Six Nations - written in the stars?

Intercepted try was the turning point, as the Italians lost momentum and inspiration after a typically brilliant first half disrupting England. In terms of where we stand, I'm concerned that we won't get away with similarly dodgy first halves against Wales and France, as I think we would and-up too far behind at half-time. On the positive side, there were some very good performances, especially from the bench.
 
Well Chris, if the refereeing is anything as biased to the home side I think we'll be OK. Call me a moaner if you want, but the referee today went out of his way to penalise England for things that other sides have routinely got away with. Just one example - England win their own line-out 10 metres from the Italian line, set up a perfectly good driving maul - and get pinged for crossing.

To be honest, Italy should have been buried in the first half let alone the second.
 
UKRob said:
Well Chris, if the refereeing is anything as biased to the home side I think we'll be OK. Call me a moaner if you want, but the referee today went out of his way to penalise England for things that other sides have routinely got away with. Just one example - England win their own line-out 10 metres from the Italian line, set up a perfectly good driving maul - and get pinged for crossing.

To be honest, Italy should have been buried in the first half let alone the second.
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Yes, that one was a bit dodgy, though I didn't think the referee had a bad game overall.
 
As an ardent England fan in any sport I pride myself on my loyalty, but also consider myself to be honest.

And Alan Carr is straighter than most of Hartley's throws today.

Overall the score was slightly flattering, but it looks like the building blocks are in place for a decent English future.
 
UKRob said:
Well Chris, if the refereeing is anything as biased to the home side I think we'll be OK. Call me a moaner if you want, but the referee today went out of his way to penalise England for things that other sides have routinely got away with. Just one example - England win their own line-out 10 metres from the Italian line, set up a perfectly good driving maul - and get pinged for crossing.

To be honest, Italy should have been buried in the first half let alone the second.
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If were thinking of the same lineout, I think you'll find that Cole joined in front of the ball in clear view of the ref. I thought overall the ref had an outstanding game, not hesitating on decisions, and keeping the game flowing. Too many officials rely on TMO decisions nowadays which I think takes the pace out of play. Todays ref had obviously asked his team to bring any foul play they witnessed to his attention, but to otherwise keep the game moving. As for Italy being buried in the first half, I thought they played as good, and sometimes better rugby than we did. We still outplayed them overall, but the standard of fitness was always going to tell during the second half in this fixture, as all our players train and play at the very highest level.
 
I actually did shout 'offside' when Davies grabbed the ball and went on to score for Wales. But I was so unsure about the rules, if Scotland knocked on first did that somehow negated Davies being offside (daft as that might sound), that I decided to keep my mouth closed in the event that I got a schooling on refereeing.

The fact that Ireland have scored 1 try in 2 games, Irish TV pundit (New Zealander) Brent Pope, was also lamenting the state of Northern hemisphere rugby and how lackluster the championship has been so far.
 
jb74 said:
I actually did shout 'offside' when Davies grabbed the ball and went on to score for Wales. But I was so unsure about the rules, if Scotland knocked on first did that somehow negated Davies being offside (daft as that might sound), that I decided to keep my mouth closed in the event that I got a schooling on refereeing.

The fact that Ireland have scored 1 try in 2 games, Irish TV pundit (New Zealander) Brent Pope, was also lamenting the state of Northern hemisphere rugby and how lackluster the championship has been so far.
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From the following link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/rules_and_equipment/4204680.stm


If a player is in front of a team-mate in possession of the ball, or in front of a team-mate who last played the ball, they will be offside if they:



  • Actively try to play the ball

  • Do not retreat within 10m of an opponent who is waiting for the ball

  • Move towards the opponents or the place where the ball lands without first coming back onside
    The referee will award a penalty at the place where the offence took place.
 
The referee making mistakes, has and always will be a part of the game. Untill an all seeing AI is allowed to oversee everything on the field it will carry on to be so. The decisions made on the field, in the heat of the moment are as much a part of the game as are the players. The standard of the officials in this day and age are far above what used to be considered acceptable. Once it's over, they are held accountable for their actions during the game by all and sundry. However, if they are seriously flawed, and their decisions constantly called into question, they would be removed from the pool of availability toot sweet(yeah I know CCBB). The constant going over and replaying of mistakes, real and imagined untill you find one, keeps the pundits in business!
 
Martyn, I guess what the issue is here (Wales/Scotland 1st try) is that they had the benefit of a TV replay. Everyone seems to be of the opinion that the wrong decision was made despite this.

I agree with you that most refereeing decisions have to be made in real time and we should accept the good with the bad. Having said that, though, there seems to have been a whole load of forward passes in the six games so far that have not been called.

One suggestion I saw recently was to use one of the linesmen at scrum time - instead of the ref having to swop sides if he suspects a problem. Given that in International matches at least one linesman (maybe both?) are also referees, that may be a good idea
 
Rob, I'm all for anything that makes decisions fairer and keeps the play flowing. At the time of that particular incident the replays were being shown without a difinitive answer in the couple of minutes after it. With that being the case, to hold up the play whilst a decision is made, and to multiply that action umpteen times during play, would make it almost as unwatchable as most American sport.
Surely the linesmen are already watching for infringements performed outside of the refs field of vision, to bring one onto the field during a scrum would surely lead to missed play elsewhere whilst regaining position. If the scrum is near either touchline, then the linesman is already doing this. However if towards the centre of field I don't think it feasable to bring one onto the field as then any resulting kick for territory would likely have to be guessed at. I'm not dismissing the idea, just trying to imagine how it would work.
 
Any predictions for this week-ends games? Here are my thoughts:

- Wales/France to be a slugfest with Wales coming out just on tops.
-Italy/Scotland - theScots to put in a good performance and win comfortably in the end.
-England/Ireland - England's bench to be the big difference with England posting winning points in the last 20 minutes.
 
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