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The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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jimmy ching
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The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

Post by jimmy ching »

The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

What a Shakespearian experience that was last night. It was 'A comedy of errors'. The rain poured, the wind blew, Parra and Anscombe were having to deal with the rain hitting their foreheads and dripping in front of their eyes. Miss after miss. Both teams then changed their kickers. In between the force of the French forwards paid dividends as Picamoles, once again got his name on the 6N try scoring list. The 2nd try of the half, was by far the best, as Itturria fed Huget with a subtle behind the back pass. The pride of Huget was for all to see, as he stood and saluted the fans on the try line. That image was not to last.
16-0 at half time, the stadium was buzzing.
Does anybody remember those school rugby day's when you use to follow up a very deep kick in to the opposition half, clearly expecting the ball to be quickly returned, to make your run futile?
This time, it ended up being the Great North Run. As Huget was moving back to clear the lines, he stumbled and bumbled and to Georges surprise, it ended up in his arms for an opportunist touch down. Huget's world had fallen apart. The image of his 1st half salute, was the pride before the fall. With the whole nation watching, he decided to bury his head in to the ground and lay there motionless. Reality returned. He stood up and to his merit, did the salute of apology.
The Blues kept on pushing to the Welsh back line. The passes were on the edges of risk, George saw it, he intercepted and did his 2nd Great North run of the night. The inevitable taste of defeat was written all over the French faces. Another penalty miss to be followed by poor defending, led for the Dragons to score their 3rd try. Inexperience cost's in these type of test matches.
The Welsh must be leaving Paris believing the Grand Slam is ordained. The next away fixture they have is in Rome.
Last edited by jimmy ching on 03 Feb 2019, 18:59, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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Ireland Vs England


Rory the Best, a man of the North, a leader of the pack is entering this year as the sun sets on his career. Hopes are high for himself, his nations and his lieutenants. Yesterdays match was a case of Red Sky in the Morning, a Shepherd’s warning.
Within the first couple of minutes, the Irish squad were sending out their ‘m’aidez, m’aidez’ signal, as Johnny May struck early on down the wing. Farrel, an Englishman of Irish stock, stroked the conversion over. Calm heads were required.
The Greens didn’t panic. They clicked back in to their usual routine of play as the English were hitting them hard. A penalty awarded and Johnny Sexy slotted home his attempt.
Curry’s over exuberance was seen more as Vindaloo rather than Korma by the referee as the yellow card was shown. Time for power play. Another penalty but this time a deep kick for a line out was chosen. Curry returned, England relaxed. James Ryan, ‘my hero to be’, won the line out, the forwards gathered and Healy produced the goods.
Before the game started, the choice Daly and Henshaw in their respective positions, were being questioned by the fans of both sides. On the half hour Henshaw sliced his clearance in to touch. The English gathered, attacked through the middle, switched to the right wing, Daly kicked through and followed, Stockdale fumbled on the try line and Daly reacted quickest, to touch down. Farrell converted.
England continued with the battering ram tactics and were rewarded with penalty on half time. Farrell produced again. 10-17, half time.
By the hour, Ireland had reduced the deficit to 13-17 and even Farrell had missed one.
Schmidt, the Irish coach had swapped both his defence and attack in a reshuffle. Eddie Jones just swapped his attack. Schmidt experiment didn’t work.
Ireland were trying to play out of their 22, yet England were pinning them there.
On the 65th minute, Slade started taking prisoners, as a quick decisive pass to May was followed by a kick through for Slade to touch down. Converted, 13-25. Ireland continued the play out of the 22, probably too relaxed, as Slade read a pass, intercepted, managed to avoid the knock on and sent the English fans delirious. 13-32.
It was game over for the Irish, it was now time for them to save face. Cronin showed his initiative, with a quick get up from a tackle to break the English defence and set up Cooney for the final score.
Sexton, quickly volleyed over, in hope of another late score.
After reading some match reports of England’s dominance, I beg to differ.
The Irish were beaten, bruised but not battered.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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Scotland Vs Italy.

