Wales v Scotland Saturday 14th March 2020

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Wales v Scotland
6N 5th Round

Principality Stadium
Cardiff

KO 14.15

Well Scotland and Wales draw the long straw and are the ones to be able to get their 6N competition played and out of the way. The way results have gone this time around was always going to make this an interesting game and now everyone is going to be concentrating on this match.

Cardiff, as it has often been said, has not proved to be a happy hunting ground for Scottish teams for a long long time. Is this year going to be any different. Well form might suggest that it may be. A Wales side in transition, new coach, new style and several newish players, have so far struggled a bit this year. Plenty of heart on show as always, but not really quite getting the new tactics and consequently making far to many errors. They have also been handicapped by an appalling injury list and that may be getting even worse following the very bruising match against England last weekend.

Scotland, on the other hand have built pretty well into the tournament and played their best game so far in beating France comfortably at the weekend. France, it should be reminded, were fancied to tie up their first GS in a long time after winning their first three games.

Scotland's own tournament has not been incident free, with Finngate taking centre stage and a lot of Scottish fans dissatisfied with the direction Toonie seemed to be taking this Scottish team and calling for his head. After two wins on the bounce though, the pressure on Toonie and the team seems to have abated a bit and some more serious thinkers are coming round to the conclusion that maybe Toonie, in trying to make Scotland a more structured team that are first and foremost, hard to beat, may actually be on to something. Certainly some of the coaching appointments prior to this tournament are looking nothing short of inspired. Who would ever have believed that after 4 rounds, Scotland would have the best defensive record in the tournament?

Still for all the positives, this is still Wales in Cardiff, a wounded and angry Wales, who will badly want to salvage some pride from an otherwise disappointing tournament. This is a real test as to the progression of this Scotland team, can they turn some promise into hard results.

For Wales, losing 4 out of 5 is probably approaching the unthinkable, especially to Scotland, who have always been seen as a soft touch. This will be a fascinating encounter in so many ways.

I am hoping for Scotland team something along these lines, there won't be many/any changes from the last game:

1. Sutherland - a shout for player of the tournament, has been outstanding
2. McInally - Toonie seems keen to rotate them
3. Fagerson
4. Cummings
5. Gilchrist - came back into the team with something to prove and proved it
6. Ritchie - the man everyone loves to hate
7. Watson
8. Haining - assuming not suspended, Bradbury if he is
9. Horne - is not now then when, deserves a start
10. Hastings
11. Maitland
12. Johnson - owns the shirt now, has had a good tournament
13. Harris - even the many doubters quietly impressed on sunday
14. Kinghorn - under pressure from Steyn though
15. Hogg - has grown into the captaincy

Subs:

Dell
Brown
Nel
Skinner
Bradbury (Fagerson if Haining out)
Price
Hutchinson - Hastings seems to have got over his wobbles in Italy and it is the last game of the tournament and no weather issues indoors
Steyn - Not much time on his debut, but did well

LondonTiger wrote:Me saying North was awful was perhaps an overexageration - but not a patch on the player he once was.

You wouldn’t be far wrong for the most part. We are talking about a 6’4 - 17 stone winger here.

RDW wrote:Given everything going on just now this game could feasibly be the last game of rugby in the UK for a number of weeks, if not months. Hope it's a good one!

With everything else going on with sport and Coronavirus, seems odd that this and the Cheltenham Gold Cup are still going ahead (with crowds anyway)

Comfort wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

Comfort wrote:I sound like such a North hater - I promise I'm not - we just have other options we should be looking at imo.

I think we could a like for like in Rees-Zammit when he bulks up a little. We’ll see how he goes.

Exactly like North when he burst on the scene scoring all sorts of tries as well…. its like history repeating... hopefully.

R-Z looks a bit better IMO. I don’t see why he wasn’t in the 23 for at least one of our games, but seeing as he isn’t capped he should go play at the JWC. If Lane is recovered by the summer then it gives us a better chance to look at him, along with J-Mac.

This Zammit guy better be damn good when he shows! His marketing men here in 606 are certainly pumping him up in advance.

