Finnegan

Don't jinx it, there's always time

Sacks the QB whilst dragging the linesman with him

Yep. Seahawks sacks super impressive but at this rate only a matter of time before the Pats secondary get a pick. Think we're going to have to wait til one side starts to tire a bit.

Pats offensive line made of papier mache. Love to see it.

Stop the count

A load of manufactured "controversy" over nothing. This isn't anything to do with VAR, it's just a 10000/1 situation that's very weird, almost never comes up, isn't likely to happen again for decades and is completely covered by the rules. "Common sense" is a really ****ing stupid argument. If Cherki picked up the ball and threw it in the net after a geat move should we ignore the hand ball because of rules? They're pull each other's shirts, they both foul each other, the ref can play advantage and doing so instead of sending the defender off would be the common sense but Haaland then fouls him back. Very, very obviously. In fact, so obviously it's worse than the original offence You can't just let them have the goal ffs. Gotta be stupid to be calling that controversial.

Scotland is the big banana skin for England. Obviously if England play like they did yesterday then they should beat Scotland easily but they have a wicked habit of collapsing when they get to Murrayfield and the Scots will up their game significantly for that match. I think the France England game is likely to be a grand slam decider which I think France will edge but who knows.

That time of year again when the Yanks take pride in butchering their own anthem.

The forward dropping in on its own isn't the problem. I'd have no problem with Daka or Vardy’s average position being deeper than Fatawu and Mavididi because they have the pace and agility to the turn and stretch the defence back vertically with a run from that deeper position. Ayew obviously less so much. But it's still less of a problem compared to the fact the wingers are isolated. Under Enzo, Mavididi and Fatawu had support from under lapping midfielders (usually KDH and Wilf) cutting inside them. We had a full five attacking threats in two attacking midfielders, two wingers and a striker all spaced out across the attacking third and it really forced the defence to work. Now the wingers are just left alone and usually get double or even triple marked out of the game because the rest of the attacking shape is awful. JJ helped a bit because he'd run from deep and support Fatawu in that channel but now that's ****ed.

He lives absolutely rent free in their heads after a bit of banter with them last time. If Vards had done this and wound up Birmingham to this extent we'd all be celebrating it. In fact, I'm pretty sure everyone was loving it at the time. Don't really get the hate for Mavididi. He's obviously lost a lot of form and confidence and he's struggling in a system that creates very little and gives him no support but I've never felt he isn't trying or doesn't care tbh.

That'd have to be a very, very big offer. I appreciate Red Bull money and all but he's a year out from a world cup.

I'll be extremely surprised if he isn't sacked after the tournament. If they don't beat us in Cardiff, where they've won once in like a billion years (albeit last time) then they're looking at a likely whitewash and first wooden spoon since 2015. Given he's already a divisive figure I can't see him surviving that. Not unless the SRFU truly don't think they can attract anyone better. If they get even a sniff that they can get Franco out of his contract early they'll probably jump.

I mean we're all getting knobbed by the French anyway so it doesn't really matter

All jokes before kick off aside, I was expecting more fight than this. In conversations with people during the week I said I basically expect England to be ahead by a couple of scores around the hour and to pull away to about a ~25 point lead come the end. Comfortable overall but with a bit of battle from Wales. I thought we'd kick on from some credible losing performances against Argentina and New Zealand and with a bit more time under Tandy we'd be better than people were expecting in this tournament on the whole. Definitely think it's within this group to beat Italy and probably even Scotland at home. But this has been embarrassing. The yellow cards obviously didn't help but they're clearly just not at the races. Which I understand, need to remember this group of players were ready to strike up until yesterday. But still. You want to see a bit more anger and fire in the performance. If we bounce back with a good reaction in a credible loss to France I can still see us just about grasping fourth maybe given Scotland and Italy look very mid and we're at home. But wouldn't put money on it.

If you don't it'll be because you're conserving energy.

Some truth in there but it's also overly optimistic. This just isn't a good generation of Welsh players. The WRU completely disassembled everything that made the players that had Wales a force in the competition for 15 odd years. You could hire Andy Farrell and give him a couple of years with our lot and we'd still only be competing with Italy and Scotland for the bottom half of the table.

Sport is great isn't it. Really helps elevate your weekend.

Who to

For the record, anything less than England winning by a record score is abject humiliation for your lot and you're absolute shit. Just getting that in now.

We'd have to bring him on

Oh Scotland

Aribo please

He plants the entire underside of his boot on someone's ankle at a stretch. You've not been able to do that for years. It was stupid and definitely a red.

You gotta feel for King. He's already out of his depth but back to back first half red cards. The **** is he meant to do with that.

How have they not scored