Thetownend.com

Anyone else watching this year?  Wales vs Scotland was entertaining yesterday, even if it wasn't the most technically accomplished rugby you'll see in the tournament.  What a finish.

Waiting to see whether Jerry Guscott's prediction of a England win with a 20 point margin materialises this afternoon.  I think we'll pull away in the second half.

Johnny Wilkinson in penalty miss shocker!

I agree about the game yesterday, incredible ending, mostly of Scotland's own doing.

...and another miss

...and a successful kick.

Know what you mean though.  He's a shadow of the player he used to be.

First miss since 2003 according to the commentators, five bad minutes does not a shadow make.

Why do the BBC continue to use Brian Moore as a commentator? He's so biased it's unreal and even then all he ever does is whinge.

To be fair though England have been shit for a fair few years now so more often than not he has a point.

All sports have one whinging plank.

Others that spring to mind are Bob Willis (blatantly IOB in 40 years!), Jim Watt and John Francome (who's from Swindon I believe)

Italy clearly no longer the also rans of six nations, but what rubbish from England.  Johnson must go.  bring back Worsley, the only one who knows how to tackle

Correct. I went to school with his nephew

I went to school with Francome...played in the same rugby team with him and a kiddy called Richard Harding, who went on to play for England.  He was just about the last of the amateurs captaining England just before Will Carling.

Harding would never have made it, but his old man had a bit of dollar, and so paid for him to go to Millfield.

Francome did it on ability, rather than privilege.

Italy are still the also rans of the six nations. They will lose every game this year and get the wooden spoon. Again.

I am surprised that game was so close tho. Didn't watch it myself but before the game I was saying to my mate if I had £100 spare I would put it on England with the 14 point handicap. So glad I didn't have £100 to put on that!

It's cos England were crap. Played the wrong kind of game and made basic errors throughout. Whilst Italy are definitely continuing to improve, we should really be beating them much more comfortably than that.

I agree that Italy will still lose all their games (so will Scotland, sadly), but they are no longer walked all over by all five of the other nations, and just as Argentina has become a force, so italy may yet do.

So what happens when Scotland play Italy, do they both lose?

What a load of old bollocks you are talking, Italy set out to spoil the game and its nearly impossible to break teams down when they do that, they are coached by a south african who is slowly bleeding the talent and flair from the italians natural game

As BS says Scotland and Italy can't both lose all their games!!

Italy are miles off Argentina in terms of development. Argentina came 3rd in the last world cup. Italy have never got out of the group stage. Also, I've got a feeling they might have never won an away game despite being in the six nations for 10 years now.

They beat Scotland at Murryfield a couple of years ago didn't they - lots of intercept tries.

No England were just shite. Kick kick fucking kick all the time. The stupid thing is when we decided to actually pass and run the ball we looked quite good.

I'm no expert on rugby, but I've watched more than enough of the game to know that kicking the ball straight into the hands of an opposition back over and over again is not a smart tactic. Yes, Italy were playing wide which made it hard for us to kick and chase, but on the few occasions where we actually ran at them ball-in-hand we made plenty of ground.

Hope we do better against the Oirish today.

Spoke too soon.

Man we're shit at rugby these days.

England 16 Ireland 13 with 10 mins left......

Scrap that.

 :(

Too many stupid errors. Any decent team would have hammered Ireland today. We had so much territory and posession. What a joke.

Dude, ffs, do yourself and everyone else a favour. Buy some rope and string yourself up from the nearest banister or tree. Much love xxx

i don't agree with DMR on this thread, i think IOB is entitled to be miffed after such a shit performance again

does anyone remember flutey getting a touch or us not bothering with a pick and drive until we fuck it up?

Calcutta Cup day.  (Or are we all now meant to call it the Kolkata Kop?)  Big day in the Ardiles household.  No idea whether Johnson is going to revert to type and after playing a more open game and losing to Ireland.  Frankly, I don't care today.  It's all about a win.  Fingers crossed.

My flatmate is Scottish. If we win I am going to celebrate by sellotaping a wooden spoon to his door. If we lose, I shall sulk!

why bother crossing your fingers? my money is on england :(

fuck me that was depressing to watch

It was a bit of a dull game of rugby, only came to life in the last 20 minutes. Shame the drop-goal attempt fell short - losing to Scotland this year is a poor result.

We didn't lose though. Drawing with Scotland is still a poor result.

Also, Rugby is shit.

It was awful again from England has to be said.

I don't understand how people get excited about rugby. It's not like football where you get the passing, movement and build up, it's stop-start.

Ralphy - that's just hilarious.  No passing, movement or build up?!  Good grief.

It's boring !!

I'm happy to admit that I don't really possess much technical knowledge of the game but I enjoy the 6 Nations. Couldn't care less about club rugby, but I enjoy supporting England at anything. I can't remember the last time I've been so uninspired by it though. Maybe I'm losing interest, or maybe it's because England don't really look like producing anything of note, either through the forwards or when they open it up. And when teams just boot it backwards & forwards to each other I start to lose the will to live, they're basically saying that they're scared to actually attempt something? Why be on the pitch then?!

Brian Moore annoys me because he's got a chip on his shoulder about "soccer", & has a dig during every game in which he commentates.