England v New Zealand - 2 November 2024

[Leonormous Boozer]

The All Blacks 10-15 still scare me half to death. Not sure if you'd swap for any of England's backs. Maybe a winger or two. Probably about it.

I'd take Fin Smith at 10 over Beauden.

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

@Welsh Exile

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Joe Marler's notes app must use up an obscene amount of memory.

 

[Umaga's Witness]

The big issue with England is how rarely we get individual sparks of brilliance, how poorly we support a player who shows it and how often we get torn apart by the same. It's like as a team we seem to just not fathom the idea of someone doing something off the cuff to change things up. I've seen players making breaks and nobody even thinking to get on their shoulder to support them, all they are doing is lining up for after the ruck that hasn't even happened.

It's strange because club level actually sees quite a few cases of players trying little moments of brilliance, but it's like that all gets hammered out of them the second they put on an England shirt.

yeah im alwy surprised when i watch english clubs for that reason

 

[Umaga's Witness]

ok interesting team. looks like if de groot wasnt ruled out the whole bench would have started against japan last week. i like that approach, hopeilly we will do better in the last twenty. tosi, new to being a prop, will ne tested against baxter. hope he does ok.
a bit surprised that jordan and telea both not great at defending highballs, for different reasons, are startinh, but at least we know they will have been focusing on it. edit, im not suprised jordan is starting just that he is starting at fullback. he is a much better attacker from.fullback though and has a longer boot than beauden or dmac which is something weve been missing.
hope dmac does alright and roigard who is fresh from injury.
will be interesting to see if teams have developed a plan for sititi.
hope beauden and jordie d and scott dont do too many dumb things.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

The big issue with England is how rarely we get individual sparks of brilliance, how poorly we support a player who shows it and how often we get torn apart by the same. It's like as a team we seem to just not fathom the idea of someone doing something off the cuff to change things up. I've seen players making breaks and nobody even thinking to get on their shoulder to support them, all they are doing is lining up for after the ruck that hasn't even happened.

It's strange because club level actually sees quite a few cases of players trying little moments of brilliance, but it's like that all gets hammered out of them the second they put on an England shirt.

It's partly that, but also it's a big step up so what works at club level won't necessarily work in a test. The intensity, pressure and consequences are ramped up.

But the point about not supporting breaks etc, absolutely. It's where NZ have historically been so good.

I know it's a cliche but I just want us to play what's in front of us. If we see space from our own 22 let's go for it, but if we're clogged down a bit let's kick rather than seeing Smith hitch kick into traffic. Smart rugby, game management, whatever you want to call it.