[Closed] 2013/14 Rugby Thread

That's how to score a try!!!

They're going to need a biggar bin!
I'll get my coat?

Terrific game of rugby. Cooper is properly up for it, which does bode well.

Aussies looking good now. Big hits from North and Hibbard though.

Good half of rugby.

Really liking Justin Marshall's commentary, proper enthusiasm for the game.

Hooper owns the breakdown at the moment. Liking the niggle.

What a great half. Cooper is havng a special day. Hibbard trying to give Youngs a run for his money for "worst line out throwing".

Come on Wales, you need to break this duck.

Aus playing better than I've seen in ages. Really attacking. Wales too but Aus look like they have the individual skill going forward.

Their game plan seems to be 'smash it' hence the attacking play and all the mistakes..

Quite some niggle between Phillips and Cooper after Phillips deliberately stamped on Cooper's hand. Right in front of the ref too. I say ref, I mean Barnes, trying his best to ruin the game.
Fun so far though!
I have [i]never[/i] seen Cooper play so well!

wales have fallen over slightly. I hope they get it back.
Even I thought that was forward.

Like that from Barnes - he didn't need the TMO. Poor from the crowd to boo the kick. Wales look toast here.

Warburton & Lydiate outclassed so far.

Just checking in to see ow excited my old mate jambas is getting over Quade and how stressed AA is getting. Great fun to watch. Cmon Wales need a quick reply now.

Why can you mash us and fall over in front of the Aussies?

Love that dummy.

Aussies quicker in thought and deed, making Welsh efforts look pedestrian.

that was good whpever that williams was, barnes a bit pro Aus.

north!

5 mins ago I was thinking North was having a quiet match. Just biding his time. Great fun this!!!

North was on for like three tries but never got the pass.

No idea where all these extra Aussies have come from though.

There's no way Barnes has been pro aus, he's made some shocking calls on both sides. Nothing wrong with the aus try though.

[i]There's no way Barnes has been pro aus[/i]

Agree there - he just ruins the flow of a game. This one, even Barnes can't wreck though!

Wow, that is some call!

Oh, there's going to be some irate folk on here now!!

Loving the 'Dove Men Care' logo in the middle. This lot moisturise much, do they?

What a surprise. A Wayne Barnes decision decides a game.

Hang your head Barnes.

Can't believe the **** kicked it.

No I think loads of poor decisions cost Wales that game...

It was a brave effort. Even the most biased supporters couldn't complain about the result, Aus were just the better team on the night.

Great game no prob with barns but kick in the ****in ball at end.

I agree.

Can someone run me through the bad reffing decisions? Didn't hear much commentary and I am no ref..

George North was clean through, ref should have let him touch down then had a look at the video. Instead, he blew just before he touched down, dragged it back to penalise Australia, got the yellow card wrong etc etc etc.

I wouldn't have given either yellow card. He got most everything at the breakdown wrong and ignored all the fights!

Epic

Was a knock on surely so he couldnt have let it go?

Great game, Wales did well. Totally agree Barnes should have let the try happen then gone back to check. Some dodgy decisions at the breakdown but overall Aus deserved it.

North is a centre and still failing to deliver toys is a visionary!
Wish that **** Williams hadnt kicked it to aus with two mins to go.

The card was definitely an offence. No problem with what he did. For me he was also tackled without the ball. He was touching it but he didn't actually have it.

It was marginal. It took a replay FFS, these things happen numerous times every game.
Biggar killing the ball was much worse, but I wouldn't have carded him either. We all wanted to see an equal competition.

Naughty. How do you ban a player with no team?[img] [/img]

Good job the ref didn't have a good view of that!!! 😉

Spikey was very spikey all match I thought. I am normally a fan but that was cheap.

How the hell did Barnes not see that?!

Are you talking about the stamp or the Aussie trying to play the ball on the ground? 🙂

If Spikey had spent the energy he put into rucking with Cooper into the game the result might of been different.

Priestland WTF you stupid scarlet moron.

No complaints just pissed that we could of done it but didn't.

@DezB the ref didn't decide the game. Australia where on a charge when Biggs was sent off and those 10 mins either side of half time established a decent gap and set momentum. Home crowd is always going to cry forward pass but Wales had already given away a penalty and Australia had an advantage, whether it's in the rule book those things make a difference in tight calls. The score line flattered Wales, it could have been more.

