England v Samoa

[Amobokoboko]

It's only my second time at Twickenham, maybe we could meet at the statue after the game and go pubbing together. Around 7:30 I'm catching up with Pete at Hyde park.

 

[Amobokoboko]

could you pm me your E-mail so we can sort out things tomorrow like exchange mobile numbers etc...

CheerS.

 

[eot345]

i think england are gunna win big .. whos picked for the samoan squad

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Same XV as against Ireland:
Samoa: 15 Paul Williams, 14 David Lemi, 13 George Pisi, 12 Seilala Mapasua, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Tasesa Lavea, 9 Kahn Fotualii, 8 George Stowers, 7 Manaia Salavea, 6 Ofisa Treviranus, 5 Filipo Levi, 4 Kane Thompson, 3 Anthony Perenise, 2 Mahonri Schwalger (capt), 1 Sakaria Taulafo.
Replacements: 16 Ti'i Paulo, 17 Census Johnston, 18 Joe Tekori, 19 Afa Aiono, 20 Junior Poluleuligaga, 21 Jamie Helleur, 22 Gavin Williams.

They'll be starting to gel together more now,
At least we've got players who know a lot of these guys so hopefully they won't pull out any tricks (Sheridan/Hodgson/Cueto know Williams and Schwalger, Youngs n Flood with Tuilagi, Armitage with Mapasua etc.)

 

[Darwin]

Same XV as against Ireland:
Samoa: 15 Paul Williams, 14 David Lemi, 13 George Pisi, 12 Seilala Mapasua, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Tasesa Lavea, 9 Kahn Fotualii, 8 George Stowers, 7 Manaia Salavea, 6 Ofisa Treviranus, 5 Filipo Levi, 4 Kane Thompson, 3 Anthony Perenise, 2 Mahonri Schwalger (capt), 1 Sakaria Taulafo.
Replacements: 16 Ti'i Paulo, 17 Census Johnston, 18 Joe Tekori, 19 Afa Aiono, 20 Junior Poluleuligaga, 21 Jamie Helleur, 22 Gavin Williams.

They'll be starting to gel together more now,
At least we've got players who know a lot of these guys so hopefully they won't pull out any tricks (Sheridan/Hodgson/Cueto know Williams and Schwalger, Youngs n Flood with Tuilagi, Armitage with Mapasua etc.)

I really like the look of this Samoan team -any team that can have the likes of Paulo, Johnston, Polu, and Gavin Williams on the bench is obviously pretty strong! I'm pretty confident that this team should be able to hold its own at scrum time (especially as England are missing Dan Cole), but I'm a bit worried about this teams ability to maintain it's own ball at lineout time. Kane Thomson and Ofisa Treviranus are both ok at lineout time, but I don't recall Levi being particularly strong in the lineouts - at least England don't have Tom Croft starting!

If Samoa get some quality ball they have a backline that could cause England some worries. I'm not a fan of Lavea, as he really doesn't control the game very well, however given front foot ball he can set the backline running. Overall I'd expect England to win the game reasonably comfortably by maybe 15-20 points, but wouldn't be surprised to see Samoa score 2-3 tries.

 

[eot345]

england will have a great advantage in the lineouts

 

[Geoff_]

Looks like a good backline, I expect them be strong at scrum time but for lineouts it looks pretty weaK, lack of quality locks for Samoa.
Hope England dont kick as many penalties as they did last week

 

[Sam Owen]

Yeah uce our backline is good, our lineout is suspect which is suprising given the amount of Volley us Sa's love to play. I just hope we defend hard and well.

 

[Teh Mite]

Looks like a good backline, I expect them be strong at scrum time but for lineouts it looks pretty weaK, lack of quality locks for Samoa.
Hope England dont kick as many penalties as they did last week

Depends how many illegal tackled Tuilagi does to concede them!

 

[Muzzy]

i think England will have to kick their way to victory in this one, if they try to play a more daring and open game like they did against nz and australia it could play into samoas hands, but if they kick their way to victory it could take samoa out. i'd guess england to win by around 18 points, if they win by less than 18 then i'd consider that a great result for samoa

england will have a great advantage in the lineouts

Looks like a good backline, I expect them be strong at scrum time but for lineouts it looks pretty weaK, lack of quality locks for Samoa.
Hope England dont kick as many penalties as they did last week

i never saw the full game between england and australia but wasn't englands lineout awful against the all blacks?

