Scotland 6 - 13 England

[netgirl_y2k]

You know, I know I should be used to this by now, but I honestly don't understand how that even just happened...

Anyway, for those of you who are not insanely over-invested in Scotland's baffling rubbishness at rugby, allow me to share some fatherly advice my dad gave me, apropos of nothing, this afternoon:

"Blakes 7 is better, but Red Dwarf is more useful in day to day life."

Comments

[glinda]

One of the lesser known pluses of getting into roller derby (a sport where three figure score lines of the 254-167 variety are common) is that rugby scores no longer look horrific to me. I see a 7 point difference now and think 'not bad, close game there'...on the negative side now, when I read the football scores on the radio a score of 2-1 looks like they weren't even trying...

[netgirl_y2k]

254 - 167, I think I actually saw that rugby game, Scotland - France I think it was :-)

[selenay]

I think it happened because Dan Parks totally messed up a kick?

Not that I'm pleased about England winning. Oh, no. That would just be cruel to my Scottish friends. I probably wouldn't have been cheering quite so loudly if there hadn't been a degree of over-confidence in some areas of Scotland.

Really, what I was most happy about was that my guys, for once, were relatively good where discipline is concerned. Not perfect, but so much better.

[netgirl_y2k]

I think it happened because Dan Parks totally messed up a kick?

Only in the very technical sense. More broadly it happened because Scotland can never fail to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and because we seem to think the opposition try line is five meters upfield of where it actually is.

I do think, though, that in the wake of the world cup and Johnson's departure England could be a very interesting team to watch this six nations.

[selenay]

More broadly it happened because Scotland can never fail to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

Yeah, I've noticed that :-(

Johnson's departure England could be a very interesting team to watch this six nations.

I'm already seeing signs that discipline has improved and Lancaster is making some interesting picks, trying to find and build some new talent, which is good to see. I'd been feeling a tiny bit disillusioned with my boys, but now I'm quite excited to see how they progress.

[netgirl_y2k]

I was delighted by both England's improved discipline (because better discipline makes for a better game all round, I think) and by Lancaster's selections. Whoever got that job was always going to have to make some different choices there, England couldn't keep using the same old same old players, because totally aside from the fact that a lot of them were naturally coming to the end of the careers and the well documented discipline problems, they had, as a team burned through a lot of people's good will. So, yes, one to watch, definitely.

Now if only Scotland could learn the same lesson, imagine that there's a lengthy and confused screed here about for what bizzarre confluence of reasons you wouldn't start Greg Laidlaw over Dan Parks?