6N 2018: Scotland v England, 24 February

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SCOTLAND v ENGLAND
24 February 2018
KO: 16:45 GMT
BT Murrayfield, Edinburgh

Live on [Old BBC Colonial]

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant 1: Jérôme Garcès (France)
Assistant 2: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
TMO: Simon McDowell (Ireland)

A. Head to Head

135 Played 135
42 Won 75
18 Drawn 18
75 Lost 42
1,162 Points 1,623

B. Recent Form 

2 February 2013
Twickenham, London
38 – 18 to England

8 February 2014
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
0 – 20 to England

14 March 2015
Twickenham, London
25 – 13 to England

6 February 2016
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
9 – 15 to England

11 March 2017
Twickenham, London
61 – 21 to England

C. Teams

SCOTLAND 

Hogg, Seymour, Jones, Horne, Maitland, Russell, Laidlaw; Reid, McInally, Berghan, Gilchrist, J Gray, Barclay (capt), Watson, Wilson.

Replacements: Lawson, J Bhatti, WP Nel, Swinson, Denton, Price, Grigg, Kinghorn.

ENGLAND

Brown, Watson, Joseph, Farrell, May, Ford, Care; M Vunipola, Hartley (capt), Cole, Launchbury, Itoje, Lawes, Robshaw, Hughes.

Replacements: George, Marler, Williams, G Kruis (Saracens), Underhill, Wigglesworth, B Te'o, J Nowell.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Hmm. The back row I fear a bit. Lots of go forward from it but not the most mobile. Scotland will be locking their lips on turnovers. This is a game.which may force me to reconsider how good lawes is at 6 he won't get as big a task for a while.

It's also an interesting test of how much of a 7 Robshaw isn't.

For someone who couldn't see his point of difference at openside in 2015, Eddie's been using him at 7 quite a bit recently. Four matches on the trot now... despite having Underhill and Simmonds available for most of them.

No 7 & 1/2 I agree. I hope a lot of the training has involved support play and making sure that the players are in position to secure the ball and try to generate good quick ball.

England have to try and utilise their supposed superior physicality difference.

For Scotland they'll look to isolate English ball carriers.

It is nice to see that England have gone with the same team as last played against Wales.

A bit surprised though that Haskell has not made the squad... but Underhill did a good job when he came on.

It is nice to see continuity and the squad getting to know each other more as the tournament goes on.

Saturday cannot come fast enough for me.

majesticimperialman wrote:

It is nice to see continuity and the squad getting to know each other more as the tournament goes on.

"Hello, my name is Itoje. You may remember me from such movies as Point Blank, Last Man Standing, One Flew over the Cuckoo Nest, Batman, and as the cooler king in The Great Escape."
"Nice to meet you Itoje. My name is Hartley. You might remember me from such movies as Jaws, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Silence of the Lambs, Piranha, the Halloween franchise and Bambi."

Scottrf wrote:Gregor:

"“It’s definitely something we have highlighted to our players. It will be interesting to see whether they [England] stay onside. We watched the game last year and we’ve watched their games over the last few weeks and to generate that line speed, especially off first phase, you have to make sure you stay 10 metres back off line-outs before the ball is delivered and you don’t get beyond the back foot of the ruck in phase play.

“If they are able to do that and still generate line speed, then we have to deal with that with the way we structure their attack. You’d need to look at their last few games to see whether they do come offside. That’s down to the refereeing team to see if it does happen."

Is he worried Russell can't cope with the pressure?

Nah, he's just taking a leaf out of the Gatland and Jones playbook by publicly commenting on the teams being offside (a lot) so that either consciously or sub consciously, the ref will have it in the back of his mind that folk will be looking out for offside infringements so he better keep an eye out for this too.

Scotland's style mean we like our runners to be running into space, not into a defensive line with quick line speed. So many teams in the tournament this year have spent large parts of the game being offside. Farrell is one player who either tactically or not, flies out of the line quickly and is often offside when doing so!

