General Chat

Scrum. Italy get the ball. Come on boys. France have stolen the ball.

PENALTY TO ITALY against France number 5. Throw in at 5. Up he's got it, they are driving...whistle?

Yellow card France for player who has just come on. Kicked the ball away!

Penalty Italy. Taking a scrum 5 yards out. Come on Italy.....good chance of a try from here!

It's in, they are pushing. Ref blows whistle?????????????

Ref is consulting with TV REF. HEAD BUTTS...UPPER CUTS...HANDBAGS FLYING EVERYWHERE!!!

OH DEAR!!!!

2 REDS AND A PENALTY!

A RED CARD APIECE! France had pen kick out!

Italy has an extra man now... 8 minutes to go. They can't win now, but at least they could have a more respectful score.

And another wasted opportunity by Italy!

Crowds singing La Marseillaise

Scrum- Italy put in. Come on boys. Pen advantage Italy...France not releasing!

Someone's injured..French player, went down too low in tackle and head and knee contact.

Frenchman has had to go off.

Driving Maul.....Come on Italy...TRY ITALY!

FIRST TRY BY TOMMASO IANNONE IN ITALIAN COLOURS.

CONVERTED BY ORQUERA

Score: FRANCE- 30... ITALY- 10

ONE MINUTE LEFT TO GO!

Yellow carded player back on for the last seconds of the match!

Scrum- Italy put in and the ball is out for the final passage of play.

MAN OF THE MATCH

FRANCE'S WESLEY FOFANA

IT'S ALL OVER!

FINAL SCORE: FRANCE-30...ITALY-10

So where does this leave WALES and the rest of the Teams.

Tables won't work on here so I will post the info as best I can, as follows-

IRELAND......Played-2; Won-2; Drawn-0; Lost-0; Points For-54; Against-9; POINTS:4
FRANCE......Played-2; Won-2; Drawn-0; Lost-0; Points For-56; Against-34; POINTS 4
ENGLAND....Played-2; Won-1; Drawn-0; Lost-1; Points For-44; Against- 26; POINTS 2
WALES........Played-2; Won-1; Drawn-0; Lost-1; Points For-26; Against- 41; POINTS 2
ITALY............Played-2; Won-0; Drawn-0; Lost-2; Points For-25; Against-53; POINTS 0
SCOTLAND..Played-2; Won-0; Drawn-0; Lost-2; Points For-6; Against-48; POINTS 0

NO 6 NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES NEXT WEEKEND

NEXT GAMES...

21st & 22nd FEBRUARY:

Wales v France Fri 8.00
Italy v Scotland Sat 1.30
England v Ireland Sat 4.00

Oh Jem, I'm not looking forward to the 21st are you? :-|

It's looking grim Shaun :-(

I'm wondering if all the nonsense with the management of Welsh Rugby at present has affected the morale of our Welsh team! :-( :-(

So France and Ireland are in front after Lap 1. And who do they both play in a fortnight :-D ;-)

What a weekend to look forward to. I agree with you, Shaun. Not looking good. But let us have faith Wales will play a whole lot better on Friday night. I think they may well win :-D :-D

POST WALES V IRELAND DEBATE:

Well, Wales were hammered by the Irish in our last game!

WHAT HAVE THE RUGBY EXPERTS HAD TO SAY?

SCRUM V SUNDAY (9-2-2014)
Former Wales Rugby Union International Players- KINGSLEY JONES, GWYN JONES and HUW BENNETT, along with former Ireland International Rugby Union Player- SHANE BYRNE were interviewed following Wales' defeat by Ireland.

During their discussion they made the following comments regarding the game-

KINGSLEY JAMES:
"Wales was ONE-DIMENSIONAL- they need to vary the game and not just rely on power and strength to see them through every time" They need to "TWEAK" their play.

The panel agreed that Wales could not stop the DRIVING MAUL, they had NO DOMINANCE in SCRUMS, and were losing LINE-OUTS.

HUW BENNETT-
Huw Bennett said that they needed more DISCIPLINE- that they were giving away too many penalties and making too many errors. They need to get back to basics.

GWYN JONES-
Gwyn agreed with Kingsley's "One-Dimension" Point. He joked wryly-
"IF PLAN A DOESN'T WORK- THEN IT'S BACK TO PLAN A!"

SHANE BYRNE-
"Joe Schmidt (Ireland's Head Coach) had a GAME PLAN put together to negate the power, to take the game they (Wales) were best at away from them and frustrate the h**l out of them- and that's exactly what happened".

The panel made the claim that players (such as Sam Warburton, Gethin Jenkins and Dan Lydiate) were not fully match fit.

They also mused why other, fitter players were not chosen such as JAMES HOOK. It seems that as James Hook is skilled enough to cover a variety of different playing positions, he is left unused on the bench for emergencies!-
The former Internationals stated- THAT IF THERE EVER WAS A TIME TO USE HOOK, THAT WAS THE TIME!

