Six Nations 2023 General Discussion

Yup.

That is an incredibly caveman take.

Scotland put some great phases today but are very porous in defence. France going forward at will at times It seems like Scotland play their best when trying to scale back a seemingly impossible lead

to date I think Ireland have tried to keep ball in play a lot against teams and not kick for touch. I wonder will we go for territory a bit more against Scotland. Not a massive shift but just putting the nudge on every now and then to avoid counter attacks where defence not set.

it seems like Scotland is the only team the media don’t look at critically. Always adding to finnsanity and Scotland hype despite their actual results.

Positively neanderthal I admit.

Look I'll happily watch a bit of camogie but if I wanted expert analysis of Cork ladies v Kilkenny ladies, I'd look very sceptically if Eddie O'Sullivan came on and gave his spiel on the game or even John Mullane. Because neither have ever played camogie and have not experienced camogie.

Ditto for today.

Just goes to show, injuries are going to be the foremost cause of progress or lack of in the WC

I do see your point but Ian Smith was a cricketer for NZ before moving into TV. He is widely regarded as the best commentator in the sport. However he also does a lot rugby work as well. Never the main guy on comms but sideline work and sometimes the host. And he is very good. Funnily enough he actually said he was very nervous for years when it came to rugby as he hadn't played it.

Sorry for going completely off topic.

Yes, she is the host and the role is to frame and guide the contributions from any panel. To be convincing in that role, the viewer or listener has to have sort of belief that the host knows of what they talk. Of course, you could have a male host for a rugby game who has never played professional rugby but the viewer/ listener can more easily suspend belief. When you have a woman hosting a show about men's sport played at the highest level, it's just staring you in the face that they couldn't possibly have any experience of what they're trying to interrogate.

Likewise as I say if John Mullane was hosting analysis of a camogie or ladies football game, it's be totally unconvincing. Render under Caesar that which belongs to Caesar etc etc

I've played rugby at schools level but that would be the limit of my experience. I wouldn't have a clue about the realities of modern professional mens rugby and whilst I may have personal opinions, they'd be worthless as any sort of host or pundit. Ditto for Hurley - she couldn't possibly have real hard learned insight into what's going on. It's as simple as that, no?

It seems the NZRU felt that they had to respond to remarks made by Robertson about his future.

One of the hosts (can't remember his name) on Virgin during the RWC in 2015 (I think) was like that. No matter what the pundits said he just asked the next question on his cue card. No follow up, no asking to expand further. Made for a really disjointed conversation and crappy coverage.

I'd argue some of the Six Nations we won under Joe were the weakest collectively as a group. France weren't at the races for a long time, Scotland or Italy either.

Great to see Italian rugby on the rise now