England v Japan - 24/11/2024 (16.10)

[Lé Ddanno]

Looking at the weather forecast, this could be an 'up the jumper' game. Rain all weekend and high winds, which might die back during the game.

Beat Japan with forward grunt? No-one is impressed.
Lose a close game (and the weather will make it lower-scoring) due to one piece of brilliance? Pitchforks at the ready.

Can't even close the roof...

Good. And I hope Eddie has done an Eddie for it, the spiteful ***** that he is might do one of his upsets

 

[Reiser99]

Would you have taken wins regardless of performance? I probably would have and taken the view it was something to build on (and don't under estimate the confidence of winning or vice versa). Very fine margins, but they are at this level.

Another concerning thing though was that these were home fixtures which are supposed to give a significant advantage.

But in the last few months we've beaten Ire who beat Fra who beat the ABs who beat Arg who beat the Boks who beat Aus who beat us. We *just* need to get on the right end of some of these results.

So what are SB's priorities for the 6N?

No1 has to be to find the winning habit. We're leaking points and losing games, but not really being humped on the scoreboard. Concede one try fewer per game and things could look very different…..it will be disappointing if the D doesn't look a shedload better.

Win is always better, but I'm definitely of the opinion that performance matters just as much as results, especially if you're supposedly building to something. People say great teams know how to win ugly, but those ugly wins are usually in between comfortable wins and good performances. If England had won one game ugly, it would have been an ugly win surrounded by ugly losses. That's the sign of a struggling team.

I disagree slightly with getting on the right end of these results. I think we've regressed. If we played as well as we did in NZ then we'd have won at least two games (probably NZ and Aus). We played a lot worse than we did in the summer, especially in defence. At this point, I'm not sure getting some wins would lead to a huge improvement because there is something fundamentally wrong with how England are being coached. It's either that or we hope that losing two coaches has had a huge impact on the team, even though many are experienced players.

For the 6Ns, obviously we need to win games. Italy and Wales are a must. Scotland should be too, but England will have to earn that. Picking off one of Ireland or France would be an excellent tournament and put England in with a shout of winning possibly. However, based on the autumn, an improvement in defence is a must as well. As you said we're leaking points and trying to out score teams is never a secure game plan. The best teams have a strong defence and a strong attack, not one. If we win 3 games with a poor defence and scraping results, then that wouldn't be good enough because then we're still not making progress.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Telegraph thinks Asher will be replacement loosehead

 

[Lé Ddanno]

Telegraph thinks Asher will be replacement loosehead

Is Genge borked? I wouldn't really be looking to start Fin if it wasn't absolutely necessary. Also is this a Charles Richardson job because he's a ******* hack

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Telegraph thinks Asher will be replacement loosehead

Guardian saying likewise and thinking he'll be joined by Murley.

Why the late announcement compared with previous matches?

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

What type of defence to Oyonnax have? That's Joe El Abd' other club right?

If he hasn't coached a blitz defence before then it will longer for the systems to be put in place properly and fine tuned. With only 3 games it would have been a disaster to change it round completely.

As to what we should do going forward? I don't know it depends on Joe El-abds strengths as a defence coach.

Apparently it's up and out as opposed to England's up and in.