The Rugby Thread (no league, AFL etc we aren't savages)

Having slept on it, I'm actually more pissed off with that game than I was at the final whistle (when my overriding sentiment was one of relief that it was over, and I could go and do something else).

Marcus Smith, for my money, has the potential to be the best English fly-half since Jonny Wilkinson - think Danny Cipriani, without the off-field shenanigans and on-field brain farts, whose best years are still ahead of him.

He's being kept out of the international team by Owen Farrell. On his best day, Smith is world-class; on *his* best day, Farrell is merely good.

Yesterday was not Farrell's best day - and that's putting it mildly - but he still got 79 minutes' worth of game time, while Smith watched from the sidelines.

Farrell's kicking was poor, both from hand and from the tee; his leadership qualities are almost non-existent; he has zero rapport with any given referee, and no ability whatsoever to talk to them to his team's advantage; his inability to tackle (legally) is legendary, and has earned him the nickname 'Shoulder Boy' in certain sections of the internet; and so on, and so on, and so forth.

People like to complain that we've never seen Smith reproduce his Quins form in an England shirt, and that's probably true... but it doesn't mean he can't do so. We'll never know unless he gets a run of games at 10, with a proper 12 (i.e. not someone whose name rhymes with 'rowan barrel') inside him, free to play his natural game. Making him play alongside Farrell at 12 is pointless - you may as well tie his bootlaces together before he leaves the dressing room, for all the good it'll do, and laying the blame at Smith's door is beyond unfair.

All the chances Borthwick had to learn from Jones' multitude of mistakes, and his first action in charge is to appoint Farrell captain (and thereby render him undroppable). What in the actual fuck?

If Smith decides, "Bugger this for a game of cards!" and leaves for a lucrative contract in France, making him ineligible to be picked for England in the future, I won't blame him in the slightest. It may sound unlikely - and perhaps it is - but I can see it happening all the same, especially if he ends up playing third fiddle to Farrell and Ford at the World Cup later this year.

TL;DR - I am not a happy camper!

Yeah, I am hoping it's just a period of stabilisation but surely now is the time to experiment ahead of the WC

So far, Wales and England would have been better to stick with their previous coaches. There's a bit of time to go yet but there needs to be some uptick in performance/coherence in the near future. It feels too short a time but I guess rugby can be crazy that way. After the 2015 World Cup who would have thought that Lancaster and Farrell would be two of the biggest reasons Ireland would get to where they are now*.

Although again, that all took time.


*you know, overperforming just before a World Cup

I don't want to support Scotland for this one, but I just can't help it.

Two reds in 12 minutes is incredible.

England have got the backs to play like this French team are, if only there was a playmaker in the ranks with the skills to start these moves going

Game could go either way, when it was 15v14 it didn't look possible so it was nice of the French to level things up.

Nice

Oof, great game. Tough on Scotland.

Sorry to see Scotland lose, but they can hold their heads high - after a nightmarish start, they hung on in there, and could have gone on to win it.

That last Scotland lineout that they mistimed around 75 minutes. If they held that and kept possession they could have either nicked it, or importantly got a losing bonus point for their efforts. Even if we beat Ireland at Murrayfield, beating them on points now is a big big ask.

Indeed. I know this is exactly the attitude that leads to accusations of English arrogance, but statistically we really do have every advantage. Professionalism should have been an absolute gift to English rugby.

We have more money to fund quality coaching and more players to choose from than every other rugby nation. We can (and have) 'persuaded' talents from other nations to play for us thanks to naturalisation rules and our clubs signing foreign stars.

Being an everpresent in the top 4 test nations (like New Zealand manage) and challenging for every world cup and 6N is really the bare minimum.

Aside from the Woodward and early Eddie eras, we've largely underperformed for decades.

Smith needs some game time 😒