Wales v Scotland, 15 March

Walesv Scotland  

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
15 March 2014, KO:14:45

Referee: Jérôme Garces (FFR)
First Assistant: Chris Pollock (NZR)
Second Assistant: Greg Garner (RFU)
TMO: Graham Hughes (RFU)

A. Squads

1. Wales

Forwards: Paul James (Bath), Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), Ryan Bevington (Ospreys), Richard Hibbard (Ospreys), Ken Owens (Scarlets), Emyr Phillips (Scarlets), Adam Jones (Ospreys), Samson Lee (Scarlets), Rhodri Jones (Scarlets), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Luke Charteris (Perpignan), Ian Evans (Ospreys), Andrew Coombs (Dragons), Ryan Jones (Ospreys), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Sam Warburton Capt (Cardiff Blues), Toby Faletau (Dragons), Dan Lydiate (Racing Metro), Aaron Shingler (Scarlets)

Backs: Rhodri Williams (Scarlets), Mike Phillips (Racing Metro), Rhys Webb (Ospreys), Dan Biggar (Ospreys), Rhys Priestland (Scarlets), James Hook (Perpignan), Jonathan Davies (Scarlets), Jamie Roberts (Racing Metro), Scott Williams (Scarlets), Alex Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues), George North (Northampton Saints), Leigh Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues), Liam Williams (Scarlets).

2. Scotland

Forwards: John Beattie (Montpellier), Kelly Brown (Saracens), Geoff Cross, David Denton, Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford (all Edinburgh Rugby), Chris Fusaro (Glasgow Warriors), Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby), Ryan Grant, Jonny Gray (both Glasgow Warriors), Richie Gray (Castres), Jim Hamilton (Montpellier), Robert Harley (Glasgow Warriors), Scott Lawson (Newcastle Falcons), Kieran Low (London Irish), Moray Low, Pat MacArthur (both Glasgow Warriors), Ross Rennie (Edinburgh Rugby) Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan), Tim Swinson and Ryan Wilson (both Glasgow Warriors).

Backs: Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors), Nick De Luca (Edinburgh Rugby), Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors), Max Evans (Castres), Dougie Fife (Edinburgh Rugby), Stuart Hogg, Ruaridh Jackson, Sean Lamont (all Glasgow Warriors), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby), Sean Maitland (Glasgow Warriors), Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby), Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors), Duncan Taylor (Saracens), Greig Tonks (Edinburgh Rugby) and Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors).

B. Previous Form

9 March 2013, Murrayfield
18 – 28 to Wales

12 February 2012, Millennium Stadium
27 – 13 to Wales

12 February 2011, Murrayfield
6 – 24 to Wales

13 February 2010, Millennium Stadium
31 – 24 to Wales

8 February 2009, Murrayfield
13 – 26 to Wales

9 February 2008, Millennium Stadium
30 – 15 to Wales

10 February 2007, Murrayfield
21 – 9 to Scotland

12 February 2006, Millennium Stadium
28 – 18 to Wales

13 March 2005, Murrayfield
22 – 46 to Wales

14 February 2004, Millennium Stadium
23 – 10 to Wales

30 August 2003, Millennium Stadium
23 – 9 to Wales (2003 Rugby World Cup preparatory game)

8 March 2003, Murrayfield
30 – 22 to Scotland

6 April 2002, Millennium Stadium
22 – 27 to Scotland

C. Teams

1. Wales

15 Liam Williams (Scarlets)
14 Alex Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues)
13 Jonathan Davies (Scarlets)
12 Jamie Roberts (Racing Metro)
11 George North (Northampton Saints)
10 Dan Biggar (Ospreys)
09 Mike Phillips (Racing Metro)

01 Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues)
02 Ken Owens (Scarlets)
03 Rhodri Jones (Scarlets)
04 Luke Charteris (Perpignan)
05 Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys)
06 Dan Lydiate (Racing Metro)
07 Sam Warburton (CAPT – Cardiff Blues)
08 Taulupe Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons)

Replacements:
16 Richard Hibbard (Ospreys)
17 Paul James (Bath Rugby)
18 Adam Jones (Ospreys)
19 Jake Ball (Scarlets)
20 Justin Tipuric (Ospreys)
21 Rhodri Williams (Scarlets)
22 Rhys Priestland (Scarlets)
23 James Hook (Perpignan)

2. Scotland

15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors)
14 Dougie Fife(Edinburgh Rugby)
13 Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors) 7
12 Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby)
11 Max Evans (Castres)
10 Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors)
9 Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby) vice-cpt

