Ireland v Scotland Autumn nations Cup Saturday 5th December 2020

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Ireland v Scotland
Autumn Nations Cup 3rd/4th Playoff

Saturday 5th December 2020
Aviva Stadium
Dublin

KO 14.15
Live on Amazon Prime

Well the last weekend of the Autunm Nations Cup and this looks like the best looking of the fixtures now that the final has been largely devalued by the French being unable to put out their strongest side.

Neither Scotland nor Ireland have looked great this autumn, defensively solid, but pretty stodgy in attack. Both teams will be keen to end the competition on a higher note than they have shown so far. Scotland, having put the Welsh hoodoo to be finally this autumn, will be keen to do the same in Dublin, where they have not won for 10 years either.

Both sides are still fiddling around trying to find their best teams ands develop new styles of play. Ireland in particular seem to be struggling to evolve under Farrell's stewardship, while Townsend was left admitting after the France game where we struggled to score a try, that Scotland need to be more than a team that are hard to beat. That might have been necessary in the post WC period where we had to restore some cre4dibility as a team, but it will only get us so far. Maybe we will be a bit happier to cut loose a little this weekend, though it will be difficult without our 2 FHs.

I think we might see a scotland team something along these lines:

1. Keeble
2. Brown - Turners awful throwing against France may have cost him a starting spot
3. Fagerson Z
4. Gray J - solely because Cummings has played a lot of minutes
5. Skinner
6. Ritchie
7. Watson
8. Fagerson M
9. Price
10. Weir
11. VDM
12. Taylor
13. Harris
14. Graham
15. Hogg

Sutherland - seems to be fit again
Turner - impact sub may be his status in life
Nel
Cummings
CDP
SHC - Horne just not played for a while
VDW
Jones H - I can only hope!

What a kick that was VdW!

Looks like it's just you and me here, tigertattie.
I'm listening on BBC Radio Ulster so feel free to update me on the visuals.

Hiya Llama.

Stupid penalty to give away at the line out so a great kick comes to nothing

Scotland playing with some real pace here, be nice if they cam keep it up for the full 80,

Jimbo bro hiya

You just missed the oddest thing. Jaco was on the Scottish 10 and Hogg was in the Irish 22 waving his arms tell jaco to kick the ball to him. Most bonkers

Scotland playing well at times but ruining things with some really stupid penalties

Annoying loss of coverage there.

And the yellow card?

Taylor carded for what was deemed a deliberate knock on in a tackle.

Pentalty if your Irish. Knock on if you are Scottish.

Duncan Taylor just picked up a yellow card for a knock on in the tackle. Just as Amazon Prime fell over so had no sound to hear what the ref was saying! Shame, Taylor has been playing well

Darcy tackled off the ball and nothing said

It’s not a card for me, but obviously didn’t help losing the coverage to hear the justification.

I do not understand why Ireland keep going for kick at goal and not kicks to the corner.
and trusting their line out,

RiscaGame wrote:It’s not a card for me, but obviously didn’t help losing the coverage to hear the justification.

Well he wasn’t offside so can only be for a deliberate knock on. Like I said it was one that could go either way depending on what colour glasses you have on

Only opinion that counts though is the ref

Yeah, it was deliberate knock on but I didn’t really think it warranted a card. Elliot Dee got away with a more blatant one last week (penalty only).

Reckon if that was the other way around I'd be baying for a yellow card so not too many complaints. That being said, the application of the law on these issues seems a bit silly to me. He took what seemed to be a sensible angle given the Irish numbers.
If you come to tackle to opposition now you have to make a big show of wrapping your arms. So these knock-ons are inevitable. Seems sensible to have a mitigating factors element to the application.

Scotland in from the side. Another stupid penalty. And costly on the 5m line perhaps

The background noise on the amazon coverage is really annoying too.

Far too many penalties given away now, need to improve the discipline or we’ll be looking at another card

No idea what Ali price was thinking there. He was never onside and to go in at that angle was just stupid. The quicker we get Sam HC on the better

RiscaGame wrote:The background noise on the amazon coverage is really annoying too.

