[Rugby] Union / League / Super / Sixes Sevens Pro14 / Cups & Tours / Olympics

[aoluain]

Six Nations

The last game last week turned out to be very entertaining, Italy lost only
by 5 points from France who gave away a lot of penalties. we missed the first 30 minutes
but the rest of the game was brilliant, IMO Italy deserved the win more than France, its just
as always Italy failed to capitalise on some great play and phase building for example one of
the very last plays of the game Italy had a penalty in the French 22, Allen kicked for the line
but failed in getting that crucial 5 metre line out, which meant they had a lot of work yo do
to cross the try line, which they didnt.

Anyway week 2 this weekend.

Here are the lineups:



@Timelord2067 - our parlay bets from last weekend got killed by Scotland beating England,
this weekend will have way more value in a parlay bet!

@Welsh - big test for Wales to travel to Murrayfield to play a team who will be still
pumped after beating England last week. Gatland has made changes, how
do you fancy your chances?

[1714658346]

1714658346

[Timelord2067]

This week-end in the Men's Six Nation's games I'm going safe again, Ireland, Scotland and England to easily beat their opponents France Wales and Italy.

The Super Rugby Pacific is coming up with the Crusaders ($2.75), Blues ($3) and Chiefs ($5) the top three favoured teams with the Hurricanes ($9) in fourth the only other team that's going for less than $10 to win on the 24th of June.

The Force ($101) Rebels ($126) and Moana Pasifika ($201) are the only three above the $99 threshold.

[Welsh]

Wales will give Scotland a game. I mean, we weren't awful against Ireland for much of that game. Actually, it was pretty much our own doing. We conceded two tries very early on out of sheer stupidity, and then we continued to give away penalties. Seriously, the amount of penalties that we gave away was disgraceful.

Having said that; if we can eradicate those bloody penalties I see us doing well. We might not beat Scotland, but we won't be rolled over like a lot of users here will think. I think most fans are anticipating a one sided game, and that could well be true. It all depends on what Wales side turns up.

As for France vs Ireland. I'm going with Ireland, simply because I can't not support the fellow celtic nation, that'd be a crime. Especially, so in rugby. Italy, I mean I don't ever expect them to win games so, that goes without saying. Let's just say rugby doesn't tend to be their strong point. Although, someone's going to say it, so I might as well now; they've beaten us recently .

[aoluain]

This week-end in the Men's Six Nation's games I'm going safe again, Ireland, Scotland and England to easily beat their opponents France Wales and Italy.

The Super Rugby Pacific is coming up with the Crusaders ($2.75), Blues ($3) and Chiefs ($5) the top three favoured teams with the Hurricanes ($9) in fourth the only other team that's going for less than $10 to win on the 24th of June.

The Force ($101) Rebels ($126) and Moana Pasifika ($201) are the only three above the $99 threshold.

Right well one thing for sure I'm not doing a parlay this week, I'll be backing Ireland,
I think it will be very close but if Ireland can get on the front foot early they will do it.

I'm going with Wales and.....Italy!

Wales will give Scotland a game. I mean, we weren't awful against Ireland for much of that game. Actually, it was pretty much our own doing. We conceded two tries very early on out of sheer stupidity, and then we continued to give away penalties. Seriously, the amount of penalties that we gave away was disgraceful.

Having said that; if we can eradicate those bloody penalties I see us doing well. We might not beat Scotland, but we won't be rolled over like a lot of users here will think. I think most fans are anticipating a one sided game, and that could well be true. It all depends on what Wales side turns up.

As for France vs Ireland. I'm going with Ireland, simply because I can't not support the fellow celtic nation, that'd be a crime. Especially, so in rugby. Italy, I mean I don't ever expect them to win games so, that goes without saying. Let's just say rugby doesn't tend to be their strong point. Although, someone's going to say it, so I might as well now; they've beaten us recently .

Yea a high penalty count almost always spells defeat. I would like to see Wales bounce back.

Italy almost did a job on France last week, would live to see them beat England, its a
long shot though.

