Rugby (Union) fans?

[Jazzy Foot]

Anyone?

[Shisen Kopf]

THe only rugby worth watching is female titty honking rugby

( . )( . )
HONK HONK

[RiX1024]

Six Nations rugby, best time of the year. Wales and Newport Gwent Dragons fan here. Any more fans out here?

[Jazzy Foot]

THe only rugby worth watching is female titty honking rugby

( . )( . )
HONK HONK

Of course but sadly it hasn't been sanctioned....yet.

[RiX1024]

Wales vs Ireland is definitely the game of the tournament, very intense play from both teams and very glad Wales won, again the championship is wide open for next week, saturday is going to be exciting.

[Jazzy Foot]

Wales vs Ireland is definitely the game of the tournament, very intense play from both teams and very glad Wales won, again the championship is wide open for next week, saturday is going to be exciting.

Well I'm happy England can now go in knowing a win will give them the title although will be a tough game.

[RiX1024]

Well being realistic, it's down to England and Ireland.

England has to win by 5 points more than Ireland. Wales have to thrash Italy which I highly doubt.

[Team Sheep]

Only time there seems to be any rugby discussion here is during the World Cup. Looking forward to Saturday though. I think Wales can do it as Italy have been very poor and Wales always save their best until last whilst it seems England are the opposite and have got worse as the tournament has gone on. Can't see Ireland winning by many at Murrayfield. All too close to call in reality though.

Was in Cardiff for the game last weekend, what a physical encounter. I'll just leave this here of Ireland's golden boy.

http://rugby.delfan.co.uk/rugby/2014-2015/6Nations/WalesvIreland/JD2HandsOffSexton01.gif

[CSL]

rugby is poo

[Corporate CockSnogger]

A sport for posh tory kids and nonces.

[Jazzy Foot]

A sport for posh tory kids and nonces.

I'm a Labour supporter, maybe consider myself posh went to private schools, elite universities but certainly not a nonce. Rugby has that connotation I admit i.e. private boarding school rahs, but it's shedding the tag gradually.

[Jazzy Foot]

rugby is poo

Compared to what?

[Jazzy Foot]

Only time there seems to be any rugby discussion here is during the World Cup. Looking forward to Saturday though. I think Wales can do it as Italy have been very poor and Wales always save their best until last whilst it seems England are the opposite and have got worse as the tournament has gone on. Can't see Ireland winning by many at Murrayfield. All too close to call in reality though.

Was in Cardiff for the game last weekend, what a physical encounter. I'll just leave this here of Ireland's golden boy.

http://rugby.delfan.co.uk/rugby/2014-2015/6Nations/WalesvIreland/JD2HandsOffSexton01.gif


I agree with the Ireland v Scotland remark about it being a tight game, except I predict Scotland might spring an upset.

Wales should beat Italy quite easily and I'd hope England will beat France.

Seems to be a lot of talk about whether or not the RWC 2015 would be a commercial disaster if England didn't progress from the group stages. I find it quite extraordinary that there appears to be all this negative talk. Would like to hope England will go all the way but it's tough to look past New Zealand or South Africa. I'd probs put England there in the top 5 picks along with Australia and Ireland.

I think France and Wales will have a poor World Cup.

[CSL]

Compared to what?

scones. Love scones, especially dry/with no butter etc

[Team Sheep]

I agree with the Ireland v Scotland remark about it being a tight game, except I predict Scotland might spring an upset.

Wales should beat Italy quite easily and I'd hope England will beat France.

Seems to be a lot of talk about whether or not the RWC 2015 would be a commercial disaster if England didn't progress from the group stages. I find it quite extraordinary that there appears to be all this negative talk. Would like to hope England will go all the way but it's tough to look past New Zealand or South Africa. I'd probs put England there in the top 5 picks along with Australia and Ireland.

I think France and Wales will have a poor World Cup.

What's worrying for England is that they have the strength in depth but Lancaster's chopping and changing this close to the World Cup is unsettling the team. Understandably some of those changes have been necessary due to injuries, but it still feels as though they can't comfortably name their starting 15. Time will tell whether that's good or bad, but this weekend will be a decent test for them ahead of the World Cup with how to handle the home pressure in must win situations.

As for Wales having a poor World Cup, Warren Gatland gears the team up for World Cup rugby. He has openly said that the 6 Nations is just a warm up for the RWC to him, so it's quite satisfying getting the results we have had with just blitz defence and basic attack. I think England, Wales and Australia will all take a win off of each other and one team is going to miss out on bonus points/points difference/tries scored.

[Jazzy Foot]

What's worrying for England is that they have the strength in depth but Lancaster's chopping and changing this close to the World Cup is unsettling the team. Understandably some of those changes have been necessary due to injuries, but it still feels as though they can't comfortably name their starting 15. Time will tell whether that's good or bad, but this weekend will be a decent test for them ahead of the World Cup with how to handle the home pressure in must win situations.

As for Wales having a poor World Cup, Warren Gatland gears the team up for World Cup rugby. He has openly said that the 6 Nations is just a warm up for the RWC to him, so it's quite satisfying getting the results we have had with just blitz defence and basic attack. I think England, Wales and Australia will all take a win off of each other and one team is going to miss out on bonus points/points difference/tries scored.

Further to what I said before I would actually go with predicting England and Wales to go through.

[Jazzy Foot]

I've been reading about the possibility of expanding the 6 nations or doing a promotion/relegation style tournament.

It'd be great to have a European Championships of rugby that included the 6 nations although in my eyes the 6 Nations is essentially the unofficial European Championships.

