[2018 November Tests] England v South Africa (3/10/18)

[Aristodemus]

I thought it was a penalty but I think a bit of perspective is needed to those complaining (not just here but on other platforms I've read). Kruis took a full on shoulder to the face and Gardner took no action because he felt he was going down. These are borderline decisions and overall I thought he reffed the game well.

 

[Duck a l'Orange]

Cipriani's shoulder made contact with the head. Farrell's was below the shoulderline, he did attempt to wrap his arms imo, just. So fair call.

What he said. Below the shoulders, tried to wrap his arms (the laws just say "attempt to grasp" if anyone's interested) and partially succeeded. I don't want to say that rugby's going soft, but... Good hit.

 

[Mr Ruggleby]

My thoughts:

Outmuscled and out-kicked in the 1st half, lucky to only be down by a couple courtesy of Mr. Marx.

2nd half we still looked outmuscled but stayed strong whilst the Saffas ran themselves out of steam.

Positives
- Tom Curry work rate, physicality, rugby nous
- Impact from the bench, I thought all of the forwards upped the intensity and performance vs the men they replaced. Care was also good.
- Farrell came up clutch/lucky when we needed him to, one of the few players to embody the spirit that we need to adopt as a team to have any chance of winning in Japan
- Jonny Mayhem, give that lad the ball!

Negatives
- Tom Curry getting injured, real shame, hoping he recovers quickly or we find an almost identical replacement...
- Daly, looked shakey at fullback under the high ball and was uncharacteristically selfish for a usually classy player
- Slade, best (and only) tackle he made all day was on himself when trying to step in space. Cannot start next week.
- Shields, tackles too high, didn't do anything with the ball in hand, another who should be dropped for the ABs
- Scrum in the first half, I know the springbok starting props are good, but for me it should be Moon, George and Williams starting next week. Hepburn and Sinckler are better off the bench anyway.
- Itoje and Kruis love giving away a penalty, given how Ewels played in limited time, neither should feel safe of their place.

All in all, pretty average performance over the full 80, a lot more needed next week to avoid embarrassment. We did win though and it was a cracking finish, so no need to be too down in the dumps!

 

[Rinkadink]

Compare that to ciprani's tackle, for me owen's tackle was far worse

Compare to the tackle earlier in the match where SA player shouldered England player in the head with force? Why aren't you clamouring for a red card?

It's rugby, don't be precious. Neither incident are worthy of penalties or further sanctions IMHO.

 

[ncurd]

Honestly I think Farrells attempt to wrap is incidental. The tackle I feel leads with the shoulder.

He was a lucky boy but possibly a 50/50 call. I know If be less happy if the shoe was on the other foot.

 

[Duck a l'Orange]

Honestly I think Farrells attempt to wrap is incidental. The tackle I feel leads with the shoulder.

He was a lucky boy but possibly a 50/50 call. I know If be less happy if the shoe was on the other foot.

But he did attempt to wrap Agreed that I'd probably feel differently if it was the other way round.
It was nice to see England actually play with some desire today (not from the start, obviously). Looked like they really wanted it in the second half.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Honestly I think Farrells attempt to wrap is incidental. The tackle I feel leads with the shoulder.

He was a lucky boy but possibly a 50/50 call. I know If be less happy if the shoe was on the other foot.

Aye, it was a penalty for me.
The lead arm flailing round after the collision (and the force of the collision) give enough that England fans could've argued otherwise ("he hit him so hard he went down before farrell could wrap!") but I'm a little surprised that the ref went that way too.

 

[Rinkadink]

. I know If be less happy if the shoe was on the other foot.

I know I would be, for balance. Perfectly correct call by the laws of the game, clearly tried to wrap. I am not salty over the lack of red for the high shot on Kruis.

I get annoyed at cards being given for incidents that really don't deserve them, regardless of who's playing.

 

[Scotty]

6/12 on tackles ain't great for an outside centre, really.

Ok fair one im watching it from a busy pub with copious amounts of alcohol. Was it positional issue in defence? And did he have a bad 80 over all? Attack and defence.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Ok fair one im watching it from a busy pub with copious amounts of alcohol. Was it positional issue in defence? And did he have a bad 80 over all? Attack and defence.

Bit of both, some missed one on ones but the whole defensive allignment of the midfield was trash - Teo got ran over too, and was also repeatedly out of position. You could've driven a bus between the two.

Slade's hands were poor, and that comedy jump tackle thing was just the icing on the cake. I'm not clamouring to see him in an England shirt any time soon - the only good thing I remember him doing was a kick down the wing.

 

[Mr Ruggleby]

Ok fair one im watching it from a busy pub with copious amounts of alcohol. Was it positional issue in defence? And did he have a bad 80 over all? Attack and defence.

It was a bit of both. Positioning was bad and his decision making around when to come out of the line was hit and miss. The more annoying aspect was his tackle technique, he rarely got his shoulder behind the tackle and ended up with flailing arms and basically looking soft. Ball in hand he also didn't offer a lot. I thought his best patch was when Farrell got hit on that inside ball and he stepped in at 10 for a bit. Frustrating because I like him, but the SA centres made him look poor today.

 

[geostar]

Sorry for my comments, I was just mad we did not use our opportunities, but I just feel we stepped backwards from the AB game, firwards were outstanding....its just the backs that did not show promise, maybe we are too much predictive with our backline attack....fir me it's clear that faf is our almighty

 

[geostar]

That 7 of Eng looked like he could become world class on the ground, overall I would have liked to see more running from both teams, nkosi, dyanti, may, ashton, nowell...exciting to watch

 

[bushytop]

So just finished watching the recording... first thought is Malcolm Marx will never play that badly again! Not just his line out throwing (which was awful) but his all around game was just woeful. Also... haven't had time to read the consensus on here but that Faz shoulder at the end SHOULD have been a penalty for me.

Apart from that, credit to England for hanging on in there after being beaten up in the first half... but the attack of both sides was pretty dire.

Have a bad feelin that the Saffas' will get their collective sh@ together for the remainder of their tour and spoil the Welsh AI's (probably with Marx having a MOTM performance!)!

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

I think the reason Farrell got away with it was it just came across as a bad collision. It was a terrible attempt at a tackle due to the strange angle he came from, and he got his head in the wrong place. He was putting himself in more danger than the guy he was tackling, arguably. Totally understandable if he'd been penalised and I wouldn't have argued, but I don't think it's a massive miscarriage of justice.

Agree with someone above (rage?) About feeling conflicting emotions - nice to win but I hate papering over cracks - and my god are we medicore right now...

 

[bushytop]

I think the reason Farrell got away with it was it just came across as a bad collision. It was a terrible attempt at a tackle due to the strange angle he came from, and he got his head in the wrong place. He was putting himself in more danger than the guy he was tackling, arguably

Frikking hell Quinn... George Smith got back to you quickly with THAT explanation!

 

[Tooting Carmen]

That decision not to even award a penalty to SA in the final minute was a disgrace.

 

[unrated]

This is the times that i tell myself "its just a sport dont get too emotionally attached"

 

[NDC89]

The more I watch that tackle by Farrell, the more I am convinced it is a penalty/yellow card. I reckon he will get cited. His tackle technique was the same as SBW's on Watson in the Lions series.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Teo put in a very similar hit on Etzebeth earlier on,

The England Instagram account showed a club of it on their Instagram, I'm not sure why - they're acting like Shields smashed Eben but all it shows is Shields getting knocked backwards and then Teo shoulder charging
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpuWdr4nd2P/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=nggfly20icgc