Fair play if it works, but offside is one of the ignored laws most of the time. Especially restarts. Was surprised to see Marcus Smith getting booked for it against Leicester.

Scottrf wrote:Fair play if it works, but offside is one of the ignored laws most of the time. Especially restarts. Was surprised to see Marcus Smith getting booked for it against Leicester.

That was quite easy to pick up as the offside line was teh try lione and he was always in front of it. Having then taken an interception, Barnes had nowhere to go.

tigertattie wrote:Farrell is one player who either tactically or not, flies out of the line quickly and is often offside when doing so!

I would argue that he is probably offside a lot less than you think - as is often the case with rush defenders. They look offside but when you look at the tape in slow motion usually are not.

Now the likes of Robshaw and Barclay who often fail to ever get back onside are a different matter.

Thats why he'll have done it. Seeing that teams are getting away with breaking a law and highlighting this before a game puts focus on it.

Remember last year when England couldn't figure out Italy's non ruck tactic? The players on the field for England seem to be coached to within an inch of their lives and if Farrell has been told to fly out the line time and time again, if he starts getting pinged for it giving Scotland a rightful penalty, will he have the common sense (or freedom) to change the tactic and stop doing it? Either history could repeat itself or England will have learned a lesson last year in adapting!

Ritchie McCaw was offside a lot but he's classed as the greatest player...EVER.

Play on the edge and to the ref.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Ritchie McCaw was offside a lot but he's classed as the greatest player...EVER.

Play on the edge and to the ref.

Of course.

And if you're an opposition Captain, keep telling the ref you think Ritchie is offside..... again - even if he isn't.

McCaw started the Test trend of naming flankers as Captain followed by; Dusatoir, Warburton, Robshaw, Hooper & Barclay as examples - refs don't generally yellow card Captains for breakdown indescretions....

Interesting point on being coached too much. They went through each stage of what they could do, whether that was the order that Jones instructed I don't know. Gustard has come out to say that he had a strip torn off him for offering only one type of defence against Australia year before last so it's unlikely that a scenario where the ref starts penalising Farrell for offside hasn't been thought through.

tigertattie wrote:Remember last year when England couldn't figure out Italy's non ruck tactic?

I remember. Devastating loss for us.

Recwatcher16 wrote:McCaw started the Test trend of naming flankers as Captain followed by; Dusatoir, Warburton, Robshaw, Hooper & Barclay as examples - refs don't generally yellow card Captains for breakdown indescretions....

Really!! I must have forgotten about Ian Kirkpatrick, Kel Tremain, Graham Mourie, Fergus Slattery, Tony Neary, Finlay Calder, Martyn Williams and numerous others. I suppose they don't count as this was before the time of the yellow card.

LondonTiger wrote:

tigertattie wrote:Farrell is one player who either tactically or not, flies out of the line quickly and is often offside when doing so!

I would argue that he is probably offside a lot less than you think - as is often the case with rush defenders. They look offside but when you look at the tape in slow motion usually are not.

Now the likes of Robshaw and Barclay who often fail to ever get back onside are a different matter.

Indeed - in fact the first penalty for Wales when Ford was called offside was completely wrong as if you watch the recording the whole England team were well onside when the ball was lifted - it's just Davies? was slow to pass and Ford was quick to get off the mark and the officials got it wrong.

Eyetoldyouso wrote:

Recwatcher16 wrote:McCaw started the Test trend of naming flankers as Captain followed by; Dusatoir, Warburton, Robshaw, Hooper & Barclay as examples - refs don't generally yellow card Captains for breakdown indescretions....

Really!! I must have forgotten about Ian Kirkpatrick, Kel Tremain, Graham Mourie, Fergus Slattery, Tony Neary, Finlay Calder, Martyn Williams and numerous others. I suppose they don't count as this was before the time of the yellow card.

They don't count because they were before Richie McCaw.

The build up is too tame!