[Welsh]

Italy with a handicap of +19.5+ is 1.90 at the moment. That's pretty damn good value for money. You could increase it to get 1.50 at +25.5. Again, not a bad value considering that they pushed France close the other week. They have been getting better recently. I'm not confident enough in putting a Wales handicap down, so will be leaving that off my accumulator, and the same goes for the Ireland game.

My predictions are Wales, Ireland, and England though.

[aoluain]

$1 bet on Italy @ 9.2 cannot be missed, great value.
The odds on Wales @ 3.25 do a bit of an injustice to them, I think they should be shorter than
that.


First game over, Ireland did the job 32 - 19, bonus point secured and a losing one for France
denied. It was a closer game for 60 minutes than the scoreboard reflects but the last try
from Ringrose closed the door on France.

France again gave away too many errors while defending handing many advantage plays
to Ireland.

[Welsh]

Irish vs the French was one of the best games we've seen in a long time. Although, that yellow card offense; I thought it was a easy red. I didn't really see the mitigation factor of most of the contact hitting the chest, I saw clear direct to the had, and the Irishman actually failed the head assessment, so obviously was concussed from it. You could argue that was from whiplash alone, but there's clear evidence of shoulder to head contact. Quite substantial too.

I imagine the fact that up to that point it was a fast paced, and even game probably factored into the decision. No one wants to ruin a game like that, but ultimately there's was clearly shoulder to head contact. Anyhow, I'm optimistic for the Welsh game, despite being pretty much written off by almost every rugby fan, including the bookies.

[aoluain]

Irish vs the French was one of the best games we've seen in a long time. Although, that yellow card offense; I thought it was a easy red. I didn't really see the mitigation factor of most of the contact hitting the chest, I saw clear direct to the had, and the Irishman actually failed the head assessment, so obviously was concussed from it. You could argue that was from whiplash alone, but there's clear evidence of shoulder to head contact. Quite substantial too.

I imagine the fact that up to that point it was a fast paced, and even game probably factored into the decision. No one wants to ruin a game like that, but ultimately there's was clearly shoulder to head contact. Anyhow, I'm optimistic for the Welsh game, despite being pretty much written off by almost every rugby fan, including the bookies.

Yea great game, plenty of action, line breaks, attack, scramble defense and scoring.

The yellow card offense should indeed have been Red, Wayne Barnes the referee has
historically not been fair to Ireland, not many people here like to see hime refereeing our games.

It was indeed a clear shoulder to head and Im not sure there was any mitigating factor,
that should have been voided by the fact that Herring failed the HIA.

Similar happened to George North of Wales yesterday too, he was hard hit on the head,
referee stopped play quickly when North showed signs of being seriously injured.

The mitigating factor there was that North had lowered into the tackle. I think if
the injured player fails the HIA any mitigating factor should be voided and the
Yellow changed to Red.

....and on to that match itself, Scotland v Wales, Wales kinda carried on from last week,
a lot of errors in the game, 11 visits to the Scottish 22 and only 7 points to show. The
accuracy just wasnt there eventhough they had some great phases of attacking play.

Scotland werent much better early on and I really thought it was at least going to be a
close result.

[Timelord2067]

Sounds like it was an exciting game.  I'm sorry I wasn't able to catch it.

This week-end there were some preseason games in the Australian NRL which is due to kick off in three or four weeks time.  Already, we've had the usual drunkan brawls and training injuries to keep the journalists in print ink - soon enough it'll be down to the never-ending analysis in the meal rooms and water coolers on this side of the planet.

I'll get the results posted tomorrow.


(later tonight it's England Vs Italy)

[Welsh]

Rugby doesn't exist for for me anymore, after that result. I'm going to need at least five days of not talking about rugby . I guess everyone else was right, I still feel the penalties are our undoing despite losing by quite a decent margin. Oh, and also our bloody line outs. I don't think I've ever seen a team that's so consistently poor at line ups. How many times do we lose our put ins on a weekly basis? Seriously, within the first half I think we lost two or three.

We were doing okay too, we had good territory, and in the first half it was being played with the Scottish under pressure. However, we just don't seem to have that attacking flair. We just sort of go through the phases, and it's very flat. Anyway, I expect Italy to give a good game, but ultimately England will walk away with the win.

