Planet Rugby Forum

Sam Simmonds back on the bench for Chiefs, after missing virtually the whole season with an ACL.

Very welcome return - hopefully not lost any of his speed or power off the mark

Who tf is Ruaridh McConnochie and why is the Mail convinced he's going to make England's WC training camp?

openclashXX wrote:Who tf is Ruaridh McConnochie and why is the Mail convinced he's going to make England's WC training camp?

I assume you could read The Mail for your answer

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/sport/ot ... ld-2878375

Anyway, no chance

Mick Mannock wrote:

openclashXX wrote:Who tf is Ruaridh McConnochie and why is the Mail convinced he's going to make England's WC training camp?

I assume you could read The Mail for your answer

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/sport/ot ... ld-2878375

Anyway, no chance

He won’t, but he’s had an excellent debut season in a faltering Bath side - if he can up his tactical kicking he’d be worth a look at 15 for England.

He’s superb under the high ball (Leinster tried bombing the hell out of him in the two CC matches, the first time he’d played fullback and got absolutely no change out of him), a good defender, seems to have a good rugby brain and is (obviously) pretty rapid, with his 7s background.

One of the few bright spots for us this year!

Joost wrote:

Mick Mannock wrote:

openclashXX wrote:Who tf is Ruaridh McConnochie and why is the Mail convinced he's going to make England's WC training camp?

I assume you could read The Mail for your answer

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/sport/ot ... ld-2878375

Anyway, no chance

He won’t, but he’s had an excellent debut season in a faltering Bath side - if he can up his tactical kicking he’d be worth a look at 15 for England.

He’s superb under the high ball (Leinster tried bombing the hell out of him in the two CC matches, the first time he’d played fullback and got absolutely no change out of him), a good defender, seems to have a good rugby brain and is (obviously) pretty rapid, with his 7s background.

One of the few bright spots for us this year!

I could globus him, good lad and done really well in 15s.


Some good tries already today

Well, we're shit.

Quins lose after a referee forgets where the penalty was and the kick to win it is inches short. Dickhead. Especially given he invented a penalty that led to one of the wasps tries.

Wasps were good though, Simpson and Lovabolavu were fantastic.

JM2K6 wrote:Quins lose after a referee forgets where the penalty was and the kick to win it is inches short. Dickhead. Especially given he invented a penalty that led to one of the wasps tries.

Wasps were good though, Simpson and Lovabolavu were fantastic.

Blame Smith for taking the piss with the previous one.

Raggs wrote:

JM2K6 wrote:Quins lose after a referee forgets where the penalty was and the kick to win it is inches short. Dickhead. Especially given he invented a penalty that led to one of the wasps tries.

Wasps were good though, Simpson and Lovabolavu were fantastic.

Blame Smith for taking the piss with the previous one.

That makes no sense whatsoever.

Bath score a last-minute try to beat Tigs and finish 6th!

I blame Quins for yet another performance which was nowhere near their best.

No-one plays their best every week.

JM2K6 wrote:

Raggs wrote:

JM2K6 wrote:Quins lose after a referee forgets where the penalty was and the kick to win it is inches short. Dickhead. Especially given he invented a penalty that led to one of the wasps tries.

Wasps were good though, Simpson and Lovabolavu were fantastic.

Blame Smith for taking the piss with the previous one.

That makes no sense whatsoever.

Well if the ref was informed of Smith stealing 3m for the first one then he'd probably be harsh on another. Equally, i think it was actually pretty close. The offence looked to be sops playing it on the floor, which was beyond the halfway line.

Here's hoping la Rochelle can get us into Europe tonight then. Always a shame when uncle Bruce's salary cap busters succeed.

JM2K6 wrote:No-one plays their best every week.

I don't expect them to.

Brazil wrote:Here's hoping la Rochelle can get us into Europe tonight then. Always a shame when uncle Bruce's salary cap busters succeed.

That's one helluva of a band name

happyhooker wrote:

Brazil wrote:Here's hoping la Rochelle can get us into Europe tonight then. Always a shame when uncle Bruce's salary cap busters succeed.

That's one helluva of a band name

Let's be honest, it's a Smokey tribute act

Raggs wrote:

JM2K6 wrote:

Raggs wrote:

JM2K6 wrote:Quins lose after a referee forgets where the penalty was and the kick to win it is inches short. Dickhead. Especially given he invented a penalty that led to one of the wasps tries.

Wasps were good though, Simpson and Lovabolavu were fantastic.

Blame Smith for taking the piss with the previous one.

That makes no sense whatsoever.

Well if the ref was informed of Smith stealing 3m for the first one then he'd probably be harsh on another. Equally, i think it was actually pretty close. The offence looked to be sops playing it on the floor, which was beyond the halfway line.

So a) You're claiming Smith "stole" 3m, which is news to everyone, and b) think it's fine that if the ref missed that he should then decide to pull back an entirely different thing, 20 minutes later, to "even it up"? That's mental. Think about what you're saying here

The offence was holding on the ground, and Sopoanga was tackled on the Wasps side of halfway. The ball never even got to halfway.

All the good stuff from Wasps today was from out-going players.

Did you miss the bit from Austin doing a replay showing Smith taking yards from the mark?

And the ball definitely did go over the halfway line, but if you missed an entire replay then I'd not be surprised if you missed that.

The Man Without Fear wrote:Well, we're shit.

Really good defence though. No sure WTF is going on with quims set-piece.

To be honest I think he missed it by more than the distance the pen was taken back - just BT doing their bit to make everything seem dramatic.

Carley was pretty ordinary though.

Raggs wrote:Did you miss the bit from Austin doing a replay showing Smith taking yards from the mark?