1 Ryan Grant (Glasgow Warriors)
2 Scott Lawson (Newcastle Falcons)
3 Geoff Cross (Edinburgh Rugby)
4 Richie Gray (Castres)
5 Jim Hamilton (Montpellier)
6 Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors)
7 Kelly Brown (Saracens) captain
8 David Denton (Edinburgh Rugby)

Substitutes
16 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby)
17 Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh Rugby)
18 Euan Murray (Worcester Warriors)
19 Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors)
20 Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan)
21 Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors)
22 Duncan Taylor (Saracens)
23 Jack Cuthbert (Edinburgh Rugby)

I'm not sure my nerves can handle any more of this tournament from a Scotland point of view!

An easy win or a tame loss will do nicely. Would prefer the former, suspect the latter.

I'm sorry, I've given up. Nevermind, Exeter vs Saints in the LV= Nonsense Cup final at Sandy Park next weekend - all invited

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:I'm sorry, I've given up.  Nevermind, Exeter vs Saints in the LV= Nonsense Cup final at Sandy Park next weekend - all invited

  

It's been some time since we beat the sheep worriers. I'm not going to predict any scorelines until the teams are announced!

Can't see us winning this at all, Wales are considerably better than France right now, and while smart sides like England have worked out how to negate their power game we haven't shown anywhere near the sort of intelligence required to emulate that. I think we'll be seeing SJ off in the manner he quite honestly deserves, on the wrong side of a thorough pumping.

It works in Wales' favour playing home and they'll probably raise their game like they did for France (after the Ireland mess). I think if we get our selection right, we should win but I'm not holding my breath. I wouldn't be surprised to see cement head make minimum changes.

Well I'll be at the MS for this one, cannae wait!

If any 606v2ers will be there and fancy a pre/post pint PM me.

You have also lost Beattie and Lamont.

Not so worried about losing Lamont, but Beattie missing out is a big blow. It would be less of a blow were SJ to select a blindside flanker to replace him, but I think we can expect another 80 minutes of complete anonymity from Ryan Wilson.

Max Evans will replace Sean Lamont, and Evans has been playing well recently, so not too bothered about that. I wonder if Dougie Fife will make the bench?

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:I'm sorry, I've given up.  Nevermind, Exeter vs Saints in the LV= Nonsense Cup final at Sandy Park next weekend - all invited

What? Even Schiz? After the incident with the landlord's dog and the opera singer?  

By far the best set up from the existing squad would be 6. Brown 7. Fusaro 8. Denton.

But knowing SJ, it will be 6. Lee Jones 7. My Senile & Mildly Racist Uncle Douglas 8. An old, rusty birdcage he found.

Glad to see Uncle Dougy back in the frame, was raging when he got dropped before

jimbopip wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:I'm sorry, I've given up.  Nevermind, Exeter vs Saints in the LV= Nonsense Cup final at Sandy Park next weekend - all invited

What? Even Schiz? After the incident with the landlord's dog  and the opera singer?  

Especially cos of that!    

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:Glad to see Uncle Dougy back in the frame, was raging when he got dropped before

   

In reality - who cares about this match now


I have lost all faith and energy and will be playing golf instead

At least when I stuff up a shot, I know I can only blame myself

It is just too depressing being a Scotland fan, and I am fed but wasting my time watching this rubbish every week

Riskysports wrote:In reality - who cares about this match now


I have lost all faith and energy and will be playing golf instead

At least when I stuff up a shot, I know I can only blame myself

It is just too depressing being a Scotland fan, and I am fed but wasting my time watching this rubbish every week

Harsh, same goes for you Asbo. That team played well on Saturday. Easily the best performance from Scotland in this 6N. Had it not been for Weir's brain fart the certain try we would have scored had the ball gone through the hands would have killed the game and we would have ran out comfortable winners.

Instead a moment of madness and brilliance in equal measure from Weir and Huget respectively and the game was turned on it's head.

Agree. Whilst quitting watching sport altogether was justifiable after the Calcutta Cup debacle, we played well enough yesterday to win that game. As Radge rightly points out, the game hinged on one speculative pass which was poorly executed. That was a 14 pointer, in a game ultimately decided by 2 points.

I' was quite proud of that effort on Saturday, particularly Cross and Grant's effort against Mas and Domingo.

I've just been given a couple of tickets for this game should I wear my England top (Collar up) and enjoy the day out, enjoy the day out and pretend to be either Welsh or Scottish or stay at home and watch Scotland lose on the tv?   

