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finbar
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Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy
Jan 1970
time: 06:25
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quote:
Originally posted by Havak
come previsto realmente!  |
Hai delle belle pretese! 
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Little talent for it sadly. |
I think, sadly, Tamerlin and LDiCesare put us both to shame. Actually, even Bearcat also puts us to shame. His command of his second language just about rivals Tamerlin and LDiCesares, don't you think?
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yes I was ? my fault. I meant is he as pedantic as McHugh in your view? |
I haven't seen a lot of McHugh, but I suspect they're about the same. Andrew is famous for pulling really obscure rulings out of his ref's hat. I recall a S12 match where he pinged someone for a lineout infringement that had everyone baffled. Until one of the commentators recalled that such a law existed on the books; it hadn't been employed for about 15 years; it didn't impact on the play in any way, shape or form; but it existed, so Andre was going to display his knowledge of the laws.
OTOH, Andre is one of the better communicators with the players.
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True enough ? it?s a funny place that Yorkshire/Derbyshire border. |
I've been there. Not dissimilar, in some ways, to the NW coast of Tasmania.
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A HUGE test for Ireland in fact. Game of the weekend for sure. I also can?t see England losing ? though how they win will be key of course. |
I suspect England will win but not as well as they should. That seems to be the pattern.
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Scotland-Wales is a weird one ? Scotland just can?t score ? not just tries but at all. Even their place kicking is suspect. Wales have a back line that look handy against lesser teams at times. But it is at Murrayfield and that edges it Scotlands way for me I think. |
More a case of who will be less incompetent on the day.
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finbar
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Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy
Jan 1970
time: 06:25
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Final score:
Blues 39 -d- Crusaders 5
Gee. The Crusaders fell apart. Or, more accurately, the Blues blew them off the park. Carlos Spencer's effort was possibly one of the most dominating I've seen from an individual in a top class match. Certainly, the Crusaders were missing Andrew Mehrtens, but he wouldn't have made a huge difference. For that matter, the Blues were also missing players. The Crusaders' lineout fell apart, they were fumbling, they were made to look pretty ordinary - and they're far from an ordinary team.
it's too early to say the Crusaders' bubble has burst. They started last season slowly and fell over the line in a couple of matches before turning into the superpower. But this is the third time I've seen the Blues this season - and they're getting better and better. Quick, aggressive, tremendous defence and an absolutely terrifying backline.
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Caligastia
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quote:
Originally posted by finbar
Chiefs 43 -d- Reds 27
Very entertaining if error-ridden match with everyone throwing the ball around, lots of counter-attacking, and lots of tries. The Chiefs made many fewer mistakes and looked good. Obviously taking on the Reds after a couple of matches against the top guns was a bit of a relief. The Reds had patches of good play but seemed to get seriously disorganised at times. For the Wallaby cause, though, it was good to see Ben Tune fit and breaking the line at speed, and Nathan Sharpe did plenty of good work at lock.
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Yes, they certainly weren't afraid to experiment were they? Unfortunately for the Reds, their skill level was not up to par on the day. A well deserved win for the Chiefs. I really didn't think they would win by a margin as large as that when the score was only a 1 point difference at half-time.
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Final score:
Blues 39 -d- Crusaders 5
Gee. The Crusaders fell apart. Or, more accurately, the Blues blew them off the park. Carlos Spencer's effort was possibly one of the most dominating I've seen from an individual in a top class match. Certainly, the Crusaders were missing Andrew Mehrtens, but he wouldn't have made a huge difference. For that matter, the Blues were also missing players. The Crusaders' lineout fell apart, they were fumbling, they were made to look pretty ordinary - and they're far from an ordinary team. |
Quite an incredible game. If the Blues can maintain their form they will definitely be the champs this year.
