[2017 RBS Six Nations] Round 2: Wales vs England (11/02/2017)

[The5thOfficial]

Strangely for me, I was comfortably confident that we would win.

lol!

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England were not 5 points down they were only 2 points down with 5 mins to go so a drop goal would have won it so i would say it was a pretty even game until then?

Cant understand all this welsh confusion about being the better team....its baffaling

I don't think its just 'welsh' confusion. Maybe general confusion! But I wasn't making a thing of that I was just commenting because it had been commented on so much!

 

[jackass11]

Fair enough!

 

[Peat]

What monumental mess up? JD couldn't easily kick to touch because Sinckler was in the way, Sincklers great effort pressured him into making an average clearance. Ford, followed by Farrell, then had the ability to put in 2 perfect long passes giving Daly the space. England's execution was spot on. The only reason JD was in a position to make that kick is because Williams was allowed to play the ball off his feet (yellow card?). It was the Welsh who then chose not to run another ruck to give Biggar time to make the kick. It was GD who chose not to take the pressure on himself and box kick. It wasn't that awful a kick either, from within his own goal line he cleared past the Welsh 10m line. It was the Welsh defence that didn't then work hard enough to get in position, and it was English skill that exploited that.

Why should the activities of the last 6 minutes be any more significant than those in the first? Or those in the middle? If Farrell had made the correct defensive read and stopped Williams scoring? The game is played over 80 minutes, and over 80 minutes the Welsh team were not the better side.

Wales' team made multiple bad decisions in those last moments, from GD, to JD, to Roberts, to Cuthbert, and many of those decisions/plays were heavily influenced by what England were doing.

And at the end of all of that, even if you just want to put it all on JD's kick, then JD is part of the Welsh team, and if his decision makes the Welsh team worse, then the Welsh team is worse.

Davies should have just blasted it right at Sinckler and let him charge it down over the dead ball line. He'd never be able to collect it or pounce on it, and that would have given Wales a rest and a 22 drop out. 20/20 hindsight at work there admittedly!

What isn't 20/20 is that the Welsh really badly needed a rest at that moment. 30 or seconds just to suck in some oxygen. They were never going to be up in a smart defensive line from that kick. And that's why the ball had to go dead.

Fully agree that Gareth Davies needed to box kick that himself or run another phase to let a better kicker get in position for it - unless they wanted a left footed option there?

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Davies should have just blasted it right at Sinckler and let him charge it down over the dead ball line. He'd never be able to collect it or pounce on it, and that would have given Wales a rest and a 22 drop out. 20/20 hindsight at work there admittedly!

What isn't 20/20 is that the Welsh really badly needed a rest at that moment. 30 or seconds just to suck in some oxygen. They were never going to be up in a smart defensive line from that kick. And that's why the ball had to go dead.

Fully agree that Gareth Davies needed to box kick that himself or run another phase to let a better kicker get in position for it - unless they wanted a left footed option there?

For sinkler to charge it down he would almost have to be in the in-goal area.

So it would have been 5m scrum and not 22 drop.

All that matters is who brings the ball into the in-goal area, not who makes the ball go dead.

 

[martinspoonboy1]

Biggar's face . . .

 

[Peat]

For sinkler to charge it down he would almost have to be in the in-goal area.

So it would have been 5m scrum and not 22 drop.

All that matters is who brings the ball into the in-goal area, not who makes the ball go dead.

Ahh. Wasn't quite sure on the rules there. Thanks.

 

[Which Tyler]

Biggar's face . . .

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Cuthbert pulls some brilliant faces

http://www.southwales-eveningpost.c...52/Article/images/30132408/15853834-large.jpg

Apparently he was told Wales are going to have daily training sessions and he just started crying.

 

[ncurd]

+1 then some.

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

You say that but! The game was lost with that JD clearance kick in the last 5 minutes. You wouldn't be able to say without that monumental mess up, had Wales gone on to win that the best team lost surely? Sure there were chances and points not taken where there should have been - but even without those Wales were ahead with 5 minutes to go. That one kick did the damage. It lost them the game.

That kick was part of the game though. You can't dismiss it any more than other play. Wales failed to execute and that is part of who played better that day.

 

[Maverick1987]

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but they were only 2 points ahead (16-14) at the time of JD's kick.

Strangely for me, I was comfortably confident that we would win. We were pilling on the pressure at that point, our line out was going well and by that stage our driving maul was eating meters. If JD's kick had gone out for a lineout on the 22, I do think we'd still have come away with 2/3 points min.

Yeh this was my feeling as well . When the Welsh started to tire (which was ALOT later than I thought they would . To me it was 70ish minutes + I always had the feeling we were going to win . Whilst I was ecstatic that we scored that wonderful try, I always thought points were coming for us in one way or another

 

[jackass11]

Just rewatched the game and england dominated the ball and territory from 60 mins in the second half (and the first 20) Wales defo had the middle 40 so even game overall, england just had more composure and better execution

Hughes was also quite good, best carrier of the ball in both packs by a mile, too many people have listened to the media and views are clouded by a few of his carries where he got pushed back, that happens to all the number eights including billy!

I also thought ford was very good in the last 15 once on the front foot, really picked wales apart, v good to watch

Great game! Wales v good as well!

 

[The Jones Boy]

Hughes was also quite good, best carrier of the ball in both packs by a mile, too many people have listened to the media and views are clouded by a few of his carries where he got pushed back, that happens to all the number eights including billy!
!

The media is populated by fools like Stephen Hughes. 'nuff said.
Nathan Hughes had a cracking game.

 

[martinspoonboy1]

Yeah I've watched it back and Hughes has a great game. As did Lawes who carried so much better than usual!

 

[McTallshort]

If Wales were the better team they would have cleared to touch and not kicked the ball to an English backline that play with a lot of width.

If the ref had been on his game Liam Williams would have been penalised for handling on the floor.

If England were not the better team they would have lost.

 

[The5thOfficial]

If Wales were the better team they would have cleared to touch and not kicked the ball to an English backline that play with a lot of width.

If the ref had been on his game Liam Williams would have been penalised for handling on the floor.

If England were not the better team they would have lost.

That was exactly what I said, more or less.
But so would Youngs have been penalised - that's all 50/50 and refs decisions etc. Swings and roundabouts.
Ah that old cherry again. My point was they almost DID lose! Just that last 5 minutes!

 

[DozeyPillock]

I'm just glad that the kick was fielded by Ford, with Faz and Daly back with him. Had it been Brown in any of those positions then I fear he would have taken the ball into contact and lost the opportunity

 

[Raggs]

That was exactly what I said, more or less.
But so would Youngs have been penalised - that's all 50/50 and refs decisions etc. Swings and roundabouts.
Ah that old cherry again. My point was they almost DID lose! Just that last 5 minutes!

I don't think Youngs was offside. Jiffy yelled about it, but on the replay, and as BCM suggested, he looked fine.

 

[ALJ]

I don't think Youngs was offside. Jiffy yelled about it, but on the replay, and as BCM suggested, he looked fine.

He was fine to my eyes, he didn't move until hands were on the ball - I think Davies admitted as much following the replay.

 

[McTallshort]

Good teams play for 75 minutes, winning teams play for 80.

The welsh need to let go now. They raised their game massively but still lost at home to a depleted England team missing at least 4 of its best players from the squad. All the talk about substitutions, late kicks etc means nothing, The scoreboard shows the better team. Move on to Scotland