Woohoo!!! Imagine this: Last game of the tournament against England. In Paris. Playing for the grand slam.
That was quite a game. It’s not at all the kind of rugby we enjoy over here in France. It lacked inspiration, flair, beauty, style… Not at all Les Bleus’ confort zone. Most of this was induced by the Welsh Dragons officiating at home in front of their supporters. This combination successfully negated the French side desire to take risks and play for pleasure, like they tend to usually do. Les Bleus reacted in a very unusual way: being ultra conservative. Kicking rather than playing the ball in hand. To me, they played more like UK style rugby : score early, then defend. I don’t believe I have ever seen them attempting drop kicks before (they need to train more on this, actually). Realistic, but how boring ?! A couple years ago, France would have never ever been able to handle this type of match. In French, « ugly win » is an oxymoron… I think they are getting very much ready for the 2023 RWC. Hoping next Saturday’s game against England is a lot more spectacular, even though I have to admit yesterday’s French defence was amazing.
Allez les bleus Little update on this post. Chatting to an old friend in South Wales this morning. He has debenture seats at Millennium Stadium. He told me they had 10k unsold tickets for last nights game including 2 of his. Ever tried getting home from the game at 10:00pm on public transport (rugby=beer=public transport for the vast majority)? It’s killing the event for fans. Rant over.
No rant mate, serious organisation issues with this game. Why a Friday night ? Why £100 for a basic ticket ? I don't recall a Friday night game defore and if you know Cardiff, it's an absolute pig to get to and now the bridge is free, every f**ker and his dog have moved out of Bristol and bought homes across the border. Friday is the last day I'd choose to get there. Rugby used to be grass roots, big business for the monied now. Andy
What looked to me like a genuine attempt at a tackle by Ewells, which ended up with both players clashing heads unintentionally. Yes they were both upright, but Ewells arms were braced around Ryan in the tackle attempt. I appreciate that this sort of clash requires much better scrutiny and attention to the players, due the much more stringent regulations around safety, something I absolutely applaud. It is fundamentally a necessary change to the rugby rules and follow-up. It isn't applied in the same manner frequently enough as can often be seen in the Premiership and as a result referees and their Line Judges + TMO are criticised, so they often take too strict a line in situations like these. That said and I use my words cautiously here, Raynal has IMO always been a second rate referee and here he goes again, demonstrating that entirely consistently with past 'performances'. A ruined game for me, so much so that I've now stopped watching it. Raynal.........
Whether you agree or not with that 82 seconds red card, England have rolled up 4 a fight with just fourteen men on the pitch, but unless we can start scoring tries we're fecked.
So your team is in trouble and you leave? WTF? Little faith… England is fighting mightily even with one man out.
As much as it pains me to say it, but, England did play well, I thought at one point they were going to snatch it. Well played England and very very well played Ireland. Since when has it been acceptable to boo the kicker ?
England played well? No tries, gave away too many penalties including one that might have actually led to an England try and eventually lost. Third in the table now and likely to end up fourth. Well played indeed.
