General Sports Thread

Just watched the highlights. Looks like England have some good new blood coming through. Marcus Smith and Freddie Steward are clearly the future of the team.

 

Watched the rugby on Prime listening to Radio Solent yesterday. Very much a game of two halves with England running in 2 tries before halftime trying to defend against a resurgent SA pack in the second half. SA missed some kickable penalties as England's penalty count escalated under the enormous pressure they were put under. But they stuck at it, adjusted their tactics and held on for a memorable win. It was a great game to have witnessed.

 

I had it on the iPad whilst watching the Saints game on tv, but couldn’t really concentrate on it.
The number of penalties that SA had - were many down to England being sloppy with their discipline? I’m no expert on RFU but have previously listened to the commentary teams criticising poor discipline in being the reason for penalties being awarded within kicking distance of the posts.

Cracking result though.

 

RU refs, especially international ones, will mercilessly punish persistent offences, and once a team has given away a couple of penalties in the red zone for going offside or off your feet in the ruck, or similar, the ref will watch you even more closely. It is obviously difficult to keep your discipline when under huge pressure, but that is part of what makes a great team. England have a poor track record with this, and until they improve, they won’t win another World Cup.

 

It was not so much poor discipline, more a case of being under so much pressure from the SA pack that to hold onto the ball or to root out the ball from the ruck was to infringe. The scrum came apart and the lineout started to fail; it was immense forward play by SA. But they made subs, really dug deep and got themselves out of a very deep hole. It's a young side, with a few old heads and a very inexperienced front row for much of the game. SA showed why they are the No. 1 ranked side

 

Verstappen dropped 5 places to 7th on the grid, Bottas drops 3.
Were they not guilty of the same offence?

 

Ah, if I understand it, Verstappen ignored/missed 2 yellow flags and Bottas 1.

 

Then Bottas should have had a 2.5 place penalty abs have to start down the central lane of the grid

 

Come on Fernando!

 

Correct .

 

Oh dear, front left tyres are going left, right and centre now.

 

Fool .

they can go left and right , but centre ?

 

Just a stupendously good drive from Alonso. Deserves this bit of luck with the VSC.

 

Alonso on the podium! What a drive!

 

Not the most exciting of races. Lewis was just far too quick for Red Bull again, once he got away off the line cleanly it was a foregone conclusion. Anyway, just 8 points between Max and Lewis now!

 

Bottas again fails to suppo

Agreed, he was certainly concerned with his left front with all the same tire failures occurring elsewhere. Great drive by a great driver who, had he made better team choices, would have won more world championships. Until Max, the only real driver in my opinion, to be able to race proper against Lewis.

 

Is the track in Saudi is still being constructed, or is it just the surroundings being completed?
I remember reading that it was going to be close to not being ready in time.

 

Great drives by Fernando and Max in particular. Lewis faultless too.

 

Max's drive (like Lewis last week) was set up by his first lap. By getting from 7th to 4th so quickly it made life much easier for him. I can't remember the last time Lewis just cruised from start to finish which is credit to how good Max has been.

 

Jeez that Vikings-Packers game was intense! Vikings made hard work of it but any win against the Packers is a great win.