Rugby Union 2008

[Mike]

BBC One received 124 complaints about their Six Nations coverage last Saturday. That is about 0.0008% of the total viewers. They were obviously missing their soaps and other quality programming on their usual Saturday laze.

There response was very diplomatic. The gist was their 15m viewing figures justified the programming schedule and they are a public broadcaster and want to reflect what the public want to see.

[mr_e]

I was quite surprised to see people had even bothered to complain. A look at this weekend's schedule (assuming it's typical) reveals that they wouldn't have missed much, asides from a load of films and some football results. Coast is sometimes quite good, so maybe that's the problem.

Really though, it's pretty much a one-off event. At least it doesn't over-run and result in cancellations of other programs (eg. snooker and cricket). Instead of going out for a walk or something people decided to write complaints instead. Meh.

[Mike]

Stockport County are supposedly selling 1 pixel for £1 on their website in the hope of raising £1million pounds to buy back their ground. . . I did not know that they were suffering so much from the whole financial problems thing. The idea has been used before by someone trying to raise money in the US to go to college and university.

Here is the gossip column where the report was found.
groundforapound is the website in question.

The question is at the moment - Who owns Edgeley Park?

[stimpsonslostson]

Cipriani has been dropped by England for "inappropriate behaviour"! Apparently he was seen coming out of a nightclub after midnight (well after curfew)- so Balshaw has the start, and Hodgeson has been drafted to the bench.
Its a shame as he was being billed as the great hope of english rugby (by england) and a definite weakness in the english lines (by scotland).
Not to be defeatist, but I suspect that england may get the win in Edinburgh- the french result should give some confidence (and scotland just don't EVER look like scoring a try).
P

[Mike]

It could work both ways - either England will underestimate the challenge and will struggle or they will steam roll. Don't want to guess which it will be but I suspect that it might be the first given their teetering performance.

[Mike]

Oh dear. Brian Aston is not very happy with his sides performance in Murrayfield yesterday. Brian Aston's interviews are on this website. Very poor England to be beaten by Scotland, though we were beaten by the better side. Personally it did not seem like Scotland had to try very hard either, they were not playing any better than usual but embarrassingly we were playing absolute bobbins. How many penalties can one side concede?!

All in all a boring weekend for Six Nations Rugby.

[mr_e]

I think I can safely say that was one of the most yawn-worthy Six Nations games I've seen. The highlights were... a passage of play where six or so kicks failed to find touch... that sliding knee knock-out... and some decent early kicks to touch from Scotland. Boring and England lost.

[BarcelonAl]

Johnny has been dropped to the bench for Saturday's match following his performance last weekend and Cipriani has taken his place.

I think it's a brave decision by Ashton to drop England's poster boy and definitely the right one. He seems to be lacking something from his game, especially against the so-called weaker teams (he was poor against Italy as well).

[Mike]

The Italy vs Scotland match was amazing. Will admin being a Italy fan when they play - i love an underdog! Quality scrappy match going on there.

[Andy]

I enjoyed the match today - lots of free flowing rugby. Jamie Noon's tackling was absolutely quality. Cipriani looks a good prospect.

I don't think it is time to herald a new era of rugby though as I still think the Aussies and All Blacks would trounce us on this form. Still, why should form matter? We showed that at the World Cup!

[Claire]

One bad game and we're doomed, one good game and we're heralding a new era of England Rugby. isn't there a phrase like one Swallow does not make a summer? Why do we have such a hard time accepting that we're not consistently much more than "alright"?

[Mike]

It was an interesting England game but I want to see consistency in our rugby. I think it was way more exciting than last weeks game vs Scotland which, to be perfectly honest sucked big time.

[Mike]

England finsihed SECOND?! wtf!? I seriously don't think we did that well. . . .

This is another OMG moment, A friend at work knows Ben Foden! she had no idea how good he was! I was trying to pimp her friend for a signed rugby ball from the sharks team but that might to too cheeky, will settle for him to turn up at work though (for photographs and signing of autographs obviously!)

[Mike]

In the Ben Foden excitement I forgot that the reason I looked up the England six nations table was because Brian Aston was unsure of his future as England coach despite Rob Andrew stating he does not anticipate changing the coaching structure prior to the New Zealand tour in summer.

[stimpsonslostson]

"I'd rather sit on a porcupine watching Dot Cotton lap dance while listening to a double album of S Club 7's Greatest Hits recorded on the bagpipes than sit through a match like Scotland-England ever again."

Robbo on the BBC Sport website. I think it sums things up nicely... the only really interesting thing from my perspective was the score at the final whistle!

Gatland is being tipped as the next lions coach, and after the resurgence in Wales I'd have to say he's probably earned it.
It'll certainly be interesting to see what happens with the teams over the next year or so... with everyone trying to lay the foundations of a winning team- I suspect the heavy ospreys contingent in the welsh team helped their cause, the players were all familiar with each other and could "read" each other- England looked like strangers at times.