2015 6 Nations

[mangerton]

I'm going for a lie-down....

Sorry that England - and Wales - didn't win.

OTOH, didn't Scotland do well? They made up their minds at the outset what they were going for, and went for it single mindedly. And got it.

[Anna]

Well actually mangerton, thinking about it, Scotland is entirely to blame for England's downfall. If it hadn't been decided that the ball had in fact slipped from Stuart Hogg’s grasp and that England would need a 26-point rather than 21-point victory they'd be holding the trophy right now!!

[Nick Armstrong]

Poor young Plisson really was hit as by a speeding truck wasn't he....

BOOOOM!!

[aeolium]

That was a great day of attacking rugby. Why can't the 6 Nations be like that every week? Presumably because the coaches tell players to play "percentage" rugby, trying to gain territory with kicks and defensive counter-attacking, waiting until the inevitable penalties turn up. If the penalty kick were devalued to 2 points or even 1 point (as in rugby league) then there would be more incentive to play this kind of open rugby, as a converted try would be worth so much more.

Try of the day, though there were plenty of stunning ones, was by the French prop forward after they had attacked from well inside their own 22, especially taking into account the quality of the English defence.

It was exhausting to watch, never mind to play.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

the England 18, offside at a kick [schoolboy error innit] was the villain of the piece ..... but who cares it was exciting rugby for a change, no grind it out ... the video debriefing will be a coaching hell though ....

[LHC]

That was a great day of attacking rugby. Why can't the 6 Nations be like that every week? Presumably because the coaches tell players to play "percentage" rugby, trying to gain territory with kicks and defensive counter-attacking, waiting until the inevitable penalties turn up. If the penalty kick were devalued to 2 points or even 1 point (as in rugby league) then there would be more incentive to play this kind of open rugby, as a converted try would be worth so much more.

Try of the day, though there were plenty of stunning ones, was by the French prop forward after they had attacked from well inside their own 22, especially taking into account the quality of the English defence.

It was exhausting to watch, never mind to play.

I'm afraid you're wrong about penalties. Increasing the points differential between tries and penalties would make games even more defensive than they are now rather than making them more open. Teams would happily concede penalties rather than allowing the opposition to score tries because they would know a penalty wasn't worth much.

[aeolium]

I'm afraid you're wrong about penalties. Increasing the points differential between tries and penalties would make games even more defensive than they are now rather than making them more open. Teams would happily concede penalties rather than allowing the opposition to score tries because they would know a penalty wasn't worth much.

That used to be the case before referees started to get pretty fierce on repeated offences and bringing out yellow cards. If deliberate slowing the game down or clear professional fouls to stop a side scoring automatically resulted in a yellow card then teams would soon become careful about doing it.