There's a graveyard full of prematurely pumped players

SecretFly wrote:This Zammit guy better be damn good when he shows!  His marketing men here in 606 are certainly pumping him up in advance.

There's a graveyard full of prematurely pumped players

I feel like Joe Marler must have had a hand in that.....

Comfort wrote:

SecretFly wrote:This Zammit guy better be damn good when he shows!  His marketing men here in 606 are certainly pumping him up in advance.

There's a graveyard full of prematurely pumped players

I feel like Joe Marler must have had a hand in that.....

Didn't see that coming. I'm slow this morning. ---- Which was AWJ's excuse for not punching I suppose.

SecretFly wrote:

Comfort wrote:

SecretFly wrote:This Zammit guy better be damn good when he shows!  His marketing men here in 606 are certainly pumping him up in advance.

There's a graveyard full of prematurely pumped players

I feel like Joe Marler must have had a hand in that.....

Didn't see that coming.  I'm slow this morning.     ---- Which was AWJ's excuse for not punching I suppose.

What happened to the poster "hugehandoff" 

Gooseberry wrote:

What happened to the poster "hugehandoff" 

Had to go off and concentrate on his playing career, I hear.

He might be back now though for a few months. Down time.

mikey_dragon wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:Me saying North was awful was perhaps an overexageration - but not a patch on the player he once was.

You wouldn’t be far wrong for the most part. We are talking about a 6’4 - 17 stone winger here.

He's always going to be hard to stop when he's close to the line but for a long time I have felt that otherwise he's easy to counter. Tackle him before he gets up to speed. Attack down his flank. You know what he's going to do. These things make him look poor.

The reason that I rate Liam Williams so much higher for what it's worth is that he's dangerous anywhere and just doesn't have the same weaknesses.

WRU and SRU confirming again that the game will be played.

It's a bit of a dead rubber in all honesty as I think the other games will just be cancelled unless some AIs are cancelled for these games to be played.

Lets just hope for an entertaining game and everyone gets home safe and sound.

tigertattie wrote:WRU and SRU confirming again that the game will be played.

It's a bit of a dead rubber in all honesty as I think the other games will just be cancelled unless some AIs are cancelled for these games to be played.

Lets just hope for an entertaining game and everyone gets home safe and sound.

100% - it does seem strange that a lot of events are being cancelled except this.

Fingers crossed everyone stays safe, gets home alright and isn't groped by Joe Marler at some point.

Dodson was probably just more subtle in his threats to sue this time.

Genuinely wouldnt surprise me if he threatened to charge the WRU our share of the ticket revenue as compensation on top of the money presumably paid back to fans.

To me this is mad considering if you have a consistent cough you're being told to stay home... 99 percent of Brits have a cough throughout the winter. So you'll have a stadium of 70,000 or so people, and I bet at least 40,000 of them will have a sore throat and God knows how many will have corona. Top notch stupidity keeping this game on.

Crazy call to go ahead.

Its a Damp Squib.

So here we go, the last ever game of rugby. Rugby's two greatest powerhouses going hammer and tong. After 149 years, it all comes down to this. In the red corner you have Wales, qualifying for the final of rugby by beating Italy 42-0 and showing glimpses of promise in three other games. In the blue corner, you have Scotland who have defeated Italy but also almost the entire French rugby team.

Knew I should have put a fiver on Duncan Weir to knock over the winning drop goal in: 'Rugby: The Final'.

Yes and no, Neily. Nobody is forcing anyone to attend the match. We all should take responsibility for our own health.
We're in the DELAY phase which, in my mind at least, means "Yes it's a virus which none of us have immunity to and a lot of us will get it in some form or other but let's try to slow down the rate of infection so the hospitals can cope with the surge in admissions which will inevitably come. Oh and let's try to avoid too many crucial workers (police, fire, ambulance, power, sewage, water supply) all getting sick at the same time." If, on an individual basis, people who have tickets for tomorrow's game decide it would be better for themselves and society if they stayed at home and watched on the Beeb then that is their choice. Until the government issue banning orders people will have to make their own choice in the matter. I can only imagine how many people were infected at Cheltenham festival this week! I wonder how many empty seats we will see tomorrow.

