[2015 RWC] Pool A: England vs. Australia (03/10/2015)

[McTallshort]

Well that's twice you've said it without any examples or evidence. Maybe next time you should say it in ALL CAPS with lots of exclamation marks - that should convince everyone.

Just put him on your ignore list it works wonders!

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Mike Brown, Johnny may? I hope it's the Wallabies but either of those two could be the one.

Yes Im expecting them to be put into space by a dazzling run from Brad Barriett...

 

[Kiwi_]

The Falou vs Brown match up is a good one. Looking forward to that.

The outside backs are pretty even, maybe slight edge to England, Henry Speight sorely missed for the Aussies. I think the midfield battle is also even, Australia probably with more experience and slightly better, I'd rather have Gits and Kurindrani than Barrit and Joseph. Good choice to bench Burgess IMO.

Farrell is light years ahead of Foley - I think Farrell will win England the game.

Don't really know much about Youngs, but Genia is pretty bad, as is Phipps, can't see Youngs being worse than either of those 2.

Poey and Hooper will dominate the loose.

Line outs probably in Englands favour, was strong against Wales. Simmons and Douglas don't do it for me. Horwill should be there.

The scrum is going to be really interesting, especially after Dwyers comments. I doubt the ref heard or read them though, but it's going to be a really interesting battle.


The game comes down to Farrell vs Foley for me, Biggar could keep up with Farrell and match him, Foley doesn't have much of a chance, he would have to play one of the games of his life to keep up. Australia are slightly better around the park than England, especially in the back row, so if they were to win, it would be from the complete domination of Hooper and Poey, but I don't think the ref will be all that lenient on them, it comes down to this and Farrell vs Foley imo.

The line out ball Aus get will be crucial to, I think England have a chance of disrupting the line out, A LOT.

 

[Mcfadden]

I like the Cheika response. "Talk is cheap. We'll do our "talking" on the field"

Paraphrased. England will face a very different Australia to the one they beat in 2014

Yup. Surely the Aussie forwards won't be nearly as shocking as that game. They were truly appalling. I'm just hoping they don't fold in the set piece. I don't like Cheika for all sorts of reasons, but he's not a stupid man. Surely they'll have learnt from that. By the same token, England will up their game this week. When the Wallabies beat us in Sydney they were gifted with some truly shocking "tackling" by the ABs, and they still didn't exactly thump us. I can't imagine England's defence being that poor. The accuracy of Australia's goal kicking will also come into play.

 

[Kiwi_]

Yup. Surely the Aussie forwards won't be nearly as shocking as that game. They were truly appalling. I'm just hoping they don't fold in the set piece. I don't like Cheika for all sorts of reasons, but he's not a stupid man. Surely they'll have learnt from that. By the same token, England will up their game this week. When the Wallabies beat us in Sydney they were gifted with some truly shocking "tackling" by the ABs, and they still didn't exactly thump us. I can't imagine England's defence being that poor. The accuracy of Australia's goal kicking will also come into play.

Yep - England will win set pieces (Scrum and line out)

Farrell will out kick Foley

Pocock and Hooper will try their hardest, but it won't be enough I think.

I just don't know where the Aussies points are going to come from.

 

[bazz]

Last I checked, England didn't make it out of the group stages at the CWC, lost to Bangledesh, so that isn't really a good example. The Ashes is a test series against one Nation, and congrats you won it 3-2 at home, I was pleased for that win TBH, not a fan of the Aus cricket team.

Your best result at the Cricket World Cup is actually only making it to the quarter finals once or twice? Terrible return.

As far as footballing goes, Wales is actually ahead of you in the rankings now and in Rugby they're ahead of you, so you're not even the best on your Island at your main sports anymore.

Andy Murray is Scottish.

At least you have Lewis Hamilton.

Not trolling or anything, just trying to put things in perspective for some of you. You have delusion of grandeur, you really do. Confidence is one thing, being delusional and arrogant is another. Outsiders perspective looking in. Stay classy Tallshort.

you are correct

 

[RJAH777]

Aus scrum is miles better now. Are we so sure england will win our scrum? Lineout is good with simmons but struggles without him. Things might be even in the set piece. Aus could win a lot of penalties at the breakdown. All this is a likely scenario too based on recent games against top tier nations.

 

[Kiwi_]

Aus scrum is miles better now. Are we so sure england will win our scrum? Lineout is good with simmons but struggles without him. Things might be even in the set piece. Aus could win a lot of penalties at the breakdown. All this is a likely scenario too based on recent games against top tier nations.

Good is a bit of a stretch, I would say adequate, but I think England will win some ball. Aus scrum has improved. It will be interesting. I think England have the upper hand in these areas still.

 

[Mcfadden]

It depends as well. No offence to the English, not having a crack, but against Wales Joe Marler got away with murder. Scrums will be interesting.

 

[RJAH777]

Hopefully Monsieur Poite had taken note and done his homework..

 

[Zed]

Aus scrum is miles better now. Are we so sure england will win our scrum? Lineout is good with simmons but struggles without him. Things might be even in the set piece. Aus could win a lot of penalties at the breakdown. All this is a likely scenario too based on recent games against top tier nations.