[aoluain]

Sounds like it was an exciting game.  I'm sorry I wasn't able to catch it.

This week-end there were some preseason games in the Australian NRL which is due to kick off in three or four weeks time.  Already, we've had the usual drunkan brawls and training injuries to keep the journalists in print ink - soon enough it'll be down to the never-ending analysis in the meal rooms and water coolers on this side of the planet.

I'll get the results posted tomorrow.


(later tonight it's England Vs Italy)

In fairness both games were very interesting, obviously if you were cheering for Wales
it wasnt happy viewing. Scotland had some really great play in the second half.

Highlights for ya >

Ireland v France - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iGKGzycR9k

Scotland v Wales - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEgXzqkVpAw


Looking forward to the NRL season this year.
Cant believe the drunken brawls at this stage in the "professional era" of sport in general
wnere there is a lot of money involved and players looking to take the place of anyone
not performing. . . or maybe thats not a thing?

Rugby doesn't exist for for me anymore, after that result. I'm going to need at least five days of not talking about rugby . I guess everyone else was right, I still feel the penalties are our undoing despite losing by quite a decent margin. Oh, and also our bloody line outs. I don't think I've ever seen a team that's so consistently poor at line ups. How many times do we lose our put ins on a weekly basis? Seriously, within the first half I think we lost two or three.

We were doing okay too, we had good territory, and in the first half it was being played with the Scottish under pressure. However, we just don't seem to have that attacking flair. We just sort of go through the phases, and it's very flat. Anyway, I expect Italy to give a good game, but ultimately England will walk away with the win.

I hear ya! as Ireland supporters we have had plenty of lean years, and font talk about
the massive expectations in the last 2 world cups where we just didnt do well at all,
especially when we have a massively talented squad, a golden era squad really.

Whats strange currently with Wales is that there is still massive talent in the squad,
and seriously experienced players there.

[Welsh]

seriously experienced players there.

I think that's part of the problem. I think we need to look to the future, and stop relying on our more experienced men. I mean, they've served us brilliantly over the years, but you can see how they're declining. Biggar, Halfpenny, and to some extent Liam Williams are all world class at their peak, but it's only really Liam Williams that's still really up there, and even he's making some mistakes, and not performing to expectation. Our forwards of decent, obviously Ken Owens is probably our best player.

The future looks bleak unless we actually start changing things up. Plus, the line outs need to be sorted, for a few years now we've struggled with that, and I'm not even sure why.

[aoluain]

This headline yesterday evening caught my attention>
English team could join WRU, merge with Welsh region and play in London under radical proposal

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/english-team-could-join-wru-26249690

Interesting article which points out how Welsh Rugby is in a bit of a financial crisis and
that players salaries which could be capped lower is not good.

No Six Nations this weekend, the URC is back on with Round 14.

[Timelord2067]

No Six Nations this weekend

Yeh, I was wondering about that when I was going to put bets on. Looks very safe to say Ireland, Scotland and hopefully Wales will get the job done next weekend.

Interesting to read about the proposed changes over there. Nowadays a person can follow a team anywhere on the planet so it's no surprise local clubs might struggle (at the local level) to get the grassroots support they need.


In the NRL preseason ladder (all two weeks of it) in round one the Roosters and Sea Eagles walked away with fifteen points, Warriors, Bulldogs, Sharks and ringins The Saints grabbed fourteen points (I never did get the point scoring) with the Panthers in seventh place on thirteen points.

Following on with seven points are the Broncos, Titans and Dolphins (all Queensland teams) the cowboys on six points and Panthers on just two points...

Surprisingly the Rabbitohs and Knights scored just one point each while perennial class dunces the Eels, Dragons, Radiers and West's Tigers scored a collective big fat zero between them.

On the basis of the above my bets for round two will be higher score over lower for all matches with the exception of the equally scored Dolphins I'm betting on against veterans the Titans.

If you haven't placed a bet on the winner of the 2023 season, it'll be one of the top seven of seventeen teams.