 

[Teh Mite]

i never saw the full game between england and australia but wasn't englands lineout awful against the all blacks?

If you consider losing a couple of your own and stealing only a couple of the opposition throws awful, then yes.

Otherwise, no.

 

[Sam Owen]

i think england are gunna win big .. whos picked for the samoan squad

You think wrong eot345. I think England are gonna win small lol.

 

[Teh Mite]

If Samoa keep it close (regardless of England keeping it tight or opening it up), it will be considered a good day for them. If England allow Samoa to have a good day, it will be considered a bad day for them.

Just about sums it up perfectly.

The key man will be Census Johnston when he comes on - If he's allowed to play at his destructive best, whoever's loosing for England at that point will most likely find themselves in all sorts of trouble. If this happens, the second row and flankers will need to pick up the slack or the entire platform will do a good impression of the Los Angeles architecture in 1994.

 

[eot345]

If Samoa keep it close (regardless of England keeping it tight or opening it up), it will be considered a good day for them. If England allow Samoa to have a good day, it will be considered a bad day for them.
Just about sums it up perfectly.

The key man will be Census Johnston when he comes on - If he's allowed to play at his destructive best, whoever's loosing for England at that point will most likely find themselves in all sorts of trouble. If this happens, the second row and flankers will need to pick up the slack or the entire platform will do a good impression of the Los Angeles architecture in 1994.

i agree with this

i cant see Samoa really getting the better of england in the scrum despite the lack of dan cole... i think england will win by 20 points

 

[Geoff_]

I have a feeling this will be another penalty fest seeing as Samoa dont have a very good discipline record e.g in 2005 against england they managed to get 2 yellow cards and 1 red card
Just hope to see more of that free flowing rugby england showed last week it will be another classic match-up

Go Samoa.! :lol:

 

[Sam Owen]

I have a feeling this will be another penalty fest seeing as Samoa dont have a very good discipline record e.g in 2005 against england they managed to get 2 yellow cards and 1 red card
Just hope to see more of that free flowing rugby england showed last week it will be another classic match-up

Go Samoa.! :lol:

Well we better be well disciplined we cant afford even a yellow because the pressure might be too great in that 10mins. We are NOT dirty players but we do play hard especially in defence and sometimes it goes astray (i.e head highs) but heaps of players accidently go high. If our ill-discipline is made up of constant infringements due to England pressure then we cant do much about that.

 

[Faatau82]

England should have enough depth to cope with anything Samoa throw at them IMHO. I would consider losing by 10 to be a good/encouraging result for Samoa.. and a 20+ win would be a good day for England. As ever, the key for Samoa will be how they work at #10, the lineout and how many penalties they concede. These are all the key factors that lose a game for Samoa usually.. the lineout being the usual bugbear as they can't get a platform to run those big hitters from.

I think England know all about the big threats of Mapusua and Alesana Tuilagi, so will try to snuff them out. Samoa's main plan i would expect is to play broken rugby, keep it disjointed and just improvise off the cuff as that's what any pacific nation excels at, especially against the bigger nations.. it's very hard to defend against if done properly. They need to really get some good clearances in today.. or else England will just smash them with long phases.

Saying that, Samoa can play very well on their day.. they just need to last for 80 minutes, win some lineout ball of their own and make sure they keep it tight. No doubt, they will look at Fiji's efforts yesterday against Wales.. as a measure of their own.

 

[eot345]

i can see dan cole going on the very second after census johnson does

 

[shtove]

I'm curious to see how Banahan does. Does he play a lot with Hape? I know Barkley pretty much has the 12 shirt nailed on, so will this be a new thing, or will there be a little continuity there?
I hope he has a good match/proves some haters wrong (not just because I think he gets an unfair amount of hate his way, I also want England to do well! )

This is the most interesting thing. If Banahan can offload through the tackle the back three will run riot. (Just have to make sure Ashton doesn't butcher any more tries!) No idea about Banahan's defence.

 

[Prestwick]

Look can Samoa just hurry up and win already? I'm getting tired of this "England riding high 4th best team in the world" crap. I liked us better when we were like 9th or something.