UKH

This years 6 nations are up and running! Should be interesting to see who looks strongest after the first round. Scotland not doing themselves any favours with dropping Finn Russell. England look strong despite several injuries to first team regulars. Ireland will be hoping for better after an awful World Cup and I can't see Wales finishing better than mid table which leaves the French and Italians. Italy will almost certainly finish bottom and which France will turn up on the day? An interesting few weeks coming up! 

Wales seem to be giving the Italians a bit of a run around. 

Be interesting to see the impact Shaun Edwards has on France. He's not just a brilliant defence coach, he instills discipline in the players as well. If France can buy into that they could become more formidable and less random than usual.

I think it's quite an open competition actually, and we could see anyone but Italy and Scotland win it.

But where's our number 8? Seems a glaring ommission but, then again, what do I know!

Wales looked good today. Impressive at both ends of the field. Much bigger tests to come of course but a great start.

What must Stuart Hogg be thinking.....

I'm happy with the Wales result and game, given the changes (coaching) and new players I thought they did fine, time to bed in and I would hope to see a better team in 2021. Plenty of room for improvement but a good enough start.

Scotland may feel they threw that away, almost literally, still a very dangerous team when they get it right.

Anyone else a bit puzzled by Eddie Jones' selections? Without Vinupola there is no recognised number 8  and, of the three that could reasonable fit that position, Earl, Ludlum and Curry, he's gone with the only one that has no experience in that position at all!

 Very, Dombrant is in awesome form and Simmonds could bring an entire different dimension to the position. However I haven’t coached a side to a World Cup final so what do I know. Will wait and see, just hope we win as I have a bottle of red on the game with my French boss

Not the start England would have wanted or expected . Out muscled and out played and too many handling errors albeit in pretty bad conditions. 

Thought France were excellent in the first half.

Don't think my views about the competition as a whole have changed massively - though Scotland made life harder for Ireland than I expected.

Although disappointing to see the penalty count which ultimately led to our demise, it was good to see us (Scotland) have right good go at Ireland up front. Thought we were very aggressive at the breakdown and in contact. Much more so than I've seen us be in quite a while. 

I hope we can keep it up against England - we'll need to.

In reply to NERD:

There was a suggestion a number of years ago to have a second division (?) European contest with last place in the 6N relegated and 1st place in the new contest promoted. So for instance in Georgia where there's a thriving rugby scene they could get a chance to vastly improve by regularly playing better teams competitively. I believe it was dismissed out of hand by the 6N cause no one wants to knocked out (potentially for more than a year) on the back of a bad season. That said it's something European rugby should definitely revisit, it would be much the better for it.

So Youngs has been dropped to the bench which can only be a good thing as he has been very poor of late. Why we still have Curry at 8 god only knows as he looked very out of place there last weekend. At least we haven't got any second rows on the flank this week. However the one we have drafted in is already spouting crap about it being a war and England being brutal. Didn't work last week when we were anything but. Learning to shut up and prove your worth on the pitch would be a better skill

Although, being brutal against Scotland may well work.......

It would possibly have worked against France. However we were not brutal and were constantly knocked back all the time. Its one thing saying it, delivering on the pitch was a different matter.

Who in the Scottish pack is going to knock them back though?

Ooops, just imagine if Sarries get docked points and are out of Europe too!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51415778

That would be interesting - who would get the available spot - presumably Glasgow Warriors?

 Shame for Sarries but, then again.......

Intense game going on in Auld Reekie!!

A classic bad-weather game! 

Bloody cheating Scottish wind just changed direction for the second half!

What happened to the Welsh defence today? They looked very ordinary compared to their usual obdurate self.

Shaun Edwards went to France?

I think it's safe to say that wasn't a game of who won. It was who lost worse!

I feel like Rugby lost worst.

I'll give you that!

Loved it! What’s everyone complaining about. Proper old-school rugby. England were miles smarter with solid handling in the toughest of conditions. Scotland clueless. If it had been easier to kick for goal England would have won by more than 15.  