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it's too early to say the Crusaders' bubble has burst. They started last season slowly and fell over the line in a couple of matches before turning into the superpower. But this is the third time I've seen the Blues this season - and they're getting better and better. Quick, aggressive, tremendous defence and an absolutely terrifying backline. |
When you said they make Howlett look like a draught horse, I took it with a grain of salt, but they really are something special aren't they? Incredible speed.
I wouldn't write off the Crusaders just yet either, they were close to scoring many times, and the huge margin on the scoreboard is a testament to the Blues' fantastic defence. Not to mention Spencer's brilliance.
I'm beginning to think Carlos has come of age as a rugby player. This was the first game in which I have seen him play with total consistency. Now that he's matured he might become one of the greats.
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LDiCesare
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La Ferté sous Jouarre France
Jan 2001
time: 05:25
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A few comments about the Tournament now I found a working modem.
Ireland-France was mostly lost by France rather than won by Ireland, so that bodes well for the English team.
I slightly disagree with Tamerlin on the analysis:
French mauls were strong but in these Ibanez managed to make a knock on 4 times, thereby missing one try. Considering the handling errors, I don't think the French should have tried more mauls than they did.
Magne certainly did waste a perfect try ball too.
The scrum half was uninspired, in particular making a pass to the right when the game was moving on to the left, thus managing to get intercepted by a second rower. That tells a lot.
Gelez missed many kicks, which is bad because he is usually a good kicker. He hadn't trained on the field because of some thigh injury. Better let someone else play in that case.
Now I disagree about Traille. He didn't perform well because he was always given balls of such pitiful quality that he couldn't do anything but run straight to create a ruck. That is IMO more of a bad tactical choice at the fly half level (who should have made long passes to Garbajosa from time to time) than a personal bad performance. His game was in fact too stereotypical, but, again, when you see some of the balls he was handled, I cannot blame him.
Overall, discipline was poor, and Pelous, as a captain, did nothing to make it better. For instance when Clerc was tackled at nose level by Maggs (which the ref didn't see), Pelous found nothing better to do than enter the maul from the side right under the ref's nose. That kind of behaviour is really silly considering entering from the side is being very heavily penalised. Yet the French did it, thus providing penalties to Humphreys, who played a very solid match, with better reading of the game and use of the wind than Gelez.
I saw a bit of the Scots-Welsh game, it was entertaining, but left me unconvinced about the chances of Italy against Scotland when they'll meet. That one will be interesting to see.
As for England - Italy, I missed most of it (out walking my daughter with my parents during the first half while my brother monopolised my parents'tV looking at something involving a round ball kicked by people in shorts with apparently nonfunctionning arms, then trying to catch a train on a strikes day during the end of the match). I saw 2 tries, one from Mirco Bergamasco (I like this full back) and one from Luger (I think). The English seemed to have stopped playing after scoring a lot of points in the first fifteen minutes of the match, and the referee tended not to mind players knocking off the ball then hurling themselves upon it to prevent others from playing. The English backs showed some great qualities in their counters, but I think their right winger will not forget his vis-a-vis for quite a while.
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finbar
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Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy
Jan 1970
time: 06:25
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quote:
Originally posted by Caligastia
Yes, they certainly weren't afraid to experiment were they? Unfortunately for the Reds, their skill level was not up to par on the day. A well deserved win for the Chiefs. I really didn't think they would win by a margin as large as that when the score was only a 1 point difference at half-time. |
The Reds did their best work early. The further the game went, the less competent they looked. They started the game without the likes of Kefu, Daniel Herbert, and others, accounting for some of their best, most experienced talent. They lost others during the match. I recall pointing out prior to the start of the season that the Reds have a very shallow talent pool - the run-on team, at full strength, has quality about it but there's little to back them up.
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Quite an incredible game. If the Blues can maintain their form they will definitely be the champs this year. |
The Blues have been building to that sort of performance. It was, ironically, Cruaders-like in terms of dominance all over the park, but with a much more potent backline than the Crusaders had last season.
