On the subject of England's discipline, they've now conceded 42 penalties in 3 matches by my count. Some of them may be dubious, but the sheer volume is shocking.
Having now rewatched the match with a cooler head, I went through the penalties to see which were stupid play, which were edgy play, and which I feel the ref just got wrong (not crying bias or anything, it's a fast flowing game and I have the benefit of slow mo and rewinds!)
Something that struck me was that Itoje wasn't actually that bad. He had 5 penalties listed against his name: One of them was actually Jamie George being offside at 27 minutes, but Itoje got pinged.
His deliberate knock on at 3 mins was stupid.
His side entry to a maul at 4 minutes; he binds on Alun Wyn at the front and swings round without letting go of AWJ, which I think is legal? But I can see how the ref missed it, it does look for all the world like he comes in at the side... but on another day this would be smart play.
On 13 minutes he rips, but it's after his knees are on the ground in the tackle so it's playing on the floor. Illegal, but it feels more like playing on the edge than being stupid. Not like he was lying on the floor, but at the same time when you've already been pinged twice in the last 10 mins edgy play probably counts as stupid play
At 27 minutes he's pinged for offside; right call, wrong player, as George was offside.
Then he didn't infringe until 65; this one I found interesting because he goes up in the lineout, lands at the side of the maul, and turns to look at the touch judge. TJ motions for him to step off, and he immediately releases, raises his arms and gets back into line. Got pinged anyway.
I came away from the game with the impression that he'd been an idiot all game, but really he started badly and then cleaned right up.
England as a whole almost did the same thing; in the first half an hour England gave away 8 penalties up until Billy V being offside on 29 minutes. Then, in the next half an hour there were 3 penalties; Mako catching a knock-back in an offside position (instinct?), Hill being an eejit leading to Wales' 3rd try, and Curry's side entry.
In that half an hour the whole demeanour of the team changed. When the ref shouts 'back', pretty much the whole line takes a step back, even those who are clearly onside.
Itoje and Hill, when looking for the chargedowns, were checking their feet to make sure they were onside. If the ref told them to stay they actually shuffled back.
Ref says 'three, no' and Sinckler basically leaps off of the ruck.
There was one where the England line starts to rush, and the ref points at Curry and says 'stop'; whole line stops, Curry raises his arms and backpedals.
I could go on, but England really did make a pretty stellar effort to play to the ref around the breakdown and with offside. Where they fell short were individual dumb moments, like Hill's clearout, Robson changing lines, Ewels jumping/being thrown across the lineout.
And there's an interesting contrast here; in the Scotland game England got pinged three times at the breakdown in the first five minutes alone (off feet and two not rolling) and continued to do so throughout the match. But Faz's was the only 'not rolling' in the Wales game, and Genge's 'off feet' is another dubious one to my mind. Perhaps it's differences in reffing style, but England did seem far, far cleaner in and around the breakdown.
