r/englandrugby

Top of the stats every week but is he what a world beating number 8 should be?

I get it, Willis in France. Surely we can get someone a bit more bulky to truck it up? Chick?

Hello!

I apologize if this isn't the correct page. If not, could someone direct me to the right one please? Thank you!

I am an American student who will be studying in London from September until December. I really would like to go to a Rugby game.

I know there are two teams in the PREM in London. The one that is closer to where I will be staying (near the British Museum) is the Saracens, however I frankly do not have an allegiance to any team and would be open to seeing any game. How easy is it to get tickets to games? Are they relatively inexpensive? I would also love to support smaller clubs nearby which aren't in the PREM.

Also, is it possible to buy merchandise from teams? If I go to a game I would love to support by getting a shirt or a hat or something.

Thank you for all of your help!

With all the talk about the behaviour of the Argentinians and our questionable discipline taking the headlines, we forgot about one pretty major thing: we got a scrum pushover try, against another tier 1 team?! I don't think most people understand not only how hard that is, but how rare too!

To start, Gardner is more concerned about Chessum running up to the scuffle after Freeman's try than Mateo Carreras hitting Freeman in the head when they are both still on the ground, or Albornoz literally punching Freeman in the face during the same scuffle. Plenty of Argentinian players ran in too. Apparently Chessum is the one who "escalated" the situation, somehow.

Decision: restart the game with a penalty to Argentina. Farcical, disgusting decision. For this alone I would question his capacity to be a referee at any level.

Throughout the game, England constantly getting pinged for offside. Several of those I think were really questionable. Argentina never get pinged for being offside, despite being so plenty of times. Example: Mayco Vivas at 19:50 clearly never gets back onside while England are going forward, right in front of Gardner's face, no advantage for offside. Plenty more examples throughout the game. Blatant and disgusting level of bias on display.

First time the TMO comes in to highlight a head shot by Mateo Carreras on Freeman, Gardner immediately starts making excuses for Mateo Carreras, saying Freeman is bent and he sees no foul play. Freeman's head is at the same height as Marcus Smith's chin (Smith is standing) when contact is made. Never seen a ref start immediately making excuses like that for the infringing player when the foul play is so undeniably obvious. TMO has to argue and convince Gardner before the yellow is awarded.

After England's third try the Argentinians clearly start a scuffle with Jamie George. When Gardner thought Chessum had run in and "escalated" things he restarted with a penalty to Argentina. When Argentina are the ones to "escalate" it's "calm down lads, I know you're frustrated that the English haven't given me more excuses to penalise them but there's only so much I can do". (I exaggerate only slightly.)

Alex Coles' yellow card and penalty try demonstrates how pathetically bad Gardner's understanding of the laws of the game is. Nowhere near the level required for a professional referee. For Coles' actions to constitute cynical play, a ruck must have been formed. Otherwise he is entitled to play for the ball. If a ruck has been formed then Albornoz is guilty of playing the ball on the ground before Coles' actions. It is pure contraction. The rule he uses against Coles would have Albornoz guilty of an infringement (attempting to offload) first. Gardner can clearly be heard accusing Coles of "side entry", which could only apply to a ruck (in this context). Therefore the attempted offload by Albornoz is illegal. And though the ball goes forwards off Coles, Coles is clearly attempting to knock the ball backwards. At worst, this is an accidental knock-on only, going back for the penalty that was being played under advantage. Dreadful refereeing that demonstrates complete disregard (or worse ignorance) of the laws.

After Marcus Smith's try that involved a blatant deliberate knock-on by Santi Carreras (far more obvious that what Coles and van Poortvliet were yellow carded for) Gardner can be heard on the ref mic saying, "it was realistic for me". Meaning it was a "realistic attempt to catch the ball". Only when the other officials question it and the replays in the stadium make the deliberate knock-on undeniable does he relent and give Santi Carreras a yellow card. Absurd levels of bias on display.

