punches and kicks off Saints front five than I have seen in twenty years.

Did you get a proper look at the game from up there on your highest of horses?

Just wondering.

PJHolybloke wrote:Did you get a proper look at the game from up there on your highest of horses?

Just wondering.

Yes.

to be fair, North - was clutching at his leg through out and had treatment in the first half.

However, my cynical side thinks Ashton knew this and took the first oppertunity to have a go at it.

my middle of the road side - thinks that this sort of thing is let go without punishment too often.

My reasonable side says - let them get away with it and simply do the talking with the ball in the next match.

slartibartfast wrote:to be fair, North - was clutching at his leg through out and had treatment in the first half.

However, my cynical side thinks Ashton knew this and took the first oppertunity to have a go at it.

my middle of the road side - thinks that this sort of thing is let go without punishment too often.

My reasonable side says - let them get away with it and simply do the talking with the ball in the next match.

Luckily Scarlett's did the talking with the result but I initially was more inclined to align with your cynical side...!

As a neutral I've got to say that's an incredibly one sided view if the game. The scarlets 3 was boring in, refusing tiny his bind and standing up throughout. Saint scrumaging style is dodgey but they were owed at least half a dozern penalties they didn't receive.

The cynical play aspect is more than a shade hypocritical when the scarlets favourite position was offside. If Ashton and hartley get bans then timani and Davies will get bigger ones.

We all see games in different lights.

I dont disagree with my initial opinion though.

formerly known as Sam wrote:As a neutral I've got to say that's an incredibly one sided view if the game. The scarlets 3 was boring in, refusing tiny his bind and standing up throughout. Saint scrumaging style is dodgey but they were owed at least half a dozern penalties they didn't receive.

Scarlets 3? No, just Rhys Thomas. So was Sione. Hartley constantly stood up in the scrums and it was highlighted last year; so not even sure how he is still getting away with it. Shame, because when he's not trying to be wannabe hardman he's a cool captain. He's definitely calmed down on this reputation though. I noticed a lot of stamping came from both teams, probably the majority coming from Scarlets as they had the most posession.

I am heterosexual.

I am not homophobic.

Heck, I ran a bar in a theatre for four years and trust me when I say you can't do that and not get on with everyone no matter their inclination.

Yes decisions - as is always the case - were missed for both sides it just looked to me like the red ones took their chances with more flair.......and points



The reason I started this post like that is so there's no misunderstanding where I'm coming from.....ooh err Missus

That point made above ^^^^ about Hartley grabbing Davies.

Now I've never been a fan of Hartley, always find myself feeling frustrated to the point of self-harm that he isn't pinged more and thought he was a bit of a thug more suited to hockey-esque blind-siding than egg-chasing but......it really didn't look to me like a scruff-grabbing exercise. It looked to me like he was trying his hardest to pinch the skin at the back of Davies's neck as hard as he could.......like a schoolboy would do.......to the schoolgirl he fancied.......or in this case schoolboy.

In true carry on fashion is Hartley a bit of a secret whoopsey ??

They are very dirty team, more interested in trying to intimidate the opposition through violence,
Just like Lawes talking about how hard he is and players fear him before the Munster game,
The only time i saw Lawes was when he assaulted a player on the floor then two more Saints players jumped on and joined in, disgraceful,
a ref with a back bone would have binned several Saints players.

Whilst the Saint were dirty let's not forget Foxy was lucky to get away with a high tackle, and Timani with a late tackle.

If Hartelt and Ashton are going to come under the citing commissioners attention, then so are those two.

I personally did hate all the off the ball stuff Saints were doing. Last season we saw the Blues lose their temper against them with all the niggle, am just so proud the Scarlets kept their cool. Don't respond and those tactics soon become useless.

RD if you want to pick on small details like late and high tackles saints could well end up with three or four further players standing in the dock before the ERC.

They aren't small details Maes, both the incidents I've highlighted were really obvious.

Just wanted to add a bit of balance to this. Yes, Saints were dirty last night, but Scarelts weren't angels either, and it would be stupid to paint them like that.

What was key is that we kept our discipline for the most part and didn't respons except by scoring points. That's exactly as it should be done.

Well as far as the Heineken Cup is concerned they look like going out so good riddance- couldn't happen to a more deeply unpleasant bunch of thugs

Geez Maes give it a rest. You've made this point on other threads enough.

I'm not a fan of Saints attempted rough tactics, but Scarlets were no angels. The simple fact is, that stuff clearly adds nothing to their game, if anything it seemed to distract them from playing proper rugby - the result, a pasting.

