Planet Rugby Forum

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Bordeaux were unstoppable last weekend... Nah, Toulouse are a better team than Bordeaux. Bordeaux, not unlike Quins tbf, massively inconsistent. Toulouse, much less so. Beating Bordeaux in France was a fantastic achievement and done against all the odds - but this Toulouse side are on another level...

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I think TLS will gradually pull away and win this but Ex have done well to hold the lead after 45 mins.

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Exeter got a bit lucky there but come away with a try and the lead

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Come on. You watch a lot of quins games. Previous form means next to nothing. Remember sarries putting a hundred pointson us in the league this season? How did they get on against this oppo last week? It's not so much about previous performances but based on how good Toulouse are in both forwards a...

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Quins to beat Toulouse next weekend and make the finals :P Why not but Toulouse know what's coming now. Provided they deal with Chiefs Toulouse beat Quins comprehensively at the Stoop few months ago. I was at the game. I think the chances of Quins beating them are pretty slim. Edit - I can't see Ex...

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Amazing win. Quinn’s are an absolutely mental side to follow.

Some huge performances, not least from Fin Baxter - he was immense.

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3 quarter finalists is a pretty good return. Does feel like English rugby is moving ahead at last. Some of the Irish players have informed us how bad all the teams are. We are doomed 3 English 3 French 1 Irish 1 SA I'll take that - even if Exeter and Quins are odds on to get well beaten in the next...

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If Northampton are the best english side I don't think an English team will be troubling for honours this season They can play better than that - but it's a young side that has improved drastically from last year, when they lost all of their EC pool games - but, yes, it'd be a surprise if they coul...

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Quins89 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 2:20 pm Wait is it Bulls? Sorry, my mistake thought it was Bordeaux

Bordeaux have Quins at home.

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I wasn’t aware that there was an opinion held anywhere that Mark Knopfler is anything other than a top notch guitarist. Not everyone can like every song Dire Straits ever recorded, but you can’t slag the musicianship. This. Although I expect the usual crowd of 'cool contrarians' on PR to come out o...

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Sarries taking a physical pasting here. Can't seem to get any rhythm with the ball at all. They look so much less organised without Faz at 10, not helped by the fact that Van Zyl isn't having his best game. :lol: Last time they played Bordeaux, this season, Sarries conceded 55 points - with Farrell...

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Plastic Sarrie wrote: ↑Sat Apr 06, 2024 6:26 pm Just the 4 replays from the telly director to get Itoje carded

Fair enough though.

That knock on for the disallowed BDx try was also about as deliberate as it gets and Sarries just got a scrum

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I didnt think that unforgiven was that good. Though it has an 8.3 on imdb. I watched it maybe 3 years ago and could hardly remember anything. Looked up a Trailer, it is really a bit corny https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=116&v=H3g3IH8Mgx0&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%...

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Some good recommendations so far.

Slightly more modern ones I really liked - Open Range and Dances with Wolves.

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We'll definitely need to play better than against France, Wales and the Scots (not that France were any great shakes yesterday). Looked very clunky in the 1st half - could just be a bit rusty or expecting Italy to just roll over. Much slicker later on. Can't be giving away so much free lineout ball ...

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nardol wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 5:49 pm Seems about right

13 England players better than 15 Italian

We've been much better in this half - lineout still pretty crap though. Packer wasn't up to her normal standard.

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polyallstar wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:28 pm
ovalball wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:27 pm
polyallstar wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 8:50 pm

Based on six nations it’s Dombrandt…
CCS made more appearances than him.
At number 8…

Well, Dombrandt was selected for the final matchday squad to replace CCS who was injured !!!!

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Mercer may, or may not, thrive at international level - but he's certainly done enough at Domestic level that you'd really want to find out - and do it fairly soon. At the moment we're just an injury away from not knowing who our number 8 will be. Based on six nations it’s Dombrandt… CCS made more ...

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You need any score to win, so you kick it away. Professional players stupidity in a nutshell. But Scotland deserved that. Fair play. Wales were turgid shite mostly. No attacking play besides hoping to kick penalties for lineout mauls. What on earth were they thinking - I assume they weren't just pr...

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Mercer may, or may not, thrive at international level - but he's certainly done enough at Domestic level that you'd really want to find out - and do it fairly soon. At the moment we're just an injury away from not knowing who our number 8 will be.

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The backrow of Underhill/Curry, Chessum and Earl looks pretty tasty - but, given we're bound to get injuries - we need to have a really good back up for Earl, who is the key player - CCS looks promising but is still a rookie - so it'd certainly be handy to see what the likes of Mercer and Barbeary c...

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Who are our undroppable players? Or players that we should build the team around and we’d suffer a massive drop off with out them, if any? I used to think it was only Itoje and Curry. Now we may have more. I feel like Martin and Earl would be on that list Itoje Martin Earl Lawrence (arguable but he...

