England and Wales are both part of the Empire so surely he can support either? Or both?
I like it, far nicer than that purple yolk they wore last year, think it is only for today to mark 100 years of rugby at twickers
He’s also a vice patron of the Welsh Rugby Union.
Cracking try from Hook. New scrum half has upped the pace a bit.
Great stuff from Hook there…game on now, hope to fuck it is a draw, as I have a fiver at 30.0 on betfair from the other day
That was a fantastic individual try by James Hook. Brian O’Driscoll in the 1st Empire test match in Brisbane in 2001-esque.
Game over…no doubt England will think they are world beaters again after this
Jesus England have gotten out of jail in a big way there. Shame as it was shaping up to be a great finish.
And that was just terrible from Jones. Couldn’t have been more obvious in his intentions and it wasn’t even like Armitage had to make a play for the interception.
Nice break from Williams though.
30-17 is a very false scoreline there. Wales had the winning of that if they had kept their nerve.
Phillips and Jenkins would have made a big difference today if fit
Princess Anne is Patron of the Scottish rugby union. With Northern Ireland as part of the Empire it is surprising that the IRFU does not have a patron from the Royal Family.
Perhaps a respected former international like, say, Davy Tweed could be an intermediary in this process. Personally, I’d suggest the Duchess of Kent although she mightn’t be acceptable to certain elements within Ulster as she’s a taig. Perhaps it’s best to just let the issue lie for now Manuel.
wales will be kickin themselves they could have won that,shit game too
Just back in from the game
Thought it was fairly shite to be honest. Atmosphere was fairly poor.
WE looked only half interested and played in about second gear
Thought our kicking from hand was poor enough, Kearney seemed really disinterested. Himself and Trimble fucked up for the try, neither took responsibility of claiming the ball and then Kearney took too much out of it. Trimble had a few savage hits early on and I’d be inclined to leave him start again the next day.
Thought O’Leary was way too slow again at clearing ball at rucktime
Leo looked well up for it and won a lot of Italian ball at 2, I’d leave him in the team for next week.
Didn’t see much right or wrong with McLaughlin- Ferris is world class though and has to return if he’s fit
RoG unless injured will probably start- thought Wallace was lively enough when he came on, distributed better than ROG, mainly due I believe to him standing a little deeper and not playing as flat. Backline seemed to motor better with him at 10. Scrum seemed ok, don’t think we were killed which is an improvement from the autumn.
BOD is pure genius, he had a sublime passage in the first half where he nearly foot passed a kick to Wallace on the wing. He is a legend. Not certain about hooker, its funny but you are better off wathcing a game on TV as you see much more, neither of our hookers made an impression right or wrong on me.
Backrow will be crucial for us next week, they weren’t too bothered today, anytime Heaslip was arsed he made savage ground. I suppose its a bit passe for him now but when he plays he has a massive influence on our game.
I’ll think some more about this but we need to up our game majorly to have any chance of winning next week
Poor George thought that Shaun Edwards was Neil Jenkins.
The atmosphere appeared very flat today. The Ultras that were present at the South Africa game in November and indeed the Munster v Northampton game a couple of weeks ago were nowhere to be seen or heard today. I can only assume that it was because they feared the presence of the travelling Italian Ultras and didn’t want to be drawn into conflict with their more experienced visitors, the Ultra culture in Irish rugby only being in its infancy.
Poor enough today but in fairness we had game well wrapped up early on so hard to continue to pile on pressure against a motivated side when knowing far bigger challenges await.
Thought Cullen did well and should retain his place.
Trimble should have took command of kick behind for the try though would obviously blame Kearney
more. Trimble bit in a few big hits and did well enough overall. Earls looked sharp when he came on so toss up between the two of them for next week. Kearney was very poor. His frustration at his own poor performance was obvious and contributed to poor decision making.
Wallace did well when he came on all right and his distribution was particularly good. He doesn’t go for the obvious pass so this makes him hard to play against for an opposition backline. A far better 12 than 10 though as has been said many times.
ROG gave a really assured performance.
Wales and England was good second half. England seemed a little fortunate and though some of calls went against them.
:rolleyes: yeah, good one Sean
Sean Lamont today claimed Scotland have what it takes to win the RBS 6 Nations Grand Slam this season.
Scarlets wing Lamont made the bold assertion less than 24 hours before his country’s opening game against France.
Scotland have been wooden spoon contenders for much of the past decade, and finished fifth in the table in 2008 and 2009.
But Lamont insists if they play to their true potential, they can clinch their maiden Six Nations title and a first Grand Slam for 20 years.
‘I’m not going to to jinx it by saying too much,’ the 29-year-old said. 'We’ve got to start with a win tomorrow. You can only win all of them if you win your first.
'If we play to the top of our game, we’re targeting all five. You don’t come into the tournament targeting one win, two wins, because then you get one win, two wins.
‘It’s down to us being at the top of our game, doing everything right, attack and defence.’
There are precedents for teams winning surprise Grand Slams, the most recent being Ireland claiming their first for 61 years last season after a poor autumn series.
Wales also ended a 27-year wait in 2005 despite winning only two of their five Six Nations games the year before.
But with Scotland having won only three of their last 15 championship matches, clinching a Grand Slam this year would surely be one of the biggest shocks in the tournament’s history
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We’ll need the pack to show more grunt and the backs to display more gas if we’re to win in Paris.