[2018 November Tests] England vs New Zealand 10/11/18

[Immenso]

are we saying DMac is the first choice 15 now?

He's not the best NZ fullback, but he'll be first choice on Saturday based on current team set-up.

It's the one area of experimentation that is currently occurring. They are wanting to play 2 first receiver capable playmakers in the team, which pushes the best fullback (Smith) to the wing. Mo'ouga comes on as second half sub and Beauden moves back to fullback.

It's interesting, as DMac is obviously well suited to the second half sub role. But is serves 2 purposes, it gets game time into Mo'ouga as well as moving the team to a two playmakers set-up that the coaches have a chubby for.

 

[Derpus]

I still think the best playmaker arrangement for the darkness is 10. Mo'unga 15. Barrett

Barrett is a better fullback than anyone else, and hes a better fullback than he is 10. I don't rate DMac at test level as much as i do at Super level.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

I still think the best playmaker arrangement for the darkness is 10. Mo'unga 15. Barrett

Barrett is a better fullback than anyone else other than Ben Smith, and hes a better fullback than he is 10. I don't rate DMac at test level as much as i do at Super level.

fixed it for you ;o)

 

[Derpus]

I guess. But he's just as good as your hybrid wing/fullback and then Ioane or Naholo (personally prefer Naholo but eh) as your strike winger. Dont think two strike wingers is balanced enough.

 

[All Black]

This is the game pommies and gentlemen. This is the one Im looking forward to. I think we'll beat Ireland but Im not so sure about England, especially after they beat the Boks. This is the real test.

 

[Derpus]

This is the game pommies and gentlemen. This is the one Im looking forward to. I think we'll beat Ireland but Im not so sure about England, especially after they beat the Boks. This is the real test.

Ireland are much better than England based on their most recent performances.

England finished 5th in the 6 nations and lost their tour to South Africa, and scraped the win against South Africa at home (which should have been a loss if properly officiated).

Ireland have only really lost the one game recently, to Australia. And they were missing Sexton for most of that match.

 

[All Black]

Ireland are much better than England based on their most recent performances.

England finished 5th in the 6 nations and lost their tour to South Africa, and scraped the win against South Africa at home (which should have been a loss if properly officiated).

Ireland have only really lost the one game recently, to Australia. And they were missing Sexton for most of that match.

Yeah I know Ireland is supposedly better than England. But I just think we'll beat Ireland. Its England Im not sure about. England have a fair history of beating us.

 

[Umaga's Witness]

Daly ... didn't even look for May when he was open.

Not true, he made the right decisions. You might want to watch again and not trust the commentator because if you watch more closely you can see the commentator was clearly wrong.

The commentator had no idea, was clearly biased against daly such was his one-eyed perspective. I don't know anyhting about teh commenttor so i'm not necessarily suggesting his bias was conscious, but conscious or unconscious it was certainly real.

On one occasion Nkosi was clearly directly in the way of a pass to may adn the commentator claimed he should have passed it. on another occasion it was a 1.5 on 3 if he passed to may, which almost certainly would have resulted in may getting tackled and thn a 2 on 5 at teh ruck, massively risking a turnover. and the commentator went on and on about how he should have passed to may.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Yeah I know Ireland is supposedly better than England. But I just think we'll beat Ireland. Its England Im not sure about. England have a fair history of beating us.

I don't think historic results count for anything - Ireland's result two years ago is far more relevant than England's 6yrs/15yrs ago

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

I remember when Foden first cam on the scene he really struggled with the high ball, but after a week or two he was fine. I have hope that Daly can fix his issues in a week.

 

[Umaga's Witness]

Really? It couldn't be clearer who is going to play. They sent 22 of the 23 to England a few days early from Japan.

McKenzie
Smith
Crotty
SBW
Ioane
Barrett
Smith
Read
Savea
Squire
Whitelock
Retallick
Franks
Taylor
Moody
-------
ALB
Mo'ouga
Perenara
Todd
Barrett
Tu'ungafasi
Harris
Tuinukuafe

Of interest:
Mo'unga and Tu'ungafasi the only ones to back up from Japan last week.
Goodhue I assume it will be too soon after glandular fever.
Possible the 2 halfbacks swap roles with TJP starting.

I think goodhue will play, not sure whether starting or on the reserves, but does depend on how fit he is.

Personally i'd swap mckenzie and barret too, positionally. but i know it won't happen.

 

[Mr Ruggleby]

I don't think historic results count for anything - Ireland's result two years ago is far more relevant than England's 6yrs/15yrs ago

I think the England team have a general aura about them that comes from the Wilkinson/Johnson era, the wealth of the union and the depth of talented players available that makes people feel like they can always pull a result out of the bag regardless of form leading in or available personnel.