A larger tournament would rule out the possibility of Grand Slams or make them tougher.

[RiX1024]

I'd love a European Championship, might give the other European teams a chance to mix it with the Tier 1 teams.

Buzzing for tomorrow, three big games, I still think it's down to Ireland and England to win it.

[Jazzy Foot]

I'd love a European Championship, might give the other European teams a chance to mix it with the Tier 1 teams.

Buzzing for tomorrow, three big games, I still think it's down to Ireland and England to win it.

It'd be great for the sport but as I said before the 6 nations essentially is the European Championships in everything but name.

Expanding that would compromise the likelihood of grand-slams which would send Welshmen and Irishmen into fury.

From a "developmental" point of view I'd love to see a RWC every two years if it as at all feasible/viable but I guess now with Olympics Rugby 7s we have that to tune into.

[Team Sheep]

If there was relegation and promotion, I'm not sure how a Georgia or Romania replacing Italy or Scotland every other year would help the development. It's quite sad seeing how Italy have pretty much just plateaued/gotten worse after so many years in the six nations now.

Would be open to some sort of expanded championship however I can't imagine it being very attractive to casual viewers and sponsors, and they'd need to overhaul the club season before they start expanding internationals even further. The way modern day rugby is now it should be looking to follow an NFL model of a season and not continue to emulate football.

[El Capitano Gatisto]

I've been reading about the possibility of expanding the 6 nations or doing a promotion/relegation style tournament.

It'd be great to have a European Championships of rugby that included the 6 nations although in my eyes the 6 Nations is essentially the unofficial European Championships.

A larger tournament would rule out the possibility of Grand Slams or make them tougher.

No it wouldn't. The drop-off to Georgia and Romania is steep. Having more games would give an advantage to England and France with their deeper player pools and much bigger populations. Rugby is already a squad game and those two nations can always pick a strong squad, more games means that the smaller nations big players will be more injured and more tired. Every championship would come down to how many points you beat the minnows by. At least this year Scotland have actually run everyone fairly close and probably could have beaten Wales if not for crap discipline and white line fever, and Italy are capable of occasional upsets.

Six Nations is fine as it is.

[El Capitano Gatisto]

I actually think Scotland could cause Ireland a lot of problems today if the Irish players don't return to the England game level of performance and accuracy.

[Team Sheep]

Congrats to Ireland, fair play to them bouncing back from last week and going to Murrayfield and putting up a score like that. Very disappointing from Scotland though.
Couldn't be prouder of the Welsh performance, did all they could. England will be kicking themselves for letting in some really soft tries. All in all though, very little to separate the three top teams and all three will be content with 4-1 going into the World Cup.

[El Capitano Gatisto]

That was fucking stressful yesterday. France passed up so many simple kicks in that game and Ireland passed up about 10 very kickable points as well so it could have been less stressful but fuck me what a day. I wasn't happy to see Ireland's line-out malfunctioning again a bit yesterday but good to see the running rugby come in to play. The team and the new centre partnership is a work in progress, so hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

[Moonax]

Rugby makes the WWE seem steroid-free.

We think athletics, cycling, tennis, baseball have doping problems. That is nothing compared to rugby.

[Jazzy Foot]

Rugby makes the WWE seem steroid-free.

We think athletics, cycling, tennis, baseball have doping problems. That is nothing compared to rugby.

Are you serious?

[Jazzy Foot]

Congrats to Ireland, fair play to them bouncing back from last week and going to Murrayfield and putting up a score like that. Very disappointing from Scotland though.
Couldn't be prouder of the Welsh performance, did all they could. England will be kicking themselves for letting in some really soft tries. All in all though, very little to separate the three top teams and all three will be content with 4-1 going into the World Cup.

The England Ireland game in reality was the decider so for England to claim feeling hard done by I find to be rather silly.

As far as the RWC is concerned can't really see past another New Zealand win and then maybe South Africa. Ireland never really perform well at the RWC, Wales could surprise, England will come unstuck eventually assuming they actually progress from the group. One of the worst French teams in a while and then there's Australia. It will obviously be one of those teams.

[Moonax]

Are you serious?

Yes. Rugby has a steroid problem and most fans are in complete denial about it and some how believe that it is all down to 'gym work' and 'protein shakes' as to why there has been a massive increase in the size and weight of players over the last few years.

Drug testing in rugby is even more of a joke than the wellness policy in the WWE.

[Team Sheep]

The England Ireland game in reality was the decider so for England to claim feeling hard done by I find to be rather silly.

As far as the RWC is concerned can't really see past another New Zealand win and then maybe South Africa. Ireland never really perform well at the RWC, Wales could surprise, England will come unstuck eventually assuming they actually progress from the group. One of the worst French teams in a while and then there's Australia. It will obviously be one of those teams.

A champion has to be crowned and that's just the way it is. In a tournament where each team has a different number of home and away games, and play different teams home and away, the only fair way to crown a champion when teams have the same record would be to share the title. But that would be boring and nobody would go for that.

As for the World Cup, New Zealand are the obvious choice but still have a lot to prove about whether they can do it on foreign soil. I'm not sure if they can. It's anyone's game after them.

[RiX1024]

After a great Six Nations tournament I'm looking forward for the World Cup, I predict that the All Blacks will win it, hey who can beat these guys? I think Wales will be lucky to advance in the Pool stages but who knows.

[RiX1024]

It's that time of the year again, absolutely buzzing for this tournament this year. Will Ireland win it for the 3rd year in a row?