6 nations kicks off again

Soundburst

More England penalties!

la gran siete

England  win again playing rubbish.A whole weekend of rubbish rugby Australia must be laughing and thinking bring on the rubbish Lions

BT Bob

Still a lot of rugby to be played before any kind of selection, but it's hard to argue against this view.

Foebane72

Why is today's rugby union so rigid and rule-bound compared to the freer-flowing rugby union of the 1970s and before? What exactly has changed? Or is that a tall order to explain?

duncfunk

In reference to this particular tournament most teams seem to be playing it safe. Wales were on an awful run of form before the tournament while England have a new look side and are in with a shout of the grand slam. Hopefully with Wales needing the win they'll go for it and bring England out of their shells. Either that or it's going to be a god awful boring game

Foebane72

Isn't it the new rules that are making our rugby rubbish? Although I'd swear the scrums are actually doing something this year - no more of this "crouch, touch, pause, engage" nonsense, they've simplified it.

And can anyone answer my other question in general, say to describe rugby union over the past 20 years or something?

la gran siete

well it wasnt all free flowing to be fair .Todays defences are much tighter so one needs exceptionally good players to break through them.Scrums are still a nightmare IMO Constant resets which didnt happen back then.Might seem like heresy but i think the time has come for uncontested scrums just to get a game restarted ,turn more penalty decisions into free kicks to keep it flowing better and have more results  decided by tries .It would play into Australia's hands in the short term as they favour a much free flowing brand of rugby.Their pitches and climate are better suited to it which suggests to me we should have many more pitches with artificial turf like Sarries now have.

As to sunday's game England played well for 20 minutes when they butchered at least two try scoring chances which they should have taken.To my mind their mindset is still too conservative and I just hope that Sarries( as well as quoins) with their new pitch lead the way in how the game should be played all year round

tonyrees687

Things have changed a lot in the last 40 years. The free flowing rugby of the 70s have long gone. First lets look at the forwards. Today they are professionall athletes they are bigger faster taller and can interchange with the rest of the pack and run in open field like most centres and score tries from anywhere. In the 70s the forwards were big men with hard jobs and probably just turned up to play rugby  have a beer and have a fight and maybe get a couple of quid while having fun, and while their head was still in the scrum the flyhalf had already scored a try ,today the forwards can tackle everything and cut down any attack from anywhere.. Now the backs. Great oppertunities for small fast gents to show off thier speed and gazelle like reactions because they had only the likewise to beat. If you has pace you were good. So with the big men stuck in a scrum and just the opposition defenders you could  run some tries in, then yes  free flowing rugby.
Today with all the players as fit as could be and body sizes less important , with gps tech and coaches, nuitrion specialists ,mind managment and conditioning  this is a very big chess game with  intellegent suberb hard tough athletes. All the plays are analizied and rethought. There is no room for error. Thats why its not freer - flowing
I think

la gran siete

I see JPR is indulging in a little mischief making a la Colin TelferNothing like stoking up the fires to add interest .Everyone loves to hate the English Six Nations 2013: JPR Williams says Wales will ruin England's Grand Slam chances | Mail Online

PU6HY

It will be a travesty if this England side goes on to win a Grand Slam.

I can see them scoring some tries on Sat but overall they are
Kick for points, Kick for points, Kick for points, Kick for points etc. etc.