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

Riskysports wrote:In reality - who cares about this match now


I have lost all faith and energy and will be playing golf instead

At least when I stuff up a shot, I know I can only blame myself

It is just too depressing being a Scotland fan, and I am fed but wasting my time watching this rubbish every week

Harsh, same goes for you Asbo. That team played well on Saturday. Easily the best performance from Scotland in this 6N. Had it not been for Weir's brain fart the certain try we would have scored had the ball gone through the hands would have  killed the game and we would have ran out comfortable winners.

Instead a moment of madness and brilliance in equal measure from Weir and Huget respectively and the game was turned on it's head.

Sorry I do not actually think we did play that well at all. We may have had 20 mins of ok play - but this was a French team that a bunch of boy scouts, with a single proficiency badge in canoeing could have beaten


We had two scores and one other try scoring position - but that is all - the rest of the time we did what we always do and have done for 10 years - lots of possession, running across the park, making little dent in the 22

The second half was a joke. Even after the interception, I can not stand how easily we give up - THEY ARE Fing PROFESSIONALS and if any one I played gave up like that they would be dropped


So in Summary

We did not play well
The opposition were a joke (running into each other)
We STILL COULD NOT WIN
and we gave up


Why should I waste my valuable (in my eyes) time, ?


PS I am not even angry any more - just accepting that we are c r a p and have not progressed in 10 years (We can keep deluding ourselves that we have but the results do not lie) - and that is what really means this is becoming a waste of my time - I have no passion left for it

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

Riskysports wrote:In reality - who cares about this match now


I have lost all faith and energy and will be playing golf instead

At least when I stuff up a shot, I know I can only blame myself

It is just too depressing being a Scotland fan, and I am fed but wasting my time watching this rubbish every week

Harsh, same goes for you Asbo. That team played well on Saturday. Easily the best performance from Scotland in this 6N. Had it not been for Weir's brain fart the certain try we would have scored had the ball gone through the hands would have  killed the game and we would have ran out comfortable winners.

Instead a moment of madness and brilliance in equal measure from Weir and Huget respectively and the game was turned on it's head.

Sorry, I just don't buy that, Radge - my time is precious, and I'd prefer to spend it on things that are giving me enjoyment, which right now excludes Scottish rugby. That French team was there for the taking and should never have been in a position to steal the match; they looked lost, unsure of tactics, and lacking in confidence, but they still won. We have spent this 6Ns witnessing more bizarre selections/non-selections, odd substitutions, and uncertain or simply duff game plans. There is sadly no guarantee that we'd have scored had the interception not occurred, even with an almighty 4-on-2 at worst overlap. We go from the sublime to the ridiculous - its unfair to pick on any one player, but let's take one that impressed you (and received the MOTM award), Dozer Denton. At one restart, he gathered well inside the 22, saw some space and committed to a run with ball, made some yardage, and then spilled at the first sign of contact under not much pressure - too frustrating, and symptomatic of where Scotland realistically are. Fortunately when the French then strung a few phases together, they also went for a bizarre mis-pass instead of giving a simple scoring pass. So no, I don't buy into "that team played well" - the scoreboard doesn't lie, and the opposition were attrocious

This is still the team that done England over. France are never mugs and whilst I agree we'll never have a better crack at them, our Forwards were excellent and our backs looked dangerous when they had the ball.

We certainly did more with what we had compared to France.

It saddens me to see what was a good performance being judged so harshly.

Had you given up after the England match I would have understood.

Betfair giving Scotland odds of 13/2 for Saturday. Sure worth a cheeky £20 no?

I remember something similar when we beat Ireland at Croke Park in 2010.

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

Riskysports wrote:In reality - who cares about this match now


I have lost all faith and energy and will be playing golf instead

At least when I stuff up a shot, I know I can only blame myself

It is just too depressing being a Scotland fan, and I am fed but wasting my time watching this rubbish every week

Harsh, same goes for you Asbo. That team played well on Saturday. Easily the best performance from Scotland in this 6N. Had it not been for Weir's brain fart the certain try we would have scored had the ball gone through the hands would have  killed the game and we would have ran out comfortable winners.

Instead a moment of madness and brilliance in equal measure from Weir and Huget respectively and the game was turned on it's head.

