Scotland - Wales

[johnnywb]

Some seriously big tackles coming from the scots, albeit injuring themselves in the process!

[Twit]

Massive 'tackles' although reckless is probably closer to the mark.

Good game so far, Wales impressive as everyone thought they would be, but Scotland making a decent fist of it too!

[julianm]

Where did the Scots get those ridiculous penguin outfits from??

[Swilly]

A dominating first half for Wales, slightly let down in the last 20mins of the second half.

Owned the scrum, totally, at will !!

[pits]

Yep last 20-15 mins were atrocious for Wales, to sum up

• Scotlands defense- st
• Scotlands offense- pretty damn good
• Scotlands ability in kicking- poor, to many mistakes, kicking to far, not kicking
• Sccotlands tackles- First smooth, Second should of been red card, hope he is alright though, came down on his neck, not good
• Scotlands- lineouts, good but seemed sloppy sometimes
• Scotlands- scrums just not that good, no power behind them
• Wales- Jones
• Wales- Hook, should of been on from the begining
• Wales kicking- Couldnt hit a cows arse with a cricket bat!
• Wales lineouts- Better than usual
• Wales scrums- Excellent
• Wales tackles- Williams, shouldnt of get a yellow, its questionable
• Ref- Good ref, unbiased, kept the game going, questionable on the yellow cards(imho)

All in all, Wales dominated the first 50 minutes, started to loose it, at 60 mins, last 30 Scotland played superb rugby, with well deserved try, there defense was better, they werent going in to deep

Excellent match, some world class rugby played, Jurassic Park!!!!!

[johnnywb]

Have to say, i was a bit disturbed after Cross' tackle, which seemed to leave him unconcious. After the challenge, as Cross hit the ground, M. Williams went over to berate him (understandably), however he grabbed the back of Cross' shirt, lifted him off the ground, realised he was injured and just dumped him back on the ground.

Clearly Cross didn't have a neck injury, as a few minutes later he was sitting up, but he could very, very easily have suffered a serious neck injury, which Williams' actions could have made much worse. Knowing two people who suffered serious neck injuries playing rugby, it was worrying.

On the whole, Wales played well, perhaps not as well as expected though. Scotland played well and showed the fire and tenacity they're famed for. I think Wales will beat England next weekend, but the last 20 minutes showed that Wales aren't unbeatbale, so it could be a very good game if Johnson makes the right picks for the England team.

[Famous Graham]

As disappointed as I was with the result, Wales really need to shape up if they're not to get a kicking from Ireland or France.

That should have been 40 points at least.

[deevlash]

I was in the car listening to this on the radio and they had an ex scotland player in with the commentary team, I forget what his name was. Anyway, when hadden took off barclay this guy in the commentary box said;
"whys he taking off our best player? I dont get it? thats just daft aaaaaaaaaaarrrrggggghhhhh!!"
and he walked out of the booth for 10 minutes to calm down!

[disco1]

My thoughts

Wales
- Need to sort out tactical kicking, the ball needs to land behind the last player, you need to make them turn rather than kicking down their throats.

- Jones needs to practice his place kicking! Kicking like that will cost us against the likes of Ireland and France.

- Good forwards display, solid.

- We need to keep the intesity up for the full 80, you never see the All Blacks, Aussies or Saffas holding back, they'd put teams to the sword under the same circumstances.

- We'll batter England!

Scotland
- Showed some promise in final quarter but Wales were too far ahead and thinking about next weekend.

- Blair is not a Lions 1st team scrumhalf.

- Hadden needs to sort his tactics and selection policy out.

- Serious lack of strength in depth, similar to Wales throughout the 90s and early 00s

[Swilly]

Famous Graham said:

As disappointed as I was with the result, Wales really need to shape up if they're not to get a kicking from Ireland or France.

That should have been 40 points at least.

Jones missed 9pts ? which isnt like him.

I also noticed that Wales slump came right after the mass of substitutions.

I reckon, given the lead Wales had, that Gaitland wanted to give his subs some play time, but had the game been closed he wouldnt have done so.

In a more critical game he wouldnt take so many of his leaders and key players off together.

Had he left most everyone on the pitch, i reckon Wales would have remained pretty much as dominant as they had been in the first half.

[Twit]

disco1 said:

- We'll batter England!

Wales will win, or at least should win, but I don't think it will be a battering. The English forwards are still well capable of fronting up to the Welsh forwards. The Welsh backs are different league to the English ones, but if it turns into a tight forward game, or rather if England can turn it into that type of game, and try and starve the back of ball the scoreline will be closer.

[pits]

could of easily been 40 points, if Jones hadnt been so ham footed, thing with Jones, he misses one, take him off, get Hook on.

Scotland have the makings of a fantastic team, but I think they need a Scottish Gatland to sort it out, and yes the subsitions, could of worked but it didnt, I guess he was going for the "get more engergetic less worn out players on the field" approach, didnt work,

Yes that tackle was bad, when a football player goes down and doesnt get up, you call him a wimp and to man the fk up, when a rugby player goes down and doesnt get up, then you worry, agreed that williams should not of picked him up, if a rugby player is down, leave him down till proper medics get there... Mind you, you Scots have a habit of knocking yourselfs out, twice in one game, one I did laugh at the first one, the second one I didnt, and went "ooooh st, thats not good", but last year, when that one scottish player hit the English player, didnt get up for 10 minutes, now that was worrying