Scotland not half bottling this 
We were so shite in the first half, eben the atmosphere from the Welsh was the worst Iāve ever experienced! Came to life after half time though and just only wished weād put that performance in from the whistle.
Rugby refereeing becoming as much of a joke as football.
TMOs constantly involving themselves in games and yet when South Africa score a try which is a clear knock-on, the useless cunts somehow canāt check that.
I havenāt seen what youāre referring to but generally speaking, i agree the quality of reffing is going downhill.
I in no way whatsoever attribute that to the retirement of Wayne Barnes.
Can see it in the video below:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/anUGnvsXpjXqd9BD/?mibextid=D5vuiz
Random foray into the rugby thread but came across a Jonah Lomu video today. I remember him when I was a kid being a superstar in the rugby world and even had the Playstation game (think it was on Playstation).
Always enjoyed watching the random compilation video on YouTube but wondered todayā¦
What is his standing like in Rugby history? Is he one of the greatest players? I know he got ill quite young and it limited his ability but just curious was his reputation bigger than his actual ability or was the hype justified?
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He was such a unique player for his time. The average winger was probably 80-85kg and 5ft 10 tall. You know, smaller, fast guys basically.
Lomu was 6ft 5 and 120kg as well as being fast and athletic.
Essentially, he changed the game for his position and the style he played made him a major star in the game, and the first major rugby star globally.
He actually did have a relatively long All Blacks career, wingers donāt usually play for us past 27 anyway and thats how old he was when he last played
He is still looked at as one of the greats here in New Zealand although maybe not the actual greatest player. He definitely had a huge impact though.
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This is not a dig at the sport, but would it be fair to say heās the only global rugby star?
Iām a total outsider to the sport (not sure if that makes me better or worse placed to judge) and I canāt think of anyone like Lomu in that regard.
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For some reason I feel Habana is the closest but you might actually be right, even if it sounds a bit dismissive of rugby. Plenty of huge names but not sure they had the recognition and fame of Lomu.
Would be good to know how Wilkinson is judged abroad. Heās obviously by far and away our superstar, and first name in any rugby quiz question, but not sure if itās the same across the world.
Thing is with rugby there are a lot of players, but unless you watch or follow rugby you arenāt really going to know many of them. Recent or old and Lomu is/was the most household name I think a rugby player has ever been.
Iād say that is absolutely fair. I think being an outsider is probably the best place to judge from tbh. Rugby is a pretty small sport in the sense that only a few countries really care about it and half of them itās not even their biggest sport.
I mean even in New Zealand itās not actually the most popular sport in terms of player numbers. Despite what the rest of the world thinks about rugby here, itās not actually as big as is perceived.
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Absolute disgrace 
James Lowe is the man.
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Always was a big fan of his when he was at the Chiefs (my local team). Nice guy too.
Itās a nice story as I think a key reason he went to Europe was because he had early onset arthritis so there was some uncertainty about how long he could continue playing for.
How is he thought of in Ireland nowadays?
We love him.
Heās especially well thought of among my friend group.
The way things work over here players have to affiliate with a club. There are the provinces which are essentially the pinnacle and in the pre professional days theyād be a selection of the clubs.(Lowe plays for Leinster).
So because of that tradition, and partly because players still do start at that level, everyone also has a junior/lower tier club. Lowe had to pick one when he came over, he went with Clondalkin, a non entity in rugby circles here. Thats our local club. And hereās his reason
Iād rather go to the team that doesnāt have much going [for it compared to the big senior ones]. They have Jack McGrathās brother-in-law [Conor Corcoran] playing for Clondalkin and Jack was like, āput down Clondalkinā and I did and all of a sudden thereās people at the games now that come up to me with Clondalkin tops.
āNo itās cool, itās a weird way of giving back, but if some kid goes, āJames Lowe is in Clondalkinā and it puts a smile on a few kidsā faces, thatās all I ask for in return.ā He turned up at a junior fixture, quietly standing on the sideline watching until recognised and then signing autographs and stepping into pictures after the game
Speaking personally, heās added a dimension here that weād seriously struggle to replicate without him. Heās the type of player you want on the ball because you just feel things can happen when he is.
What happened?
Irish dominance.
Then we stopped paying attention and England got two tries in the last few mins.
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Honestly, itās a very Kiwi thing to do. We love that underdog scenario and despite the fact that the ABs are such a historically great side, we still perceive ourselves as underdogs on the international stage (across all sports as opposed to specifically just rugby).
The club thing is actually quite similar to what we have here. Super Rugby, then thereās the provincial competition and then you have club level which players at provincial level will associate with and will be selected from.
Glad Lowe made a great career out of the move, I think he would have eventually made the All Blacks, particularly because he has the kicking game as well which is continually becoming more valuable. Not sure how much he might have played at international level as we tend to produce outside backs like crazy but I have seen people say (not many, but some) that he went to Europe because he wasnāt good enough and that is completely untrue.
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Gatland gone.
This concerns me because whilst we are in the shit, I personally donāt think thereās a replacement out there that will get us out this rough patch. We tried it and ended up with Gats back.
The biggest issues arenāt even on the pitch, thereās so much red tape and bollocks going on behind the scenes, a lot of fucking old dinosaurs.
Yea the biggest issues are far from the squad and the management. There are no quick fixes available for Welsh Rugby
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