Our JONATHAN DAVIES, former Wales International; and now respected BBC Commentator said-
"Wales didn't perform!... Wales had NO ALTERNATIVE GAME PLAN- NO CHANGE OF THOUGHT"

BBC WALES TODAY (10-2-2014)
An Interview with Former Wales Prop- BEN EVANS

He was asked-" HOW DID A GREAT TEAM END UP LOOKING SO POOR?"
His take on the Game (Wales v Ireland)-
"CREDIT TO IRELAND! A complete performance. Every facet of their game was spot-on!"

He believed that Wales' poor performance could have been partially because of "POST LIONS BLUES" and "THE UNDERTONES OF WRANGLING GOING ON IN THE REGIONS- how can it not affect the boys?!"

When asked about Warren Gatland's dilemma on whether or not to change the team he replied-
"That's the temptation isn't it! Give those boys another chance and risk the failure again, or give some new boys a chance. If it comes off- IT'S A MASTERMIND PLAN!..BUT I THINK HE SHOULD STICK WITH THEM!"

Evans made the point that we are only 2 games into the championship, and that WALES CAN STILL WIN!
It's ALL OPEN- he asserted!

*********************************************************************************************
NOW!!!!....CALLING ALL WALES RUGBY SUPPORTERS!.............

**WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
**WOULD YOU CHANGE THE TEAM?
**IF SO WHO WOULD YOU PUT IN OR TAKE OUT?
**WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON WALES' PERFORMANCE?

Non Wales supporters are also welcome to join in (respectful comments please :-|)

Hi Jem :-))))))))))))))))))
What do you think of my team to go forward against France and England??

CENTRE’s Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies, and Scott Williams.

FLY – HALF’s James Hook and Dan Biggar.

FLANKER’s , Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric, Aaron Shingler, Josh Navidi & Josh Turnbull.

FULLBACK’s, Lee Byrne, Leigh Halfpenny and Liam Williams.

LOCK’s, Ryan Jones, Andrew Coombs, James King, Ollie Kohnn, Ian Evans & Lou Reed.

HOOKER’s, Matthew Rees, Ken Owens and Richard Hibbard.

PROP’s, Adam Jones, Gethin Jenkins, Craig Mitchell, Paul James, Ryan Bevington & Scot Andrews.

NUMBER 8’s, Taulupe Faletau and Andries Pretorius.

SCRUM-HALF’s,Mike Phillips, Lloyd Williams and Tavis Knoyle.

WING’s, George North, Alex Cuthbert and Eli Walker.


Apparently this is “THE GREATEST WELSH TEAM OF ALL TIME”, do you agree?
JPR WILLIAMS, GERALD DAVIES, JJ WILLIAMS, JOHN DAWES, BLEDDYN WILLIAMS, BARRY JOHN
GARETH EDWARDS , DENZIL WILLIAMS , GRAHAM PRICE , BRYN MEREDITH , DELME THOMAS
GEOFF WHEEL , DAI MORRIS., JOHN TAYLOR , MERVYN DAVIES .

Shaun

Hi Our Shaun :-) :-)

DEWIS DIDDOROL IAWN- VERY INTERESTING CHOICE :-) :-) :-)

Like it!

I love Jamie Roberts (as long as his shoulder holds up) Jon Davies I think is still ruled out. Scott Williams had a bad injury- I wonder if he's ok now? I love Ryan Jones. It's a shame he's not been fit for this years championship.

DAN BIGGER-
I much prefer him at number 10 to Rhys Priestland. Just my opinion of course, but I think he kicks and loses the ball when he could have passed the ball.

TAULUPE FALATAU-
An interesting comment on Scrum V last Sunday. According to the panel (Jonathan Davies, Kingsley Jones and Robert Jones) WHY NOT PUT HIM FULL BACK. They believe that he is "probably the best Full Back in the World". They use him in that roll in The Dragons.

They talked about the pairing of Dan Biggar and RHYS WEBB in Mike's position as an option. I love Mike Phillips though, but he has to keep his temper. Lovely Stephen Jones used to rein him in when he was losing it! :-D :-D

Yes you have given some interesting food-for-thought Shaun.

WHAT A DREAM TEAM YOUR OTHER TEAM WOULD BE!!!

Merv The Swerve!!!! BARRY JOHN <3 I loved Barry John! Gareth Edwards- boy he could run! What a brill team! JJ and JPR!

What about lovely Ray Gravell? <3 I knew Ray. He lived in our village for a while, and I knew him also through the local newspaper that I worked with.

He went to school with my big brother. When we had the accident in 1976, when we lost our father and our home in a fire, he provided my brother with a full Rugby Kit!
What a marvelous man he was! <3 <3

WELSH RUGBY FANS NEED SPECULATE NO MORE!......

