[2014 EOYT] England vs New Zealand

[Patchey]

Wood was an idiot as usual and the sooner he gets dropped the better IMHO - dark arts or not he is not worth his

Yeah agreed. He have away what, three or four penalties and showed no where near his normal work rate. With Attwood and Kruis in the squad we don't even need Wood at the line out.

Wood out, Haskell or Kveaic in.

Also agree on Crotty. One hell of an underrated player.

 

[glawsfan]

NZ deserved their win and England faded as expected. I will say it again England need to use their wings more. In May we have one of the most explosive wingers in the world. He had the ball once today and scored we need to get him more involved like Wales do with North and NZ with Savea. Only player I would look at replacing from that team would be Wood who seems like a passenger to me. Would bring in Haskell or Ewers as another ball carrying option.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Good first half from England, but they were never in it in the 2nd half apart from the scrum demolition at the end. Even when Coles went off for 10, which I though was just handbags, England could not capitalise. Very frustrating.

Still I thought Eastmond, May (nice try, finally) Billy V, Barritt in defence (apart from being bumped off by Savea) and Attwood did well for England.

For NZ, McCaw was a menace at the breakdown, Kaino was pretty good in defence and ball carrying, but the ABs will be disappointed with their lineout and scrum, which were disrupted plenty of times; plus neither Cruden and Barrett really took their chance to nail down that 10 shirt, with some pretty poor missed(wet conditions in the 2nd half permitting). Carter will be licking his lips at the prospect of facing Scotland. Still, their handling in the wet was pretty superb.

Overall, I can't grumble at the result, NZ were as others said the deserved winners. With England, I think that gap in experience is telling and we won't bridge that gap in 12 months. That is 5 losses on the trot to the ABs. So no excuses.

Next up the Springboks and another bruising encounter awaits.

 

[tonydav58]

O

 

[donmcdazzle]

There's got to be some sort of protocol on when the ref can go upstairs.. Awarding a try, and then waiting to hear the crowd blow up at a replay to then decide to check is ridiculous. You're leaving up up to the operator of the stadium big screen (and subsequent crowd reaction), like what happened in SA.

ive got no problem with the refs checking stuff, but it can't be dictated by the stadium big screen operator.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

The TMO is the one who initiated the check. Hence him saying, after the first replay, "No, I got it wrong, I was looking at the advertising lines".
As Smart Cookie has said before, the TMO is in a soundproof room so can't hear the crowd reaction.

 

[tonydav58]

Once again we blew it...after a great start ,why oh why do we resort to our useless kicking game,,i know the weather was bad but to see Danny bloody Care doing box kick after box kick straight to their backs is crazy,,,he needs to be shown how to do it properly...his kicks are too long,not high enough and don't give our backs a chance to get up and challenge the catcher....its ok to kick if you do it well but this guy wastes the hard earned possession our great forwards work so hard for,,,the fwds must be sick and tired of working their asses off to give Care good ball, only to look up and see their backs running it back at them,,Farrell falls into this trap at times kicking aimlessly to their backs but he at least makes up for it by being a reliable place kicker,,,,our backs are pretty good with ball in hand but they never get quick ball ,,,not because of the fwds by the way,,,but because Care and our other scrum halves either kick it away aimlessly or take an age to get it away...Lancaster should give Care a slap and say DONT kick the ball straight to the oppos backs,!!!,vary yr kicks ..either a grubber or a shorter lob to at least give our winger a chance of getting to the ball! All week we,ve read about our new soldier boy winger and what happens?we don't give him the ball...Brown,May et al are great but cant do anything if we kick the ball away,,, ok, the ball was wet but the All Blacks passed it and ran it ok so why cant we? if our lads are so worried about handling a wet slippery ball they shouldn't be playing international rugby...,,,,sad that the only person capable of winning us the world cup is sitting in the studio....Clive Woodward,,,

 

[SelimNiai]

Do you even grammar bro?