I honestly thought Wales would beat what is quite a poor Australian side but perhaps some of you are right, Wales cannot beat them. Massive physiological advantage now for Australia now heading into World Cup knowing they play Wales at a neutral venue.

If Spikey had spent the energy he put into rucking with Cooper into the game the result might of been different.

you can question a lot of things about Spikey but the energy he puts in is not one of them the defensive work he does is nothing short of amazing. Yes he got bounced by Folou for the try but you cannot question the guys effort.

Great effort by Quade and Lialifano, not sure they would unpick Roberts and Davies so easily though.

anyway seeing as no one noticed Quades reaction
[img] [/img]

Can't blame him for that!

I would have done the same. No excuse for that, it's a professional game.

I was surprised spikey stayed on the field to be honest, can see why he's currently out of contract.

Wonder what Spikey tastes of? AA yep he is like having an extra flanker but he should all his energy into his game not looking for aggro. Fair play both teams seemed to relish the physicality of the game.

I was surprised spikey stayed on the field to be honest,

Well I'm sure the multi test Lions player could be easily replaced. He may be a complete **** but he's easily the best British 9 of the last 8 years or so and certainly much much better than Rhodri Williams.

I would have done the same. No excuse for that, it's a professional game.

standing on someones hand, hardly the crime of a century is it, deserves a ban but come on its not THAT bad.

Can't blame him for that!

I know, I don't, I just thinks its quite funny.

Phillips wants to get Horwels brief!

he should all his energy into his game not looking for aggro

that IS his game!!

I saw two great games yesterday, Bath V Exeter and Wales V Australia. Both highly physical, high speed games with some fantastic tries - the score for Exeter's 2nd row was a beauty!
It's games like those that make me glad to have rugby on the TV, pity BTsport didn't show the Saracens/Sale game though.

a-a, was referring to the fact he was lucky not to have been carded for fighting etc, not that Gatland should have taken him off!

or Cians, he only got two matches off

[img] [/img]

a-a, was referring to the fact he was lucky not to have been carded for fighting

it didn't progress beyond hand bags did it? I watched the game on fast forward as I missed the first half. Spikey has been excellent in recent years getting on the tits of the opposition, yesterday was the first time in ages I've seen him over stamp the mark. Quade really got to him.
Some massive tackles in that game by the welsh Phillips on Quade, North on Cummings and Hibbard on some poor ****er. Quade and Lialifano got round the blitz brilliantly though.

I thought he was a pro rugby player not some piss head down Caroline Street at 2 in the morning, thanks for pointing out my error AA 😉

I reckon a pro rugby player should be targeting the player very obviously making the major difference between the two teams. He just over stepped it

stamping on hands or ankles like that is for s*it bags.

Great game Wales vs Aus with plenty of exciting moments and big hits throughout 😀

Aus thoroughly deserved the win as Wales barely had any territory or possession. There seemed to be a conscious decision to run everything even from the 22, which as much as it makes sense to not kick aimlessly to the Aus back 3, did mean Wales spent most of the time in their own half under pressure.

From an Aus point of view, I think that is the best performance I can remember seeing from the forwards. Did to Wales what Wales do to most other teams. Wales gave SA a fair battering so Aus definitely stepped it up. This gave them the quick ball for the backs to do pretty much whatever they fancied and it seemed they had a bit longer without someone like Jon Davies in the centres. The whole Aus team just clicked and at the end of the day they played the better rugby.

From a Wales point of view, yes they lost, but the score stayed close even with a lot of players missing and with such little territory and possession. Normally Wales manage to dominate a games against the SH and still lose, so not really being in the game and keeping the scores close is very un-Welsh! Also credit to them to keep going for the full 80 minutes after such a quick game and so many tackles! Biggar didn't have the best game which perhaps didn't help the territory side of things but ultimately I think the Aus forwards just shut everything down so fast it was always going to be tough for Wales. Wales also looked a lot less threatening for points with 1/2p passing on the kicking and he seemed to be struggling with something all game which is slightly worrying for the 6N.

