NatWest 6 Nations 2018 Championship - talking points

[L'irlandais]

NatWest 6 Nations 2018 Championship
:eng::france::ireland::italy::scot::wales:

Seconds out. Round one.

I genuinely wonder which French XV (or should that be XXIII?) will turn up this evening.

 

[crossref]

I hope one that will create a shock and win !

In my office predictions league this season I am mostly predicting home wins. (Italy excepted, of course)

 

[L'irlandais]

We will see soon enough. The home supporters seem subdued enough; the French Union is in meltdown. Hopeful they do turn up, it will make for a cracking game. England are still favourites to win the Championship, despite Eddie Jones’ mind games. Let’s see if Conor ‘O Shea has any more banana skins in his arsenal.

Ireland are the only side to have beaten England under Eddie Jones, having thwarted their Grand Slam attempt during last year's Six Nations.

But it might come down again, to a St. Patrick’s Day show down. Source: BBC

 

[Marc Wakeham]

Ireland or England to win. Scotland third, France then Wales and finally Italy.

 

[L'irlandais]

Anyone been following these predictions?

The QBE Rugby Predictor has been developed by actuaries who have taken a complex mathematical formula and computer model normally used in their day jobs – predicting the likelihood of earthquakes and floods – and used it to simulate the tournament 10,000 times to produce outcomes from 150,000 different games.

PREDICTIONS FOR THIS WEEKEND’S GAMES
Wales 23 – 19 Scotland
France 17 – 24 Ireland
Italy 12 – 36 England

 

[SimonSmith]

Anyone been following these predictions?

The QBE Rugby Predictor has been developed by actuaries who have taken a complex mathematical formula and computer model normally used in their day jobs – predicting the likelihood of earthquakes and floods – and used it to simulate the tournament 10,000 times to produce outcomes from 150,000 different games.

Christ. I hope they're better at their day jobs.

 

[L'irlandais]

Full-time Wales 34-7 Scotland :wales:

They got it covered.

To put this in context, when assessing properties in hurricane prone areas, for example, the actuaries’ model might expect to have five years of no hurricane activity, but they still need to allow for a devastating hurricane hitting at any moment.

MATTHEW CRANE, Executive Director Market Management, QBE Business Insurance, said: "The rugby predictor shows why you can’t take anything for granted. Using some seriously scientific analysis QBE has shown why you should never assume the outcome is 100% assured. Just as we insure our business customers for all eventualities, we suggest none of the teams go into their games thinking they’ve got it in the bag”.

I wonder how it did over previous seasons. Last November for example

 

[Marc Wakeham]

That (Wales 34-7) was not one I think anybody woud have predicted. If someone did I would be smelling a rat!

 

[L'irlandais]

Full time, France 13-15 Ireland
Inaccurate in terms of the score line, but still predicted the result.

 

[Christy]

I could not watch another game as stale & boring as the france v ireland game . ( in this life )
France delivered their typical play in last 10 mins & totally change the out come of the game ( thankfully sexton kicked drop goal to win ) ,,a bit of knee ( sorry head injury ???? ) farce from france .

Apart from frances try ,,the knee gate injury ( sorry head ) & sextons drop goal.
There is really nothing else to look at .
At half time on bbc ,,they even said there were no clips worth looking at .

 

[L'irlandais]

Yeah. Ireland kept France in the game with silly unforced errors. And France kept the Irish scoreboard ticking over with their indiscipline, giving away far too many penalties. But in this professional era, a win is a win.

I wonder what the citing officer can do about deceit by the medical team?

Dupont’s was particularly controversial as it brought Maxime Machenaud, a renowned kicker, back into the fray. Sexton was clearly upset and was seen remonstrating with Nigel Owens, but the Welsh referee’s hands were tied as he had been told – apparently by the independent doctor – that it was HIA.

About time an “independent” doctor was struck off the medical record. Will probably only happen when a genuine Head injury is ignored and a player suffers the consequences of error. Might make them thinking twice about treating player safety as a game tactic.

Dr Wendy Chapman of bloodgate fame: Warned about her unprofessional conduct by the General Medical Council, in 2010, but was allowed to continue her practice.

 

[crossref]

They could adopt the interchange system, and the problem promptly disappears

 

[pedr]

I thought the protocol was to remove and assess anyone who might have suffered a concussion. Since Nigel Owens said and signalled HIA when he stopped the game, the doctor might not want to say that there was no chance of a concussion - after all the cameras do not catch everything, as has been noticed in criticisms in the other direction: where players have been concussed and not removed for assessment.

The fact that it is likely that Nigel Owens did not see anything which led him to suspect a possible concussion and was signalling out of an abundance of caution, and that it is likely that the only injury was to the player’s knee, doesn’t mean it was wrong to call it an HIA. Owens sounded sceptical, but I think he just wanted to make sure that the communication via the (French?) 4th Official was clear and accurate and he was certain the doctor was calling for an HIA.

 

[L'irlandais]

They ignore/abuse the HIA protocol when it suits them. Medical doctors have a duty of care to their patients. They can hardly be considered independent, if they make decisions based on instructions from the coaching staff. A difficult situation for a doctor if his employer tells him to forget about his Hippocratic Oath.

 

[wayner]

Since Nigel Owens said and signalled HIA when he stopped the game, the doctor might not want to say that there was no chance of a concussion - after all the cameras do not catch everything, as has been noticed in criticisms in the other direction: where players have been concussed and not removed for assessment.

I watched this a few times and I belive that Nigel may have signalled HIA because that is what the Fench team medics said as they arrived to treat the injured player. He (nigel) signalled that a few seconds after he stopped the game and the medics had already arrived. But if they used the TMO it would be clear that there was no collision involving his head and that calling this an HIA was incorrect.

 

[crossref]

You can't TMO review a medical decision!

They could fix the problem by changing the system to remove the special advantages attached to a head injury , as opposed to any other type of injury
Changing to interchange system would be a simple answer

 

[Marc Wakeham]

But if they used the TMO it would be clear that there was no collision involving his head and that calling this an HIA was incorrect.

A very dangerous road to go down. For one you don't have to have contact for concussion to occur! https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/concussion/ So using this TMO is this way could be highly dangerous and result in concussion being missed with potentiall life threatening results.

 

[kaypeegee]

Hey. I work for them! And I'd like to think I was ok at my day job. 2\2 wrt results (noon Sunday) Scotland over hyped.

 

[L'irlandais]

I think crossref’s suggestion sounds like a sensible work round. (Probaly why WR will never likely implement it.)
Forget about the possibility of using the HIA as a tactic for a second. As French coach denied any part in the decision of HIA. The player had possible damage to anterior cruciate ligament. And he was allowed limp off the field of play.

How about the medical doctor asking the match ref, “Sir he has clearly hurt his knee, can we get the golfcart on here, so he doesn’t do any further damage?” That’s his duty of care to the patient, minimizing further damage.

 

[L'irlandais]

Supercomputer prediction Italy 12 – 36 England

It seems the more predictable the scoreline, the closer the QBE software is.
Full time: Italy 15-46 England