Seriously, I'd like to read that but I'd bet even Ewis will find that hard to follow

 

[donmcdazzle]

The TMO is the one who initiated the check. Hence him saying, after the first replay, "No, I got it wrong, I was looking at the advertising lines".
As Smart Cookie has said before, the TMO is in a soundproof room so can't hear the crowd reaction.

So the TMO told Owens he should have a second look?

I thought Owens did after the replay was put in the big screen?

 

[Darwin]

Nigel Owens had a poor match. He made mistakes that effected both sides. I will need to re-watch the match, but I don't think that he was as bad as many are suggesting ( despite me abusing him several times in the match thread ).

Did the home side perhaps get the rub of the green? Probably.
Was he influenced by the crowd? Almost certainly.
Does this make him biased? No, it simply means he is human.

 

[Patchey]

Nigel Owens had a poor match. He made mistakes that effected both sides. I will need to re-watch the match, but I don't think that he was as bad as many are suggesting ( despite me abusing him several times in the match thread ).

Did the home side perhaps get the rub of the green? Probably.
Was he influenced by the crowd? Almost certainly.
Does this make him biased? No, it simply means he is human.

This. X100.

 

[Big Ewis]

Nigel Owens had a poor match. He made mistakes that effected both sides. I will need to re-watch the match, but I don't think that he was as bad as many are suggesting ( despite me abusing him several times in the match thread ).

Did the home side perhaps get the rub of the green? Probably.
Was he influenced by the crowd? Almost certainly.
Does this make him biased? No, it simply means he is human.

see that's where I've got an issue...I don't think human beings are capable of producing the sound he makes when he tries to pronounce the word "use". And YOU'RE WELCOME for the PM

 

[Bean]

I get the distinct impression that refs are being guided by some force (possibly Optimus Prime, Jedi Council or the IRB.) to make matches as interesting as possible towards the end at almost any cost.

 

[tonydav58]

He cant be human,,,,hes Welsh!

 

[Jbobo]

Yeah F**k Welsh people, like they're even near as good as the rest of us. They can't even pronounce proper English or even form proper sentences, unlike the French and everyone else! God i hate the Welsh.

We should wipe them out for sure.



Fking Welsh.

 

[Big Ewis]

England get away with yet another flattering final score against NZ. It's the second time this year in 2014 that they've had a really close score right at the death that makes it look like it was competitive as hell when it wasn't. The All-Blacks really took it to England when it started raining up front and had a good time doing it too, in Twickenham. This AB's side is just seemingly endlessly resourceful...
For England I think it's a compliment in itself that everybody seems disappointed with the result, meaning we're all expecting them to be really good, and stand up to the very best more.
The game itself was exactly what I expected. Didn't think of all ppl May would score, and that was a nice run and he has good pace and took advantage of a very soft situation with an old Conrad Smith back to defend, overtaken amply. I didn't think the AB's pack could be this dominant and take over the game when needed although yes I know Launchbury wasn't there...
All things considered; for there are many things; England get away with an absolutely GORGEOUS final scoreline, and a fine effort certainly (I mean no reason they couldn't have taken 40 today, others would have !) but Lancaster's expression at the final whistle I think says it all for England. For the AB, more good than bad today. Lots of good, you can't complain. Although the goal kicking, and the second unit scrum...that was BAD.

 

[yaboyjj]

England get away with yet another flattering final score against NZ. It's the second time this year in 2014 that they've had a really close score right at the death that makes it look like it was competitive as hell when it wasn't. The All-Blacks really took it to England when it started raining up front and had a good time doing it too, in Twickenham. This AB's side is just seemingly endlessly resourceful...
For England I think it's a compliment in itself that everybody seems disappointed with the result, meaning we're all expecting them to be really good, and stand up to the very best more.
The game itself was exactly what I expected. Didn't think of all ppl May would score, and that was a nice run and he has good pace and took advantage of a very soft situation with an old Conrad Smith back to defend, overtaken amply. I didn't think the AB's pack could be this dominant and take over the game when needed although yes I know Launchbury wasn't there...
All things considered; for there are many things; England get away with an absolutely GORGEOUS final scoreline, and a fine effort certainly (I mean no reason they couldn't have taken 40 today, others would have !) but Lancaster's expression at the final whistle I think says it all for England. For the AB, more good than bad today. Lots of good, you can't complain. Although the goal kicking, and the second unit scrum...that was BAD.

