I liked Brian Moore's comment, to paraphrase: "It doesn't matter if he's bilingual, it just means he gets it wrong in both langauages"

Another odd one was to tell Ashton to stop chirping at the French players. Since when was that an offense? We used to do it all the time.

That was funny, i spat my grapefruit juice out all over my food when he said that.


cheers
SC

Actually no - there is no such offense as wheeling per se, its only if it is done using an illegal method such as boring, pulling or twisting. So the wheeling is legal, but the method may not be.

In other words, if I choose to push legally more strongly on the tighthead side and the scrum wheels, that's ok as long as it doesn't go beyond 90 degrees. Even if it does, its just a reset.

But if I pull on the loosehead side, even though the effect if the same - thats illegal

That's kind of what I meant to say.

Had to, again, delay the viewing 'til last night - but worth the wait & media black-out all day yesterday...!

Great game, though dissapointed by the finish - hopefully the team will manage that as they gain more experience, but against France, as a against Wales, the momentum really swung against England towards the end.

The team need to find a way of closing out those games and keeping the tempo up.

Although the Grand Slam is doubtless going to go to Wales, next week's IRB rankings could be interesting:

4 (6) ENGLAND 82.93
5 (5)WALES 82.62
6 (4) FRANCE 82.61
7(7)IRELAND 80.55

Very interesting to note that even though everyone raves about Wales, they are still below England (or at least they are this week ).

But for a narrow loss to Wales, England themselves could have been heading back to HQ for a pop at the GS themselves after the 6N last year... ho-hum, here's hoping the French give-up "trying to play" and just play putting 50 points on the Welsh and Ireland capitulate by 30...

That should see us home!

Dream on CB, You know full well that these rankings are a joke. How the hell can Wales be below England a fortnight after beating them away from home?

Because over the course of the past 12 months, they have lost more than England...?

It is something that Wales fans seem to forget, which is that while everyone raved about Wales' preformance at the RWC, on paper they didn't achieve much more than England.

Last year's 6N
England: played 5 won 4 - 80% win
Wales: played 5 won 3 - 60% win

At the RWC:
England: played 5, lost 1: 80% win ratio, beat Argentina, lost to France
Wales: played 6, lost 2: 67% win ratio, beat Ireland, lost to France and Australia

So far this year 6N:
Wales, played 4 won 4 - 100% win
England, played 4 won 3 - 75% win

To be honest with you, I would be quite happy to be ranked behind all the other nations competing for the 6 nations. Let's face it which is better., World ranking or the Triple crown and the Championship? and maybe the Grand Slam too!!

Um... err... clearly the world ranking... as any Kiwi will have told you right up to 23rd October 2011...

Why can't we have a like button?

A decision now agreed on by the IRB as being the entirely correct one and in accordance with the letter of the law.
Funny how you do not bring up the entirely disgraceful decision of Blind Dave Pearson and Wayne Barnes not to red card Bradley Davies for an off the ball spear tackle in this year's 6N.

Made me laugh...

cheers
SC

If you wan't to love your little Alain so be it. But he is a blind, want to be in the limelight ref!

BBC Wales have had some fantastic addds over the years

Not nearly as blind as the Peter Allan and Johnathan Kaplan involved in the 2011 6N game between Ireland and Wales.

On this occassion , ball goes out into the crowd - Matthew Rees takes a quick lineout with a different ball and as a result scores an illegal try.

Not only does the result stand but Mike Phillips ('try' scorer) gets away scot free with a clearly and incontrovertibly illegal act which changed the entire result of a game.

I can understand how this might conflict your one eyed version of reffereeing but there you have it.

Oh dear we are a little angry with the Welsh aren't we! Still I do hope you beat England on Sturday to make sure we are champions!!

Caviarchips and Paddy G - couldn-t agree with you more...after just treating Alains refereeing as a bit of a joke one off last week in the England game here he is TOTALLY ruining any kind of fluidity in the Italy Scotland game...inconsistant and how many LENGTHY chats has he pressed onto the players. Throttling the play. He has yellow carded one team and not the other for the same dangerous play. Please no more from him and his billingual rants.

Slammed! You have to give it to the Welsh, a stirling performance throughout 2012 6 Nations

Agreed. Although I'd be interested to hear if the Welsh here appreciated the manner of the Slam - I think they have sacrificed some style for efficiency.

(I'd only like to hear from the educated and smart ones - not the bite-y little terriers with the inferiority complex who prowl around sometimes )

Congratulations to Wales - the best team this year i agree.

A huge boost for the English game as well - and to think that if it weren't for one Courtney Lawes mistake in the Eng v Wales game the unbloodied new England would have got the grand slam!

A close one this year! Looking forward to the next already!

(No one's mentioned Scotland recently though... whoops )