Scottish Camp - watch it, England go offside a lot
English Camp - watch it, their scrum drops onto their knees a lot

Is this it? IS THIS ALL YOU CAN CONJURE SARUMAN!!

come on lads - where's the spleen, where's the niggle?

Too right Trailape...

Englands going to go and smash the sweaties all over the park...!! Johnny May hattrick and a 40 point margin!!

"...send them home again tae drink their buckfast (which the English sell to them anyway! "

TrailApe wrote:The build up is too tame!

Scottish Camp - watch it, England go offside a lot
English Camp - watch it, their scrum drops onto their knees a lot

Is this it? IS THIS ALL YOU CAN CONJURE SARUMAN!!

come on lads - where's the spleen, where's the niggle?

The only thing slightly more irritable than a welsh rugby supporter is an english rugby supporter. With his wax coat. And his oxbridge confidence. And hes penchant for voting Tory. And his good rugby team that can attack AND defend. @rseholes.

doctor_grey wrote:

Eyetoldyouso wrote:

Recwatcher16 wrote:McCaw started the Test trend of naming flankers as Captain followed by; Dusatoir, Warburton, Robshaw, Hooper & Barclay as examples - refs don't generally yellow card Captains for breakdown indescretions....

Really!! I must have forgotten about Ian Kirkpatrick, Kel Tremain, Graham Mourie, Fergus Slattery, Tony Neary, Finlay Calder, Martyn Williams and numerous others. I suppose they don't count as this was before the time of the yellow card.

They don't count because they were before Richie McCaw.

Correct. It even says it in the Bible: "In the beginning there was Ritchie McCaw."

Tramptastic wrote:

TrailApe wrote:The build up is too tame!

Scottish Camp - watch it, England go offside a lot
English Camp - watch it, their scrum drops onto their knees a lot

Is this it? IS THIS ALL YOU CAN CONJURE SARUMAN!!

come on lads - where's the spleen, where's the niggle?

The only thing slightly more irritable than a welsh rugby supporter is an english rugby supporter. With his wax coat. And his oxbridge confidence. And hes penchant for voting Tory. And his good rugby team that can attack AND defend. @rseholes.

You forgot his prawn sandwiches...

TrailApe wrote:The build up is too tame!

Scottish Camp - watch it, England go offside a lot
English Camp - watch it, their scrum drops onto their knees a lot

Is this it? IS THIS ALL YOU CAN CONJURE SARUMAN!!

come on lads - where's the spleen, where's the niggle?

Christ, this is a bloody and boisterous bullring in comparison to the Ireland v Wales morgue.

Yeah there's barely any trash talk or confidence this 6 Nations.

Except for me. I think England will beat Scotland comfortably and get the Grand Slam.

Radgetastic comment there Scott

The only thing slightly more irritable than a welsh rugby supporter is an english rugby supporter. With his wax coat. And his oxbridge confidence. And hes penchant for voting Tory. And his good rugby team that can attack AND defend. @rseholes.

That's more like it!

Although it doesn't work on some of us (being Northern Oiks living on wind blasted council estates, voting Socialist and to Stay In Europe, and we make Barbours, but alas cannot afford to buy them) but I appreciate the effort.

GF - does Ingland supply these Northern Heathens with FireWater? See how brilliant us Inglish is - Bourbon and Winchesters won't sell in Alba so press other buttons to corrupt them...I lurrve being Inglish. God might not be an Englshman, but I bet The Devil is.

SecretFly wrote:Radgetastic comment there Scott

Surely it can only be Radgetastic if you're supporting a second rate team?

What a PR guy you are Fly

That's a powerful English pack, I hope we can out run them and starve them of possession because that's a very formidable team.

This fixture is lacking a bit of niggle. Bout time Telfer weighs in with his cretaceous comments about English fans and their bags of money, this and that...

TrailApe wrote:

The only thing slightly more irritable than a welsh rugby supporter is an english rugby supporter. With his wax coat. And his oxbridge confidence. And hes penchant for voting Tory. And his good rugby team that can attack AND defend. @rseholes.