Scarlets were excellent, good luck to them. Hope North isn't too bad.

Geez, if you think that was dirty you should have tried playing against Welsh teams in the 80s.

I still have horror flashbacks of playing away against Neath & Pontypridd

Hilarious whinging about nothing going on.

The more you make a point of complaining about particular players, the more obvious it is that you actually fear them a bit, so why do it and give the English the satisfaction of knowing that?

The Scarlets are just as dirty, their just much smarter when they cause trouble! The entire Scarlets front row are real trouble makers with Rhys Thomas starting trouble every game he plays... He is always making a nuisance of himself and winding people up, and wily old Iestyn Thomas no angel either!

I wouldn't be suprised if the Saints were simply responding to verbal provocation from those guys. I'm not saying that to annoy Scarlets fans but lets be honest their front row are good at mixing it up and very fiery.

don't cry Alyn, the Ospreys can't win every game, have another drink and you'll forget about it then.

Just listen to yourselves - grow up !

Alyn - Rhys T is indeed a bit of a wum on the pitch. It's only just this season he's gotten clever at it though and is no longer a liability,

I don't think any team can say that they are angels. But there is no denying that most of the off the ball stuff was coming from Saints yesterday, but I would hardly say that Saints are the only team that do it. Tis ridiculous to suggest that imo.

People may counter any way they like but is anyone actually denying that Saints have a tendency of disgusting off-the-ball antics? And I mean thuggish acts of intimidation and winding up as a common strategy, not only simple infringements.

By the sounds of it Saints are the dirtiest team in the competition and Scarlets have already won it. Amazing after round 2. I know Saints do things they shouldn't but to suggest it doesn't happen with other teams in other games to is silly. Amazing how one eyed some people are.

and most of the people saying it aren't even Scarlet fans coltnet!

Many teams do it, but it's not something I like to see, takes too much of the focus away from rugby for me, and it's a poor attitude to play the game in.

Coltnet wrote:By the sounds of it Saints are the dirtiest team in the competition and Scarlets have already won it. Amazing after round 2. I know Saints do things they shouldn't but to suggest it doesn't happen with other teams in other games to is silly. Amazing how one eyed some people are.

winds me up as well!

It's not Scarlets fans that are saying it though, looks like people are jumping on the bandwagon to have a pop at English teams and players, shame really.

Turkster wrote:

Coltnet wrote:By the sounds of it Saints are the dirtiest team in the competition and Scarlets have already won it. Amazing after round 2. I know Saints do things they shouldn't but to suggest it doesn't happen with other teams in other games to is silly. Amazing how one eyed some people are.

winds me up as well!

It's not Scarlets fans that are saying it though, looks like people are jumping on the bandwagon to have a pop at English teams and players, shame really.

+1

Turkster wrote:don't cry Alyn, the Ospreys can't win every game, have another drink and you'll forget about it then.

I'm not crying, I'm just adding my point of view to the debate, if some people went to Parc Y scarlets instead of watching games on the tv then you would see a lot more things going on around the pitch, instead when watching on tv you are only basically following the ball

Rhys really winds opposition players up, he will always pick the ball up when the referee blows his whistle and try and annoy any opposition player trying to get it off him, before lobbing it over his head or passing to someone else, and his mouth is always running during games.
I'm not saying it's bad or dirty but it is a good way of annoying the opposition and putting them off their game.

I agree with the comments about Saints also though, because they tried to start a lot of trouble when they came to play the Ospreys 4th team, luckily we did have Ianto on the pitch and he sorted them out!

Alan Quinlan made a career of doing that. Sexton is like that too.

Wow. Great discussion about rugby...

For what it's worth, I really enjoyed the Scarlets vs Northampton game. There was some great (and some not so great) rugby played. From a Scarlets' fan's point of view, it was encouraging to see our pack hold their own- I particularly enjoyed that rolling maul towards the end of the second half- must have made about 30 yards?

The Scarlets backs played some fantastic running rugby at times, and it's great to see Priestland putting in the same commanding performance he had been producing in the world cup. The future looks bright!

rugbydreamer wrote:Whilst the Saint were dirty let's not forget Foxy was lucky to get away with a high tackle, and Timani with a late tackle.

If Hartelt and Ashton are going to come under the citing commissioners attention, then so are those two.

I personally did hate all the off the ball stuff Saints were doing. Last season we saw the Blues lose their temper against them with all the niggle, am just so proud the Scarlets kept their cool. Don't respond and those tactics soon become useless.

For the record, the high tackle was proved not to be by tv replays - in fact jd hits below the shoulder and the attacker started to duck.

