The Lemon Fool

Yup. Ford.

Just looked closely at the England XV - Indeed it was Ford that saw what was happening and almost got to the corner but Biggar's kick was pin point. Also Watson realised what was happening but was some 10 metres behind Ford - plus another back was just behind Watson. At the time that Biggar took the kick, Farrell was not talking to the team - several of the English players were rather lolling around drinking water and not watching the ball. I expect that they all assumed that Biggar was going to take the easy penalty - but Biggar was just alive to the lack of streetwise being shown by the English and took advantage of the situation. Of course, the same lax 'attitude' was shown later when Hardy scored - scooting between 5 English from another quickly taken penalty.

TY7

Pointless match in Italy to be followed by le crunch. Could this be the implosion of England? I expect a convincing French win.

terminal7 wrote:Pointless match in Italy to be followed by le crunch. Could this be the implosion of England? I expect a convincing French win.

The pointless match had 55, and the convincing win wasn't even close to that!

1. Pointless - in having no sense - then of course you know that

2. Guilty as charged - knife edge match that turned out to be the flip of a coin or a TMO in this case - first half was superb - the pressure in the second half took its toll and England just made less mistakes at crucial times.

T7 (eating humble pie)

Pointless match in Scotland.

Go on dealtn - I dare you.

T7

terminal7 wrote:Pointless match in Scotland.

Go on dealtn - I dare you.

T7

Scotland now have the chance to finish second, I think they took it seriously.

The English implosion happened 1 match later than I expected.

The France v Wales was the best of the tournament - sensational play all round. However, a beef about the amount of time spent between the ref and the TO Wayne Barnes. This totally disrupted the momentum at times - every little action being deliberated upon. Even then it would appear that several of the final decisions were highly debatable.

In fact the worst decision was the awarding of a penalty (plus sending off) to Wales in front of the posts instead of a penalty try for the French collapsing a rolling maul - largely because most of the time deliberating this passage of play was spent on whether Rees Zammit scored a legit try in the corner. The sequence should have been should a penalty try be awarded? - if no has Rees Zammit scored? - if no should a penalty be awarded? Wales ended up with 3 points instead of 7.

T7

terminal7 wrote:The France v Wales was the best of the tournament - sensational play all round. However, a beef about the amount of time spent between the ref and the TO Wayne Barnes. This totally disrupted the momentum at times - every little action being deliberated upon. Even then it would appear that several of the final decisions were highly debatable.

In fact the worst decision was the awarding of a penalty (plus sending off) to Wales in front of the posts instead of a penalty try for the French collapsing a rolling maul - largely because most of the time deliberating this passage of play was spent on whether Rees Zammit scored a legit try in the corner. The sequence should have been should a penalty try be awarded? - if no has Rees Zammit scored? - if no should a penalty be awarded? Wales ended up with 3 points instead of 7.
T7

Agreed

There's a lot one could say about the France v Wales match. A very very minor point is that Wayne Barnes kept calling the match referee "mate" in practically every sentence.

Stop it.

I am also very wary that Wayne Barnes had been advising the England camp prior to the weekend matches. I would have thought that all referees being considered for officiating during a current tournament should not be advising a team during that period in that tournament.

T7

terminal7 wrote:I am also very wary that Wayne Barnes had been advising the England camp prior to the weekend matches. I would have thought that all referees being considered for officiating during a current tournament should not be advising a team during that period in that tournament.

T7

i dont see a sepcific clash of interests, but would certainly agree it may not always be interpreted widely that way and may nto be the brightest move overall, if only to protect WB from spurious allegations.

Didds

At this level, I feel this is too opaque. Can you imagine next 6 Nations when Toje gets pinged for a maul infringement by Barnes (of course he may never again referee Toje) and Farrell runs up and says 'Look mate that's not how you interpreted that rule . . .'.

Frankly if you are on the referee roster - no second job providing what effectively could be seen as exclusive interpretations not available to other teams.

T7

terminal7 wrote:At this level, I feel this is too opaque. Can you imagine next 6 Nations when Toje gets pinged for a maul infringement by Barnes

Barnes would never be an official at a match involving England. The referee and others are all from neutral countries if you look. Barnes was TMO at another one this last weekend, Ireland v.Wales.

TJH

tjh290633 wrote:

terminal7 wrote:At this level, I feel this is too opaque. Can you imagine next 6 Nations when Toje gets pinged for a maul infringement by Barnes

Barnes would never be an official at a match involving England. The referee and others are all from neutral countries if you look. Barnes was TMO at another one this last weekend, Ireland v.Wales.

TJH

France v Wales.

Points taken - however still sits uncomfortably with me as per Didds.

T7

Last match on Friday that gives France an advantage with only 5 players with English clubs made available for Scotland and obviously France know exactly the target to win the competition. All this because the French team broke the covid embargo some weeks ago. Let's hope natural justice prevails.

T7 (T for taffy)

terminal7 wrote: Let's hope natural justice prevails.

T7 (T for taffy)

That's a Mandy Rice-Davies moment though

You might very well think that didds ; I couldn't possibly comment.

T7

Great to see Scotland beat France this evening in the dying moments of the game. They even converted the try.

Dod