Six Nations rugby

Anyone catch Six Nations rugby? BBC America is showing a match per week live, while the rest are on closed circuit/broadband PPV.

France and England look to be the contenders as Ireland was weak in it's late win against Italy.

For rugby fans, DirecTV has the rights to Super Rugby this season. All matches will be shown live for free on Ch. 490 (not up yet).

 

I watched France and Scotland on Saturday. I felt bad for the Scottish prop who kept collapsing the scrum.

 

The scrum is a blight to the modern game. How many scrums are completed with the ref awarding a penalty or free kick? The issue is that the front three for each side try to cheat as much as possible. Instead of resetting a scrum, the ref should award the free kick or penalty at the first collapse.

 

You're probably right about that.
It was strange that Scotland's strength was supposed to be its scrum and France dominated that part of the game. Scotland didn't play badly and three tries on the road is a good showing, but France was able to capitalize on Scotland's mistakes.
Who's on BBC America this week?

 

Wales at Scotland at 12:30 p.m. Eastern.

Here's the schedule.

http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/394/2011-match-schedule.jsp

 

NBC is airing 7s World Series today and Sunday.

 

Tough game for the US against South Africa.
I can't believe that South African player was playing so soon after breaking his jaw.
Samoa had a little more trouble than expected with Japan.
All in all, however, I prefer 15s, especially to play. I'm a prop and there's way too much ground to cover in 7s.

 

If you're a prop, there's no way you're playing sevens. ;D

I'm not much of a fan of sevens. I covered the USA Sevens for a few years when it was in San Diego, which was a great spot. I don't even know the US guys anymore except for Paul Emerick and the coach.

 

DirecTV announced Super Rugby schedule. All matches will be shown on Channels 490 and 491. It looks like it will be in HD as well.

 

Pretty epic battle between England and France, as expected. 9-9 after France miss a penalty on the stroke of halftime.

 

That pass that was called back for England seemed lateral, not forward. To my biased eyes at least.

 

Italy tried an unconventional tactic against England in Six Nations play. Italian players didn't form rucks and therefore were allowed to be ahead of the ball after making tackles.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/sports/rugby/rugby-ruck-italy-six-nations.html

The Rugby Debate: Should Italy and Conor O'Shea be applauded for their 'no ruck' tactics? Have your say here

I haven't found out why it took England so long to figure it out and after a quick scan of the video, I didn't see any big plays by England showing how the team broke the strategy.