The weather won. A good reason for a roof!!

Disgraceful behaviour from the Scots fans again...although no suggestion of taking legal action at the weather on this occasion.

Threw a beer bottle at the head of one of the England coaching staff.

Made wa@#er signs at the players as they got off the bus.

Jeered at the kicker (as usual).

As if attacking Eddie Jones at Manchester Railway station a couple of years ago wasn't enough.

Didn't see the full game, only extended highlights... But what is Stuart Hogg doing? That's two howlers in a row that have cost them the game. 

Can't disagree - utterly deplorable behaviour

On the field England didn't make anywhere near as many handling errors as the Scots and won the game, hmmmmm

Jones is on the windup, as per usual. It would be a disgrace if a coach was hit by a bottle, but Jones and the SRU seem to be a bit a part in terms of the facts. On this rare occasion, I tend to believe the SRU.

As for the booing, it’s hardly a rare occurrence in rugby now and certainly not exclusive to Scotland.

On the game, England deserved the win, done the basics better and really controlled the game in the last 20. Following Scotland at sport is painful. 

I agree with you. Sometimes Jones would be better saying nothing. Having said that I don't like hearing the kicker get booed......its not Football FFS!!

The better team won on the day . Those blaming Hogg for the Scrum that led to the try should get off his back. It was a very clever kick by Ford and Scotland would be a far worse team without him as they are without Finn Russell as well.

It's perfectly clear what happened with the bottle - it hit one of the coaches on the head, theres plenty of footage online.

The SRU coaching staff actually apologised to their English counterparts. Seem to be on the same page, to me.

You can hear a pin drop when the visiting team kick for goal at Twickenham.

Ah yes, English rugby... the home of all that is good and morally upright. 

You’re having a hard time with this aren’t you? It’s clear that some of the Scottish fans behaved badly.
I just hope this isn’t a worsening trend, if it is I’ll probably stop going to Murrayfield. 
 

Well, I don't recall any England fans assaulting Scottish coaching staff (again).

And I don't ever recall a rent-a-mob turning-up to abuse a visiting Scotland team (again).

Or the England coaching team having to apologise to visiting teams for the behaviour of their fans (again).

Or jeering at the goal kicker being the norm.

Pretty disgraceful, really. And boring.

Well, even Andy Nicol (hardly a signed up member of the RFU fan club) thinks Murrayfield has a particular problem with the behaviour.  He did make the point there are the rolling signs and announcement to "respect the kicker" but apparently even the announcements get booed.  Non of it matters in the end as, yet again, the locals lost.

As to Hogg, he needs cutting some slack for the "howler" yesterday.  That type of kick is always a difficult one for a full back to deal with when turned, even without the weather lottery of yesterday.  Certainly he can't be blamed for his forwards going awol as Genge went over.  

Agree totally with you about behaviour of Scottish fans being disgraceful but you weaken your case by saying"beer bottle" and not saying PLASTIC beer bottle. Hitting someone on the head with a plastic beer bottle is inexcusable but a beer bottle would have been very dangerous and much worse.

James, you know what, I think you’re right. It’s not on. I’ll concede that. I think it’s still very isolated and the terms rent a mob and abuse are overdoing it. 

I do think though Jones is very much using this to his advantage and is very good at stoking the fire. He has a bit of the Fergie in him.

I think it’s just that ‘Twickers’ is so soulless that there’s almost never any noise. 

 I’ve watched a few games there now and always a bit depressed by the experience. 

Nope. The supposed soulless nature of Twickenham isn't the reason you can't hear the England fans jeering at the kicker.

The reason you can hear them is because they generally don't do it.

Yeah I know, still pretty soulless though.

The criticism of Hogg is unjustified. It was an excellent kick that left him little option than to touch down behind the line, even if he could have shown better handling in the process. The crass error would have been if he had not applied downward pressure and allowed Farrell to sneak in and touch down.

Oh  yawn.