......HERE IS THE TEAM FOR WALES V FRANCE (FRIDAY NIGHT- 8pm Kick-Off)

The Wales team to face France is as follows:

(15-1)
Leigh Halfpenny
Alex Cuthbert
George North
Jamie Roberts
Liam Williams
Rhys Priestland
Rhys Webb
Taulupe Faletau
Sam Warburton CAPTAIN
Dan Lydiate
Alun Wyn Jones
Luke Charteris
Adam Jones
Richard Hibbard
Gethin Jenkins

Replacements: Ken Owens; Paul James; Rhodri Jones; Jake Ball; Justin Tipuric; Mike Phillips; Dan Biggar; James Hook.

AND HERE'S THE FRENCH LINE-UP:
France (15-1)
Brice Dulin; Yoann Huget, Mathieu Bastareaud, Wesley Fofana, Hugo Bonneval; Jules Plisson, Jean-Marc Doussain; Louis Picamoles, Wenceslas Lauret, Yannick Nyanga; Yoann Maestri, Pascal Pape (capt); Nicolas Mas, Dimitri Szarzewski, Thomas Domingo
Replacements: Brice Mach, Yannick Forestier, Vincent Debaty, Sébastien Vahaamahina, Damien Chouly, Maxime Machenaud, Remi Tales, Gael Fickou

REFEREE...ALAIN ROLLAND

SO WHAT CHANGES HAS WARREN GATLAND MADE TO THE TEAM?

From the Wales v Ireland Starting Line-Up these are the changes:

SCOTT WILLIAMS is not in the starting line up. He sustained a bad shoulder injury in the last game. He is replaced at number 13 by GEORGE NORTH.
It will be very interesting to see the partnership of George North and Jamie Roberts in action!

George North is being replaced at number 11 by LIAM WILLIAMS.

One of the most obvious changes is that MIKE PHILLIPS has been replaced by RHYS WEBB as Scrum Half (number 9)
Mike had temper issues in the last game! Did that have any bearing on Warren's decision? Mike is still on the bench, however.

LUKE CHARTERIS who has recovered from a hamstring injury is back. He replaces ANDREW COOMBS.

The other change to the Replacement bench is the addition of DAN BIGGAR.

It seems that Warren Gatland has remained loyally behind his boys, with no drastic changes.

SO- LET'S GET BEHIND OUR BOYS!
Join me here on Friday Night-

SWITCH ON- TUNE-IN AND SHOUT FOR WALES <3 <3 <3

THE BIG DAY HAS ARRIVED! :-) :-) :-)

7 HOURS AND COUNTING.........

.....UNTIL THE BIG MATCH!

WALES V FRANCE.... KICK-OFF 8PM LIVE ON BBC1 .....AND RADIO JEM! :-D :-D

SWITCH ON TUNE-IN AND SHOUT W-A-L-E-S :-D :-D <3

THE COUNTDOWN CONTINUES!

5 HOURS TO GO! :-) :-) :-) <3

THE WELSH NATIONAL ANTHEM....
MAE HEN WLAD FY NHADAU-

Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi,
Gwlad beirdd a chantorion, enwogion o fri;
Ei gwrol ryfelwyr, gwladgarwyr tra mad,
Dros ryddid collasant eu gwaed

Cytgan/ Chorus
Gwlad, gwlad, pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad.
Tra môr yn fur i'r bur hoff bau,
O bydded i'r hen iaith barhau.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:

The old land of my fathers is dear to me,
Land of bards (poets) and singers, famous men of renown;
Her brave warriors, patriots,
For freedom shed their blood.

Chorus:
Country, Country, (HOMELAND conveys the sentiment more accurately) I am true to my country.
While the sea is a wall to the pure, most loved land,O may the old language endure.

WHILE MOST WELSH PEOPLE KNOW THEIR ANTHEM AS WRITTEN (and translated) ABOVE- Many do not know that there are in fact TWO OTHER VERSES:

Verse 2:
Hen Gymru fynyddig, paradwys y bard
Pob dyffryn, pob clogwyn, i'm golwg sydd hardd;
Trwy deimlad gwladgarol mor swynol yw si
Ei nentydd, afonydd, i mi.

Old Mountainous Wales, The Poet’s Paradise,
Every Valley, every cliff, to my mind is beautiful,
Through patriotic feeling, how charming are the murmurs of her brooks to me

Verse 3:

Os treisiodd y gelyn fy ngwlad tan ei droed,
Mae hen iaith y Cymry mor fyw ag erioed,
Ni luddiwyd yr awen gan erchyll law brad, yr awen gan erchyll law brad.

If the enemy oppresses my land under his foot,
The old language of the Welsh is as alive as ever
Spirit not restrained or hindered by the hideous hand of treason,
Not hindered by the hideous hand of treason.

"Os treisiodd y gelyn fy ngwlad tan ei droed,

Mae hen iaith y Cymry mor fyw ag erioed,"

Think we can still sing that with gusto, Jem. Whatever our politics. Was watching a video of Dafydd Iwan singing "Yma o hyd" very late last night and also Boys Aloud singing Calon Lan in front of David Walliams and Simon Cowell. Just fantastic - went to bed very happy and very emotional.

And as for Shaun's team - every one a giant :-D :-D :-D