Sorry, I just don't buy that, Radge - my time is precious, and I'd prefer to spend it on things that are giving me enjoyment, which right now excludes Scottish rugby.  That French team was there for the taking and should never have been in a position to steal the match; they looked lost, unsure of tactics, and lacking in confidence, but they still won.  We have spent this 6Ns witnessing more bizarre selections/non-selections, odd substitutions, and uncertain or simply duff game plans.  There is sadly no guarantee that we'd have scored had the interception not occurred, even with an almighty 4-on-2 at worst overlap.  We go from the sublime to the ridiculous - its unfair to pick on any one player, but let's take one that impressed you (and received the MOTM award), Dozer Denton.  At one restart, he gathered well inside the 22, saw some space and committed to a run with ball, made some yardage, and then spilled at the first sign of contact under not much pressure - too frustrating, and symptomatic of where Scotland realistically are.  Fortunately when the French then strung a few phases together, they also went for a bizarre mis-pass instead of giving a simple scoring pass.  So no, I don't buy into "that team played well" - the scoreboard doesn't lie, and the opposition were attrocious

If you're not going to watch the game does that mean you're not going to be on here until after the game then?   

I really can not see why people say we played well

That French team has been awful and we managed to compete in the set piece - whipeee fing dooo

We played ok in the first half then back to tosh in the second

It takes more than just being able to compete in the scrum and line out to make me excited

RDW_Scotland wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

Riskysports wrote:In reality - who cares about this match now


I have lost all faith and energy and will be playing golf instead

At least when I stuff up a shot, I know I can only blame myself

It is just too depressing being a Scotland fan, and I am fed but wasting my time watching this rubbish every week

Harsh, same goes for you Asbo. That team played well on Saturday. Easily the best performance from Scotland in this 6N. Had it not been for Weir's brain fart the certain try we would have scored had the ball gone through the hands would have  killed the game and we would have ran out comfortable winners.

Instead a moment of madness and brilliance in equal measure from Weir and Huget respectively and the game was turned on it's head.

Sorry, I just don't buy that, Radge - my time is precious, and I'd prefer to spend it on things that are giving me enjoyment, which right now excludes Scottish rugby.  That French team was there for the taking and should never have been in a position to steal the match; they looked lost, unsure of tactics, and lacking in confidence, but they still won.  We have spent this 6Ns witnessing more bizarre selections/non-selections, odd substitutions, and uncertain or simply duff game plans.  There is sadly no guarantee that we'd have scored had the interception not occurred, even with an almighty 4-on-2 at worst overlap.  We go from the sublime to the ridiculous - its unfair to pick on any one player, but let's take one that impressed you (and received the MOTM award), Dozer Denton.  At one restart, he gathered well inside the 22, saw some space and committed to a run with ball, made some yardage, and then spilled at the first sign of contact under not much pressure - too frustrating, and symptomatic of where Scotland realistically are.  Fortunately when the French then strung a few phases together, they also went for a bizarre mis-pass instead of giving a simple scoring pass.  So no, I don't buy into "that team played well" - the scoreboard doesn't lie, and the opposition were attrocious

If you're not going to watch the game does that mean you're not going to be on here until after the game then?   

Would that make life pleasanter for you, RDW? In which case, not a chance

Not at all ASBO! Honest....!

I think I might set up so timed posts (is that possible) so that I can join in the conversation even while on the course

2 mins - try down - wake up
11 - mins  - yeah a penalty
12 mins - restart mistake again - another 3 points gifted
15 mins  - hands like t its AGAIN
17 min - another rest scrum.
19 min - Denton can you off load please
20 min - HAAAAAAAMILTTTTTOOOOOOOOOONN - noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
20.1 mins - Yellow card hamilton
25 mins - SJ subs of best player and puts on GC 'Senile & Mildly Racist Uncle Douglas'
26 Mins - pee break
27 mins - what I miss - what Wales scored 2 tries!







62 mins - back from walking the dog







81 mins - I am drunk

Yup, I agree with Risky.  We played well for about 10-15 mins in the first half but the rest of the game we were knickers!

Many of you know I don't feel Denton is the player others make him out to be and view Beattie as the far superior player! At the weekend what exactly did Denton do to warrant MotM? What I did see was the incident that Risky was referring to where Denton coughed up the ball.  I'll also add that coughing up the ball resulted in a france attack that lead to Beattie being injured!

We cannot lable this game as a glorious defeat for us.  Radge says this was the team that turned over England! Well, not really, half the players were different in that game. France were terrible and we were just as bad for not putting the win on them.

I would say the forwards had a better game (still not great) but our backline barely got moving. Hoggs try was oppertunistic (fair play to the boy) and Seymours was dubious in its legality. But other than those plays, our backline did nothing. I read somewhere that with all the ball we had, Duncan Weir only passed the ball 5 times! If this is true then we seriously need to look at what on earth was going on during that game!

tigertattie wrote:Yup, I agree with Risky.  We played well for about 10-15 mins in the first half but the rest of the game we were knickers!

