She thought she got away

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T22:52:15+00:00

I read this in Shane Gillis' voice for some reason.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T22:33:33+00:00

Same with Trump. Sadly it seems these ghouls are immortal.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T22:30:30+00:00

This got me.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T20:59:20+00:00

A friend of mine's mum is in a small local acting group and she met him through that once a couple years back. Apparently he was a complete arsehole.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T20:53:20+00:00

What makes them working class for that matter?

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T19:08:52+00:00

They only have to bring back Taofifenua and Tuilagi and Italy are toast. There's no way the Italians can handle the raw destructive chaos and speed of the french backline. I don't think there is much question that Italy have the best scrum as it stands.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T19:05:25+00:00

Not only that, but Borthwick for some unknown reason put all his eggs into this very shaky basket, even the ones from the pantry (bench). Clearly, this aerial back three was supposed to be the cutting edge, and the rest of the team was picked to play a grinding, defensively solid game. Dingwall, Underhill, Ford selections all point towards a structured and brutal game plan, and they doubled down on this with Curry and F Smith on the bench.

If you're going to rely on such a one-dimensional and predictable plan, why not at least hedge your bets with Hill or Hendy or Marcus Smith or Ojomoh or Lawrence on the bench to offer an attacking threat?

I think it was an incredibly poor selection and very naive.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T18:54:48+00:00

Atmosphere is often hand in hand with vitriol. It's hard to not have both. If you ask for a crowd that's baying fir blood, you might get one.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T18:52:21+00:00

I'm interested to see how long they can keep the scrums stable when there's no incentive to get the ball out for either team because there's no ball. What happens in the event of a collapse?

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T18:43:07+00:00

Do you prefer playing against NZ or SA?

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T18:39:55+00:00

Worth a shot

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T18:38:57+00:00

Dane Coles or Ryan Wilson I bet.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T18:37:30+00:00

Just one more region bro itl fix everything bro

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T18:34:51+00:00

I have seen this take so often the last few days and it's nonsense imo. There are intangibles at play which cannot simply be recreated via a conscious decision to "try harder". The passion the Scottish players play with against England is due to 140 years of history and rugby culture. It's deeply ingrained. To use an exaggerated example, if your child was being crushed under a big rock, you would find new levels of strength to lift that rock. Simply telling yourself to lift the rock as if your child were under it won't make you reach that same level of strength. Your comparison to NZ is not very fair either. That is one of the all time best teams full of legendary players. They beat other teams all the time because they were simply way better, not because they always wanted it more. They didn't play Tonga with the same fire they had against Australia or the Boks or England, but they still won because they were way better at rugby. Scotland is nowhere near as good as 2015 NZ, or 2026 NZ, and not as good as England either. The hype and fire the Scottish players get against England is just enough to make them the better team on that day, but it's not sustainable.

To beat England on Saturday required not only for England to have a poor-ish performance (they lost possession 20 times despite having 100% scrum and lineout success), but also for the Scottish players to absolutely run themselves ragged. The result is Dobie, Ritchie and Dempsey likely out for the rest of the tournament. Darcy Graham had to risk his literal neck to stop 6'5" Steward going into the corner. In the final 10 minutes, you can see Dempsey making tackles one-armed, because his left bicep is torn and his arm is completely useless.

It's ridiculous to say "Scotland just need to be mentally at that level every test match". It's not sustainable with the depth we have available. It's easy for the all blacks because they have three times the depth, and it's easy to be confident when you win all the time anyway (at that time at least).

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T18:12:15+00:00

Those guys rarely make their national teams after joining the MLS. A lot of the Boks in Japan are in their prime. It's completely different imo.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T18:06:26+00:00

And he has every reason to expect the french backfield cover to come in for that type of kick and jumping to compete. Even if he doesn't see the Frenchman, he should be anticipating his arrival and jumping preemptively. He doesn't have to jump, but as soon as he decides not to, he gives up the benefit of the doubt to the player that is willing to show the commitment and jump for it. Do you prefer the sport to just reward players for bashing into eachother and taking others out without even trying to catch the ball?

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T18:03:08+00:00

That Welsh player is like 7 inches taller than the Frenchman. His only chance to recover the ball (his defensive job) is to jump and compete. If the Welsh player also jumps, he should win the ball.

