Road to RWC 2023

[Donny osmond]

In fairness the French forwards look like they're blowing hard. 5 mins to bring this one home.

[Donny osmond]

Russell has played out of his skin the 2nd half.

[Donny osmond]

Grrrnnnnggfff that is an annoying penalty to give away. Right in front of the posts.

[Donny osmond]

Ah that's an annoying way to end BUT we went toe to toe with a genuinely great French team, out scored them in number of tries and lots of positives.... if we can just please stop with the penalties

[BaldiePete]

30-27. That’s better than I expected before the match and much better than I expected after 44 minutes.

Can we please give George Horne a start? We are so much more dynamic when he is playing.

[Big D]

And that's someone off for repeated team penalties. And we've lost the ref already, I can only imagine Ritchie's constant bullshit would make the refs job more difficult than he wants it to be

Yeah it isn't a good combo when Ritchie can't speak to captains and the ref is giving some very marginal penalties against us.

A bollocks lineoit penalty on Ritchie at the maul began a sequence of several penalties. The lasting out should have been a Scotland penalty too.

[paddy no 11]

That's a great performance

Russell was brilliant

France are very good, you can't let them find 5th gear

Scotland are a better team than South Africa if ye can manage the forward confrontation/shithousery

[Big D]

Forwards shaping up as well as cam be hoped. Maul defence looks solid too.

[septic 9]

Has Ritchie stopped his chat? Maybe someone had a word at half time.

he was measured throughout IMHO, very different from the 6N. Turner was talking a lot to the ref on seemingly ok terms. Wonder if like the commentators you mistake his headband for Richie's?

Richie BTW was at his best last night, back to deserving to start. That back row looks like our best combination, with Fagerson to bench

[Donny osmond]

Has Ritchie stopped his chat? Maybe someone had a word at half time.

he was measured throughout IMHO, very different from the 6N. Turner was talking a lot to the ref on seemingly ok terms. Wonder if like the commentators you mistake his headband for Richie's?

Richie BTW was at his best last night, back to deserving to start. That back row looks like our best combination, with Fagerson to bench

Agree about that back row, and that Ritchie was playing at his best. Hard disagree about him being measured, at least in the first half, it wasn't the headband I was looking at. Still he seemed to quieten down and focus on his rugby and played a great game all told.

[Cameo]

Another strange game but I think we can be confident we won't be underdone this World Cup. Feels like we have got ourselves in a position to at least scare South Africa.

Feels like we have evolved our game a bit too. Kinghorn is slotting in at first receiver well as well as getting into space out wide. It's all quite high risk and we will see mistakes that look stupid but I'm up for the ride.

On individuals, of the ones not sure of their place I thought McInally looked very good.

On Ritchie, it's hard to know exactly what he's saying a lot of the time but he has that exasperated disbelieving look on his face a lot of the time. Actually, in the second half at least, Finn seemed very wound up. I think he kept taking late hits.

[Mikey Brown]

Well that was fun. Frustrating at times but really pleased to turn around a 17 point deficit.

Any thoughts or conclusions on locks/line-out/6:2 issues?

[Cameo]

I think you could argue the comebacks are evidence on favour of the 6-2. We still have the energy to up the pace and that may be worth the risk of an unfortunate injury in the backs.

The locks and lineout is more of a worry. You would like to think another four weeks will help that, but it's not like the players involved are newbies.

[Mikey Brown]

I think you could argue the comebacks are evidence on favour of the 6-2. We still have the energy to up the pace and that may be worth the risk of an unfortunate injury in the backs.

The locks and lineout is more of a worry. You would like to think another four weeks will help that, but it's not like the players involved are newbies.

Is it simply a matter of needing both Gray and Gilchrist on the field though? Both of them or could we at least have Cummings or Skinner there and the old lads able to split 80 minutes and lineout duties between them?