That's more like it!

Although it doesn't work on some of us (being Northern Oiks living on wind blasted council estates, voting Socialist and to Stay In Europe, and we make Barbours, but alas cannot afford to buy them)  but I appreciate the effort.

GF - does Ingland supply these Northern Heathens with FireWater? See how brilliant us Inglish is - Bourbon and Winchesters won't sell in Alba so press other buttons to corrupt them...I lurrve being Inglish. God might not be an Englshman, but I bet The Devil is.

Made by Monks down on the Devon coast or somewhere TA.

TrailApe wrote:The build up is too tame!

Scottish Camp - watch it, England go offside a lot
English Camp - watch it, their scrum drops onto their knees a lot

Is this it? IS THIS ALL YOU CAN CONJURE SARUMAN!!

come on lads - where's the spleen, where's the niggle?

Just heard Eddie on the radio comparing Scotland with New Zealand (in a positive way)

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:What a PR guy you are Fly

That's a powerful English pack, I hope we can out run them and starve them of possession because that's a very formidable team.

This fixture is lacking a bit of niggle. Bout time Telfer weighs in with his cretaceous comments about English fans and their bags of money, this and that...

It was Berghan's turn this week about how much he hates the English.

Did he watch the Wales game where we played like a bunch of 10 thumbed men wearing mittens?

LondonTiger wrote:

TrailApe wrote:The build up is too tame!

Scottish Camp - watch it, England go offside a lot
English Camp - watch it, their scrum drops onto their knees a lot

Is this it? IS THIS ALL YOU CAN CONJURE SARUMAN!!

come on lads - where's the spleen, where's the niggle?

Just heard Eddie on the radio comparing Scotland with New Zealand (in a positive way)

It's like David Haye vs Audley Harrison. Haye needs to big him up or he gets no credit for the win.

Well even the ABs would struggle if wearing mittens. Strong advice to Townsend - get rid of the mittens. Nice idea in theory but it didn't work in practice.

TrailApe wrote:

The only thing slightly more irritable than a welsh rugby supporter is an english rugby supporter. With his wax coat. And his oxbridge confidence. And hes penchant for voting Tory. And his good rugby team that can attack AND defend. @rseholes.

That's more like it!

Although it doesn't work on some of us (being Northern Oiks living on wind blasted council estates, voting Socialist and to Stay In Europe, and we make Barbours, but alas cannot afford to buy them)  but I appreciate the effort.

GF - does Ingland supply these Northern Heathens with FireWater? See how brilliant us Inglish is - Bourbon and Winchesters won't sell in Alba so press other buttons to corrupt them...I lurrve being Inglish. God might not be an Englshman, but I bet The Devil is.

Lies, you're all the same down there with your posh snobbery and blue eyed thatcheristic "I say lets defend the colonies tallyho" imperialism, keeping you foot on throat of scotland with your POLL TAXES AND REJECTION OF IRN BRU ANDY MURRAY IS SCOTTISH ALL THE TIME AAAAAAAAARGH FREEEEEEEEEEEDOM

I've hit peak jingoism

Ah stuff of nonsense...Andy Murray is British Through and through when he wins...its only when he loses he's Scottish.

And as for the Irn Bru...well we have to keep the great unwashed over the borders on their toes...

Did you hear about the thoughtful Scotsman who was heading out to the pub?
He turned to his wee wife before leaving and said, 'Jackie - put your hat and coat on lassie.'

She replied, 'Awe Iain that's nice - are you taking me to the pub with you?'

'Nah, I'm just switching the central heating off while I'm oot.'

GeordieFalcon wrote:Did you hear about the thoughtful Scotsman who was heading out to the pub?
He turned to his wee wife before leaving and said, 'Jackie - put your hat and coat on lassie.'

She replied, 'Awe Iain that's nice - are you taking me to the pub with you?'