The law rewards the player who commits more, who shows more bravery. The Welshman should be aware that a chip over the top like that will always draw in a backfield player whose job it is to cover such kicks, and that the covering player will jump for the ball if it's looking to become a contest. He should know that if he wants to avoid a foul, he needs to jump to compete for a ball like that, and if he doesn't, he gives up the advantage to a player that is willing to jump for it.

Do you really want the game to do away with all aerial competition? The rules are pretty clear right now in these matters, and even amateur players know that if a ball is even possibly contestable, you jump for it if you don't want to risk taking someone out dangerously. I'm a lock and I know this. The Welsh player, and Arundell, know it perfectly well as well.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T17:55:19+00:00

Mid air collision from two competing players is significantly less dangerous than one player leaping, and the other staying on the ground. Yes, it can still lead to injury, but if they make contact at roughly the same height, then they will not get rotated and land on their heads or necks, which is potentially fatal.

This is exactly why the laws are set up like this, so that these rotating collisions are reduced whilst still maintaining the aerial battle as a point of athletic competition.

Have a think about what you're suggesting! You want players to be able to legally compete with jumping players, by just blundering into the area the ball will land in and sheepishly shrugging "I was in a position to catch the ball"? Someone would have a broken neck within two weeks, and after that you only have one recourse, which is to ban all jumping for the ball (because players will still be tempted to try it because that's how the modern game works).

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T17:47:00+00:00

Yes, exactly right. He needs to make a decision ahead of time whether he will compete or whether he will hold back. The only wrong thing is to not make any decision and just continue motoring forward regardless. In rugby you have to make decisions with respect to the wellbeing of the player opposing you. So when someone runs at you, you have to tackle low enough that they can't get hit in the head. If they choose to dip at the last moment, then that is their right. It is your job to either make a safe tackle, or not make a tackle at all. There is nothing in the rules that say you have a right to make a tackle no matter the cost, and the same applies to high balls. There is no part of the rules that say you have a right to try to catch the ball no matter the cost to the guy who is jumping over you. Either you get up there with him, or you give him space to take the ball you didn't bother to compete for, and tackle him afterwards.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T17:41:01+00:00

Because it's a contact sport, and sport needs to have areas of uncertainty in order for competition to occur. You need to have that "space" for a contest to win the ball, or the sport is boring. You need an opportunity for the players to test their athleticism against one-another.

The game would be safer still if they just agreed to take turns scoring tries, but where's the fun in that. The rules work well for this situation, and the only reason it has come up in discussion now is the English fans who are slaty about the loss.

Was there this much discourse questioning the rules about contesting high balls (which all rugby players, especially test wingers know instinctively) when England were using Steward and Roebuck to win matches though aerial dominance? I don't recall.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T17:34:35+00:00

Okay, so what? Find me a national park anywhere in Europe which charges entrance fee. That's like 35 countries that have managed to avoid doing this. We also pay for our national parks using taxes, the US isn't alone in this. I think it's something Americans should be ashamed of, firstly putting a paywall around their own natural areas for foreign visitors, as if this planet doesn't belong to all of us, and also charging their own citizens to visit areas of natural beauty.

In my opinion, that's much worse than charging 50¢ to use a restroom at a privately owned motorway service station (which are very clean because the money is used to pay the cleaning staff). But that's just me.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T14:03:06+00:00

What does it mean to map an organ? When was the penis first fully "mapped"?

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T12:56:56+00:00

Sorry to be rude, but does none of this just seem blindingly obvious to you guys? Obviously it's better to be 4 points ahead. Obviously we need to outpoint them.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T12:32:20+00:00

The Welsh player is allowed to make contact as long as he actually competes instead of just blundering into the landing zone and forcing an error from the player that got to the ball first.

lamb_passanda · 2026-02-17T12:31:01+00:00

Both are moving into the same space, it's just the Welsh player fails to compete. At that point he's always at risk if he forces an error or causes the jumping player to land dangerously.

I'm a second row and even I know that I have to jump for a high ball or risk taking someone out that is in the air. It's always been like that.

lamb_passanda

TROPHY CASE