The usual forthright views from Chinnor in the guise of a preview of their match at Cinderford !

https://www.chinnor-rfc.com/teams/1031/news/eye-on-the-opposition-cinderford-2829532.html" rel="nofollow - https://www.chinnor-rfc.com/teams/1031/news/eye-on-the-opposition-cinderford-2829532.html

Good on them!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/68145355" rel="nofollow - England's Marcus Smith ruled out of opener against Italy in Rome

Fly-half Marcus Smith has been ruled out of England's Six Nations opener against Italy in Rome on Saturday with a calf injury. Smith, who had been expected to start against the Azzurri, was injured in training on Monday. His absence means Northampton's in-form Fin Smith, 21, is set to make his international debut in the Stadio Olimpico. England will confirm their starting XV and replacements on Thursday evening.

Yes but would that work with Borthwick's usual game plan? Flair players need to be given their head not suffocated.

Alex Mitchell an injury doubt apparently.

A new coach will bring new energy. I can't help feeling that the previous coach had completely lost the changing room.

Sooner or later this run of competent italy U20s will bear fruit.

Not sure they have the pack to deal with this England team.

Ireland: H Keenan; C Nash, R Henshaw, B Aki, J Lowe; J Crowley, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Furlong; J McCarthy, T Beirne; P O'Mahony (capt), J van def Flier, C Doris. Replacements: R Kelleher, C Healy, F Bealham, J Ryan, R Baird, J Conan, C Murray, C Frawley.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/68153540" rel="nofollow - France scrum-half Maxime Lucu starts against Ireland

France: T Ramos; D Penaud, G Fickou, J Danty, Y Moefana; M Jalibert, M Lucu; C Baille, P Mauvaka, U Atonio; P Gabrillagues, P Willemse; F Cros, C Ollivon, G Alldritt (capt). Replacements: J Marchand, R Wardi, D Aldegheri, R Taofifenua, C Woki, P Boudehent, N Le Garrec, L Bielle-Biarrey.

But his injury made it a straight fight between Ford and Smith, a 21-year-old rookie who has earned huge praise for his performances with Northampton.

Borthwick spoke last year of his hope that the RFU would eventually abandon the selection criteria on players playing overseas.

Italy: Allan; Pani, Brex, Menoncello, Ioane; P Garbisi, A Garbisi; Fischetti, Lucchesi, Ceccarelli, N Cannone, Ruzza, Negri, Lamaro (capt), L Cannone. Replacements: Nicotera, Spagnolo, Zilocchi, Zambonin, Izekor, Zuliani, Varney, Mori England: Steward; Freeman, Slade, Dingwall, Daly; Ford, Mitchell; Marler, George (capt), Stuart, Itoje, Chessum, Roots, Underhill, Earl. Replacements: Dan, Genge, Cole, Coles, Cunningham-South, Care, F Smith, Feyi-Waboso

Wales team to face Scotland: Winnett; Dyer, Watkin, Tompkins, Adams; Costelow, G Davies; Domachowski, Elias, Brown, D Jenkins (capt), Beard, Botham, Reffell, Wainwright. Replacements: Dee, Mathias, Assiratti, Teddy Williams, Mann, Tomos Williams, I Lloyd, Grady.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/68170556" rel="nofollow - Kyle Rowe starts for Scotland against Wales, with Blair Kinghorn injured

Scotland: Rowe, Steyn, Jones, Tuipulotu, Van der Merwe, Russell, White; Schoeman, Turner, Z Fagerson, R Gray, Cummings, Crosbie, Ritchie, M Fagerson. Replacements: Ashman, Hepburn, Millar-Mills, Skinner, Dempsey, Horne, Healy, Redpath.

Do substitutes in the dead ball area count towards only 15 players on the pitch. Is the key "dead ball area" or "substitute"?

(19 on pitch for Beirne's try)

Law 3 says 15 on field of play which includes the In Play area

While we are at it: do scrum-halves have to put the ball into scrums straight? Law 19 says they do... 

The laws define a maul as the ball carrier and at least one more player from each team.

Wow!