It looked as though Barnes was trying to emulate Nigel Owens in making a free flowing game and while he didn't stop the game every 2 seconds the things he did stop it for were very hit or miss. Bit weird for both sides. Phillips should be cited but I wonder what punishment a bite carries? No wonder Coppoer wasn't rushing to the ref for the TMO 😆

Only other thing ref-wise that irked me was Aus screaming and hollering non-stop in the Welsh (and Barnes's) face every time they got a penalty or something went their way. It was like watching NFL with how full of it they were. I know it is all gamesmanship but still 😉

Oh and Marshall and Williams were great in commentary- really loved the banter and passion all the way through 😀

Edit: Sorry for the long post!!!

Saracens boss Nigel Wray claims the Welsh regions want to join the English Premiership to secure their long-term future.

Ooh yes agreed. Why not a uk wide premiership?

Welsh regions would need some serious investment if they were to compete. Do the regions stick.with WRU money or go with the premiership. Not sure what it would mean for team wales other than obviously no gamrs out of the international window.

So there are too many clubs in the Heineken cup and relegation is causing English clubs currently in the premiership a lot of financial instability and uncertainty... so a solution is to combine both of these to an even greater degree within a domestic league? I'm sure the Irish will then join the Top 14, Italy will be happy to go back to domestic leagues and Scotland will cease to field any meaningful club sides. Hmmm.... a nice enough idea in principle but I don't see this ever happening! Is Wray suggesting that the RFU support Welsh regions since the Welsh clubs currently struggle for funding from the WRU??? That either means the RFU cease to exist or less pennies to the English clubs. This sounds more like trying to cause friction ahead of sorting out the ERC mess...

They should have to start in the champ IMHO. Have a season where the top 4 or 5 get promoted. Teams like LW, Leeds and brizzle have been grinding away to get promotion, seems fair they should get the chance to be part of an expanded AP.

Several of the championship teams have bigger budgets than the welsh provinces...and as stated,championship/lower prem sides are about as likely to support this as turkeys are to vote for xmas. Why did cooper bite him,couldn't he reach spikeys balls with his free hand?

Ooh yes agreed. Why not a uk wide premiership?

Indeed, I don't understand why we don't already have this.

Because other than the big 3 Irish clubs they'd all end up in the championship.

Why did cooper bite him,couldn't he reach spikeys balls with his free hand?

Too busy trying to retrieve the actual ball?

But I could see a ring fenced 3/4/5 nations 'league' with 2 groups of say 16 teams, with the two coming together in a play off that actually means something. I think it'd be great to watch.
Nothing whatsoever to back this up though!

Because other than the big 3 Irish clubs they'd all end up in the championship.

Do you think?

You could do it like the NHL with clubs in the lower divisions being feeder clubs. It hasn't happened yet so can't see it happening in the future.

Because other than the big 3 Irish clubs they'd all end up in the championship

given similar funding levels I doubt it. Crowds would increase a great deal too at the welsh regions, playing Bath or Gloucester would pull a much bigger crowd than Connaught or Zebre

Too busy trying to retrieve the actual ball?

But I could see a ring fenced 3/4/5 nations 'league' with 2 groups of say 16 teams, with the two coming together in a play off that actually means something. I think it'd be great to watch.
Nothing whatsoever to back this up though!

I almost sounds like a slightly revised Heineken cup! What everyone seems excited to propose is a European Cup which already exists. Sounds more like Wray still trying to stir up the ERC stuff and get a Wales/ England breakaway format

Phillips off to Racing

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/25190268

If they can get him playing for the Dragons won't Phillips have a full house of Welsh Regions 😆 Has anyone played for all 4 regions I wonder???

On the stamp:

Citing commissioner Murray Whyte has analysed the incident and felt it unworthy of any sanction

Interesting to know at what level a stamp or bite become worthy of sanction especially considering people like Ritchie Rees have been out for a while for things like eye gouging on far less convincing evidence!

treading on a hand and eye gouging are not really comparable acts are they?

AA it isn't worth getting into a discussion with you on that topic 😆

Well I trod on many a half back in my playing days and pulled fingers in mauls but never gouged anyone. The fact that he's not been cited suggests others agree. I'm suprised though I thought it was worth a few.weeks.rest.

I think the citing commissioner took the view that Cooper was as guilty for his retaliation. It was certainly a unpleasant, more of a squeeze than a stamp perhaps, arguably the bite was worse. I suppose we won't hear so much about Horwell's conduct know.

@DanW - no problem with long posts on a rugby thread. Wales where down 30-16 I recall, not close and Aussies missed a couple of sitters. All credit for coming back and I think the players missing did make a big difference but Aussies knew they had it won.