With the Celtic nations, the stereotype is that it all has to be driven by emotion and occasion which is something that is much harder to anticipate until it happens.

The difference now, and why I think you are right, is that this Ireland team is genuinely on par with the All Blacks in terms of form, talent and coaching. The only reason that there is anywhere near as much hype around the England v NZ game as Ireland v NZ is history and media focus. Ireland are bona fide contenders for the best team in the world, England (much as I wish otherwise) are just not there right now.

Despite saying all of that, I fully expect England to beat Ireland at Twickenham in the 6 nations. Confidence? Arrogance? Hubris? or just that magic aura...

 

[spartan32]

So will Shields playing for us disquiet the ABs? He does have a lot of inside knowledge having captained Barrett and Savea at the hurricanes and played with many of th others at one time or another.

I think there's a fair chance that having on the pitch would also boggle their minds. Surely they'll be the temptation the target him, breaking their focus. And maybe he could get under their skin with a bit of chat. Of course there's always the chance that Sheilds will be the one rattled.

As for Daly I think it's good if he gets another chance at 15. We don't need to win this game, in fact the pressure is all on the ABs. Win and they simply beat an England side racked with injuries looking to rebuild, lose and blood will be in the water.

 

[MikeTheNative]

If England play like they did in the 1st half of the SA game it will be a massacre, you would not expect NZ to miss so many chances to convert. I can't see England playing that badly again, however you can play well against NZ and still end up loosing by quite a bit.

 

[ncurd]

I think the England team have a general aura about them that comes from the Wilkinson/Johnson era, the wealth of the union and the depth of talented players available that makes people feel like they can always pull a result out of the bag regardless of form leading in or available personnel.

There also the fact 2006 and possibly this year aside we are generally not **** poor. We are always contenders in the 6 Nations to the extent anything worse than a 2nd place finish is considered a bad year.

Also we've known to knock out an exceptional performance against the form book.

Still absolutely Ireland are currently by far and away the NH side to beat. ABs should be more concentrated on them.

 

[Umaga's Witness]

So will Shields playing for us disquiet the ABs? He does have a lot of inside knowledge having captained Barrett and Savea at the hurricanes and played with many of th others at one time or another.

I think there's a fair chance that having on the pitch would also boggle their minds. Surely they'll be the temptation the target him, breaking their focus. And maybe he could get under their skin with a bit of chat. Of course there's always the chance that Sheilds will be the one rattled.

As for Daly I think it's good if he gets another chance at 15. We don't need to win this game, in fact the pressure is all on the ABs. Win and they simply beat an England side racked with injuries looking to rebuild, lose and blood will be in the water.

He deosn't have all that much inside knowledge. Playing with players in the hurricanes is not all that relevant, nor is playing with other players in under 21s or whenever you are suggesting he did so. And nor will the All Blacks care to target him. If anythign the All Blacks will be overconfident by thinkng england can't be that good if shields is good enough to be in the team.

 

[All Black]

I don't think historic results count for anything - Ireland's result two years ago is far more relevant than England's 6yrs/15yrs ago

Yeah fair point. The thing is - when Ireland beat us, it was quite controversial as ref Raynal made some suspect calls. We knew we were better than Ireland and so we proved that in the very next game. We won the last game. Can Ireland beat us twice? we'll have to wait and see but I remain confident.

 

[ncurd]

when Ireland beat us, it was quite controversial as ref Raynal made some suspect calls.

BINGO!

 

[Umaga's Witness]

There also the fact 2006 and possibly this year aside we are generally not **** poor. We are always contenders in the 6 Nations to the extent anything worse than a 2nd place finish is considered a bad year.

Also we've known to knock out an exceptional performance against the form book.

Still absolutely Ireland are currently by far and away the NH side to beat. ABs should be more concentrated on them.

i think some in NZ also noticed their top form not so long ago (18 wins) and not know of or understand the reasons why they may not return to that form. Also, for a long time ireland choked pretty badly against us whenever they got a sniff of victory, but england never really have.

i'm defintly more afraid of Ireland but still cautious of england. I don't feel we've really got into our rhythm this year, so could easily have a bad game., and defence hasn't been so good for a while now. but i think the likely outcome is we'll win comfortably, especially if england employ similar defensive tactics as tehy did last week. Against Ireland it could go either way. htey are more consistent and well organised than us, so it might come down to whether or not we execute enough undefendible flashes of brilliance due simply to sheer skill and athleticism. And that's a risky thing, so pretty much roll the dice to estimate whether that will happen.

 

[All Black]

BINGO!

Thanks for agreeing. Till this day, there has been no clear footage of Irelands first try. Raynal didn't even see it a grounding. He just awarded it lol.