A few thoughts I've had since the game :
1. Sinckler and Curry are very good players.
2. Moon is a good prop, but not good enough to win 1/4, 1/2, finals at WC, so EJ might have to send in a special request to a certain Mr Marler.
3. I hope big Court's injury doesn't rule him out of the WC. We need all 4 of our top class locks.
4. BV isn't as effective as he used to be (think of the first half against france in that high scoring game in the last round a few years ago where for a long while it seemed to be him against France with him winning). He needs to put the weight back on and be used for 50-60 minutes then replaced.
5. Although he bottled one key pass, I thought Youngs did ok. In particular when he showed the speed of mind to get over the goal line to avoid a scrum 5 wales. Came out of the game pretty even in terms of credit/debit for me.
6. Farrell has had an absolute nightmare under pressure. forward passes, charge downs, kicks out on the full etc. For me this has got to be EJ's main concern after yesterday's game. Suggests that he isn't capable of performing in WC 1/4, 1/2, final, which presents a major problem. Suspect EJ will brush it under the carpet and pretend it didn't happen, in which case we might as well start cheering for the other home nations already.
7. EJ obviously took the approach of backing the guys he'd selected to see the game through. This is all very well and good, but it was blatantly obvious that the whole team was stuck in a kind of paralysed quick sand throughout the 2nd half, and were incapable of turning it round.
8. If England are going to have a chance at the WC, they will need all their big players fit, and will need to find a way of getting momentum back in games after it goes. They are clearly some way off the level we hoped they were after the first 2 rounds.
1. I'd add Wilson to that list. He's not a highlight-reel player, but he's consistently everywhere. There was a stat floating around that he's been first to more breakdowns than any other player in the tournament. Does a lot of the grinding work.
2. I've no issues with Moon. He's not flashy, but he's dependable. I don't think he starts if Mako and Genge are fit, but I don't think Marler offers anything Moon doesn't.
3. Aye, no arguments there.
4. I'm not sure about that. He made more metres than any forward on the pitch yesterday. He made more than all players but Liam Williams and Slade. And most of the time he was running into Navidi and Moriarty, who are the definition of heavy traffic. If he can't make yards, he at least sucks in multiple tacklers.
5. Youngs executed his kicks and passes adequately, but his decision making was atrocious. Bear in mind England have 4 excellent kickers in that team, and frankly I'd probably trust May to make a clearing kick too. In the previous games our exit strategy was a bit more nuanced than 'Youngs box kick'; Youngs would pass it back to Faz or Daly, who would have better angles to take the kicks or shift it wide for a counter. If it was closer to half-way, they'd check if there was space at the back; if so, kick. If not, shift. There was a period at the start of the second half where, for about 10 minutes, England looked really dangerous, and it was pretty much because Youngs didn't kick. We were moving the ball wide, and even though Faz was still doing stupid kicks we looked better. There was a bit where Faz put in a good kick seeing that Liam Williams had been forced to come up and cover; it was almost how England had played in the last games! After 50 mins, though, it was back to kicking.
6-8. Faz had a bad day at the office. It happens. I'm not at all concerned about him choking in high pressure games, but I absolutely would have hooked him and Youngs at 60 when the lead was slipping and kicking was getting us nowhere. Absolutely baffled by the lack of substitutions.
As to the overall plan: Whilst I realise it's easy to be an armchair coach, it seemed that England forgot half of their attack plan. Against Ireland: Step 1) they generated space in the backfield by moving wide really fast, forcing the backs to cover. Step 2) Kick into the backfield
England were woeful at executing step 1, and as such they just kicked the ball to a well-prepared backline. I think the fact that France simply didn't put anyone in the backfield 90% of the time threw it all off; there was no need for step 1. At the end of the France game England were just kicking willy-nilly, and it kinda carried over.