'Nah, I'm just switching the central heating off while I'm oot.'

Ha! thats actually pretty funny

Right – this is how it will pan out.

First few minutes very nervy, Nigel is star of the show.

Then gaining confidence the Scots start opening up, England looks vulnerable – scramble defense just holds. Then for no real reason (although it will be later revealed in somebodies auto-biography that somebody said something about a Kiwi Sheep Shagger) a Scottish prop goes radgey and attempts to strangle an Englishman. Red Card (beautifully displayed by Nigel). The Scots hang on until the twentieth minute but then the tries start racking up.

Second half Hogg goes missing – literally, he doesn’t come out of the changing rooms and nobody can find him. It goes from bad to worse as the Scottish scrum gets pinged off the park (Denton might be a good carrier but he’s NOT a prop) and as the temperatures drop and the crowd becomes silent it becomes a route. Finn Russel’s head explodes and Peter Horne is trampled to death as the scrum gets murdered (he’s covering second row) and as the 80th minute approaches there’s real concern as the Scots are reduced to seven men standing.

Never since the retreat from Kabul has a Scottish unit been reduced to such a state. It gets so bad that the Murrayfield groundsman disconnects the scoreboard.

Meanwhile in the studio Andrew Cotter has lamped Inverdale and there’s merry hell on as the coverage draws to a close.

Thus shall it happen.

TrailApe wrote:Right – this is how it will pan out.

First few minutes very nervy, Nigel is star of the show.

Then gaining confidence the Scots start opening up, England looks vulnerable – scramble defense just holds. Then for no real reason (although it will be later revealed in somebodies auto-biography that somebody said something about a Kiwi Sheep Shagger) a Scottish prop goes radgey and attempts to strangle an Englishman. Red Card (beautifully displayed by Nigel). The Scots hang on until the twentieth minute but then the tries start racking up.

Second half Hogg goes missing – literally, he doesn’t come out of the changing rooms and nobody can find him. It goes from bad to worse as the Scottish scrum gets pinged off the park (Denton might be a good carrier but he’s NOT a prop) and as the temperatures drop and the crowd becomes silent it becomes a route. Finn Russel’s head explodes and Peter Horne is trampled to death as the scrum gets murdered (he’s covering second row) and as the 80th minute approaches there’s real concern as the Scots are reduced to seven men standing.

Never since the retreat from Kabul has a Scottish unit been reduced to such a state. It gets so bad that the Murrayfield groundsman disconnects the scoreboard.

Meanwhile in the studio Andrew Cotter has lamped Inverdale and there’s merry hell on as the coverage draws to a close.

Thus shall it happen.

TrailApe wrote:Right – this is how it will pan out.

First few minutes very nervy, Nigel is star of the show.

Then gaining confidence the Scots start opening up, England looks vulnerable – scramble defense just holds. Then for no real reason (although it will be later revealed in somebodies auto-biography that somebody said something about a Kiwi Sheep Shagger) a Scottish prop goes radgey and attempts to strangle an Englishman. Red Card (beautifully displayed by Nigel). The Scots hang on until the twentieth minute but then the tries start racking up.

Second half Hogg goes missing – literally, he doesn’t come out of the changing rooms and nobody can find him. It goes from bad to worse as the Scottish scrum gets pinged off the park (Denton might be a good carrier but he’s NOT a prop) and as the temperatures drop and the crowd becomes silent it becomes a route. Finn Russel’s head explodes and Peter Horne is trampled to death as the scrum gets murdered (he’s covering second row) and as the 80th minute approaches there’s real concern as the Scots are reduced to seven men standing.

Never since the retreat from Kabul has a Scottish unit been reduced to such a state. It gets so bad that the Murrayfield groundsman disconnects the scoreboard.

Meanwhile in the studio Andrew Cotter has lamped Inverdale and there’s merry hell on as the coverage draws to a close.

Thus shall it happen.