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England side for the W6N opener v Italy

England: Kildunne; Dow, Rowland, Scarratt, Breach; Harrison, Packer; Botterman, Atkin-Davies, Clifford, Aldcroft, Ward, Kabeya, Packer, Beckett.

Replacements: Powell, Carson, Muir, Feaunati, Matthews, Hunt, Aitchison, Jones.

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Not sure how obscure this is really but it doesn't get played much these days - my band did a cover of it at our recent concert - great riffs. Our vocalist found the timing really hard to get right.

John Kongos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N2Ul7ll-FM

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Barnes still plugging Earl as a centre in the Times. Interesting thought but I think he does more damage in the back row, not necessarily at 8. I haven’t jumped on the Pollock hype train yet. Suspect size will ultimately be his issue. I don’t understand why people do this. We seem to be the only na...

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mr flaps wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 1:33 pm
Da iawn diolch wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 11:02 am
mr flaps wrote: ↑Mon Mar 18, 2024 2:13 pm

He’s awesome. Not a proper 8 apparently……..
Tell me your 'analysis' of his game ended with the number on his shirt without telling me.
Look who’s crawled out from under his rock. Do tell us more about how you’d rather be in Gatlands position than Borthwicks.

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DragsterDriver wrote: ↑Mon Mar 18, 2024 9:16 pm Is Barbeary that good? When I've seen him he looks like a fat penalty machine, prone to injury.

24 tries in 45 appearances for Wasps and Bath - not all of them starts !!

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Hawk97 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 18, 2024 2:38 pm He’s the type of backrower where it doesn’t matter which of the three numbers he has on his back. He will do the same job - tons of tackles, meters made, and general work rate. He’s also getting turnovers

I'd like to see him @ 7 with Barbeary @ 8 and Chessum @ 6 - CCS coming on from the Bench

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We need to build some depth in quite a few positions though. The drop off from, say, Lawrence, is huge - even losing a rookie like Wabosi was hurtful. And the bench needs to have bigger impact. It'll be tough to bring in fresh faces with the schedule we have for the rest of this year - but needs to...

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Feels like we have some key players now. Martin has started the games against SA, Ireland and France. We’ve won one and the other two have been within a point or two. He adds real grunt that you need. Earl is a menace, does everything. Lawrence genuine 12 finally Free-Bank is dangerous returning. W...

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Feels like we have some key players now. Martin has started the games against SA, Ireland and France. We’ve won one and the other two have been within a point or two. He adds real grunt that you need. Earl is a menace, does everything. Lawrence genuine 12 finally Free-Bank is dangerous returning. W...

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4 tries - all scored by backs

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Just caught up with the game. What a great match. Really impressed with how England played - could have easily gone our way with a kinder bounce of the ball. Both sides put on a real show. England have made a huge improvement over the course of this tournament - and I think there's more to come - ha...

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Tbf the French did score one of the very best tries you will ever see. Yeah - couple of really brilliant tries. Their discipline was awful though - 10 penalties in the 1st half alone - quite lucky to not get anyone binned until the 63rd minute. I wasn’t convinced about all those penalties. Even so,...

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message #2527204 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2024 2:48 pm I think France will be out of sight by halftime. This England team isn't built for chasing a game.

Weren't we 9 points adrift against Ireland - and came from behind against both Wales and Italy ?

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Monk Zombie wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2024 2:41 pm Tbf the French did score one of the very best tries you will ever see.

Yeah - couple of really brilliant tries. Their discipline was awful though - 10 penalties in the 1st half alone - quite lucky to not get anyone binned until the 63rd minute.

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New Zealand Spain Wales Finishing best second could be manageable. Winning it depends on the quality of the Baby Blacks. You should be favourites to win your group. England have a tough ask with the Baby Boks on home soil. Only the best placed 2nd team gets through to the semi final - so much could...

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Good summation, thanks TheFrog. I think that team still has plenty of potential. The intercept was a killer but they created so many chances only to blow them by lack of cohesion. You'd think if they navigate the pool, they'd still be favourites again. Who are you in with? New Zealand Spain Wales F...

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U20 front five were fantastic. Opoku, Kpoku and Sudoku (!) all excellent. Billy Sela fabulous at 18yrs weighing in at 116kg. Big Jimmy Halliwell at 19 yrs already 129kg. And if Fasogbon gets fit again, another 19 yr old already at 132kg. With CCS, Pearson, Fisilau, Tuima, Pepper, Bamber, Baxter, Ha...

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CM11 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2024 9:50 am
DragsterDriver wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2024 9:48 am Apart from it's a cobbled together side and not their best team. Sure.
Ffs.

If you want to remain negative, whatever.

I get what you're saying CM - but I'm sure France put out what they believed was their strongest side with the best chance of achieving a win.

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