Be Excellent To Each Other

England were rubbish again, but fortunately they were playing against another desperately poor team with a fatal flaw (last week Scotland's complete inability to hang on to the ball, this week Italy's terrible goal-kicking). Ben Youngs was a liability for the second week in a row.

Another entertaining Welsh match. Scotland played awesome, but 2 sinbins killed that match.

Disallowed try should have gone to the video ref.

*awesomely

that as well.

But seriously, it was another excellent game and the score didn't reflect the result.

Can't help but think that England were lucky to scrape a win against Italy too. It would amuse me if they bumbled their way to a Grand Slam

Yes the yellow cards really changed it, there was no way to defend with 13 men. At this level a sin been normally means 7 points.

Well done those Wales people.

Deep amusement at the woman in the crowds who couldn't bear to watch the last penalty kick, and instead seemed to be praying to the Big Red Dragon.

Didn't like the constant cuts to (presumably) a bunch of WAGs in the crowd. I didn't think rugby was interested in cultivating that sort of image.

Mrs Meaty confirms those are indeed the WAGs. Unlike football wags, they've not had time to dip themselves in fake tan yet. Still some slag from down the street, though.

Fuck.

Yes.

Excellent try at the start - as good as the one against Ireland.

I felt France were pretty scrappy throughout the game, but I was impressed by their number 14 who seemed to be valiantly making an effort. Will keep my eye on him in future rounds.

:Hat:

England (we) are on form. Two great matches so far.

Wales will be a test in two weeks.

I'm pretty sure I walked past some of the England and Georgian rugby squads on Beaumont Street yesterday. I know that both teams are training in North Oxford and so a group of 30 or so well-built men heading down from the Randolph Hotel makes it likely it was them.

Didn't have time or pavement space to stop and stare for confirmation however.

Confirmation: someone's just come into the office saying they saw them at a nearby café just now.

England v Scotland:

So, how about that first half?

How about that second half?

That was to the wire.

What an amazing game

I missed England's first try because the landlord didn't change the channel early enough. The first Scottish try was excellent.

I seriously considered leaving at half time with the win in the bag. I'm glad I stayed. I made an audible yelp of despair when the Scots equalised, and then felt awkward about it.

As for the other games: Wales v Ireland was 80 or so minutes of utter mess. France v Italy was tenser than I was expecting, and my beloved Penaud (number 14) did an awesome intercept to stop an Italian try.

So, about that first half...

Yikes. I watched the first half, mostly, then popped to the shops. Got back and Scotland were in sight, then scored again, and again with an interception almost from the restart.

Watching it with Italian commentary only (I am in Italy) was entertaining, particularly so when Scotland got their last try; the co-commentator was unable to speak, he was laughing so hard.

Guardian: "6 Nations not 'ruling out' 300m paywall"

Appreciate modern sport is big business and there's huge sums of money involved, but if it does move to pay TV, I'll probably lose interest. I enjoy rugby, but am pretty much a casual fan. The autumn internationals tend to pass me by completely, and whilst I look forward to this competition every year it's not really something I'd seek out if it wasn't heavily publicised and easily available. Heck, this is the first tournament in ages where I've actually seen most of the matches!

The Six Nations is my fav rugby tournament. Not sure what I will do when it goes on sky.

World cups and championships are great, of course, but the 6 Nations works so well because it's so simple. The same teams, every year. That gives each match a particular meaning, a narrative or story if you like. Unlike a full league, it only occupies a few weekends so there's little downtime ([mods - enter Italy joke here]). As such it's a brilliant showcase for the game, and that would be lost if it wasn't easily accessible.

Plus 5 out of the 6 teams are very much on equal footing, and fortune swaps around year on year. No games are a certainty and can be relaxed through.
Then you also have the plucky underdog, who gets a bit better each year.

Buying the required week or month passes for sports on Sky Go would seem like your best bet.

Or just go to the pub.

Due to children doing stuff on a weekend, I rarely get to watch anyway

:This:

Paywalling it will kill the sport at grassroots, though, no kids give a fuck about cricket nowadays.

I broadly agree, but it hasn’t hurt football. It helps that it’s more of a global sport than a commonwealth one though.

I think the latter (football's success) is part of why other sports think they can get away with it. But football is simple, everywhere and has almost no barrier to playing it. Other sports have to accept they are niche, and never going to be the same.

Don't even need a ball! Or a foot! It's awesome.

This might be where Boro have been going wrong this season.

I don't even think we have that excuse.

Scotland being good for a change.. some friends of mine up there.

Now I know how Pinot fans feel. Even Dupont wasn't on form.

Missed it. Was Cretin any good?

Well, this thread can be parked for a while.

Might as well switch off the sports forum, too.

*Searches* guv, I found a General Nintendo forum, will that do?

Giphy "it's alive!":
https://media2.giphy.com/media/l6060xrkhamty/giphy-loop.mp4

Ireland v Italy today; the remaining three next Saturday*


*correct at time of writing

Yes!!!

And the Prem final as well

The European Cup last weekend was immense. Hope this is somewhere near as good.

Halftime. Really thought Italy were going to doing something miraculous this game when they grabbed the ball at the start. But that lasted all of three minutes.

Can I turn the crowd noise off? It's very disconcerting.

Hugo Keenan is excellent.

pleasant surprise to suddenly see six nations again last week.. Forza Italia!

Not the greatest three games of rugby ever but some excellent tries and a surprise result! Yay!

The France game was intense as they did what England needed

Watching Dupont and Ntamack at work is one of the joys of modern rugby.

Could you not get the weekend off?

Unsurprisingly, the French stuffed Italy. Less predictably, Scotland are leading England.