One of lifes great mysteries ........

6 Weeks only, and then French are accused of being paranoid. If Alexis can't play anymore i'm going to be upset

Fair comment and I totally agree.

My dad who used to play at high level said that in 30 years of rugby he's never seen injuries like we've seen in the last few years. What does a poor 20yo broken player do? he's finished with the sport.

also i'm very distraught about poor Thom Evans

Rugby is a full impact sport Thom isn't the first and sadly won't be the last serious injury.

The problem is that in the last few years since the game went professional the bulk, power and strength of the players has increased immensely, IMHO beyond the point the the human body can readily stand.

Sadly I think there will be a vast number of people who can be described as cripples by the time the current generation of professional Rugby players reach the age of 40.

I certainly wouldn't want my son to play the game these days.

I know most of the players from the Great Welsh years of the 70's and they generally agree if they were playing these days there is no way they would get in 2nd rate teams let alone national sides.

6 weeks seems short. I would have suggested 12-15 weeks would have been fairer, as whilst it was a relatively minor injury, it could have been so much worse and the intent was there. He was really going at him.

In addition to Alun's points about player sizes, I think we need to ensure we don't just end up with a bunch of big, slow, gym monkeys. Ball skills are vital, and something we've got to treasure.

Finally, I feel something needs doing about the Cardiff pitch in particular. It's always cut up badly, but it really needs fixing. In addition to the impact-type injuries (Thom, Paterson, Alun-Wyn...) on Saturday, there were a number of soft-tissue injuries, such as Gethin & Dan Parks, which I feel are at least partly due to the playing surface.

The bit I don't understand is in the "old days" a player could chance his arm on the ref seeing him being a naughty boy. Believe me being an ex prop I've done my fair share of that.

However these days with TV cameras recording every fart and after the fact siting ( sp? ) happening regularly ( as in this case ) its moved the risk of being caught up to approaching 100% so why do it ? The punch in the heat of the moment after you had an elbow in the mouth fine that is what its all about but kicking a guys head like that defies belief.

Day job like the rest of us.

yeah but i don't think your colleagues go round breaking your arms so you can't type

I missed that post, Rich.

I need confirmation on this, but I'm sure it used to be in the rules that you couldn't kick to touch from a restart, and (again I'm not sure) meant an opposition line-out on your 22.

Can anyone, who has a better memory than me, remember this?

Law 13.8 - opposition can choose a scrum on the centre, or a re-take, or accept it (which obv. Wales wouldn't have done).

Not entirely or directly 6 Nations related, but Danny Cipriani is going to play in Melborne. Interesting how he already seems to be negotiating a return with Wasps.

makes sense

Hold on....... France have just kick the ball out of play on the restart to finish the game to beat Wales?