Not giving the ball back isn't dirty play - it's giving your team a few seconds to reset and think

slartibartfast wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:Whilst the Saint were dirty let's not forget Foxy was lucky to get away with a high tackle, and Timani with a late tackle.

If Hartelt and Ashton are going to come under the citing commissioners attention, then so are those two.

I personally did hate all the off the ball stuff Saints were doing. Last season we saw the Blues lose their temper against them with all the niggle, am just so proud the Scarlets kept their cool. Don't respond and those tactics soon become useless.

For the record, the high tackle was proved not to be by tv replays - in fact jd hits below the shoulder and the attacker started to duck.

Not giving the ball back isn't dirty play - it's giving your team a few seconds to reset and think

I thought Scarlets were very admirable that they didn't react to saints attempts.

I missed the Ashton violence on George North.

Can someone explain?

North was protecting the ball at a ruck, instead of trying to clear him out properly, Ashton grabbed his leg and dragged it up at a really awkward angle. No attempt to clear out. North went off injured immediately afterwards. Doubt he'll be cited for it, twas just a really cheap shot imo.

Geroge North is:

harder than Chuck Norris
tougher than a Terminator
stronger than popeye
faster than Usain Bolt

Surely if Ashton had tried anything he would have broken himself in half?


More seriously I only saw the first half - where both teams were equally guilty of quite a lot of niggle.
Saints must have been dreadfully dirty in the second half to warrant the hatred being spewed in their direction.

I'm not sure why all the hatred to be honest LT.

Yes they did a lot of off the ball stuff but the Scarlets dealt with it really well and didn't let themselves get bullied around the field. They dealt with it all perfectly. I think what's annoyed a lot of people is that sometimes, it seems to be all Saints do and it distract from the rugby. Personally, I'd rather not see things like it going on. it detracts from what was a good, hard fought game of rugby.

North in ruck, Ashton grabs his leg and pulls at it - which I though was illegal ie you drive players over the ball not go the wrong side and yank at limbs.

1 offside
2 taking players legs away

Ps. This is a comment about stupid play and not a dig at saints.

LondonTiger wrote:Geroge North is:

harder than Chuck Norris
tougher than a Terminator
stronger than popeye
faster than Usain Bolt

Surely if Ashton had tried anything he would have broken himself in half?


More seriously I only saw the first half - where both teams were equally guilty of quite a lot of niggle.
Saints must have been dreadfully dirty in the second half to warrant the hatred being spewed in their direction.

Nope cheap shot while north couldn't react - if chuck Norris was at the bottom of a ruck he'd struggle to react

Scarlets did the right thing at simply beat them on the score board

rugbydreamer wrote:North was protecting the ball at a ruck, instead of trying to clear him out properly, Ashton grabbed his leg and dragged it up at a really awkward angle. No attempt to clear out. North went off injured immediately afterwards. Doubt he'll be cited for it, twas just a really cheap shot imo.

What was the 'cheap shot'? Pulling, stamping or what?

As I say, I never saw the incident.

Watched the match and tbh there was nothing in it from either team that you don't see in most other matches, take from that what you will.

But looking at the poster who started this thread, then looking at his posting history towards teams he doesn't like he probably had his mind made up on Saints before the match started.

The pulling up of the leg at a really awkward angle resulting in an injury Portnoy was the cheap shot.

I saw the game and i thought saints were nasty a niggly and dirty and I hop Lawes at least is cited

LondonTiger wrote:Geroge North is:

harder than Chuck Norris
tougher than a Terminator
stronger than popeye
faster than Usain Bolt

Surely if Ashton had tried anything he would have broken himself in half?

All non-funny statements made by the same idiot poster. Please don't repeat them because once is enough.

heres a clip to the Hartley incident https://youtu.be/wtN-enPWYTY

Ah man he's such a child. Not dirty that, but seriously what an idiot, I mean what's the point? All he got out of it was Smiler and Gar laughing in his face.

flankertye wrote:heres a clip to the Hartley incident https://youtu.be/wtN-enPWYTY

Other than knocking on, what does he do in this clip?

he desides to, for whatever reason, spend a good few seconds pinching gareth davies' neck. I don't know why.

Oh, I thought it was just a playful hand on the back. Fair enough.

And thats enough to get half a nation baying for his blood??
What would they be after if he actually hit someone? hanging from the gates of Cardiff Castle?

Knackeredknees wrote:And thats enough to get half a nation baying for his blood??
What would they be after if he actually hit someone? hanging from the gates of Cardiff Castle?

half a nation? 3 or 4 posters are 'half a nation'?