Hoping That Some Calcio Storico Will Break Out In This Horrorshow Of A Match
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Tag Archives: Scotland
National Stereotypes and Psychology
E crept past S, who were hammered by W, who won late against I, so E v I = ?
The English never fear the French. The French never fear the Irish. The Irish no longer fear the Welsh. The French are always wary of the Scots. The Welsh fear nobody, but hate the Irish (according to Gatland). The Scots always fancy themselves against the English. The Irish don’t know how to beat the French and when it happens it’s by accident. Ireland love the English as favourites, and always assume they can beat them. Continue reading
Match Reaction #3: All Kinds Of Everything
Morrison has Tommy Bowe pinned for the one-two-three! Whatchu gonna do when Hulkamania runs wild on you, brutha?
This was an oddly splintered sort of match, which suffered quite badly from the spectator’s point of view from innumerable breaks in play. The Mole doesn’t want to belittle the injury suffered by Scottish winger Lee Jones in a clash of heads with Andrew Trimble; while that provided for the longest delay, it was a fair and correct call from referee Pollock in order to safeguard the health of the player. Continue reading
Match Reaction #1: Rory Best’s Try
Chunk Jacobsen has gotten past the Healy-Ross contain, but it's too little and too late: Best has smashed through Mike Blair and is about to dot down Ireland's first try of the day.
The Mole enjoyed Liam Toland’s early morning article in today’s Irish Times – a good read all the way through, and you can tell that he enjoyed the technicality of Rory Best’s opening score, a well-contrived lineout move that created a potent mismatch of running a big forward at a small back over a short distance. Continue reading
Revenge Of The Alistairs?
Scotland are on the up, powered by youngsters like Gray, Denton and Hogg and steeled by a couple of captains in Ford and Barclay.
The attacking threat posed by the Scots on Saturday is sharper than it has been for a number of years; no Irish fan should underestimate the task in hand. Even before Ireland suffered the loss of O’Connell, Murray and O’Brien, their opponents had shown with their last display that they would be a handful. Continue reading
Match Preview #1: Ireland vs Scotland
The mighty Fangio is reporting that captain-elect Rory Best is a significant worry for Ireland’s forthcoming clash against Scotland. Besty had a relatively poor day with the darts against a super-charged French lineout, but the Ulsterman has been in the form of his career for both country and province over the past season and is a well-respected member of the leadership group. Continue reading
Scotland v France Match Preview
Gauloise in Hand, Sun on Back
The Six Nations creates its own reality. Teams that routinely finish with a high winning percentage but do not win Grand Slams aren’t “great” – think turn of the century England and noughties Ireland – while average teams that win a Grand Slam – think Mike Ruddock’s Wales – have greatness thrust upon them. These examples should be qualified. Both the England and Ireland sides in question finally got over the line and won a Grand Slam, earning greatness. Wales won a total of 4 games from 20 in the two seasons both before and after their 2005 Grand Slam. Continue reading
Don’t Make Me Watch It Again: Scotland 6 – 13 England
The Mole’s neuralgic reaction to the mere thought of rewatching the Scotland vs England game precludes any attempt at detailed analysis of ‘where it went wrong’ for Scotland. I’ll give you a hint, though. Continue reading
The Calcutta Cup
I miss him already ...
It’s Grum Up North Lancaster has cut his English squad down to 24 players before announcing his matchday 22 for the upcoming Calcutta Cup game. Continue reading
Gregor Townsend Not Up To Scratch
Robinson: So are we going to score a try today, Gregor?
Dan Parks’ up and under in the last five minutes of the crucial Scotland vs England clash brought memories of Ireland’s thirteen man lineout against Argentina in 1999 surging back. Continue reading
Digging Like a Demented Mole 