At 65:20 Guido Petti punches Jack van Poortvliet to the ground while they are both moving past each other to be back onside after a tackle. Clear penalty and potential card. On the way down van Poortvliet bumps onto Gardner who then believes he is the one who knocked van Poortvliet over. When play stops and Gardner is told by an England player that van Poortvliet was struck to the ground Gardner refuses to look into the incident, saying, "it was off my elbow." And again when the England players repeats their protest.

And finally Argentina's disallowed try at end the game. You could tell that the ball lands in touch from the first replay. But Gardner spends 5 minutes arguing with the TMO that the obvious no-try is, in fact, a try. Only because the TMO digs his heels in and insists that the ball lands in touch does this incident get officiated fairly, against the very best efforts of Gardner.

Of the 6 penalties that Argentina conceded in the entire match (an absurdity in itself) 2 of them were from TMO intervention. Only one team in this match was actually officiated by the referee. Gardner didn't penalise the Argentina players for repeated side entries and offsides, yet hammered England for these exact infringements at every opportunity. How many times did Pablo Matera take players out off the ball around the ruck, with Gardner just saying “no Pablo, don’t do that” repeatedly, and never actually penalising him?

At the end of the game what Gardner got from the Argentinian players was exactly what he had spent the entire match permitting them to do, from which perspective, he deserved.

Between this abject refereeing and the disgraceful behaviour of the Argentinian players, I've never seen anything quite like it.

Genuinely saluting Felipe Contepomi for storming out of a press conference in protest at the thin internal walls and shoddy sound-proofing standards at their home stadium.

When you get dodgy builders in you have to take a stand.

Hi guys, if you’re a fan of rugby and care about the welfare of professional players, please read:

A friend of mine is currently carrying out a post-graduate dissertation for law with a focus on rugby player image rights. With the rise of AI and advanced editing software, it’s critical that image rights are investigated and protected.

To do this, a survey has been created assessing recognisability of players among the four home/Lions nations. It only takes 5 minutes to do and the home page has more information about the topic as a whole.

Ideally around 400 responses is needed, having only thus far got our own rugby club to carry it out, we’re sitting at around 60 😬

If you could carry out the survey and share it far and wide it would be much appreciated.

You can find the survey here

Come on England! 🌹

The results spreadsheet has been updated for the final time this season. 41 responses this week which further supports the theory that people fill it in less when England win!

https://preview.redd.it/ka3c8hcy5eeh1.png?width=1468&format=png&auto=webp&s=9008dae92745c7c540bd3ecf9562d4fe3da4a0e5

https://preview.redd.it/ssi7ylzz5eeh1.png?width=1756&format=png&auto=webp&s=d0eb01face9b8f42d8209e76a98009b754adec2b

https://preview.redd.it/7ws0eh516eeh1.png?width=1608&format=png&auto=webp&s=18f65a0c303df55111d7305643d2b02a0b3b52c8

The Scrum push over try wins moment of the match, narrowly denying Feyi-Waboso a hat trick of awards.Feyi-Waboso (8.71) also has the highest average rating. It's the highest rating by some distance, with Tommy Freeman (7.55) the second highest average despite not receiving any man of the match votes.Immanuel Feyi-Waboso wins man of the match by a massive margin, Fin Smith is 2nd which means that he has an impressive time of 1st, 1st, 2nd over this block, is it enough to have nailed down the shirt long term?Immanuel Feyi-Waboso wins man of the match by a massive margin, Fin Smith is 2nd which means that he has an impressive time of 1st, 1st, 2nd over this block, is it enough to have nailed down the shirt long term?

Feyi-Waboso (8.71) also has the highest average rating. It's the highest rating by some distance, with Tommy Freeman (7.55) the second highest average despite not receiving any man of the match votes.
The bench struggled a lot with only Henry Pollock (6.02) rising above a 6.

The Scrum push over try wins moment of the match, narrowly denying Feyi-Waboso a hat trick of awards.
Looking at this block of internationals as a whole, Fin Smith(7.62) has the highest average rating across the 3 games. Feyi-Waboso (6.89) is second and Genge (6.75) is third. Smith also had the most man of the match votes, which is no suprise as he won twice.