We've said that a few times prior to be taken apart by the English scrum... I don't think this time will be any different. I think you're right re breakdown that's where we should be able to get some points.

 

[RoosTah]

We've said that a few times prior to be taken apart by the English scrum... I don't think this time will be any different. I think you're right re breakdown that's where we should be able to get some points.

I do think this time is different though. May be proven wrong, but Cheika's decision to get an Argie scrum coach to really drill our boys seems to have made a bigger and more noticeable difference in our scrum than I can remember

 

[Zed]

I do think this time is different though. May be proven wrong, but Cheika's decision to get an Argie scrum coach to really drill our boys seems to have made a bigger and more noticeable difference in our scrum than I can remember

Fingers crossed. I'm a back so no idea what effect moving Pocock to 8 is going to have on the scrum. Have to have a forward enlighten me!

 

[smartcooky]

The formula is simple for England......win. Lose and they are gone.

The Aussie midfield and outside backs are classy and a yard quicker than England's IMO, but I think there might be a weakness at scrumhalf. We could find out just what a big mistake it was to leave Nick White behind. Phipps is just not in the same class as Youngs and Wiggleworth, and Giteau is not a scrumhalf.

I don't believe England are going to have it all their own way in the forward exchanges either. The Aussie scrum has improved a lot since the last time they played each other. They gave the All Blacks a lot of trouble in the Bledisloe. Ifr Mr Poite has picked up on Joe Marler's illegal scrummaging in the Wales macth, then England could be in for a rough day at the office

Australia by 5 and England become the first home nation to not make it out of pool play.

 

[ncurd]

I see a lot of nonsense has been written overnight both sides as bad as each other. Just to clarify a few things,

Cricket:
England (& Wales) have made the final of three world cups but not since 1992.
We have won a T20 word cup.
The difference between T20, ODI and Test cricket can sometime be comparable to Union, League & Gridiron less in rules but in player transition.
Test ranking tend to be nonsense as they take forever to fix a poor run of form and don't react quickly to good run.most fans unless they are compare themselves to how well they play against Aus, Eng, SA & India
It competes with in terms of size as the world's 2nd sport (Olympics is weird and don't count as an individual sport)

Football:
The ranking can also be nonsense at times England had a poor world cup which Wales didn't qualify for and have won all their Euro qualifier matches. However by virtue of Wales' group being harder and their great work in they have more points up for grabs. Plus most people will tell you England have c been consistently higher ranked they should be. Wales probably are now.

Rugby Union:
The ranking are quite simply a lot of rubbish mid tournament due to double points. Let's see where everyone is at the end....plus if NZ are still top but came second I suspect most people will st they don't matter unless you're a Kiwi.



Now can we try to keep this civil? I will note I very rarely see Internet fights break out between Aus and Eng fans I dunno something but the rivalry between the two countries rarely spills over into resentment and most things are taken in the context of being banter. Don't know why that doesn't happen with other nations as much.

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My biggest worry about Poite (apart from the fact the game will be turgid because of him) and Marler is we'll have a Steve Walsh like experience and he'll scrummage fine but still be pinged because he 'cheats'

Not saying he didn't against Wales it was blatant as he'll and he was extremely lucky but so much has been written about it he may go within the norm on Saturday.

 

[81st_Minute]

Not necessarily. England could still go through if they get 2BPs in a loss against Australia, Australia lose to Wales and England also get 2BPs against Uruguay and get a s**t load of points on Uruguay.

 

[ncurd]

Not necessarily. England could still go through if they get 2BPs in a loss against Australia, Australia lose to Wales and England also get 2BPs against Uruguay and get a s**t load of points on Uruguay.

that doesn't work, England can draw this match with 2 group points but not loose. Reason being we can't get a three way tie if we loose and then we go out on head 2 head between the two teams.

 

[RJAH777]

Not necessarily. England could still go through if they get 2BPs in a loss against Australia, Australia lose to Wales and England also get 2BPs against Uruguay and get a s**t load of points on Uruguay.

Not possible 81st. England will get a bonus point and they will thrash uruguay. Under your scenario, Australia and England would be tied on 13 points but be eliminated on the head to head with Australia. A winning team can at most get one bonus point for 4 tries or more. Never 2. England lose, they are OUT.

 

[ncurd]

And you can't get 2 BPs in a win

 

[81st_Minute]

I was just reading the match point system. 1.1.2 Match points system

The following number of Match points will be awarded for each pool phase Match:



Win 4 points
Draw 2 points
Loss 0 points
4 or more tries 1 point
Loss by 7 points or less 1 point

I assumed you could get four tries, and lose by less than 7pts would count as 2pts. My bad.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

My main focus for this match will be to see whether Poite has another shocker or if he reserves 'those' performances for SA.

I think the team with the most in the tank in the last 10 minutes will take it. I have no idea which team that'd be though.. I'm probably leaning towards Aussie because even if England will have mountains of motivation I've seen enough of the Aussie resolve this year and I think they'd have more team cohesion whereas England have (not unlike SA) made so many changes in the midfield from game to game I don't even think the players themselves know what to expect.