If there is a spike in hospital admissions in Wales over the next 7-10 days and the local hospitals are overwhelmed then it will prove to have been "Top notch stupidity"; from thee government, the WRU, SRU and the individuals who chose to go to the game.
If on the other hand the rate of infection says pretty constant...

I predict that the Wales front row will be requiring oxygen before half time once Ragnar and the Man With No Nickname get stuck into them. Your backs already look like the Walking Dead.

If it is the last ever game of rugby then coronavirus may as well come take me (after the game of course)

Its not so much people there getting ill, its the chance that potentially up to a third could become carriers assuming the 2 metre radius applies and a portion are already carriers, not to mention the travel to and from the stadium. Yes its mild in most, but its the spread to those who will get hit hard and like you say jimbo, healthcare workers, frontline emergency services etc. Our hospital has been hit quite badly, and its already impacted the service with staff being sent home, surgeries being cancelled etc and with the new isolation guidelines we will be very much short staffed. I agree we have to take responsibility for our health but this is just creating a situation unnecessarily and people will think all is fine because the govt says so. Also for at least 80 quid a ticket Im pretty sure people will just go and assume they've not got corona, even with symptoms.

From a selfish point of view I'm glad the game is going ahead, from a practical/health point of view I think it's daft.

Dominic Cummings is who I find scary in this, I have a vision of him sat in his lair whispering maniacally to Boris Johnson "let it kill the weak, let's level up the strong". Ultimately this event is the sort of thing for which the 'mostly mild' is truly dangerous. If you've spent the best part of £500 for tickets, travel and accommodation, I can't imagine it would be difficult to talk yourself into the idea that going to the game won't be that big a deal. That you almost probably won't get it and if you did it wouldn't be too bad.

Only money.

I have a few things booked which will be cancelled, unfortunately in the grand scale of things it really doesn't matter.

Stay safe people.

123456789. wrote:Dominic Cummings is who I find scary in this, I have a vision of him sat in his lair whispering maniacally to Boris Johnson "let it kill the weak, let's level up the strong".

Though it is the core Tory voting demographic that is most likely to be dying from this.

123456789. wrote:Dominic Cummings is who I find scary in this, I have a vision of him sat in his lair whispering maniacally to Boris Johnson "let it kill the weak, let's level up the strong". 

That would sound far-fetched if he hadn't hired a proponent of eugenics a month or so ago.

LondonTiger wrote:

123456789. wrote:Dominic Cummings is who I find scary in this, I have a vision of him sat in his lair whispering maniacally to Boris Johnson "let it kill the weak, let's level up the strong".

Though it is the core Tory voting demographic that is most likely to be dying from this.

Currently, if 20% of people in this country died of Coronavirus and if each one of them was a Conservative voter, then they would still be ahead in the polls such is the proficiency of her majesty's loyal opposition. I am constantly going around in circles as to whether it would be better to have Boris Johnson's "some of you may die, so that most of us will live" approach or Corbyn's explanation as to why Coronavirus is actually a classist disease and that Thatcher planned it all along.

LondonTiger wrote:

123456789. wrote:Dominic Cummings is who I find scary in this, I have a vision of him sat in his lair whispering maniacally to Boris Johnson "let it kill the weak, let's level up the strong".

Though it is the core Tory voting demographic that is most likely to be dying from this.

Yes. I wonder if they feel they no longer need that demographic and what it means for the future of our government. The actual conservative party seems to have been completely hollowed out over the last few years, leaving just the senile, mad, and nakedly ambitious. Half expecting a future of 'special measures' and 'suspension of parliament and elections so as to allow the government to focus on the many threats to our country'.

The whole line about herd immunity is such rubbish. It feels like they have taken half of a private conversation with medical advisers and then decided to regurgitate it more or less intact. The situation described - All of the population exposed, most surviving, seems increasingly likely - but there is so much more we can do between here and there and there is so much more we should expect, particularly with the language being used by our so called leaders.