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When you said they make Howlett look like a draught horse, I took it with a grain of salt, but they really are something special aren't they? Incredible speed. |
As I said, thank God Caucau plays for Fiji and not the ABs.
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I wouldn't write off the Crusaders just yet either, they were close to scoring many times, and the huge margin on the scoreboard is a testament to the Blues' fantastic defence. Not to mention Spencer's brilliance. |
You can't write off the Crusaders because it's basically the same team as last year and they're loaded with talent. They simply ran into a mighty force on the day. The Crusaders haven't approached last year's heights in any of their matches this season but - as I said somewhere else - they only won narrowly in a couple of early matches last season. In fact there were a couple of lucky wins early on last season. It was later in the season that they developed their momentum. There's absolutely no reason why that shouldn't happen again.
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I'm beginning to think Carlos has come of age as a rugby player. This was the first game in which I have seen him play with total consistency. Now that he's matured he might become one of the greats. |
Carlos is obviously the key to the Blues. Only time will tell if he's overcome his biggest problem - inconsistency. He has strung together some great games in the past, only to go off the boil. What he has now, obviously, is great confidence. As I say, only time will tell.
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finbar
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Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy
Jan 1970
time: 06:25
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quote:
Originally posted by Bearcat
And than getting arrested for breaking and entering?
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Only if you're still there when he gets back, you dummy! 
So -
(a) You make sure you're not still there when he gets back;
(b) You wear surgical gloves at all times in order not to leave fingerprints;
(c) If you're feeling particularly perverse, in order to punish him for not leaving the key for you in the first place, you ring up while you're there and cancel his credit cards, his telephone, his gas and electricity, and so on. Most importantly, you cancel his cable TV subscription, but only to take effect as soon as the game finishes;
(d) And if you're feeling really particularly perverse, you decide whom you absolutely hate most in the world and leave behind evidence that will incriminate this person.
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Tamerlin
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Toulouse (South-western France)
Apr 2002
time: 06:25
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quote:
Originally posted by LDiCesare
Ireland-France was mostly lost by France rather than won by Ireland, so that bodes well for the English team. |
I agree completely, the Irish team has not been impressive though the quality of their kicks, and especially those of Humphreys, made a great diffrence.
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I slightly disagree with Tamerlin on the analysis:
French mauls were strong but in these Ibanez managed to make a knock on 4 times, thereby missing one try. |
True though two of its handling errors were the result of sheer bad luck, especially the one that deprived France of a try.
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Considering the handling errors, I don't think the French should have tried more mauls than they did.
Magne certainly did waste a perfect try ball too. |
The ball should have been directly handled to the backs placed right after Olivier Magne. It seems once again the mistake has been made by Yachvili. 
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The scrum half was uninspired, in particular making a pass to the right when the game was moving on to the left, thus managing to get intercepted by a second rower. That tells a lot. |
I can't agree more, his choices were in total contradiction with the flow of the game.
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Now I disagree about Traille. He didn't perform well because he was always given balls of such pitiful quality that he couldn't do anything but run straight to create a ruck. |
It is true he did not received many good balls.
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...all That is IMO more of a bad tactical choice at the fly half level (who should have made long passes to Garbajosa from time to time) than a personal bad performance. His game was in fact too stereotypical, but, again, when you see some of the balls he was handled, I cannot blame him. |
True again though I still think he was not in good shape.
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Overall, discipline was poor, and Pelous, as a captain, did nothing to make it better. For instance when Clerc was tackled at nose level by Maggs (which the ref didn't see), Pelous found nothing better to do than enter the maul from the side right under the ref's nose. That kind of behaviour is really silly considering entering from the side is being very heavily penalised. Yet the French did it, thus providing penalties to Humphreys, who played a very solid match, with better reading of the game and use of the wind than Gelez. |
Once again you are right, it is as if this team was once again facing its old demons. 
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07-03-2003 17:24
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