I'll be honest, I'd take all of that - absolutely everything - to see Andrew Cotter go 'full-Troon' on Inverdonkey, the perma-tanned shyster.

Many, many moons ago I told my mum that Matt Dawson and John Inverdale were shacked up together, and on Thursday nights were known to go out in dresses, heels and full slap. I honestly cannot remember why, I suspect she had been moaning about the tanned helmet head and I wanted to make her laugh. However she then told someone she worked with, and by the next time I visited this tale had gone around and grown complete with the confirmation of some season ticket holders at Saints.

Now I completely forgot to tell her it was made up, and the fact that others seemed to have confirmed it meant she would regularly tell people this tale - until the time she told someone in the hearing of the scrum half's then GF. I believe she was pleasant in disabusing my mother of her favourite tale, but boy did I get the (appropriately) mother of all boll0ckings.

IanBru wrote:

TrailApe wrote:Right – this is how it will pan out.

First few minutes very nervy, Nigel is star of the show.

Then gaining confidence the Scots start opening up, England looks vulnerable – scramble defense just holds. Then for no real reason (although it will be later revealed in somebodies auto-biography that somebody said something about a Kiwi Sheep Shagger) a Scottish prop goes radgey and attempts to strangle an Englishman. Red Card (beautifully displayed by Nigel). The Scots hang on until the twentieth minute but then the tries start racking up.

Second half Hogg goes missing – literally, he doesn’t come out of the changing rooms and nobody can find him. It goes from bad to worse as the Scottish scrum gets pinged off the park (Denton might be a good carrier but he’s NOT a prop) and as the temperatures drop and the crowd becomes silent it becomes a route. Finn Russel’s head explodes and Peter Horne is trampled to death as the scrum gets murdered (he’s covering second row) and as the 80th minute approaches there’s real concern as the Scots are reduced to seven men standing.

Never since the retreat from Kabul has a Scottish unit been reduced to such a state. It gets so bad that the Murrayfield groundsman disconnects the scoreboard.

Meanwhile in the studio Andrew Cotter has lamped Inverdale and there’s merry hell on as the coverage draws to a close.

Thus shall it happen.

I'll be honest, I'd take all of that - absolutely everything - to see Andrew Cotter go 'full-Troon' on Inverdonkey, the perma-tanned shyster.

I love Scotland. I get in a really bad mood when we lose.

But

I'd ship 100 points to the v neck sweater brigade if it meant Andrew Cotter throttled John Inverdule to the extent that Inverdull could never "present" a rugby match again in his puff

I know its wrong and you should never wish harm on anyone, but on the occasions that they are in the corner of the pitch doing the pre game spraff, I just sit and hope that someone will be putting high balls up for Courtney Lawes to practice on and one goes astray resulting in Lawes full on spear tackling inverdale in the ribcage (and face)

TrailApe wrote:Right – this is how it will pan out.

First few minutes very nervy, Nigel is star of the show.

Then gaining confidence the Scots start opening up, England looks vulnerable – scramble defense just holds. Then for no real reason (although it will be later revealed in somebodies auto-biography that somebody said something about a Kiwi Sheep Shagger) a Scottish prop goes radgey and attempts to strangle an Englishman. Red Card (beautifully displayed by Nigel). The Scots hang on until the twentieth minute but then the tries start racking up.

Second half Hogg goes missing – literally, he doesn’t come out of the changing rooms and nobody can find him. It goes from bad to worse as the Scottish scrum gets pinged off the park (Denton might be a good carrier but he’s NOT a prop) and as the temperatures drop and the crowd becomes silent it becomes a route. Finn Russel’s head explodes and Peter Horne is trampled to death as the scrum gets murdered (he’s covering second row) and as the 80th minute approaches there’s real concern as the Scots are reduced to seven men standing.

Never since the retreat from Kabul has a Scottish unit been reduced to such a state. It gets so bad that the Murrayfield groundsman disconnects the scoreboard.