The Royal Patronage of Princess Anne was at Murrayfield again. It has been said that Women of money, do appreciate the masculinity of men. Are Beta’s not best? Gaby Logan, one of our local lasses has shown this, yes, Kenny Logan is a hunk.
Straight in to full swing the Scots started. Laidlaw and McInally set out their store. Within three minutes the Referee was calling on the TMO (Television Match Official). It was considered a double movement and ruled out.
That inspired Italy, to move down field and force the Royal Blues to concede a penalty. Up steps Tomasso Allen. 0-3. This is the only fixture the where the Italians have smelt blood and delivered an away 6 Nations win. The Scots have seen it twice, surely not a third?
The Scots continued in the same vein. The Italians were concentrating their defence in a narrow band, Russell kicked towards the wing, Kinghorn gathered and ran clear to try in the corner. Laidlaw went left on the conversion. 11 minutes, 5-3.
In the 22nd minute Princess Anne was shuffling in her seat. No doubt, any forward pass to keep the Kinghorn going, would keep her happy. Kinghorn’s 2nd try was given. Laidlaw converted. 12-3.
On the 24th minute Tomasso Allen was called in for a head assessment. Cue the arrival of the Italian Mr Biggles, Mr McKinley. He did look rather strange with his skull cap and goggles. Blind in one eye, he never debuted for Ireland but O Shea the Italian coach had included him in his squad when he gained Italian nationality. He did his job and kept the score the same until Allan returned. Half time, 12-3.
The demolition started in the 2nd, as the old reliable Hogg, chased down a Russel grubber to get the final touch. Converted 19-3.
The Kinghorn hat trick duly arrived. Ritchie ran, passed to Laidlaw who in turn fed Kinghorn who dummy passed his way to the try line. Kinghorn was standing proud.
On the hour, Scotland were half way to a beast of a score, leading 33-3. It was started by a Hogg run that opened up the Italians defence again, with Russel and Strauss providing a touch down for Harris. It was over. Even the bench were tucking in to take away pizzas, no doubt good publicity for the local business. And, No, I don’t think they were deep fried.
The Scots then did a Kamikaze, Berghan got carded and the Italian’s controlled the final 10 minutes, getting three, yes three late tries.
Scotland continue their unbeaten run at home since 2016 but with that last ten, Ireland have been given some encouragement for next week.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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jimmy ching wrote:
Ireland Vs England



After reading some match reports of England’s dominance, I beg to differ.
The Irish were beaten, bruised but not battered.
Possibly tactically outthought too, with England clinically exposing Henshaw's naivety as a full back at this level with pinpoint kicking out of hand.

Henshaw looked every bit a centre playing at full back.

The return of Tuilagi, and especially Billy Vunipola at eight, meant they faced a far more muscular, bigger and better equipped England than the injury ravaged, limp and insipid version of last year, and it showed. The doubt was always, with them only just returned, would the extra potential forward momentum be there in practice and could they convert that into points? Pre-match odds of 3/1 against England always looked more than a little generous and perhaps took little account of the returning key men.

The late score may have made the scoreline more respectable but couldn't completely mask the true difference between the sides on the day.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

Post by jimmy ching »

I have just heard, that last try for Ireland, stopped England from moving up to 2nd in the world rankings.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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Delayed.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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jimmy ching wrote:I have just heard, that last try for Ireland, stopped England from moving up to 2nd in the world rankings.
It's all about building towards the World Cup for me, not ranking points, which are always to a certain extent fairly arbitrary anyway.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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Maldini wrote: 05 Feb 2019, 12:43Delayed.
Yes, I have the same feeling. It's good to see the Northern Hemisphere lot actually looking like they'll be putting in a reasonable challenge this year.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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Ireland lock Devon Toner will miss the rest of the six nations after ankle surgery.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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Looking forward to the games this week end. The World Cup preliminaries. Ireland Scotland is the first game in their group in Japan. This match is for gaining mental momentum. The Scots have home advantage this time though. Not lost since 2016, beat Ireland last time they visited and the ferry or the plane aren't so great in this weather. The motorway is bad enough.
I reckon Wales, Scotland and England but I want Italy,Ireland and France. Looks like I'm in for a hiding.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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jimmy ching wrote: 08 Feb 2019, 16:38 Looking forward to the games this week end. The World Cup preliminaries. Ireland Scotland is the first game in their group in Japan. This match is for gaining mental momentum. The Scots have home advantage this time though. Not lost since 2016, beat Ireland last time they visited and the ferry or the plane aren't so great in this weather. The motorway is bad enough.
I reckon Wales, Scotland and England but I want Italy,Ireland and France. Looks like I'm in for a hiding.
Although Sean Maitland is back to replace hat-trick hero Blair Kinghorn - although admittedly a hugely devalued one as only against Italy, and Jonny Gray back at lock for Toolis, Scotland will have to cope without key forwards WP Nel and Sam Skinner with Simon Berghan and Josh Strauss the replacements.

