Rugby Union

Lots of players will be out of contract because of it, futures up in the air.

 

Well done Ireland, 4 million Black Irish down this way are very grateful.

 

Get it up the *'s..

 

Thank * for that . .

 

Majestic. So happy. Still drunk.

 

Not a fan if rugby really, but like Scotland to do well whatever it is!

Even better... Only just found out that England got pumped by Ireland.

Been sick of them and their Auzzie * coach chugging on about records and superiority!

Up yeez !

 

Proud of my adopted country (Scotland) this campaign. Well done, lads.

Obviously thrilled to have beaten England, but it was quite a disappointing championship for Ireland.

 

IF Ireland & Wales had done their job properly yesterday, we (Scotland) would have came 2nd instead of 4th

Brilliant display in both defence & attack actually. Very sorry to see big Vern go, not too happy to see Townsend leave the Warriors either.

 

Massive progress for Scotland this year and only the game at Twickenham was the real dampener where everything went wrong. Sin bin, injuries all early on but we'd of no doubt still lost, but by not as much..

Brilliant displays against Ireland, Wales and keeping Italy out yesterday..

Signs are very promising..

 

Brilliant display by Ireland to finish the season on a high and get a creditable runners-up finish for this seasons 6 nations. Well deserved too. We totally dominated the first half and while they came into things in the second half they never looked like breaking us down and getting a try.
On a Celtic related note. Just like all the late and over the top tackles that our players have had to deal with and have not been punished properly by the refs we saw the same yesterday by England who continually targeted Sexton with nasty late hits and the ref never went to his pocket for a card which just gave the English free reign to keep the late hits on Sexton coming.

 

Sexton is always targeted by the opposition like that. I'd worry about him against the All Blacks for that reason.

 

NZR and the RFU are selling out rugby with Twickenham match-up

OPINION: Once upon a time, in a far off land where young people played for the love of the game, the prospect of a rugby match between England and New Zealand was a wondrous thing. It was a time when old men in suits had not discovered that rugby was a brand and a product. It was a time when ordinary men and women could afford the price of a ticket to watch their heroes.

Then a couple of Aussies walked onto the pitch and showed fantasy rugby a red card. What were we thinking of? There was a fast buck to be made, so long as the new chairmen and chief executives of the game were prepared to take each other out in the air. Everyone piled in with swinging arms.

And now rugby has wandered off the pitch in search of an HIA. I wonder if there has ever been a more disgusting moment in the history of the game than the current lolly scramble over who gets the dosh from a prospective match between England and the All Blacks. Ian Ritchie, the CEO of the RFU, and Steve Tew, of New Zealand Rugby, are a pair of sell-outs arguing over who gets the cash for the sale of a soul that has long since departed.

ew's absurd campaign to get half the gate receipts is a joke that he has to tell at the expense of the players that are being poached by the French and English clubs. Tew reminds me of Mr Spigott, the one-legged man auditioning for the part of Tarzan in the famous sketch by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

Cook observes ruefully that Mr Spigott, being a 'unidexter', is deficient to the tune of one leg. He admits, "Your right leg, I like. I like your right leg. A lovely leg for the role. That's what I said when I saw you come in. I said, "A lovely leg for the role". I've got nothing against your right leg. The trouble is – neither have you."

And that is rather the trouble for Mr Tew. He is deficient in the leg department. In fact he may be even more deficient than the unfortunate Spigott who had at least the one leg to stand on, even if Moore wobbles about from time to time. I am not sure that Tew has even the solitary limb on which to stand.

NZR cut off their right leg long ago by their ongoing refusal to play Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. Now if the New Zealand Rugby Union had a glorious history of hosting games against their impoverished neighbours and sharing the gate receipts, then Tew might be in a strong bargaining position with England.

But unfortunately New Zealand has done next to nothing to help the islands. In fact they rather want them to be economically dependent so that the talent is forced to migrate here and strengthen the All Blacks. It is a rich seam and it goes some way to explaining why the All Blacks have only played these nations a collective 11 times outside games forced upon them by the World Cup. Shameful.

NZR cut off the other leg by its reluctance to build a proper waterfront stadium in Auckland and its fleecing of its dwindling crowds for a fast buck, a slow bag of cold chips and a bad pint. Why should English crowds pay to subsidise an organisation that has stuffed its own spectators..

The RFU have shelled out a sum on Twickenham over the past 35 years that is probably far north of a billion dollars, once you have adjusted for interest payments and today's values. Twickenham has a high-end hotel, localised Wi-Fi, TV screens on the concourses, LED screens, undersoil heating and irrigation and a capacity of 82,000.

Now if Tew and NZR want to contribute towards the cost of that rebuild, then maybe they might have one withered leg on which to precariously balance. But of course they are not going to. They can't afford to. And so their prior refusal to play England and the threat of more southern hemisphere tests (as if we aren't already sick to the back teeth from too much of it) if they don't get their way are both ludicrous.

And England are no better. Their sell-out to the clubs is in large way responsible for the rape of New Zealand talent and for jacking up salaries to a price that the southern hemisphere cannot afford. Now they see a lottery rollover in an All Blacks game and so are looking to screw the Barbarians over a matter of semantics.

Word is that the RFU agreed to a Barbarians game back in November to celebrate the club's 125th anniversary. Originally Australia were the prospective opponents because the All Blacks were still hawking themselves about. But when the Baa-Baas upped the price to a reported $3.5 million, the All Blacks were back in.

And to their shame the RFU, who have a board meeting on Wednesday night to discuss the matter, are prospectively using that to weasel out. You see, they only agreed to a game Barbarians game versus Australia, not New Zealand. The Barbarians management think the RFU have been "deceitful and underhand."

Caught in the middle of it all are the Barbarians. Forty-three years ago one of the greatest rugby matches in history was played out between two brilliant teams at Cardiff Arms Park. And now we have come to this. A squalid squabble over money between two countries who are morally bankrupt.

Eddie Jones says England are keen to play New Zealand and are "raring to go." Steve Hansen said people are "desperate" to see the two sides play, but they would need to "give us half the stadium (revenue) or something. That would be good, wouldn't it?"

Goodness has nothing to do with it. As Sir Clive Woodward said, "Wrong game, wrong time, wrong reasons." And in case Tew and Ritchie were wondering, three wrongs don't make a right.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/opinio...are-selling-out-rugby-with-twickenham-matchup

 

Sean Lamont set to retire at the end of the season. Good player for Scotland.

 

That is very true. The French in particular have been very dirty in that regard in recent games. But the England game this weekend was notable for it as well and the fact that just like Scottish refs letting our opponents get away with it the same happened with Sexton this weekend as the English were allowed to get away with it all day and not 1 yellow card.

 

I see Hoggy has picked up the 6 Nations player of the championship for the second year in a row. He had a great tournament, a few tries and loads of assists (I counted 3 of the 4 versus Italy alone) and some crunching try saving tackles.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39368838

 

... and the 6 nations team:

 

Brilliant stuff

Well deserved, even though I never watched many non-Scotland games

 

He's a joy to watch. Genuinely a great player..

I'm upbeat on what I saw this 6 nation's. Very encouraging and we've finally a good batch at a good age all coming through..

 

Can't wait for next year already. Also the Lions Tour and Autumn Tests. International Rugby is fantastic and the 6 Nations is probably one of my favourite sport tournaments.

Was at the Italy game there with my old man, great day out. Had pints outside the stadium in the fan zone bit after, watching Wales France.