Just after watching back the Calcutta Cup match there. Eddie Jones taking off Marcus Smith was a calamitous decision. Winning and losing of the game there.
Delightful game.
Yeah, a good game. Scotland were favourites going into that fixture today for the first time, probably since some time in the 1980’s. Great for the Scots (and indeed the sizeable contingent of Scotland enthusiasts on the forum) to win it not playing particularly well.
I’d fancy Scotland to win in Cardiff next week too.
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Me too, but Ireland will batter them. Not a vintage team of jocks imho.
Marcus Smith failure to find touch from a penalty was the winning and losing of that game.
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The bookies had England 1 point favourites. I’d say 1988 was probably the last time Scotland were favourites. England were considered fairly shite at the time but won a low scoring game.
Dean Richards and John Jeffrey infamously took the Calcutta Cup on a nocturnal trip down Princes Street.
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In fairness, whilst the penalty try was a grey area generosity, the ref had been fairly harsh on Scotland in the second half up to that point. He gave a penalty for offside where an English lad pushed the Scottish lad into his own player, and one where he said the lad trying to get the ball put his hands in front of it, and even that Marcus Smith penalty was dodgy enough. The first two led to English scores. Anyway it was absolutely brilliant.
We were headed out to meet people and herself came down with about ten mins left, and asked did she need to put more makeup on. I said yes, to buy ten minutes, which went down as you can imagine, but it was well worth it.
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The Italians will fancy a hop off that Welsh team yday
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Wales face Italy in Round 5. Wales could well have lost their first 4 going into that.
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Italians are improving a lot of good young lads. I’d expect them to put up a bold show today.
Seems half the country is heading to Paris next weekend.
Was that his job?
Is that the job of the Ireland manager for example?
The Scots beat France last year. It would be absolutely wonderful if they could sneak in a 6N title.
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Is it his job no would he have a strong input into it yes would you want the clubs to get stronger and widen the playing base yes
But how can the National Team coach make the clubs stronger?
Surely Wales should have big committees for youth development and club development that would have nothing to do with the national team manager? I assume Ireland have that anyway. Long-term strategist-type people.
What did Schmidt do for the Irish club for example?
He played Towns Cup for Mullingar
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Garland railed against picking Welsh based players only.
It meant so many of their best players left for England and France.
Last week you were saying that provincial form is meaningless but in Ireland it’s huge as all our players are based in Ireland.
Schidmt was also the driving force behind getting players to move provinces obviously it benefited him too but it’s help Ulster and Munster in the short term.
Its amazing what a good coach can do and how far Wales have fallen off since Gatty’s time
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