Did alright in the end but came soooo close to throwing it away.
10 seconds left on the game we win a scrum. All we had to do was play the game out and Gareth Davies decides to try a grubber. The result was 5 minutes of nail biting torture resulting in a penalty that should have put Ireland within striking distance of a maul. Thankfully and bizarrely it was kicked long!!
Good game and I’m highly impressed with Ireland. They basically played a great game with 14 men and dominated possession for most of the game after going a man down. Still a long way to go for Wales but certainly better than we saw last Autumn. Best game from George North in some time as well. He actually looked dangerous today.
Looking forward to Squidge’s analysis of this one.
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It was a good weekend of rugby I’m dissappointed to not see the end of what was a fantastic match but Liverpool called and left me thoughily distraught. I’ll be ok tomorrow though. 
I was watching both in the end to the bemusement of my little one.
No Blaze and the Monster machines for you sunshine…
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Mahony gets a 3 match after his red on Sunday.
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That seems very short for something so violent and unnecessary, all he had to do was point at the welsh player and the ref would be forced to give a penalty and yellow card. (then again the ref might not have done that).
That is 1/2 of what I would have expected to be the minimum, then 6 nations is often very lenient.
It is 6 games reduced to 3 for good behaviour.
I found the incident a bit weird (can’t think of a better word) to be honest. It could have been a lot worse , and it was to the head but he also had to clear the ruck.
Perhaps it was because I was quietly watching at home rather than the local rugby club. 
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I agree it was wierd. Ireland were systematically ‘clearing out’ like that so Mahoney was just ‘doing his job’ however he should and definitely had the time to see the Welsh player in a very strange and exposed situation. What Mahoney was trying to do was ligitimate but how he did it was very dangerous. I shouted at the tele ‘penalty’ even before Mahoney went in but the refs view is completely different.
Barnes did well what we heard him say indicated that he needed to revise how he had originally viewed the incident which even for a top ref can not be easy. He obviously thought the welsh player was infringing which he was and had concentrated more on that than the potential concequences of Mahoneys actions.
What I don’t understand is how the hell the welsh player ended up there? Then again these Rugbymen are extreme strong and athletic.
He got half cleared then Mahoney came into finish the job.
Barnes to his credit has come a long way as a ref since his early days and this was a fantastic example of how VAR in football should work. He saw nothing wrong with the clear out but he was on the wrong side to see Mahoney’s arm. Enter the video ref who brings his attention to it. All officials then watch the replay and they agree on the course of action, which changed Barnes’ view of the original.
really good to see and only infuriates me more when I watch the complete f***ing excuse of a video referee in football.
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Squidge has done his thing again
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Fascinating insight.
I dont think Squidge likes Sexton that much 
Just finished watching the Scotland vs Wales game.
Bugger me, I’ve nothing left now after watching our game lunch time today and then this nail biter.
From a Welsh perspective there’s a few positives there but I do worry about our inability to retain possession and build pressure and territory. That said when we do get in the opposition 22 we seem to score.
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Gauzere is probably the shittest referee I’ve ever seen at international level. Appalling again.
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This is disturbing. What makes people like this?
Why Sonia McLaughlin received abuse is baffling to me.
I just dont get the trigger that makes people physically write this stuff and think its ok.
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So sleepy England loose to slightly more alert Wales. 
Oh dear…
Nigel Owens said the same
I’m not debating the game with someone quite so obviously partisan
Haha.
Just kidding. I’ve only seen bits of the game tbf so I can’t really comment on England’s indiscipline. It certainly has become an issue recently, as bad as the French were about 5-10 years ago! Did Itoje do anything particularly bad or were these more technical infringements? I saw some comments where Itoje was getting penalised for what the person thought was very little, if anything at all.
I did see one penalty for an England player coming across in the line out but the particular instance I saw looked trivial, the sort of thing that happens all the time and 9 times out of 10 isn’t penalised unless the player actually interferes with an opponent (which didn’t happen in the instance I saw). Maybe the ref just liked blowing the whistle. Even before the controversial incidents there were plenty of people predicting that Gauzere was somehow going to make the game be all about himself.
That said, when it comes to the 6 nations are we every other nation’s biggest grudge match? Maybe with the exception of Italy?
England are that grudge match I’m afraid. It adds spice to be honest. Always a great occasion. It’s one of those things that makes the 6 Nations so special.
With regard to Itoje, they were pretty small technical infringements to be honest, coming in from the side, sneaking into the opposition line etc. He was a complete nuisance all game but probably an over zealous one. And that’s where the problem comes. When you get pinged once and then again, you know the referee is looking at you so you need to take a small step back. He didn’t until after half time when he finally twigged that he needed to calm down.
I suspect that very same thing influenced the first try to be honest. Farrell on that occasion.
Whistle happy? maybe but it did reflect how competitive the game was as well I feel. England gave away 14 penalties. Wales gave away 9 themselves so it wasn’t quite all one way.
But a fascinating game overall. Quite a ding dong of a battle. The positive from a Welsh perspective is our points conversion rate is starting to look decent. Far from All Black levels but when given the opportunity we scored points. Creating those opportunities is the issue. Our kicking game has been poor, but a little better on this occasion. But there were big plusses for England as well I think. Their attacking style appears to have developed into a far more dynamic one and it’s a pretty brutal one. It’s quick, really quick.
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@Kopstar. You might want to watch this, especially the first few minutes. I wasn’t aware of the time that was available for England to set. Couple of great puns in there as well.
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