Someone tell my why this troll keeps posting in England threads, never seems to have anything remotely positive/constructive to say and seemingly only exists to slag off the English rugby team.

May was solid and took his try well and I was pleased with Roko in defense too; I can't recollect him getting his hands on the ball though :/
Atwood and kruis looked realy solid and made some great steals in the lineout- Launch is still a big loss though.
Centre partnership actually looked fairly solid in defense- feel realy sorry for Eastmond though, he gets **** poor service from Care/Farrel throughout the match and is expected to create magic with it, then gets ditched on the 60th minute so that Farrell can move to OC. smh. Both halfbacks were shocking today, Farrel apparently in for his superior game management and a 'cool head' in the big games....

Root of the problem today was the breakdown though. Cole and Launch out has realy exposed the backrow, the quality of ball from the rucks was awfull and slow, someone else should be given a go at no.6, Wood is living off past reputation at the moment and I maintain that he offers very little to the pack. Kvesic, Ewers even.... Clarke would be preferable at the moment.

 

[TheSaffycen]

I think Ewis said the truth though. The scoreline really did flatter us like the 2nd test in New Zealand, but he does say that it says a lot about us getting beat and being annoyed that we lost.
Back onto the topic in hand, was Farrell the correct choice ? He looked rusty in the HCup so going against the 1st in the world was he going to be ready ?

 

[Big Ewis]

In essence I'm saying the AB despite specifically two very obscure departments have lots to be happy about and this is a continuation of their efforts of this past Hansen tenure. So resourceful, just when they're met with high quality defense, they find something; when they've got a pressuring pack in front of them, they've got something for that; when the opponents are hectic in the rucks and attack with fervor, they've got something.

And for England: for anybody who is for wtvr reason too lazy to watch this one -> Lancaster's expression at the end of the match. "That was fairly good for a match against the best, but the world cup is in less than a year in our country...there was a caliber of quality between these two teams..." *puts head down*
England can't settle for a "fine effort" now, their progression will not continue exponentially, they've reached or are reaching optimal form, the ceiling of their potential as a group. This match here might be very telling...the one against S.A. will be very, very telling next week.

And yes, I apologize. I'm an evil Frenchman so all I can do is be negative about England. What in the world did you expect ?
Seriously: it's too late in time to clap hands ambiguously with a semi-smile for England now, in November 2014. There were always going to be positives in a match, but the crux of the matter is certainly elsewhere than a handful of "well at least"'s.

 

[SelimNiai]

Someone tell my why this troll keeps posting in England threads, never seems to have anything remotely positive/constructive to say and seemingly only exists to slag off the English rugby team.

May was solid and took his try well and I was pleased with Roko in defense too; I can't recollect him getting his hands on the ball though :/
Atwood and kruis looked realy solid and made some great steals in the lineout- Launch is still a big loss though.
Centre partnership actually looked fairly solid in defense- feel realy sorry for Eastmond though, he gets **** poor service from Care/Farrel throughout the match and is expected to create magic with it, then gets ditched on the 60th minute so that Farrell can move to OC. smh. Both halfbacks were shocking today, Farrel apparently in for his superior game management and a 'cool head' in the big games....

Root of the problem today was the breakdown though. Cole and Launch out has realy exposed the backrow, the quality of ball from the rucks was awfull and slow, someone else should be given a go at no.6, Wood is living off past reputation at the moment and I maintain that he offers very little to the pack. Kvesic, Ewers even.... Clarke would be preferable at the moment.

Hardly trolling. It was a flattering score by the end. The difference between the sides was more than 3 points in reality.