Many of you know I don't feel Denton is the player others make him out to be and view Beattie as the far superior player! At the weekend what exactly did Denton do to warrant MotM? What I did see was the incident that Risky was referring to where Denton coughed up the ball.  I'll also add that coughing up the ball resulted in a france attack that lead to Beattie being injured!

We cannot lable this game as a glorious defeat for us.  Radge says this was the team that turned over England! Well, not really, half the players were different in that game. France were terrible and we were just as bad for not putting the win on them.

I would say the forwards had a better game (still not great) but our backline barely got moving. Hoggs try was oppertunistic (fair play to the boy) and Seymours was dubious in its legality. But other than those plays, our backline did nothing. I read somewhere that with all the ball we had, Duncan Weir only passed the ball 5 times! If this is true then we seriously need to look at what on earth was going on during that game!

France's 1st foray into our half Denton saved a certain try. Hogg made a tackle and the guy offloaded. Denton made the second tackle somehwere on the 5M line, jackled the ball and slowed it down enough to save a certain try.

I would say Scott, Dunbar or Denton were our best players. Gray played well too.

I have held off commenting on the game because I hate saying, "Told you so".
However, there were a number of ironies which cannot go unmentioned.
Rab  C  has always preached performance over results, at least in the early days, yet here he went for a result but had to settle for a reasonable performance.
We all screamed that we wanted a settled team and no more chopping and changing. So he kept Laidlaw, when either Cusiter or Pyrgos or GC's uncle Dougie (who doesn't have any puppies in his shed BTW) would all have been more effective. Then he kept Wee Dunkie when Jackson would probably have been more suited to running the French ragged.
His Rabness had to choose between a steady, if predictable, standoff and a creative, imaginative if slightly flakey one. He went with the steady, won't throw the game away player who then threw the game away.
Finally, remember the French play above the ground...so we get a ref who wouldn't know a ruck from Beyoncé's beam end and get penalised off the park.
I realise that all of the above may not be ironic but merely the logical consequences of employing His Rabidness but hey if you don't kiss the occasional dingo you don't get to Barbie your prawns by the beach at Bondi, mate.

How many player has Denton beaten with his runs - he gets lots of yards as he receives kick offs and takes the ball from deep - but I am struggling to remember once this whole six nations that he has got past a player

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:This is still the team that done England over. France are never mugs and whilst I agree we'll never have a better crack at them, our Forwards were excellent and our backs looked dangerous when they had the ball.

We certainly did more with what we had compared to France.

It saddens me to see what was a good performance being judged so harshly.

Had you given up after the England match I would have understood.

Is it though? They were missing a lot of their key players, as has been said many times this was out best chance to beat them in a very long time. Their performance was garbage. We still lost. Put me in the failing to see how we played well camp, because I'm baffled at how people are seeing that performance as positive

Edit: as said by tigertattie ^ up there somewhere

vs Ire - 13 runs, for 31m, beating 0 defenders
vs Eng - 12/57/0
vs Ita (sub) - 7/1/0
vs Fra - 13/45/3

Sub-total - 45/134/3

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:This is still the team that done England over. France are never mugs and whilst I agree we'll never have a better crack at them, our Forwards were excellent and our backs looked dangerous when they had the ball.

We certainly did more with what we had compared to France.

It saddens me to see what was a good performance being judged so harshly.

Had you given up after the England match I would have understood.

Is it though? They were missing a lot of their key players, as has been said many times this was out best chance to beat them in a very long time. Their performance was garbage. We still lost. Put me in the failing to see how we played well camp, because I'm baffled at how people are seeing that performance as positive

Edit: as said by tigertattie ^ up there somewhere

Take it youd didn't see the England or Ireland game where we couldn't buy lineout ball or were getting mullered at every scrum?

I'm not interested in this game either, particularly. Be good banter with the wife maybe, but that's it. If we did manage to pinch a win, a misfiring win at home to Italy and a win v a poor France isn't a great return.

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:vs Ire - 13 runs, for 31m, beating 0 defenders
vs Eng - 12/57/0
vs Ita (sub) - 7/1/0
vs Fra - 13/45/3

Sub-total - 45/134/3

Is that metres made over the gain line? I have a feeling that Denton make most of his metres from catching the ball deep and legging it up to the first opposition defender he can find.