And why would Twickenham have any less soul than national stadiums in other parts of the world? Presumably, because it's in England, right? And you all have to have something disparaging to say about English rugby this time of year!

This is just another tedious stereotype dragged up year-on-year by tedious Celtic rugby fans who can't handle the fact that they lose more often than they win when they play against England!

I suspect this is why you were left feeling depressed after you last visit. Another big defeat at the hands of the hated English!

You won the game but....you're all arrogant...it's only because of the money...Twickenhams got no soul...blah blah blah.

The soul of a sporting venue comes from the quality of the sport and the nature of its supporters. The building, and its location, are irrelevant.

Judging by the low quality of the game and the pissed-up mob of anti-English trouble makers who turned-up to watch it, it'd say Murrayfield was lacking in soul yesterday.

I am English old chap.

Haha, there we go, get that off your chest. Feel better? 

Ah, well that gamble didn't pay off, then.

Yup.

I go a couple of times a year to Twickenham.  It can be absolutely rocking, even then it takes a bit of time to get revved up.  Other times it is about as atmospheric as a library reading room.  In part the problem for many games is too many of the crowd are there on a corporate day out with the game very much secondary to getting up and down for a beer of the bog.

Yeah - it's annoying when you can't get your hands on a ticket at a sensible price because a load of corporate-alacadoos, often with no interest in Rugby, get them for free from the RFU.

And it's bad for the atmosphere inside the stadium.

But, they're no worse than the loud mouthed hordes masquerading as Rugby fans that you tend to encounter at Murrayfield.

Given the choice, I'd rather by sitting next to a corporate alacadoo.

Here's a copy / paste from a pals F.B. page, following yesterday's game. Doesn't sound like Soul to me...

Just been asked how I’m enjoying Scotland? I’ll let you decide. There have been reports of bottles thrown at the England team. I think they have got off lightly!! 1. Never been to a game where the kicker has been booed so vigorously. They even booed the announcer when they were asked to stop. 2. I know it’s a little Rich from me but I learnt some great new swear words from the 14 year olds sat behind me!! 3. A couple who got up 4 times during the game to go and get more beer and wine. No waiting for a break in play just trudged out. When the girl in doc martins stood on my foot and I obviously protested. Big drunk boyfriend wanted a go. Thankfully by the end of the game when he wanted another go he was so pissed he couldn’t speak, or get himself up the steps which was amusing. 4. A young lad (18) at the final whistle went past and proffered me the advice that I could f*ck Boris and f*ck the Queen. Strangely didn’t have a response for why are you so angry you should be used to losing!! 5. Had to stop a young lad beating his girlfriend up outside the ground. 1 Scottish lad did stop to help me!! 6. Just to add insult to injury got turned over for a £40 taxi to get back to the hotel which should have been £10 but it was raining really hard!! On the bright side we did win!!!!!

Doesn't really look as if a bottle was thrown at anyone.  More like the wind caught an empty...

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18222478.new-video-casts-doubts-murrayf...

You'll be telling me that the w@nker signs in that clip are, in fact, a form of cordial and friendly hand waving, next!

Aye, of course I will.  

Clearly not condoning the actions of a few eejits at the game making hand gestures. 

However, regarding the bottle throwing incident, the second clip in the article I linked to shows the bottle being blown about on top of the bus roofs before falling toward the ground.  

Given the wind yesterday, given the SRU looked into it and nothing further is coming of it, I think it's unlikely it was deliberately thrown.

Fair enough.

The fact that Eddie Jones (and almost everyone else) jumped to the wrong, but entirely plausible conclusion tells you all that you need to you know about the aforementioned eejits. 

As pointed out by Andy Nicol, and others, you don't find 'em in Paris, Cardiff, London or Dublin. 

Fair enough indeed 😏

It looks as if the bottle was, perhaps, blown from the top of the bus, but it hardly matters.

The bottle wasn't spontaneously created on the bus top. Some idiot thought it OK to throw a bottle either at the bus or over the bus.

Dave