England v Scotland 6N Round 5 Saturday 16th March

by **BigGee** Mon Mar 11, 2019 5:43 am

First topic message reminder :

England v Scotland
6N Round 5
Saturday 16th March
Twickenham Stadium
London

KO 17.00

Well here we are at the final round of matches and three teams can still come out on top following Ireland's demolition of France this afternoon.

England have the advantage of playing last and will know what they have to do, if Wales have not already wrapped it up with a Grand Slam earlier in the afternoon. That actually might be Scotland's best chance of getting anything out of this game if England get distracted about what is going on else where, particularly if they find playing for second spot a distraction, knowing Wales have already wrapped things up.

On paper, this is only going to be an English win, the only question being by how much.

Scotland have had an awful championship, where just about everything that could have gone wrong. They are only playing for pride, but history tells us that sides that are done at this stage in the competition, rarely have anything left in the tank for the final game.

It is not as if Scotland have any form at Twickenham either, we have not won there since 1983 (did I ever mention that I was there!). We had had a crap season and no-one gave us much of a chance that year either if I remember, then the following year we won the GS. Can I see that happening this time though?

Only in my dreams!

So what do both sides hope to get from the game?

England clearly want a BP victory, some revenge for last year and hopefully a championship. They would also like to show the continued emergence of such players as Cockanasiga, who could be pivotal to them doing well in the WC.

Scotland, despite whatever spin they put on the game, might just be happy with a decent performance and continued development of some of our young starlets. We took another pile of injuries this weekend and getting a half decent competitive side onto the pitch is going to be a challenge in itself. Still, this exposure might be the making of young Hastings, Bradbury, Graham, McDowell, Skinner, Ritchie and anyone else who gets to play, down the line.

Test rugby is a hard old place to earn your living and they will likely be finding that out next weekend.

England

Daly, Nowell, Slade, Tuilagi, May; Farrell, Youngs; Moon, George, Sinckler, Launchbury, Kruis, Wilson, Curry, B Vunipola.

Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, Genge, Cole, Shields, Hughes, Spencer, Ford, Te'o

Scotland:

Maitland; Graham, Grigg, Johnson, McGuigan; Russell, Price; Dell, McInally (capt), Nel; Toolis, Gilchrist; Skinner, Watson, Bradbury.

Replacements: Brown, Reid, Berghan, J Gray, Strauss, Laidlaw, Hastings, Harris

by TightHEAD Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:12 am

I feel deflated

by mid_gen Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:13 am

Going to be a long 80 minutes for Scotland...

by **NeilyBroon** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:15 am

You'll need more than 6 by the end!

by Eejit Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:16 am

by **RDW** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:16 am

We're a total shambles

by Heaf Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:16 am

Is desiccated the same as decimated?

by tigertattie Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:16 am

So. Anyone doing anything interesting tonight?

by tigertattie Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:17 am

Heaf wrote:Is desiccated the same as decimated?

Desiccated coconut is grated coconut.

by Duty281 Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:17 am

And this one-sided hammering rounds off a thoroughly dismal Six Nations.

by Geordie Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:17 am

Ouch this could be brutal to watch

by **RDW** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:18 am

Time to get pished.

by **NeilyBroon** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:18 am

I'd rather be having a root canal right now. 10 more mins and it's off

by Eejit Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:18 am

If we switch over now we could catch the end of Escape to the Country on BBC1.

by mid_gen Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:19 am

This is a very disappointing six nations in terms of competitive games. It's like Wales and England are the only teams that bothered to turn up. Men against boys most matches.

by Sgt_Pooly Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:20 am

What a start....

by funnyExiledScot Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:20 am

Bring back Frank Hadden....

This is truly awful. Three locks and we still can't win a lineout.