Somewhat like the curate's egg, good in parts. I had this down as the 6 Nations decider! I think Ireland have pulled it off, albeit having a few problems in the front row. 

I await the rest of the first weekend's matches which I suspect will be inconclusive with pressure on all 4 teams to step up. Rome will not be straightforward but I suspect Scotland will do enough to win in Cardiff. 

It drives me mad...

Even if you took away the red, France were never really in the game.

Ireland were far from perfect but I think they have enough to go all the way again.

Wales team to face England: Winnett; Dyer, North, Tompkins, Adams; Lloyd, Williams; G Thomas, Dee, Assiratti, Jenkins (capt), Beard, Mann, Reffell, Wainwright. Replacements: Elias, Domachowski, Griffin, Rowlands, Basham, Hardy, Evans, Grady.

England: Steward; Freeman, Slade, Dingwall, Daly; Ford, Mitchell; Marler, George (capt), Stuart, Itoje, Chessum, Roots, Underhill, Earl. Replacements: Dan, Genge, Cole, Coles, Cunningham-South, Care, F Smith, Feyi-Waboso

My offers  Feyi-Waboso for Daly, Cunningham-South for Underhill and Smith for Ford. This is assuming the first two can play either side. Any other suggestions / views ?

The obvious answer would be that the RFU ditch the overseas rule and allow Borthwick to give Arundell a game.

Wales try.

Australia try.

Japan Try.

Scotland: Rowe; Steyn, H Jones, Tuipulotu, Van der Merwe; Russell (co-capt), White; Schoeman, Turner, Z Fagerson, Gilchrist, Cummings, M Fagerson, Darge (co-capt), Dempsey. Replacements: Ashman, Hepburn, Millar-Mills, Skinner, Christie, G Horne, Healy, Redpath. France: Ramos, Penaud, Fickou, Danty, Bielle-Biarrey, Jailbert, Lucu; Baille Mauvaka, Antonio, Woki, Gabrillagues, Cros, Ollivon, Alldritt (capt). Replacements: Marchand, Taofifenua, Aldegheri, Tuilagi, Roumat, Boudehent, Le Garrec, Moefana.

Ireland: Keenan; Nash, Henshaw, McCloskey, Lowe; Crowley, Casey; Porter, Sheehan, Bealham, McCarthy, Ryan, Baird, Doris, Conan. Replacements: Kelleher, Loughman, O'Toole, Henderson, Van der Flier, Gibson-Park, Byrne, Larmour. Italy: Capuozzo; Pani, Brex, Menoncello, Ioane; P Garbisi, Varney; Fischetti, Lucchesi, Ceccarelli, N Cannone, Ruzza, Izekor, Zuliani, Lamaro (capt). Replacements: Nicotera, Spagnolo, Zilocchi, Zambonin, Vintcent, Page-Relo, Allan, Mori.

Restrictions applied by the powers that be in world rugby as to when the international window is open for when players are to be made available for their international teams. England pay PRL for additional time outside of this window before the games to allow for additional training, so players from outside of England do not have to be released out side of the international window. French clubs for example don't let English clubs away from their clubs until they have to, so England chose not to select said players who are not available. The other side of the coin is that players who stay in England are rewarded for doing so with caps that might have gone to those who take the euro, so the players were also behind driving this rule.

Stephen Aboud essentially took the Dublin private schools system and replicated it in the rugby parts of Italy.

Last night the Italian scrum was magnificent and had the Irish pack in desperate straits for most of the match.  Italy well deserved their half time lead and were unlucky not to close the match out and take the victory.

It was a poor performance from Ireland who looked like they were expecting an easier time following their previous match against France.  A deserved wake-up call to the boys in green if they have serious aspirations about achieving another Grand Slam.

Hopefully over the next few years we'll see members of this young Italian pack step up to their senior team and make the Azzurri a more formidable and fearsome opponent.

CTT 

I have to say, I totally agree with you. This seasons six nations (it’s been journey downward for sometime)  is turning into one of most insipid, negative and uninteresting contests of all time. It’s awful. 

I’m with you (CTT) give me league rugby any day of the week. 