So at what point to we rename the virus "Logan's run"?

I think it's time for a dedicated Coronavirus thread. It's infected virtually all threads at this point.

+1 fly

tigertattie wrote:So at what point to we rename the virus "Logan's run"?

That kinda stuff is only supposed to be for folks like me to waffle on about - the esteemed Tin Foil Hat nutfreaks .

Now you're all starting to wonder....' hmmmmmm, was this here virus planned?'

Oh the Cult of Conspiracy'n'Scepticism will have hundreds of thousands of new members!

..... at least for a few weeks.........

The line they are pedalling seems to be that other countries are closing things down as a populist measure to be seen doing something. That by preventing it's spread they just guarantee that when it comes back they will be more exposed than us. But given Japan seems to have got it relatively under control in a comparably short period of time, it seems likely that they can do it all over again next year. By the following year there's likely to be a vaccine.
You have to think the government is following some advice rather than ignoring it all entirely. After all if they get this badly wrong that will be the end for them. The Conservative parliamentary party does not love Boris Johnson (I've spoken to a relatively small sample over the last six months for various reasons and none of them were shy about saying so), if the public turns on him they'll drop him like a stone. People, not including myself, began to like Boris because he was a joker and came across as one of them. People love a joker until the jokes on them and people will want someone serious for this. If Keir Starmer comes in and starts acting all 'Prime Ministerial' while Boris is lurching from "wash your hands to your favourite ditty, it's just big flu" to "Nannie's gonna die and there's nothing we can do" then Boris' new voters might start looking elsewhere. There can be little surprise that former Health Secretary and Leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt is the first Tory to break cover on this. When people start dying here and the finger is pointed at Boris, Mr Hunt will be there saying he was right all along, he's got a plan and he's as serious as Starmer about everything.

123456789. wrote:The line they are pedalling seems to be that other countries are closing things down as a populist measure to be seen doing something. That by preventing it's spread they just guarantee that when it comes back they will be more exposed than us.  But given Japan seems to have got it relatively under control in a comparably short period of time, it seems likely that they can do it all over again next year. By the following year there's likely to be a vaccine.
You have to think the government is following some advice rather than ignoring it all entirely. After all if they get this badly wrong that will be the end for them. The Conservative parliamentary party does not love Boris Johnson (I've spoken to a relatively small sample over the last six months for various reasons and none of them were shy about saying so), if the public turns on him they'll drop him like a stone. People, not including myself, began to like Boris because he was a joker and came across as one of them. People love a joker until the jokes on them and people will want someone serious for this. If Keir Starmer comes in and starts acting all 'Prime Ministerial' while Boris is lurching from "wash your hands to your favourite ditty, it's just big flu" to "Nannie's gonna die and there's nothing we can do" then Boris' new voters might start looking elsewhere. There can be little surprise that former Health Secretary and Leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt is the first Tory to break cover on this. When people start dying here and the finger is pointed at Boris, Mr Hunt will be there saying he was right all along, he's got a plan and he's as serious as Starmer about everything.

I'd like to know which parliamentarians you've been talking to because I can assure you the majority are behind him.

They are behind him because he won the election but they don't like him.

123456789. wrote:They are behind him because he won the election but they don't like him.

Can you provide some basis for that opinion, as an active member of the party who has had several conversations with many Tory Mps it goes against everything I know.

So in order to become Tory Leader candidate again - with a better platform than last time - Jeremy Hunt needs a lot of people to die?

There's political opportunism in a nutshell if that was even a sliver of his 'ambition'. And if it was - then screw him and his Knight in Shining Armour plan

SecretFly wrote:

tigertattie wrote:So at what point to we rename the virus "Logan's run"?

That kinda stuff is only supposed to be for folks like me to waffle on about - the esteemed Tin Foil Hat nutfreaks .

Now you're all starting to wonder....' hmmmmmm, was this here virus planned?'

Oh the Cult of Conspiracy'n'Scepticism will have hundreds of thousands of new members!

