Blood & Mud

SHIT/GOOD™ Ratings: RBS 6 Nations 2012, round 3

Here as usual, is our starting point for discussion of the weekend's runners and riders.  Get your suggestions in the comments, particularly for the Scotland vs France game as I saw very little of it unfortunately.

SHIT

Matt Stevens - The period on the jazz salt seems to have fried his brain and his legs.  Not only did he make no difference to the scrum when he came on, he then probably gave away the most stupid penalty in the history of penalties and history.  Breakdown laws and decisions are sometimes hard to fathom, we all accept that, but one of the easier rules to understand is that when the ref shouts "NOOOOO WHITE!  NO HANDS!" very loudly you take your hands off the ball.  Unless you're Matt Stevens, who continued to grope inelegantly at the ball for what felt like a further 12 minutes.  Special mention to Dan Cole, who also gave away two stupid penalties for going of his feet at the breakdown.  Not a good weekend to be an England prop.

Tobias Botes - Poor Italy.  Another year, another out-half, another one as bad as the last.

Chris Robshaw - In a way it's not his fault; he was always going to be held up against Warburton, a proper modern 7 and bloody good one at that, and Robshaw for all his strengths cannot be expected to do a job he is not made for.  This game more than any other has confirmed why Lancaster wanted Wood both as captain and openside. 

England substitutions - I've been ranting about this since the final whistle on Saturday, and I'll continue for some time.  England took off two players in Dickson and Morgan who were both playing well and in key positions and replaced them with subs who were either in poor form or not likely to offer anything gamebreaking.  The reasoning for this was based solely on 60 minutes being up on the clock and no qualitative analysis of the game at all.  The rank stupidity of it makes me want to scream until the blood vessels in my eyes pop.

GOOD

Leigh Halfpenny - Most of the post-match chat has been about Sam Warburton and Scott Williams - understandably - but the little Cardiff man was outstanding.  Only area for improvement is he needs to kick more often from deep, especially in tight games like this one at Twickenham.

Ian Evans - The big Osprey lock has very much been the overlooked hardworking heart of the Wales team's three wins so far.  

Owen Farrell - Was it a flawless performance?  No, but it was an enormously encouraging performance for England fans who would like a settled 10 selection to manage a game who also doesn't turn into a piss flavoured jelly when asked to kick a goal.  Spoke to a few friends who were at the game who informed me that the stuff you saw off camera when he was organising, marshalling and occasionally bollocking those around him, was perhaps more revealing of the value of his performance. 

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SHIT/GOOD™ Ratings: RBS 6 Nations 2012, round 3

Here as usual, is our starting point for discussion of the weekend's runners and riders.  Get your suggestions in the comments, particularly for the Scotland vs France game as I saw very little of it unfortunately.

SHIT

Matt Stevens - The period on the jazz salt seems to have fried his brain and his legs.  Not only did he make no difference to the scrum when he came on, he then probably gave away the most stupid penalty in the history of penalties and history.  Breakdown laws and decisions are sometimes hard to fathom, we all accept that, but one of the easier rules to understand is that when the ref shouts "NOOOOO WHITE!  NO HANDS!" very loudly you take your hands off the ball.  Unless you're Matt Stevens, who continued to grope inelegantly at the ball for what felt like a further 12 minutes.  Special mention to Dan Cole, who also gave away two stupid penalties for going of his feet at the breakdown.  Not a good weekend to be an England prop.