Meanwhile in the studio Andrew Cotter has lamped Inverdale and there’s merry hell on as the coverage draws to a close.

Thus shall it happen.

I sat next to Inverdale (and George North) at a charity event a couple of years ago, when he was in purdah for the Bartoli incident. He was a really nice guy in real life and a true rugby guy - spoke in heartfelt terms about how his home rugby club was where he went to get a break from his public persona because "no-one there gives a Poopie about my job".

I also have another story from a different angle that bears that out, which I won't share because it involves someone else. But Inverdale comes out of it well.

By the same token, I was at an event with Jiffy as one of the guests. I can't stand him on air, but in person he was very good - acerbic, witty and willing to give Richard Hill grief for having to toe the England party line.

I think we need to remember to separate the screen persona from the person. Though from what I can gather, Brian Moore is pretty much the same person in real life as on telly.

England are the one team Scotland have never really looked close to since the turning of the corner around 2014-2015. We thought we were past playing horribly and had got our consistency up...then we went to Wales with no hunger, no skills and made a backs line-up that most outside of Llanelli had barely heard of look like All Blacks. Same happened last year against England and Fiji.

Until we put England to bed like Wales and Ireland last year (or indeed France the year before that), there is a lack of confidence. If England changed to a yellow kit, I think there would be far more chirp.

As for Inverdale, he should not have a job presenting the rugby. He does not add anything.

Poorfour wrote:I sat next to Inverdale (and George North) at a charity event a couple of years ago, when he was in purdah for the Bartoli incident. He was a really nice guy in real life and a true rugby guy - spoke in heartfelt terms about how his home rugby club was where he went to get a break from his public persona because "no-one there gives a Poopie about my job".

I also have another story from a different angle that bears that out, which I won't share because it involves someone else. But Inverdale comes out of it well.

By the same token, I was at an event with Jiffy as one of the guests. I can't stand him on air, but in person he was very good - acerbic, witty and willing to give Richard Hill grief for having to toe the England party line.

I think we need to remember to separate the screen persona from the person. Though from what I can gather, Brian Moore is pretty much the same person in real life as in a lot of fly half's nightmares.

Fixed that for you, Poorfour.

I may be Scottish but I love the ugly wee Pitbull. The story of a very pugilistic France v England match drawing to a close with England well ahead and France pressing their line and the crowd near the touchline being stunned when as the scrum prepared to set all that could be heard was Moore screaming, "Give them fecc all. Give them fecc all" sums him up.

Yup. Mooro is very much marmite, but I love his intensity and the way he has remained far more relevant than the other pundits of his generation. Also, how can you not like a man who was once described as "the only man I've ever met with clenched hair."

jimbopip wrote:

Poorfour wrote:I sat next to Inverdale (and George North) at a charity event a couple of years ago, when he was in purdah for the Bartoli incident. He was a really nice guy in real life and a true rugby guy - spoke in heartfelt terms about how his home rugby club was where he went to get a break from his public persona because "no-one there gives a Poopie about my job".

I also have another story from a different angle that bears that out, which I won't share because it involves someone else. But Inverdale comes out of it well.

By the same token, I was at an event with Jiffy as one of the guests. I can't stand him on air, but in person he was very good - acerbic, witty and willing to give Richard Hill grief for having to toe the England party line.

I think we need to remember to separate the screen persona from the person. Though from what I can gather, Brian Moore is pretty much the same person in real life as in a lot of fly half's nightmares.

Fixed that for you, Poorfour.

I may be Scottish but I love the ugly wee Pitbull. The story of a very pugilistic France v England match drawing to a close with England well ahead and France pressing their line and the crowd near the touchline being stunned when as the scrum prepared to set all that could be heard was Moore screaming, "Give them fecc all. Give them fecc all" sums him up.

Having read the pitbull's autobiography and following him on Twitter I think he's a smart and thoughtful guy and I do have a lot of time for him. He certainly has more than his fair share of demons though.

Eddie Jones praising Russell's world class abilities.