..... at least for a few weeks.........

My favourite theory is that there are no reported cases of it in Russia. Why? Because the Russian's made it and released it and they have thier own vaccine. Old Vlad got fed up of annexing countries, tampering with elections, wrestling horses, etc, so he's just moved to planatery domination after reducing his enemies combat strength

Soul Requiem wrote:

123456789. wrote:They are behind him because he won the election but they don't like him.

Can you provide some basis for that opinion, as an active member of the party who has had several conversations with many Tory Mps it goes against everything I know.

Without naming names, which I won't be doing, the intimation I've got is that the reason he won the leadership was that they were in pretty dire straits and he was the nuclear option. He is not considered a team player. Unlike Cameron he didn't have a longstanding inner circle. There's little personal loyalty but plenty professional loyalty because of how successful he was in 2019. The logical extension of that is that if the public begin to turn on him it won't take long for the parliamentary party to follow. That's hardly surprising and not exactly limited to Johnson. It happened to Thatcher, Major, IDS, Cameron and May before him. None of this is exactly a revelation it's fairly common knowledge. As I said it's a small sample I have spoken to but ranges from the right and left, new and old within the party. I'm not saying there's a rebellion fomenting on the back benches just that if he becomes as unpopular as Theresa May generally then they will be as loyal to him as he was to her.

I agree there is a lot of 'being seen to do something' going on. However 'Flattening the curve' or trying to put any kind of delay in makes a lot of sense.

A serious issue is that any spike of infections is likely to lead to parts of the NHS being overwhelmed. Then it is not just the covid-19 casualties you have to think of, it's everyone else being admitted with conditions that would have responded to treatment that they may not get.

tigertattie wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

tigertattie wrote:So at what point to we rename the virus "Logan's run"?

That kinda stuff is only supposed to be for folks like me to waffle on about - the esteemed Tin Foil Hat nutfreaks .

Now you're all starting to wonder....' hmmmmmm, was this here virus planned?'

Oh the Cult of Conspiracy'n'Scepticism will have hundreds of thousands of new members!

..... at least for a few weeks.........

My favourite theory is that there are no reported cases of it in Russia. Why? Because the Russian's made it and released it and they have thier own vaccine. Old Vlad got fed up of annexing countries, tampering with elections, wrestling horses, etc, so he's just moved to planatery domination after reducing his enemies combat strength

Nah. It is the same situation as the USA. You only count infections that are tested....

tigertattie wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

tigertattie wrote:So at what point to we rename the virus "Logan's run"?

That kinda stuff is only supposed to be for folks like me to waffle on about - the esteemed Tin Foil Hat nutfreaks .

Now you're all starting to wonder....' hmmmmmm, was this here virus planned?'

Oh the Cult of Conspiracy'n'Scepticism will have hundreds of thousands of new members!

..... at least for a few weeks.........

My favourite theory is that there are no reported cases of it in Russia. Why? Because the Russian's made it and released it and they have thier own vaccine. Old Vlad got fed up of annexing countries, tampering with elections, wrestling horses, etc, so he's just moved to planatery domination after reducing his enemies combat strength

...Or he's the only distinctly non-Globalist Leader with the ultimate power not to get involved in the plan. "Youse Globalist nutcases can kill off your own 'excess' elderly populations (dead money) if you want..... but you ain't getting your hands on mine."
Not many grandpa soldiers still marching along frontiers.

SecretFly wrote:

tigertattie wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

tigertattie wrote:So at what point to we rename the virus "Logan's run"?

That kinda stuff is only supposed to be for folks like me to waffle on about - the esteemed Tin Foil Hat nutfreaks .

Now you're all starting to wonder....' hmmmmmm, was this here virus planned?'

Oh the Cult of Conspiracy'n'Scepticism will have hundreds of thousands of new members!

..... at least for a few weeks.........