It's squad strength where Ireland (and England) have a key advantage over Scotland, they could pick quality replacements in almost every position but Scotland just can't.

As it stands, i suspect Ireland will come out looking to prove a point after last weeks reality check, and win the majority of collisions - Scotland don't have a direct ball-carrier like Billy (and Mako) Vunipola or Manu Tuilagi to cause the same problems, and for me will probably have to feed of scraps as the Irish pack dominate.

I'm taking Wales easily (why can't we go back to the five nations? Italy are absolutely useless and just getting worse every year), England although not necessarily so easily, and in possibly the closest one to call - Ireland to dominate the ball and win it up front.

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Ireland will be relieved to have got back on track after facing a resurgent Scotland in the first half. Scotland, who controlled both position and possession, will regret they're lack of precision in failing to turn pressure into points. A horribly butchered try on the stroke of half time perhaps summed up their frustration and going in with only a position of near parity must have been galling.

The second half was so different with Ireland having virtually all the ball. Scotland lacked accuracy at set pieces and gave away far too many penalties to even get started. Peter O'Mahoney was for me the outstanding player but in truth the result was never really in doubt as Ireland squeezed them, and short of opportunities Scotland had no answer.

Ireland have recovered well and despite no bonus will look on an away victory here as enough of an achievement.

In the other match Wales who were fortunate to win a poor match in Paris, with ten changes struggled to beat a resilient Italy. Wales in truth were dreadful and this was a particularly fraught performance which bodes ill for their World Cup chances when squad strength will be so important.

It's still two wins of course, but only two tries today and against Italy you really expect four and several more, which all means they still haven't managed any bonus points at all. Gatland said they would face embarrassment against England on the strength of their performances so far but hopes for wholesale improvements all round.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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England Vs France


‘M’aidez, m’aidez, m’aidez’ the French defence squeaked.
By half time they were locked up by Slade.
Johnny May had replicated the early punch he’d given the Irish.
Except this time it was triple-fold.
England are looking good. Total control, no foot off the pedal.
That was a punishing 40 minutes, physically, tactically and mentally.
It was looking very blue for French.
It was then turning red as blood was drawn in the battle of Twickers.
Finally it turned yellow as Owens showed Fickou, he saw it as it was.
A penalty try was followed by England playing to the rules.
Another kick and rush provided Farrell with a touch down.
It was painful to watch and hard to get any consolation from this demolition derby. Ireland's game against the English last week is starting to look like a good performance.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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Scotland Vs Ireland

‘Cela a commencé à Edimbourg’ , as the French would say according to Google. Computer programmes aren’t that good at nuance, especially an American one. I suppose we call it culture.
The Scots were ready and were up for it. It worked well for the first 40.
Only one man stood out for Ireland in that first half. It was Stockdale, an Irishman of no doubt Yorkshire stock. If somebody had said, he plays rugby, his name’s Stockdale, I’d say rugby League. How wrong can we be? He was everywhere, desperate to make up for his costly fumble against England. Not only did he score a try he had some more than useful interventions.
The Irish rose to Stockdales standards in the 2nd half. They controlled it from start to finish. They ended one try short of a bonus point but managed to take Scotland’s losing point off them.
They are still eyeing the Championship, with a little hope that Wales manage to raise their game in the next round. Scotland have some rethinking to do before they meet again in Japan.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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liquidfootball2 wrote: 09 Feb 2019, 20:56 Ireland will be relieved to have got back on track after facing a resurgent Scotland in the first half. Scotland, who controlled both position and possession, will regret they're lack of precision in failing to turn pressure into points. A horribly butchered try on the stroke of half time perhaps summed up their frustration and going in with only a position of near parity must have been galling.

The second half was so different with Ireland having virtually all the ball. Scotland lacked accuracy at set pieces and gave away far too many penalties to even get started. Peter O'Mahoney was for me the outstanding player but in truth the result was never really in doubt as Ireland squeezed them, and short of opportunities Scotland had no answer.

Ireland have recovered well and despite no bonus will look on an away victory here as enough of an achievement.

In the other match Wales who were fortunate to win a poor match in Paris, with ten changes struggled to beat a resilient Italy. Wales in truth were dreadful and this was a particularly fraught performance which bodes ill for their World Cup chances when squad strength will be so important.