[septic 9]

Agree about that back row, and that Ritchie was playing at his best. Hard disagree about him being measured, at least in the first half, it wasn't the headband I was looking at. Still he seemed to quieten down and focus on his rugby and played a great game all told.

my post didn't reflect the irony I intended. Richie was very restrained in his reactions considering the shite Berry was reffing. Darge was penalised for being "too long" over the breakdown, "couldn't possibly get back up from there". Well I couldn't bit these guys can. A story IIRC in Warburton's autobiography about a ref saying the same thing to him- so he demonstrated to an embarrassed ref. Anyway, that was Berry's call. Fine. Except then Villiere, not a specialist like Darge goes even longer and gets awarded a pen. From which Price tackles the man after the quick pen and gets a YC, and France go on to score

I can take refs making mistakes but the rank inconsistency stinks. No wonder Rassie made a video about Berry . He should not have done that but I can sense the frustration with Berry.

[Big D]

Berry was very poor at the weekend. He isn't a good ref at all. Not Adamson level but still a poor ref.

[Big D]

So 4 or 5 due to be cut, who are we thinking?

Walker
Cherry or Ashman
Dobie

Back row contentious, not sure if Chrisite is still with the squad. If he is I'd go with Watson and Christie to miss out, if not then Watson and Bayliss. Suspect Crosbie will miss out for Watson though.

[Cameo]

I suspect Dobie, Ashman, Dobie and then not sure on backrow. I think Watson will go and I just about agree he should.

[BaldiePete]

I suspect Dobie, Ashman, Dobie and then not sure on backrow. I think Watson will go and I just about agree he should.

That’s two Dobies. Did you mean Walker? I’d drop Walker, Ashman and Dobie. I suspect the last one to be dropped will be either Crosbie or Watson. I’m not convinced his form deserves it, but I think Toony will take Watson because of his experience but he shouldn’t be the first choice openside.

[Donny osmond]

Agree about that back row, and that Ritchie was playing at his best. Hard disagree about him being measured, at least in the first half, it wasn't the headband I was looking at. Still he seemed to quieten down and focus on his rugby and played a great game all told.

my post didn't reflect the irony I intended. Richie was very restrained in his reactions considering the shite Berry was reffing. Darge was penalised for being "too long" over the breakdown, "couldn't possibly get back up from there". Well I couldn't bit these guys can. A story IIRC in Warburton's autobiography about a ref saying the same thing to him- so he demonstrated to an embarrassed ref. Anyway, that was Berry's call. Fine. Except then Villiere, not a specialist like Darge goes even longer and gets awarded a pen. From which Price tackles the man after the quick pen and gets a YC, and France go on to score

I can take refs making mistakes but the rank inconsistency stinks. No wonder Rassie made a video about Berry . He should not have done that but I can sense the frustration with Berry.

Yeah that's all fair points, JR must've been pretty frustrated.

[Big D]

Clever by the French to take advantage of a terribly weak ref.

[septic 9]

Clever by the French to take advantage of a terribly weak ref.

"he fell over him" is Nigel Owens level making stuff shit

[Donny osmond]

It's the same shit the Irish are up to, sneaking a player in behind the ruck to disrupt the supporting players. WR need to show that they won't let these teams take the piss

[Cameo]

It is tricky for the refs though. The chances are Berry only sees that out the corner of his eye while focusing on Schoeman and the ruck. Some refs will be better than others at spotting these tricks, but there is a reason why they are known as the dark arts (also, there will be plenty of players claiming to be taken out when they are not).

[BaldiePete]

Squad is out.

The four dropped players are McInally, Walker, Bayliss, and Dobie. I thought Mcinally and Bayliss have both played well when they’ve come on in the matches so far and are unfortunate. Pleased for Crosbie though, he’s a good player.

Forwards: Ewan Ashman, Jamie Bhatti, Dave Cherry, Luke Crosbie, Scott Cummings, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, Richie Gray, WP Nel, Jamie Ritchie (c), Pierre Schoeman, Javan Sebastian, Sam Skinner, Rory Sutherland, George Turner, Hamish Watson.

Backs: Darcy Graham, Blair Kinghorn, Chris Harris, Ben Healy, George Horne, Huw Jones, Ali Price, Cameron Redpath, Finn Russell, Ollie Smith, Kyle Steyn, Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe, Ben White.