All the best 

ST

Correct 

I doubt Mitchell is kicking it away by choice. Borthwick has much to answer for.

Key element never addressed at HQ - players made through work of volunteers - but that's the beauty of rugby - the love of the game - until the scavengers come calling.

That's a veritable factory of Saints players.

As an OB, I am saddened at Bedford's loss of top school standard - in the 60s and unbeaten season was a reasonable expectation - until hockey and now football being on the curriculum. Still a great school, but I'm biased 😲

The glory days!

Nice place to see Minor Counties Cricket or whatever it’s called these days.

Ireland with Gaelic Football and Rugby probably more so. Provinces are restricted as to what overseas players they can bring in depending on how it would affect the Irish players 

I see Nucifora and Schmidt have teamed up again in Australia 

Andy Gomarsall 

Martin Bayfield

George Furbank

(and Al Murray.....) 

Dublin schools have some of the best training bases in rugby.

Irish government support (Covid grants not loans)

Shared Aviva stadium with Irish FA

Irish tax law for entertainers (including sportspeople) much more advantageous than UK.

Ulster has had UK and Irish money thrown at it.

Good on them.

Scottish Rugby are calling on the sport's governing body to acknowledge that a game-defining mistake was made in the last seconds of Scotland's Six Nations game against France. The SRU say the integrity of the tournament was in danger of being compromised when referee Nic Berry and TMO Brian MacNeice appeared to U-turn on their decision to award Scotland a match-winning try. The SRU would like to know how that process played out and want World Rugby to state that an error was made.

Personally I believe that this is a bad route for a union to go down in choosing to challenge in public contentious decisions.  It also deflects attention from the team's own poor decision making and performance - in this match spurning a penalty in front of the posts at half time and a second half kicking duel that achieved very little.

It was not clear an obvious that a try had been scored, and if it had not been the 80th minute, I think I would have given held up.

But it does look like it was on the foot, then moved to the side and down. And had I seen that, I might have given it. But I would have to be at the perfect angle - and even then it might not have been clear.

The Scots should have done more in the previous 80 minutes - especially in that second half, they stopped playing.

Super rugby are apparently going to trial getting rid of the law that if the kicker moves five metres, they put the opposition on-side.

I believe they think that this will give the receiver more options to run, though the result will be the kicker has to chase the kick.

We might see as much kicking, just with more chasing.

In thousands of matches across the world without the dubious benefit of umpteen video replays, the decision not to award the try would have been made in a matter of seconds. Why so? Because the grounding of the ball on or over the line was not clear. The correct decision was made, in my opinion.

I like this.

We could even end up with more kicking as this will theoretically create more space.

Who knows? But a good development nonetheless.

World Rugby has no plans to issue a public explanation of the decision not to award Scotland what would have been a winning try against France. Scottish Rugby called on the governing body to acknowledge that a game-defining mistake was made in the last seconds of Saturday's Six Nations game. But World Rugby will be sticking to its stance of not commenting publicly on specific officials' decisions and is not expected to issue any clarification to clear the situation up in the public domain.

Squad updates:

Centre Manu Tuilagi has been included in England's initial 36-man squad preparing to face Scotland in the Six Nations at Murrayfield on 24 February. Tuilagi, 32, has recovered from a groin injury and is joined by hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie and lock George Martin. Fly-half Marcus Smith and centre Ollie Lawrence will also join the squad as they continue their rehabilitation. However, hooker Jamie Blamire, flanker Tom Pearson and utility back Oscar Beard drop out.

 

Louis Lynagh has been picked for Italy's training squad before their Six Nations game against France. The Harlequins wing has been called up two days after announcing he would join Italian club Benetton in July. The 23-year-old son of former Australia captain Michael Lynagh was born in Italy, where his father also played for the Treviso-based club. Lynagh joined an England training squad in 2021 but was never capped, although he has played for England Under-20s. Italy head coach Gonzalo Quesada announced the inclusion of Lynagh, who is also eligible to play for Australia, in their latest training squad on Wednesday. The training camp begins in Rome on Sunday, 18 February, a week before Italy travel to Lille to face France in their next match of the 2024 Six Nations.