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Reply | Six Nations Thread anyone?
at 10:23 23 Feb 2026
I'm a long term "Borthwick is a fraud" advocate, but it looked like he'd got them motoring; big wins, 12 game winning streak.
What's concerning for England is the things that went wrong were all the things that went wrong at the start of his tenure; low work rate, bad discipline, and his defensive system seems to implode completely if it's not working.
The discipline thing in particular was jarring. I've never seen a team get on the wrong side of *two* referees before. When the new man came on they should've thought of it as a reset, instead they were all gobbing off at him from the start. To concede a 10m dissent penalty in a test match in 2026 is jaw dropping |
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Reply | Six Nations Thread anyone?
at 10:18 23 Feb 2026
Obvs delighted to beat England, but my god England were terrible. Actually might be the worst England performance I've ever seen.
They were so lazy. Arundell stole a cap jogging around. Compare and contrast Baloucoune and McCloskey running 40m to make try saving tackles to every time Ireland broke the line being about to run almost 60m uninterrupted.
Ireland scored a try off a kick return play in Dublin last year. We ran the *exact* same play twice on Saturday and....scored twice from it. A professional team shouldn't have that happening to them.
Ireland won pretty much entirely through work rate |
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Reply | Most irritating and mutable commentaror
at 10:11 23 Feb 2026
Another sport but Nick Mullins on ITV rugby is absolutely intolerable. His tone is always a total mismatch for the flow of the game and just chats incessant drivel. I've started watching on mute |
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Reply | Football Fans Humour iIs Alive an well
at 15:21 17 Feb 2026
Back when we were in the Prem, I was at Arsenal away on my lonesome. During the pre match handshake, the guy next to me shouted "BUILD A TEAM, DON'T BUY A TEAM RANGERS"
Sage advice, but not totally sure what they could do about it at that moment in time.
So I often get a hoot out of thinking of the players overhearing him, looking at each other and going "damn, he's right. Sorry Arsenal, game's off. We gotta go build a team" |
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Reply | Blackburn Reflection
at 08:31 16 Feb 2026
Bet Blackburn couldn't believe their luck that the FIFA R1+triangle ball worked not once but twice |
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Reply | Six Nations Thread anyone?
at 12:49 10 Feb 2026
cool, i just know a wall of text might look like I was coming at you! I just love gassing. Appreciate you starting the debate too |
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Reply | Bikes in London
at 11:08 10 Feb 2026
First day of the year cycling into work, and was hilariously almost run over by my neighbour parking their car on the pavement as I wheeled my bike out of my front gate in a real "you couldn't make it up" moment.
Happy to report that all of London's road users be it four wheels, two wheels or legs, remain absolute psychopaths |
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Reply | Six Nations Thread anyone?
at 20:24 9 Feb 2026
This is a great read about why the sands have shifted so quickly from under Ireland, and in general what the game has become about
https://www.threeredkings.com/
Tl:Dr - ruck based phase play, the backbone of Irelands game since 2017, has dramatically become very ineffective with the new kick contest laws |
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Reply | Six Nations Thread anyone?
at 15:11 9 Feb 2026
Sorry, I'm hoping this doesn't come across as personal, because the written word on a forum can sound intense, I just love chatting rugby and don't want to make it sound like I'm going in hard on you!
Scotland also went to Fiji and Samoa, as part of trying to give Tier 2 nations more opportunities at playing tier 1 nations at home for a pay day.
There are 4x more rugby players in England than Ireland, and 2.5x more top flight clubs. It stands to reason England could contest a higher level than Ireland without their first choice players. In fact, bar injuries the front row Ireland played in the summer would've usurped the Lions players on form and Big Prendergast has become a starter off the back of it.
Ireland also fielded a far more inexperienced squad than England - 13 uncapped players vs England's 10, and 208 total caps vs England's 560
Ireland have failed to rotate properly, and is a big black mark against Farrell imo but England's current success is mostly due to a coach actually picking on form and playing a game plan that maximises their strengths (instead of Jones' rather bizarre attempts to recreate Full Metal Jacket behind the scenes). Their youth pipeline is fruitful cos there's more players with more pathways into the elite game, and that has always been the case, they've just underachieved over the last decade relative to playing population and income |
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Reply | Six Nations Thread anyone?
at 13:17 9 Feb 2026
That's a bit of a reach isn't it? England players made up 40% of the Lions squad - they surely had no choice but to play non first choice players.
Also that England team vs Argentina had an average age of 27 and featured 5 players who played on Saturday including 3 with more than 40 caps and one with 100! |
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Reply | Bikes in London
at 12:04 9 Feb 2026
That guy's videos are so good for quiet routes to get about.
I use a route he showed from Old Street to Southwark bridge and I always get other cyclists asking me where I went |
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Reply | Six Nations Thread anyone?
at 11:55 9 Feb 2026
Looks like it will come down to England vs France. France very nearly accidentally let Ireland back into the match as their style of play takes a physical toll, but I think England will actually be frustrated in how they played vs Wales; guilty of overplaying vs 13 men. Wales were so bad England really should've hit 70.
A word for Italy. They were absolutely fantastic. Tactically superb. So much more up for it than Scotland, and the discipline to ride those phases at the end and wait for the turnover was incredible. Townend has had a golden generation of Scottish talent and managed two 3rd place finishes. A colossal waste of ability |
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Reply | Six Nations Thread anyone?
at 11:51 9 Feb 2026
Combination of
- Historic bad management by the WRU (merging Neath and Swansea, two bitter rivals, to make the Ospreys for eg, keeping the money for their fancy lunches while the grass roots can't afford kits)
- Go back ten years ago. Swansea established Prem team, Cardiff had a few stints in the Prem. Wales got to the semis of the Euros. If you were a 10-15 Welsh lad would you stay in a rugby system where your local club has damp, or would football seem super exciting to you? We're seeing the down stream effect of that |
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Reply | Six Nations Thread anyone?
at 11:45 9 Feb 2026
They want to relaunch but join the URC so be a London based team in the league of Ireland, Wales, Scotland and SA.
The RFU are currently blocking it |
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Reply | Six Nations Thread anyone?
at 13:28 6 Feb 2026
Last night had been coming for Ireland.
Farrell's steadfast refusal to rotate or not use "his boys" has now meant when there's an injury crisis he's finally forced to bed in new players, they've had too little exposure to test rugby.
Ever since Catt left as attack coach, we have looked completely blunt. Goodman is absolutely stealing a living. |
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Reply | Gotta larf, incha ?
at 11:32 5 Feb 2026
One of my best mates was in the Marines, and his favourite training exercise was counter acting a Cornish independence insurgency |
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Reply | Cooky Monster
at 15:47 1 Feb 2026
Hope you warmed up before making a reach that big, you could strain something |
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Reply | Driving
at 16:10 28 Jan 2026
As somone who both cycles and uses a car, I gotta say, the standards of driving on UK roads at the moment is absolutely abysmal.
Two massive bug bears -
people never yielding at junctions and always pulling straight into the road at pace
loads of drivers (and especially prevalent with EVs) turning without indicating?
At first I thought it was maybe being on a bike thing, but I've noticed it when in the car too. I'm mostly sat there thinking I'm surrounded by lunatics |
| | robith
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