6 Nations 2022

[drc_007]

I thought it was a very poor performance from England. Would they have scored a try but for a missthrow by Wales at a lineout on their own line?

Backs lack physicality and real pace, can't see them worrying Ireland or France.

[Old Hob]

I thought our Freddie was close to being MOTM, superb performance.

Fair play to Marcus Smith, that penalty to make it 20-12 was huge.

Steward could be a top,top international. I see both Dagg and Kearney in him

Agreed. Magnificent today.

Agreed, must be a Lions contender.

[Cardiff Tig]

I thought it was a very poor performance from England. Would they have scored a try but for a missthrow by Wales at a lineout on their own line?

Backs lack physicality and real pace, can't see them worrying Ireland or France.

It was a strange game. Welsh forwards were poor but seemed to show some spark in the backline. England's pack was clearly on top all game but outside Smith there was nothing threatening. Can't see England winning against Ireland or France at this rate.

[Robespierre]

The odds on a French Grand Slam must have shortened a lot after their impressive all-round display at Murrayfield followed by England’s abject performance against Wales. Next up for France is a Friday night in Cardiff, which on current form they should win but they’ll have to quieten the Welsh crowd in the first half and establish a lead to build on. Then the final weekend at the Stade de France against England, who will have a tough job getting the better of the Irish. It’s clear that Eddie had put all his eggs in the Tuilagi basket and his game plan came seriously unstuck. Randall and Smith will surely be picked for Ireland but England need out and out pace on the wings - Hassell-Collins/Radwan/Daly?, but will he chuck Tuilagi in against the Irish? A big risk in my opinion. Could Kelly be brought into a training session?

[ay2oh]

The odds on a French Grand Slam must have shortened a lot after their impressive all-round display at Murrayfield followed by England’s abject performance against Wales. Next up for France is a Friday night in Cardiff, which on current form they should win but they’ll have to quieten the Welsh crowd in the first half and establish a lead to build on. Then the final weekend at the Stade de France against England, who will have a tough job getting the better of the Irish. It’s clear that Eddie had put all his eggs in the Tuilagi basket and his game plan came seriously unstuck. Randall and Smith will surely be picked for Ireland but England need out and out pace on the wings - Hassell-Collins/Radwan/Daly?, but will he chuck Tuilagi in against the Irish? A big risk in my opinion. Could Kelly be brought into a training session?

No we don’t want to lose any more players.

[Robespierre]

The odds on a French Grand Slam must have shortened a lot after their impressive all-round display at Murrayfield followed by England’s abject performance against Wales. Next up for France is a Friday night in Cardiff, which on current form they should win but they’ll have to quieten the Welsh crowd in the first half and establish a lead to build on. Then the final weekend at the Stade de France against England, who will have a tough job getting the better of the Irish. It’s clear that Eddie had put all his eggs in the Tuilagi basket and his game plan came seriously unstuck. Randall and Smith will surely be picked for Ireland but England need out and out pace on the wings - Hassell-Collins/Radwan/Daly?, but will he chuck Tuilagi in against the Irish? A big risk in my opinion. Could Kelly be brought into a training session?

No we don’t want to lose any more players.

From a selfish perspective, no, but Kelly is one of the in form England qualified centres and it would reflect well upon the club if he were to be chosen.

[mol2]

Is it just about Tuillagi?
It could be that it's as much about Farrell as Manu. Jones accepts a fit Manu is a certainty in in any side. Which leaves one slot open to his golden boy that he seems unable to leave out. ( Smith has clearly made himself the first choice fly half. )

If you pick an Atkinson or Kelly and it comes off then where does Farrell fit in? For me he's not an international centre, so a bench player.

However if you pick 2 outside centres, neither of which is a crash ball merchant, it makes the case for the return of Farrell when the backs fail to break the gain line.

It's a shame but so close to the world cup Jones has to go. It might limit the available coaches but sometimes you have to take the hard choice to have a chance. Someone who is belligerently picking players who are not up to the job, playing those he has out of position and turning over coaching staff with alarming frequency suggests they need to go.

Scraping a win over South Africa in the AIs is not enough for to overlook the woeful performances since the World Cup.
If he is to survive he needs to beat both Ireland and France and based on the performances against Scotland and Wales both will have to implode and concede a lot of penalties as we are defensively inept and unable to convert possession into tries.

[Tiglon]

I thought that was a decent, if unspectacular, England performance. Even SCW thought so! The worst part from an England perspective was the absolute waste of the 10 minutes after Wales' yellow card - to take a scrum in front of the sticks when your scrum has been far from dominant is just the wrong call. Easy 3 points, get the ball back and you've then got 9 minutes to have a go at 14 men. England are lacking a good captain at the moment, Genge seems like the best option to me.

Randall was better than I expected, as was Dombrandt. Both strengthened their cases IMO. I'm not sure how Smith was MotM after a fairly unremarkable performance. Lawes was outstanding for me (scrum decision aside) and was a critical part of the win - he can do things no other England player can and has been missed.

It would be great to see Hassell-Collins, Barbeary and Kelly in the mix - I think that they might give the team a very different feel and add a bit of a spark. I'm not convinced by Slade as an international starter, Malins has not shown much so far this tournament and Nowell doesn't look like he's anywhere near his best. Steward is probably the only one outside 10 who is shining. I don't think it's fair to say that's all EJ's fault, but it's probably time for him to take a risk and try some fresh options.

I don't see any logic in sacking EJ at this point, (but it's definitely time for a new approach after the RWC) and I doubt it will happen unless both the last 2 matches go very, very badly. France, in particular, and Ireland are in very good form, but England have enough quality that it's hard to imagine them being given a good hiding to the point where the RFU panic and kick EJ out. He might not have a clue how to win finals, but he's incredibly good at getting to them and I think England will be competitive, if unlikely to win it.

France were very, very good, but there were weaknesses there too. Jaminet looked far from secure at the back and I'm sure England will target him more than Scotland did. They are strong favourites for the grand slam now, but they are far from unbeatable.

[Scott1]

So we have MF problems with personnel yet it's EJ fault! So if we got rid of EJ the MF problems would still be there right?

[Jimmy Skitz]

So we have MF problems with personnel yet it's EJ fault! So if we got rid of EJ the MF problems would still be there right?

depends if the replacement picked the same players, which they probably wouldn't

[Scott1]

So we have MF problems with personnel yet it's EJ fault! So if we got rid of EJ the MF problems would still be there right?

depends if the replacement picked the same players, which they probably wouldn't

Who is there to pick? We can't guarantee Kelly would light international rugby up,it doesn't work like that.

[Scott1]

So this will be Italys 35th,yes you read that right,35th 6N loss on the trot if they lose today. But they're great for the competition though ay

[Scott1]

Italy have lasted all of 3 minutes!

[Rugbygramps]

Italy going to have no hooker for 60 minutes

[fentiger]

Any chance Italy had of putting up some resistance just ended with that red!