Just starting an early thread as there’s injury news that will impact the weekend.

  • steeznson@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    16 hours ago

    Scotland were really scrappy against Portugal. It wasn’t even the new caps being green. Matthews and Horne were not on point.

    England seem to either pick attack or defence as their plan every game. Then they stick to one and completely ignore the other. They are attacking today. Smith continues to be great.

    Going to miss NZ/France unfortunately. Foolishly agreed to socialise this evening when I should be holed up watching rugby!

    • TagMeInSkipIGotThis@lemmy.nzOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      16 hours ago

      Yeah you shouldn’t be leaking 3 tries to a team like Portugal really, but oftentimes games like that can kinda degenerate to somewhere in between each teams level.

      Re England, I’m starting to wonder if its possible that the age of the rush/blitz defence might be coming to an end and that’s why they’re adapting already having just perfected it 6 months ago.

      Teams might have finally worked out how to stress it enough that unless you’re a Springboks with a whole replacement forward pack on the bench you just can’t maintain it for more than 70 minutes. Too early to tell yet, but the next full calendar year of games will be interesting to see how things change. Though WR’s foolish adjustment to refereeing escorts might counter any gains attack have had as teams can just go back to YOLO up a kick to relieve pressure.

      Haven’t decided if I can be bothered watching the ABs game or not, feels like a somewhat unproductive use of time watching footie during the daylight hours.