And the ball definitely did go over the halfway line, but if you missed an entire replay then I'd not be surprised if you missed that.

Austin's claim of "three yards" was about 2ft at most. As an aside I had a right old chuckle when the ball dropped inches short at the end there.

Raggs wrote:Did you miss the bit from Austin doing a replay showing Smith taking yards from the mark?

And the ball definitely did go over the halfway line, but if you missed an entire replay then I'd not be surprised if you missed that.

"yards" "3m"

So your contention is that it's fine for a referee to alter the position of a penalty 20 minutes later because a different player might have been closer for a kick he missed earlier in the game.

That's totally normal.

Incidentally - your boys did well today. Must be pretty hopeful for next season if guys like Brookes can step up to the plate.

I also thought it was pretty ballsy of the reffing authorities to give the Exeter-Saints game to ex Quin Karl Dickson.

Brazil wrote:

happyhooker wrote:

Brazil wrote:Here's hoping la Rochelle can get us into Europe tonight then. Always a shame when uncle Bruce's salary cap busters succeed.

That's one helluva of a band name

Let's be honest, it's a Smokey tribute act

It would certainly be a tragedy if the CC was deprived of the magical Salford Saffas

They're probably aware he's one of the best refs around

He's okay, I was flicking between the two games and certainly groaned less at him than Carley.

Although most of my groans these days are not at individual referees but the way they've been told to ref.

Dobbin wrote:I also thought it was pretty ballsy of the reffing authorities to give the Exeter-Saints game to ex Quin Karl Dickson.

I thought he blew a good whistle today.

DragsterDriver wrote:

Dobbin wrote:I also thought it was pretty ballsy of the reffing authorities to give the Exeter-Saints game to ex Quin Karl Dickson.

I thought he blew a good whistle today.

Yup.

Joost wrote:Bath score a last-minute try to beat Tigs and finish 6th!

That was a relief. A win would have added a gloss to the shower of shit. Time for the board and coaching team to be mostly fired.

Tigers played far better than the rest of the season, still a disappointment though to lose.

They need to get rid of the law about players being able to take conversions quickly if they think there is something wrong with the try. Baths try was clearly forward and clearly the bath players knew it was too. How can that be good for the game.

Dobbin wrote:I also thought it was pretty ballsy of the reffing authorities to give the Exeter-Saints game to ex Quin Karl Dickson.

Brother of Lee, who played over 250 times for Saints, too.

Nabberuk wrote:Tigers played far better than the rest of the season, still a disappointment though to lose.

They need to get rid of the law about players being able to take conversions quickly if they think there is something wrong with the try. Baths try was clearly forward and clearly the bath players knew it was too. How can that be good for the game.

Shouldn't matter considering how far in front they were. Signings look okay for next season but doesn't matter with the board and coaching set up. I noticed we have added Matt Smith to the coaching set up as the club's academy head coach. Tigers old boys thing is just rediculous.

Petej wrote:

Nabberuk wrote:Tigers played far better than the rest of the season, still a disappointment though to lose.

They need to get rid of the law about players being able to take conversions quickly if they think there is something wrong with the try. Baths try was clearly forward and clearly the bath players knew it was too. How can that be good for the game.

Shouldn't matter considering how far in front they were. Signings look okay for next season but doesn't matter with the board and coaching set up. I noticed we have added Matt Smith to the coaching set up as the club's academy head coach. Tigers old boys thing is just rediculous.

In a similar vein,m, Bath have made Luke Charteris lineout coach for next season

Joost wrote:

Petej wrote:

Nabberuk wrote:Tigers played far better than the rest of the season, still a disappointment though to lose.

They need to get rid of the law about players being able to take conversions quickly if they think there is something wrong with the try. Baths try was clearly forward and clearly the bath players knew it was too. How can that be good for the game.

Shouldn't matter considering how far in front they were. Signings look okay for next season but doesn't matter with the board and coaching set up. I noticed we have added Matt Smith to the coaching set up as the club's academy head coach. Tigers old boys thing is just rediculous.

In a similar vein,m, Bath have made Luke Charteris lineout coach for next season

TBF to Charteris he was an international lock who was pretty decent at the lineout and has a wealth of experience playing for various coaches and played in different environments and is becoming a specialist coach. Matt Smith on the other hand has only been at Leicester (and his dad played for Tigers as well) and i'm not sure his quality as a player makes him a good choice to become head academy coach (if our youth backs suddenly start not passing and drifting across the pitch taking all the space away from the backs outside them i know who to blame). I might be being unfair here but considering the board and other coaching appointments this stinks of the cronyism infesting Tigers.

Interview in the Times this morning with Dean Ryan. Regardless of people's views on the guy, the picture he paints of player pathway cutbacks is pretty grim.

No coach development budget, no longer any age grade forwards coach or sports science staff on the payroll, Wellington festival involvement to end etc.

Margin_Walker wrote:Interview in the Times this morning with Dean Ryan. Regardless of people's views on the guy, the picture he paints of player pathway cutbacks is pretty grim.

No coach development budget, no longer any age grade forwards coach or sports science staff on the payroll, Wellington festival involvement to end etc.

Grim, depressing and very worrying indeed.

His complaining about dwindling resources and cuts would be more convincing if he hadn't just taken a job at the f*cking Dragons

My view is that he's a control freak who sees himself as a "visionary", when he was unable to get total creative freedom to reshape the RFU structures how he envisioned them he just decided to abandon it altogether and offer these excuses to justify deserting a half-built project

Sure, take the man out of it for a minute (this is clearly a parting shot) and the cutbacks are likely to be a matter of record if accurate.

Will be interesting to see long term what the plan is on the RFU side for the development pathway.