This will be a record humping. Heads are down already.

by majesticimperialman Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:20 am

England 21 points not played 20 minutes yet.

by **NeilyBroon** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:22 am

As I've said in other topics, toonies luck is finally running out, he's being horribly exposed as a coach. Our attack hasn't looked this impotent in years. We haven't looked this disorganised since Scott 'call me mate' Johnson. It's been a downward spiral for the last year as toonie has had time to bed in.

Injuries don't help but none of these players are that bad. Italy caused England more problems than we are.

by sensisball Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:23 am

Wonder if Toonie will do the postmatch interview. For about the first time ever he looks almost clinically depressed.

by mikey_dragon Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:23 am

tigertattie wrote:So. Anyone doing anything interesting tonight?

Sleeping. Been on it since 9am. Why don’t you try sleeping?

by funnyExiledScot Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:24 am

The defence is the real issue here. We need Shaun Edwards!!

by Geordie Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:24 am

Fair call.

by **RDW** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:24 am

Knock on.

Not that it will make much of a difference!

by tigertattie Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:24 am

Should just give Young’s that score. It’s not like the game isn’t finished

by Geordie Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:24 am

Why did nowell not just pop to Youngs

by tigertattie Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:25 am

mikey_dragon wrote:
tigertattie wrote:So. Anyone doing anything interesting tonight?

Sleeping. Been on it since 9am. Why don’t you try sleeping?

Scottish defence is doing enough of that for everyone

by Heaf Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:27 am

GeordieFalcon wrote:Why did nowell not just pop to Youngs

Yep looked like a 2 on 1 for a run-in ... nearly worked though, bad luck for the knock on ..

by **RDW** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:27 am

This is totally pathetic - zero line speed, zero organisation, we look like we don't give a crap.

by funnyExiledScot Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:28 am

England are playing well here. We're making it easy for them though.

by EnglishReign Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:29 am

This is madness. Nowell is running lines of cocaine today

by **NeilyBroon** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:30 am

Why the f**k did the blazers get rid of vern?

This has been our worst 6Ns in about 6 years, including the 2015 whitewash, we at least were playing good rugby for large parts of that!

by **RDW** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:32 am

Price has been woeful

by Geordie Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:33 am

I've been slow to warm to Slade but I'm starting to see what he can do. He seems to he settling at this level now.

by **BigGee** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:34 am

There really is not much to say is there

by funnyExiledScot Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:34 am

Oh my God. Worst Scotland performance I've ever seen. That is saying something.

If this continues Toonie may well have to resign.

Let's talk about Brexit instead. It'll be more fun.

by EnglishReign Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:34 am

More points than minutes. Just lol.

by **NeilyBroon** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:34 am

I'm done. This is too awful. After supporting Scotland through all the Poopie we've had this really takes the piss.

I nearly made it through a half but i dont really fancy seeing another team put 80 points on us.

by Geordie Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:35 am

Kruis really is back to his absolute best. I hope he stays in this form for the world cup

by Sgt_Pooly Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:36 am

Last year really hurt....this is some payback. Could we see 60pts?

by **RDW** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:37 am

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Last year really hurt....this is some payback. Could we see 60pts?

At least

by TightHEAD Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:38 am

I guess the sweaties really upset them last year.

by EST Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:39 am

This is just attrocius. For the first time ever, I don’t think I can watch.

by Geordie Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:39 am

Wow...Eddie will be furious they let that in!!

by **BigGee** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:39 am

The comeback starts now! (Not)

by **RDW** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:39 am

How slow is Owen Farrell??

by Eejit Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:39 am

Get McInally on the wing so we can get a decent hooker on.

by **BigGee** Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:40 am

Well at least we won't get nilled

That was not looking all that likely a few mins ago!

by Heaf Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:40 am

Farrell really needs to stop those unnecessary cross-field kicks ...

by funnyExiledScot Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:40 am

Can't believe Farrell couldn't catch McInally.

Comeback starts here....

by The Great Aukster Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:41 am

May missed a tackle and Farrell gets outrun by a hooker - surely that's not in the script?

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