France clinically put Wales to the sword last night. Silly defensive errors exploited brilliantly by a superb French back line. They are impressive. Wales letting Edwards go is proving to be a massive mistake so far.
The game was not without controversy though. I expect a French forward to be cited this week. Had the officials seen it France would have been down to 14 for an hour.
Fairly annoyed with DAZN’s rugby coverage. The ERCC has quietly disappeared from coverage, was there before the covid break, gone after the resumption. With the Six Nations, it appears to be one game per round - I got the fairly predictable Ireland-Italy, not the rather more interesting Wales-France.
Ireland France next week. I have to admit this French side are very good on the eye. But they also have a little nasty streak when needed (or not) as the case maybe. Quite possibly the best half back pairing in the world now as well. Certainly the in form one.
We are in a bit of a mess on the other hand
Sort of interesting to see France out-‘Wales defence’-ing Wales, which is why I had hoped to watch that match. I don’t really understand the defensive system well enough to pick out what I am seeing yet, but the high-level results are evident.
Leaving gaps mainly. It’s not joined up and cohesive. The French to their credit saw it and exploited it.
Attacking wise Wales aren’t in a bad place but lacking accuracy and France pounced on the turn over.
Worth seeing game highlights if you can. While people will rightly applaud France when you look at the Welsh defence France simply exploited amd took the opportunities in front of them. They deserve credit for that more than the running angles etc. IMO. It’s basically playing with your head up and making the decision based on what’s in front of you. Not easy.
Slightly bizarre decision but means nothing in reality, it needed to be picked up during the game. I’m not convinced it was accidental but hey ho.
A video of the incident is in this article
A huge shame. True legend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76W0Whfuoc0
Comprehensive win. New Zealand’s biggest winning margin over Australia. Secures the Bledisloe Cup for the 18th successive year.
Ireland making a mess of this game versus France.
Combination of French attacking with this Wales-style defence has real potential
Australian rugby appears to be a real mess. Could be a while before the Bledisloe Cup is in jeopardy.
Fucking hell. Clearly intentional. Assaulted him at least three times in that sequence and the right arm smash into Jones’ face at the end was disgusting. Noted that the French No.2 also raked his studs deliberately on one of the Welsh players on the ground at the start of that video.
Did they refer this to the same committee as reviewed the Pickford assault?
Quite possibly 
He has previous too.
The weird thing is that are supposedly being really hot on tackling, rucking etc. Round the neck. And yet they let this slide.
Weird thing, despite it being nasty, Jones was ok and I no longer mind that it wasn’t picked up during the game. Had France been down to 14 it would have hidden the problems Wales currently have. We are not in a good place right now.
In contrast the Pickford incident still riles me.
They are on another level right now.
You have to play on the basis that you are likly to concede at least 2 tries.
I was surprised to see that Scotland result, haven’t watched it yet.
Not that great of a Six Nations this time round.
Awful actually. The decline has been dramatic. I want to look through the second half again. First half defensively was ok. But the basic errors being made (with allowance for the conditions) I’m finding hard to stomach.
A combination of blooding new players and a new coaching team in a 6 Nations environment is just not a great idea. It was needed however, but the difference is massive. I was not ready for that, it’s not helped by the attacking style that caught the eye at the Scarlets being non existent.
Not sure where we go from here to be honest. Time I guess but I am concerned.
I’ll get my dad to create an account and post his thoughts on the Wallabies…good for a laugh…
None of the games were to the quality I would expect - Ireland probably should have beaten France, between territorial play and possession, but the ball hit the ground in open play shockingly often. So many mistakes from the Irish, and the French appear to be built to take advantage of that.
Very much. But to Frances credit they are damn good in standard play as well. They don’t give you much.
Ireland should have done better I agree but it comes back to that point of accepting that France will score at least twice. That’s some handicap.
They’ve got some promising young players developing and will likely improve. They’re not a bad side, they’ll probably stand up more than ok against the northern hemisphere sides, largely if anything.
Indeed re: Bledisloe Cup chances. NZ have quality throughout and have introduced some new young players as well. There’s a lot of room for growth in this current NZ side.
not sure what to make of this to be honest. Something isn’t working but I cant really point the finger at anyone in particular as yet.
Warburton also left as the breakdown coach earlier (October) and the breakdown has also been an issue, before and afterwards.
Nailing down the cause of the problems is difficult given that there are so many and there’s so much going on within the squad