It's still two wins of course, but only two tries today and against Italy you really expect four and several more, which all means they still haven't managed any bonus points at all. Gatland said they would face embarrassment against England on the strength of their performances so far but hopes for wholesale improvements all round.
Wales are developing [or at least are trying to develope a squad] for the WC, hence the changes for the Italy game as an example, Wales would hope to have injured players to come back into the set up in the future, as well as first team players and also squad players all with international exposure and experience.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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I've currently got England as 4 point favourites against Wales, prior to England's wins against Ireland and France I had Wales as 1 point favourites [im not certain but I think the bookies were similar], I wonder if England will live up to their new favourites tag ?

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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I’ve kind of got a feeling Wales might have their name on it this year, as Ireland did last time around after a last-gasp win over the French. The next game is a potential Grand Slam decider, though no guarantees at this stage.

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A lack of cohesiveness, of not quite finding the understanding and sharpness, can easily effect teams' first games in the championship.

Ireland's former star back Paddy Wallace said 'playing England caught them cold' and compared it to being hit by a juggernaut, he admitted the break and just starting again with so much hype could have been a factor, with Connor Murray returning after a sizeable spell out with injury, and not perhaps given the time or space necessary to settle into his box kicking game, the English chase and defence being so impressive.

The game with Wales should be a real contest but you get the impression that only one side is battle hardened, having played impressively against good opposition in Dublin and then gone onto beat a shambolic France in rather ruthless fashion.

They have a wide choice of good carriers who can break the line and crucially offload with speed, not just Billy Vunipola and Tuilagi but Sinckler, Otoje or Lawes, George, Curry and Wilson, Kruis is perhaps the least impressive carrier. For me it's the closing of the line and rush defence that is so impressive with so many big hitters.

They do have a multitude of good tactical kickers, but were just exploiting perceived weaknesses in the Irish and French full backs. If that weakness isn't there, then they will seek to exploit others, 'prepare for the team you are playing against not the one that you are not' must be the mantra, and tactics specific to Wales, the plan this time. Often leaving wingers slightly deeper can be used to negate good tactical kicking anyway, but any tactic inevitably leaves weaknesses elsewhere.

England can and have exploited any space given in broken play with tricky runners, especially Elliot Daly at full back, but allied to the lightening speed and finishing power of their wingers Chris Ashton and in particular Jonny May it can be difficult to stop.

They do have an impressive recent record against Wales having won on six of their last seven, and both their last two visits to Cardiff, however I expect it to be close, but then I thought Ireland would win and France be quite close, what do I know? You can never count against Gatland producing something tactically brilliant and the crowd is always a huge factor if the home team are still in the game.

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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Wales Vs England

It’s the rabbit hole of rugby, it’s a Warren. Once you start looking, then seeing, then understanding, success follows. When Warren first heard that Cromwellian saying,
‘To Hell or to Connacht’,
he had no choice.
This was way out West. Yes, the most outlying professional rugby union back door but it’s a ticket to the party.
Gatland had found himself a Galway Girl. This was cultural learning, with the help for any Kiwi, in an isolated rugby region. You come good here, you’ve a great chance of promotion elsewhere. Most follow the sun east including Warren. He had the Irish job dumped on him after one 6N’s game had already been played. The International scene can make you or break you. He took on a sinking ship but managed to steady it. Gratefulness can never be taken for granted as he found himself arriving on the English rugby scene.
The Welsh Rugby Union saw an opportunity that, as we can see now, was wisely taken.
Today, he completed 12 consecutive test wins. This is the first time in Welsh Rugby history and what a rich one it is.
They completed it against a very good English side. At half time I thought the English were controlling it. I enjoyed watching the players faces as Curry took an opportunist try. Distraction is a useful tool.
Concentration, determination and alertness were the keys to the Welsh tries in the 2nd half. All coming together at the right time. The crowd were producing the desire. It’s times like this I question whether desire in unison affects outcome.
A very enjoyable game.
And to Mr Gatland,
‘An-mhaith’

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Re: The Real James Ryan 6 Nations Blog.

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Ireland have made an impressive start against France, early stages but seven on the board and France hoping to get any possession or territory.

A good showing here could be perfect to set them up for the big showdown in Cardiff next week, and a real boost for their confidence and World Cup preparations.

Jonny Sexton at his best pulling people out of line with neat inside passes and getting a few Irish players over the gain line, looking sharp.

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