Tbh I don’t care too much about rugby other than wanting Ireland to do well, due to Irish ancestry.
However, Noo Noo is an excellent bloke, so let Wales win a few.
That’s it. That’s my entire contribution.
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I think Wales probably has the inside track on the spoon now, with that Italy win over Scotland.
Italy’s development model over the last five years is very impressive, quite a wave of young talent coming into the side - and drawn from a player population that is not that large.
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Yeah. I had us for the spoon before this weekend.
Hint here, invest in your youth. WRU? Na the clubs will do it on their own.
I don’t really have any sense of what Italy has actually done, but I am curious as to how effective that youth pathway has become - that win last summer over Ireland in the JWC was a marker.
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Italy playing very well here. Irish been a bit rattled at times, some silly scraps in the first half.
Edit: good result in the end for Ireland. Shame Italy were unable to get the draw.
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Incredible start by the scots
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If that’s not a red I don’t know what is 
.
There you go red!
Double bubble for me this evening. LFC Vs Brighton and Wales Vs France U20’s
Great game that one as Wales hit right under the French skin and should have won it. 6 points left on the pitch and a couple of missed opportunities. France took theirs with some great offloads.
I really hope we don’t spoil these youngsters in a silly attempt to fix the senior side.
This aged well 
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Fucked up my predictions on the work sweep as well.
Just seen the highlights of the England game. Why Borthwick maintained the kicking game after it became painfully obvious it was causing problems for us I don’t know. Most of the team off the boil today. Deserved win for the Scots
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You mean by promoting them too early?
Yeah very much, simply by the virtue of performing better.
The game at that level is very different. The power and pace is nowhere near the same. They simply aren’t ready. Not by a country mile but there are one or two players that could make the grade in there but sadly no stand outs that deserve that step up early
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Damn, more than 1 point per minute!
How did Wales get so shit ? Serious question.
Its been a slow decline over the past 15 years, but the financial impact of covid really put in a death spiral. The development system that helped create the players for the last good welsh side (circa 2021) slowly eroded under funding cut backs and self-interested administration, and it just takes a while to see the negative impact of that.
A lot of focus has been put on the bad regimes of Pivac and Gat, but the talent pool dried up for them. The centralized national academy doesn’t exist anymore, funding to the regional academies has been slashed, and so good players developed under the previous system left creating a quality void that impacted the level of quality the next generation were exposed to and the result is a new generation that cannot live up to the standards of the players they’ve been asked to replace.
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Bloody hell, we only let Wales score one try. France should lose a point for that
Credit to Welsh lads for not letting their heads drop after taking a battering though
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