strettle ?

meh

im impressed by brown; he looks the real deal. we have got great options in the centres too.

I'm going to have a look at it later on.

So three rounds down, two to go. England lead the way on maximum points, with Wales and Scotland the chasing pack with 4 pts each.

It's not a mathematical impossibility that France can win the championship, which I'm sure most people will be happy about.

How does everyone assess the first three weeks of this year's championship?

barritt is underrated by many i feel, he is so good defensively and is a great organiser

I liked a couple of bits of improvisation yesterday from England :

1. the scrum half acting as flanker when the back row didn't get to the break down

2. barrett playing the ball with his feet when a pass was too low.

indicated that the players are been drilled to have good awareness, and to also make calm decisions.

england look to me to be the best 'coached' team in the 6 nations, everything seems just so with them, nothing ruffles them, so impressed with lancaster and his team, really positive about the next 2 1/2 years leading up to the home WC in 2015

Agreed Mex. They are settled well coached, no BS playing well and working hard. I'm mightily and you can send Lancaster over here when ur finished with him....Please...Pretty please!

Wales are hitting their stride! Watch out if it goes to the final game! Thats gona be a right ding dong affair.

Scotland are going nothing! Ireland had 80% possesion and lost! And butchered 3 trys in the processes! Im ashamed!

France LOL ye right! But they are probably going to beat Us. unless the gods do us a favour and heal all our injured players.

All in all England and Wales are keeping it afloat as a competition. Hope it goes to the wire as a neutral it would make for a great final game!

mightily * impressed*

ireland blew it today big style, still the 2nd best team in the tournament for me, when at full strength

p.s what did u reckon to o'gara's crossfield kick near the end

if it had gone to hand though, everyone would be saying how amazing it was. im not sure what the other options were tbh. he was isolated wasn't he ? probably looking for an alternative to kicking away possession.

JPB Have a look mate - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6ytZ77KaFU

That was the all time biggest cocckup of O'Gara's career. The great tony ward ex Ireland flyhalf and legend said during the commentary. "That was sheer lunacy what was he thinking!"

On ROG he has been magnificent for Ireland and Munster but he is finished now. I feel for him a little but for his career, a very successful career to end so badly.

That was the all time biggest cocckup of O'Gara's career.
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before ive looked at it again ding, I will disagree with that.

the biggest error of ogara's career imo, will always be giving away a penalty in the last moments of the 2nd lions test in SA.

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Sorry JP its worse than the lions because im irish and it my team that looked like a bunch of mugs today.

It was a monumental mistake in the context of first O'Gara has always been a great decision maker but got caught in the headlights. Sure the idea was not a bad option but the execution was amateur night. Then as you pointed out he hesitated, with the pass he had bags of time though. and with all that time he made a ridiculous choice and then cocked up the kick. It was idiotic.

But it wasn't the only cockup in that game. Earls butchered a try opportunity by being a selfish git. going for glory. For me that was the worst moment of the game. i could see the rage in O'Driscoll's eyes. he was stunned and couldn't get his head around how Earls could be so selfish and or stupid. the team was a bunch of individuals.Not a team at all today.

YOur right about Kidney. Very nice man. but he has got to resign! Its just a joke now.he has a 35% win ratio. thats unheard of for a top tier team.

I'm hoping Conor O'Shea will get a call from the IRFU

Sorry JP its worse than the lions
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there is not a chance in hell he will look back on his career and regret that kick as much as he regrets the lions disaster. not a fakin chance. and nor will anyone else.

this has got to be one of the 5 biggest howlers ever in a game of rugby :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCo5n1QmaoM


it was the direct cause of the lions losing a series in south Africa.

the kick which indirectly contributed to Ireland conceding a penalty (and 3 points) to Scotland pales into insignificance in comparison.

got to agree JPB most stupid thing ive seen on a rugby pitch from someone so experienced

Offering the same level of resistance that a toddler could to a charging rhino didn't help either. Any other player in the squad would have slowed him enough for support to get over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po2ZHxiy3gk

tbf all 3 of them were pathetic there. bowe and ogara just weren't prepared to put their bodies on the line in that instance and Phillips should have done more as well. I don't see it as a question of slowing the man up in that situation - he should have been smashed into touch. it's a piece of pizz to take someone into touch there and it was lack of commitment from the tacklers that meant he scored that try.

the last minute penalty though is the one which imo is rightly remembered as the real shocker.

All he had to do was slow his momentum, even slightly and the try isn't scored. Scramble defence is tough to get timed right which is why Phillips failed together with the fact O'Gara worked as a NFL blocker for Fourie. Bowe should have done better but it is difficult to stop a man at full tilt lunging at your feet.
One might be more remembered but it cost three points and that one cost five. Both of them contributed to the defeat. As a side note I will admit that I could not knock Fourie into touch so I won't call it a "piece of pizz".

As a side note I will admit that I could not knock Fourie into touch so I won't call it a "piece of pizz".
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if you are more than about 13 stone with some muscle, then you would be able to knock him into touch in that situation.

trying to slow his momentum would be much a totally different kettle of fish (something which ogara would not have been capable of from the side with him going at full tilt), but tackling him into touch from the side should have been a formality.

alright, watching that back again, I will take that back a little bit. he wasn't as close to the touchline as I thought.

smashing straight into him and knocking him into touch has to be a good option there though for me. if you commit yourself to that at pace, the man should not be able to stay in play. the other option (and possibly the better one for the fly half) is to go low. tbh, I really don't know what you have in mind when you talk about slowing his momentum in that situation - you think he should grab his shirt or something ?

Phillips should have dragged his foot into touch by the time he had got past ogara. bow's body position was appalling, and he should have gone for the man assuming that the other two were going to miss him, but I agree that once the guy had got to the line there was nothing bowe could have done to stop him (owing to his poor body position and failure to blitz the tackle).

so for me, ogara was partly culpable there, whereas with the final play of the 2nd test he was solely responsible, and furthermore he precipitated the events rather than reacting to the actions of others as he was in your clip. on that basis, I am still of the view that the populist opinion that his big screw up was the penalty at the end, is the right opinion.

If you think shoving a man where he doesn't want to go is easier than offering even slight resistance to him running over you....... nah not worth it.

do you play rugby aristo ?

because the option there is to knock him into touch. it's the option every player would take. no one would try to 'slow his momentum'. a player as light as ogara would have no chance of doing that, whereas belting into his side at pace gives him a huge advantage.