My favourite theory is that there are no reported cases of it in Russia. Why? Because the Russian's made it and released it and they have thier own vaccine. Old Vlad got fed up of annexing countries, tampering with elections, wrestling horses, etc, so he's just moved to planatery domination after reducing his enemies combat strength

...Or he's the only distinctly non-Globalist Leader with the ultimate power not to get involved in the plan.  "Youse Globalist nutcases can kill off your own 'excess' elderly populations (dead money) if you want..... but you ain't getting your hands on mine."  
Not many grandpa soldiers still marching along frontiers.

Might also be Vodka. I believe the average life expectancy in Russia was dropping for everyone in recent years, not just journalists. I guess excessive alcohol consumption either kills the host or renders them more resistant to viruses

Bad vodka perhaps because they certainly don't drink any more than the usual crop of nightclubbers falling out of trousers, dresses and onto vomit streets on a typical Ent weekender is the West.

I had the onset of the flu in my first year at Uni but was press ganged into playing, one of the older guys then forced me to take part in a spirit heavy pub crawl when I had intended to head back to my halls. Woke up the next day with a stinking hangover but no flu. Next day there was no hangover and no flu. Now I'm not remotely saying that it you spot an elderly person chuck a barrel load of whisky down their neck and it'll cure them but I do think medical professionals might be able to do something with this information.

For once its the other way around, Trump has followed Boris in refusing to have a test for Covid-19, again despite coming in close proximity to a confirmed carrier. What a a great example these to "leaders" are to their countries. No isolation, no test to confirm they are clear.

Bearing in mind the Johnson has a pregnant girlfriend, he is quite happy to take the risk of passing it on to her and the baby.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:For once its the other way around, Trump has followed Boris in refusing to have a test for Covid-19, again despite coming in close proximity to a confirmed carrier. What a a great example these to "leaders" are to their countries. No isolation, no test to confirm they are clear.

Bearing in mind the Johnson has a pregnant girlfriend, he is quite happy to take the risk of passing it on to her and the baby.

It's almost as if he knows something about his situation that you don't, hmmm.

Close proximity is defined as within 2 metres for 15 minutes or more.

They’ve closed Everest ffs! How is this match still going ahead?!

Soul Requiem wrote:

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:For once its the other way around, Trump has followed Boris in refusing to have a test for Covid-19, again despite coming in close proximity to a confirmed carrier. What a a great example these to "leaders" are to their countries. No isolation, no test to confirm they are clear.

Bearing in mind the Johnson has a pregnant girlfriend, he is quite happy to take the risk of passing it on to her and the baby.

It's almost as if he knows something about his situation that you don't, hmmm.

Close proximity is defined as within 2 metres for 15 minutes or more.

Like a cabinet meeting?

I am not saying has caught it, but if my wife was pregnant (would probably break a word record and be a second immaculate conception if she were), I would want to be tested to be sure and not chance anything.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:

Soul Requiem wrote:

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:For once its the other way around, Trump has followed Boris in refusing to have a test for Covid-19, again despite coming in close proximity to a confirmed carrier. What a a great example these to "leaders" are to their countries. No isolation, no test to confirm they are clear.

Bearing in mind the Johnson has a pregnant girlfriend, he is quite happy to take the risk of passing it on to her and the baby.

It's almost as if he knows something about his situation that you don't, hmmm.

Close proximity is defined as within 2 metres for 15 minutes or more.

Like a cabinet meeting?

Which cabinet meeting would that be then?

Well common sense has prevailed and the games off. Disappointed as a fan but relieved on the whole.

The Oracle wrote:They’ve closed Everest ffs!  How is this match still going ahead?!

It isn't any more - finally sense takes over.

Oh yes. Good one - let fans travel here for the game THEN cancel it! Could have saved a lot of trouble cancelling it yesterday or Weds.

Aye, bit of an omnishambles but hopefully people will use common sense and not go to crowded places. Still youre right oracle, wont have stop spread through travel!

The Oracle wrote:Oh yes.  Good one - let fans travel here for the game THEN cancel it!  Could have saved a lot of trouble cancelling it yesterday or Weds.  

I suspect that their hand has been forced by the cancellation of (virtually) all other sporting events in the UK.