Pretty sure you can turn it off Risca. You certainly could for previous games anyway. I turned it off for one as hearing the players communicating is interesting. Got some wee ones watching today though so the acoustic camouflage is quite nice given several rugby players vocabulary! 

Another penalty

Smart play and a well taken try for Ireland

Wee Darcy needed to be 6 inches taller there

Price may be coming off through injury in that scramble

Now we'll see whether they fold or come back with a snarl.

Good to be in front. Hope we can hold onto the lead now.
Sexton bit off with his goal kicking.

Actually a decent enough half, frustrating to lose a try right at the end and the discipline has to improve or there’s no chance we’re winning this. All to play for in the second half

It's been an odd half. Scotland have looked more fluent at their best but Ireland have taken their chances better and Scotland have given away a lot of unnecessary penalties.

Summary for jimbo

Typical half from Scotland. Playing some nice stuff but in the end all huff and puff with no reward.

Getting penalised off the park (rightly so) for silly penalties.

Jaco having a solid debut
Hogg trying to force things or win the game himself
Ali price being his slow self but now adding stupid penalties to his game
Darcy having quite a poor game
Scrum solid
Duhan looking dangerous
Cummings looking ok
Grey being quiet
Matt F nothing wrong, nothing good
Blade been a bit meh with some bad handling

tiger
What should Toonie be looking to change?

Henderson will be a big loss. Will Sexton come back out do you think?

king_carlos wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:The background noise on the amazon coverage is really annoying too.

Pretty sure you can turn it off Risca. You certainly could for previous games anyway. I turned it off for one as hearing the players communicating is interesting. Got some wee ones watching today though so the acoustic camouflage is quite nice given several rugby players vocabulary! 

I have looked, but couldn’t find anything other than commentary or fake sound. Cheers though. Don’t blame you today then

jimbopip wrote:tiger
What should Toonie be looking to change?

Henderson will be a big loss. Will Sexton come back out do you think?

Get price off and Sam HC on.
I’d also be tempted to take off blade and put Cowan on.
Darcy has 10 mins to change his game or sleepy Sean comes on

RiscaGame wrote:

king_carlos wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:The background noise on the amazon coverage is really annoying too.

Pretty sure you can turn it off Risca. You certainly could for previous games anyway. I turned it off for one as hearing the players communicating is interesting. Got some wee ones watching today though so the acoustic camouflage is quite nice given several rugby players vocabulary! 

I have looked, but couldn’t find anything other than commentary or fake sound. Cheers though. Don’t blame you today then

Should be an option on audio called stadium fx.

Scrap that. Hogg may need hooked for Sean. He’s just done two howlers

First was trying to run when no space resulting in a kick out on the full then he’s just knocked on in his own 22

Taylor just looks to have done a shoulder or a head knock. Oh dear

Another case of Scotland shooting ourself in the foot

Huw on for Taylor

Momentum all with Ireland now, we’re looking down and out right now. Really need some possession

Taylor just can’t make it through a game of rugby unscathed, it’s so frustrating!

What do you call a Scotsman onside?

I’ll tell you when I see one

Ireland just tightening up. Playing percentage rugby and letting Scotland mess up their own chances of winning this

Darcy caught in no man’s land to let earls in at the corner.

Scotland heads down.

We’re absolutely done here, complete implosion. All very Townsend era Scotland I’m afraid

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:Taylor just can’t make it through a game of rugby unscathed, it’s so frustrating!

He's such a good all round centre, it's a real shame how injuries have dogged him.

Well jimbo, you’ll be pleased to know that you are missing a poor poor performance from Scotland

Ireland are just going about their game in a pragmatic professional manner

That was probably a forward pass

That might just be Scotland's game over.

I think this autumn has proved we're still not near being consistently competitive.

I really love watching Darcy Graham ball in hand but his a defensive game has a long way to go at the top level. He's only 23 so has plenty of time to improve though.

Ireland pulling away now. surely they cannot loose this game can they?

Taylor remarkably is back on

Can Scotland do a 30 min turn around?

The most frustrating part of this is I don't think Ireland have had to work to get ahead in this game. It was almost a complete implosion. Jamie Ritchie has had a bit of a stinker.

Duhan going to have to do this all himself now! Great try