The Scrum - General Rugby Talk!

We'll be at the Scotland v Romania game so keep an eye out for us on the telly! lol

I agree that Rugby should have its own section. Trev?

Aye, common, Trev!

Geezer who works the lights! Sort it out!

I myself shall be watching England vs Argentina at Worcester's ground at Sixways before watching Worcester vs Northampton live. The warriors are going to get humped again and get their 7th defeat on the trot

Well the Scotland v Romania match today was fantastic. Scotland won with a 42 Pt difference....48-6 was the final score. I was surprised at the physicality of Romania, but they weren't able to capitalise on it, Scotland didn't give them the chance.

Congratulations to Phil Godman (#10) for an outstanding debut as fly half. Good job! Scored a try and converted all but two I think! Hugo was the man of the match, scoring two tries, Johnnie Beattie also debuted (he sure did his dad proud today!) and scored a try. Fantastic match. Blair even played well, but when Cusiter subbed for him, there's no doubt in my mind who the better player is.

As far as I can see, Dan Parks better find another position, cause Godman is exactly what Scotland needed for a fly half!

Ireland-v- South Africa is still going, second half, 22-3 Ireland. Was good to see Wales win and...well England need to clean up big time! Andy Robinson, WHAT are you doing?!

Being a turnip I guess.

You have to have been around when Graham Taylor was England Soccer team a manager in the early 1990s to get that.

Anyway, I really don't want to talk about England right now. I've spent months talking about England.

I can see Hadden's method now in announcing such a random squad. Most of Hadden's 15 were quite fresh and new. He's wanting to give his players as much play time and experience as possible before the world cup next year.

If Godman gets alot of experience, he'll be a good fly half.

I was very impressed with all the guys that came on today. I don't think bbc will show the highlights as we just finished watching the England one, but if you get hte sports channels, they'll probably air it tonight or tomorrow morning!

I agree with Hadden in that its important to give the players playing time and experience. He can't play the big ones every single game, they're going to need breaks. Poor Jason went off with a knee injury but hopefully it' snot so bad he'll be out til the 6 Nations or longer. Situtations like that they need to have the extra players in. The more the better! Or Merrier! lol

Hadden really has to be saluted. The way he has nurtured what are some of the most limited rugby assets out of the top ten rugby nations is nigh on fantastic.

Probabbly the best man manager out there. Whereas Graham Henry is just blunt and business like about his business, Hadden is still the old Schoolmaster he used to be, firm but gentle and fair.

Hadden really turned the team around, Matt Williams was just a nightmare. He was so terrible and even now he tries to take credit for where the team is NOW when it was all Hadden's doing! Williams sucks man.

The thing with Hadden is that he's returned to the roots of rugby, not what the game has become nowadays, and I think that's why Scotland are playing so well. They're identifying with it if you know what I mean?

I was well impressed with Wales today, it looks like they're getting back to their old selves!

Williams tried to impose an artificial version of rugby on Scotland to compensate for what he perceived to be "weaknesses."

He was just incredibly negative throughout his tenure at Scotland and publicly saying that his players "had to play within their limitations" was horrible. Just horrible.

When Hadden came in, he swung Scotland back to what they do best: good, aggressive and intelligent rugby. The way he changed Scotland was immense, the scramble defense is one of the best in the Northern Hemisphere and they are very strong in the ruck.

There still are annoying relics of the Williams era (like Dan Parks) hanging around but Hadden is slowly building up to phase them out.

Ugh Dan Parks. The faster he's out the better!

I remember the game of kicking ping pong he had in the 2005 Six Nations against Italy. That was horrible, I don't want to see 20 consecutive kicks for touch...that don't find touch in a row...ever again.

I agree!

I hope Godman dazzles Hadden so much that he just forgets about Parks completely lol

Blair played well today, slipped up a few times, but overall he did well. Scored a try and he's been working on his passing! It's blatantly obvious that Scotland's game handling has improved vastly. It really shows.

Hey, if we had our own rugby thread, we could break it down into Six Nations, Club Rugby, World Cup, Management...stuff like that. Oh I hope Trev gives the ok!

Yeah, its going to be so awesome when Trev gives it the ok!

I still think Cusiter is the better scrum half. I really hope that Godman plays one of the Six Nations internationals next year to see how well he does against near decent opposition.

As long as Scotland can improve their fitness so they can do their scamble defence for the full 80 minutes as well as maybe introduce some good counter attacking play that could make full use of Sean Lamont and their centers...

I know, poor Sean out there on the wing and all this action is going on. They need to utilise him more. He's dangerous when he has the ball and breaks through the gaps, so they need to give him the ball more. It's a shame. You pass for a reason people.

I find it hilarious that all the players on any team, when they run with the ball, they don't pass all the way down the line, they try to run THROUGH these groups of men who, more often than not, are much bigger and heavier than they are. HELLO, you go for the GAPS.

Its a endemic problem in the whole of the Northern Hemisphere.

Its the basic skill of exploiting a two on one or a three on one or even a four on one. The initial guy with the ball will either run straight at the defender and go to ground or pass early to the next guy who will do pretty much the same, even though in theory, they've exploited the overlap.

The Southern Hemisphere teach at a very young age to try and exploit the overlap and two/three on ones at every opportunity. Up here, we don't.