This year one team per week will have a bye due to the odd number of teams (i.e. last year's sixteen plus the dolphins).

6870

[aoluain]

Hmmm interesting in a way, whats the point of this preseason competition other
than a money spinner for the NRL itself I guess? why not just go straight into the premiership
itself?

Obviously the $100,000 is something to play for!

And it will all end this weekend after the 2 round competition. Hmmm.
I know its not new but I actually missed it last year.

I might throw a bet or two on, See The Saints will have a baptism of fire tomorrow when
they play the Panthers!

[Welsh]

It's no secret that the WRU has been struggling for a while. They definitely don't get as much funding as the other organisations in the UK. However, that's kind of a similar story to Wales in general. However, I don't want to bring too much politics into it, but the Welsh players recently walked out from a sponsorship meeting, which is suppose to be their way of demonstrating their frustration with the contracts situation.

Whether or not that works or not, I don't know. Also, it's probably worth noting that the Wales Online that you've quoted isn't exactly a great news source. They're pretty awful with a lot of sensationalist headlines. I very much doubt what they claim is true, and even if there was talks of it, it would never happen. It would be outright insulting, actually.

Anyway, I was looking forward to Wales vs England, despite already knowing the outcome, unless something radical changes things up. However, it's bloody next weekend in it.

[aoluain]

^
Ok I wasnt aware of the funding mechanics both in the WRU and the country in general,
sounds to me like a form of oppression, economic oppression.

TBH I have no idea on how the funding works over there but I imagine Wales and Scotland
would be treated the same but Scotland this year have had two great performances in the
Sin Nations and Glasgow Warriors beat Ulster last night in the URC.

Contrastingly the Ospreys were slaughtered by Munster last night.

Anyway I would be interested to hear a little about funding both Rugby and nationally.

That article from Wales Online did seem bizarre alright, as you eluded to if the union got
proper funding and players healthy contracts there would be no need for extreme measures
like amalgamating with an English club.


RUGBY LEAGUE NRL Pre Season

Looking at the teams and their standings and the odds for the remaining games in its
just odd!

I have Storm and the Sharks to win later, the odds are not great though and neither
Rollbit or Nitro are listing the Panthers v Saints game?

Anyway a 2 round "competition" is a bit skewed anyway.

[Timelord2067]

So far South's win over Saint George is my only winning pick. I'm going to try to watch a game in a little while.

The Sea Eagles soared against the flightless Roostrers while Newcastle collapsed against Parramatta who are looking to make amends for their crushing defeat last season.


The Penrith Panthers must have been smarting in their loss to St Helens yesterday going down 12-13. The Broncos beat NQ 20-18 while the Rabbitohs blitz the Dragons 42-24.

Today will be a full day with no less than four games being played this afternoon.

[aoluain]

So far South's win over Saint George is my only winning pick. I'm going to try to watch a game in a little while.

The Sea Eagles soared against the flightless Roostrers while Newcastle collapsed against Parramatta who are looking to make amends for their crushing defeat last season.


The Penrith Panthers must have been smarting in their loss to St Helens yesterday going down 12-13. The Broncos beat NQ 20-18 while the Rabbitohs blitz the Dragons 42-24.

Today will be a full day with no less than four games being played this afternoon.

Luckily neither Rollbit or Nitro had the Panthers v Saints listed, I would have lost on
that result and I recon they would have made on it also. Golden point seals the deal
for the Saints.

What can we take from the preseason or is it just a warm up for the premiership proper?

[Timelord2067]

It's definitely a warm up for the season, however I don't recall seeing a ladder for two weeks worth of warm-up games in past years.

Two from eight picks was pretty dismal. I should have gone with last year's ladder as there would have been fewer upsets in who I would have picked.

The Canberra Raiders and West's Tigers are jostling for wooden spoon with their dismal performances over the preseason. The Dolphins likewise have failed to ignite to imagination while the Manly Sea Eagles are replicating their start of the 2022 season with early wins and then tanked midseason never to recover.

Don't be surprised if I bang the relegation drum once in a while (even though such a thing doesn't yet occur).