And yes, I'll give him the try saving tackle at the start of the game (though wee duncy helped)

I just can't help but think that if Denton didnt have blonde hair he wouldn't stand out as much! I just wish the boy would do more than hang about the backline looking for the big run for the highlight reel

tigertattie wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:vs Ire - 13 runs, for 31m, beating 0 defenders
vs Eng - 12/57/0
vs Ita (sub) - 7/1/0
vs Fra - 13/45/3

Sub-total - 45/134/3

Is that metres made over the gain line? I have a feeling that Denton make most of his metres from catching the ball deep and legging it up to the first opposition defender he can find.

And yes, I'll give him the try saving tackle at the start of the game (though wee duncy helped)

I just can't help but think that if Denton didnt have blonde hair he wouldn't stand out as much! I just wish the boy would do more than hang about the backline looking for the big run for the highlight reel

No, tattie, unfortunately they don't publish those numbers anywhere that I know - as others have pointed out, Denton's kick returns will skew those stats considerably. Altho, arguably as the kick return is a defensive action, the gain line for a defender is the ball, in which case many of those metres gained are over the gain line

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:vs Ire - 13 runs, for 31m, beating 0 defenders
vs Eng - 12/57/0
vs Ita (sub) - 7/1/0
vs Fra - 13/45/3

Sub-total - 45/134/3

So in 4 games he has beaten 3 defenders - who as they were French probably bumped into each other and fell over

That is not good stats for anyone - a 0.067 return on runs

To be fair, you're not gonna find many forwards with much better defender's beaten stats...

Plus it's not really a number 8's job to be dancing through tackles. What he does need to do - like Read and Parisee - is free his hands and look to offload. He gets us over the gainline - it is very infrequent in modern rugby to run over someone.

We all know what Denton's weaknesses are - and I hope he's working on them - but he's the best we've got just now with beattie injured.

RDW_Scotland wrote:To be fair, you're not gonna find many forwards with much better defender's beaten stats...

Plus it's not really a number 8's job to be dancing through tackles. What he does need to do - like Read and Parisee - is free his hands and look to offload. He gets us over the gainline - it is very infrequent in modern rugby to run over someone.

We all know whay Denton's weaknesses are - and I hope he's working on them - but he's the best we've got just nowcwith beattie injured.

Hmm, might want to compare these stats to those for Vunipola, Faletau, Heaslip, Parisse, Picamoles, or even Ben Morgan

You really think that they actually beat defenders regularly?

Not gonna look at the stats but if someone else is do inclined.

And once again - other than Wilson or Hogg at 8 he's whay we've got to use.

Might be worth taking out Beattie and Lamont from the squad list.

Assuming Evans gets 11, then we have Jackson, NDL or Fife to take the 23. If we bench Taylor, there's no reason for NDL. And because Jackson hasn't featured for us yet I can't see him getting 22. Also SJ seems to like to have Hogg go to 10 if Weir is off. So that only leaves Fife. Got to say I'd be a little disappointed if I was   

For Beattie, I imagine Strockosch will bench. I'd like him to start in place of Wilson though. Really tough on Stroker given that he's been good for us recently.

Both coaches should come to a gentleman's agreement as the match has nothing riding on it.No aimless hoofing and Chuck the ball about to entertain the suffering punters.
The match ball in the England v Wales match went off with concussion just after half time!

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

jimbopip wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:I'm sorry, I've given up.  Nevermind, Exeter vs Saints in the LV= Nonsense Cup final at Sandy Park next weekend - all invited

What? Even Schiz? After the incident with the landlord's dog  and the opera singer?  

Especially cos of that!    

Aah hem ! Thought what went on tour stayed on tour !   

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

jimbopip wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:I'm sorry, I've given up.  Nevermind, Exeter vs Saints in the LV= Nonsense Cup final at Sandy Park next weekend - all invited

What? Even Schiz? After the incident with the landlord's dog  and the opera singer?  

Especially cos of that!    

Aah hem !  Thought what went on tour stayed on tour !   

Biggest fallacy in rugby, what goes on on tour is known by every male member of every rugby club within a 10 mile radius.

How very dare you Sir !   

I should add - think I will go and get my back sack and crack waxed rather than watch another desperate, putrid, crap display by an ill coached rabble that could not beat a French side with all the backbone of a feckin jellyfish.

Suggestions in the press that Gatland is going to make some changes.

Not sure whether that works for us or against us - we know exactly what to expect if he picks the same team, and Wales have some exciting young players waiting in the wings.