6 Nations thoughts by Foden, Heaslip, Roberts and Barclay

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/sixnations/9164014/Six-Nations-2012-round-table-To-win-the-Grand-Slam-with-Wales-was-a-shock.html

Jamie Roberts: "Our backroom guys had done a little video on all our best moments from the tournament for us to watch on the coach and also the ‘lowlights’ of our World Cup semi-final defeat against France. We were primed and ready to go."

John Barclay: "Listen, let’s be very frank. It’s not Andy’s fault that we cough up needless penalties in the second half and pick up silly yellow cards. It is not Andy Robinson’s fault we make a mess of great try-scoring opportunities and drop the ball when we shouldn’t."

Ben Foden: "I always felt they were the team to beat and none of us managed it. Wales set the benchmark in 2012."

Jamie Heaslip: "To be honest I don’t see how that match could ever have taken place. From the moment I ran on at the Stade I could feel the ground like concrete under my studs. Ireland actually somehow got through a full warm-up but the main giveaway was that France didn’t seem to be warming up at all."

Quite like to see Ben Foden gracious in defeat

Good read

Interesting comments from John Barclay too.

Good read!

That was a good read, Barclay is right that we can't criticise the coach for players dropping passes and making mistakes.

I can't think of any Scottish poster on here who has. We are criticizing decisions coaching decisions like :

Not picking the form players.
Picking players out of position.
and most importantly bringing Dan Parks into a match that tarnished his less than perfect reputation with the frustrated Scotland fans.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:
Not picking the form players.
Picking players out of position.
and most importantly bringing Dan Parks into a match that tarnished his less than perfect reputation with the frustrated Scotland fans.

None of which would have been seen as catastrophic if the players concerned hadn't made the errors they did.

aitchw wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:
Not picking the form players.
Picking players out of position.
and most importantly bringing Dan Parks into a match that tarnished his less than perfect reputation with the frustrated Scotland fans.

None of which would have been seen as catastrophic if the players concerned hadn't made the errors they did.

Not neccesarily true. Robinson had put his faith in players who had not been performing as well as their peers.

maestegmafia wrote:

John Barclay: "Listen, let’s be very frank. It’s not Andy’s fault that we cough up needless penalties in the second half and pick up silly yellow cards. It is not Andy Robinson’s fault we make a mess of great try-scoring opportunities and drop the ball when we shouldn’t."

An alternative.

"Listen, let's be very frank. My form disintegrated during and since the World Cup, and Ross Rennie was clearly outperforming me and rightly picked at 7. As a specialist openside, I'm extremely grateful to Andy Robinson for continuing to pick me out of position, despite there being far better options at 6. On that basis I will stick up for him and refuse to criticise. Thanks for the caps Andy."

funnyExiledScot wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

John Barclay: "Listen, let’s be very frank. It’s not Andy’s fault that we cough up needless penalties in the second half and pick up silly yellow cards. It is not Andy Robinson’s fault we make a mess of great try-scoring opportunities and drop the ball when we shouldn’t."

An alternative.

"Listen, let's be very frank. My form disintegrated during and since the World Cup, and Ross Rennie was clearly outperforming me and rightly picked at 7. As a specialist openside, I'm extremely grateful to Andy Robinson for continuing to pick me out of position, despite there being far better options at 6. On that basis I will stick up for him and refuse to criticise. Thanks for the caps Andy."

+1