England v Scotland

[B10]

A bit low key but we have actually (pretty much) won the 6 nations with that result

 

[veux]

I recon Wilko and Banahan should be starting against Ireland next week - England improved this week and last when Wilko came on.

Aside from that we REALLY need to let Hape go, he does **** all and is literally a waste of space on the field. Against teams that will slow our ball down, we can't just rely on 2 backs whose only talent is to run into people.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Hartley had his worst game in an England shirt today, Ashton was pretty poor too, gave away too many pens
Croft made a good impact off of the bench

Hape was arguably our best back, and I can't stand him (Foden was the best back, but Hape was 2nd)

 

[B10]

Wonder what Tindall's injury is like whether Banahan would start or Flutey be recalled

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Banahan would start and Armitage would bench, I reckon (<--Seen pictures of him in training, so he'll be in with a shot, unfortunately)

 

[best_fullback]

Oh well a win is a win I suppose. Would just have preferred a better performance. Roll on next week and we can forget about that shambles as quickly as possible!

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Never ever thought i would say this but banama added alot to our game when he came on i was really impres
sed by him. There were so many errors but our execution was nearly there. We weren't as far from the mark as it might seem

 

[Teh Mite]

Banahan would start and Armitage would bench, I reckon (<--Seen pictures of him in training, so he'll be in with a shot, unfortunately)

That over rated, petulant tosser should never play for England again.

 

[Prestwick]

I recon Wilko and Banahan should be starting against Ireland next week - England improved this week and last when Wilko came on.

Aside from that we REALLY need to let Hape go, he does **** all and is literally a waste of space on the field. Against teams that will slow our ball down, we can't just rely on 2 backs whose only talent is to run into people.

Hape vanished when Bananaman started doing his job for him and you can't have that when you're 3 points down with ten minutes left on the clock.

I keep going back to this but Scotland's forwards made a real meal out of England today. Tom Wood seemed to have been well shackled really. He couldn't do the Richard Hill (AKA GOD, THE KING OF KINGS, ETC) kind of behind the scenes work because he never got to the breakdown in time to make any difference. Then again you could say the same for a lot of the England forwards.

7 or 8 Scotland turnovers. You don't get that much turnover ball without something seriously going wrong with how England approach the breakdown.

EDIT: NOO ARMITAGE! NOO! Just keep with the same XV and at worst just swap one or two around!

Just saw Wilko's pass just before Croft's try and whoooooaaaaa crazily long pass!

 

[B10]

Tom Wood seemed to have been well shackled really. He couldn't do the Richard Hill (AKA GOD, THE KING OF KINGS, ETC) kind of behind the scenes work because he never got to the breakdown in time to make any difference.

Yeah Wood wasn't as effective today I wonder if Croft will get the nod for Ireland game

 

[best_fullback]

That over rated, petulant tosser should never play for England again.

I second that

 

[No Soft Centres]

England were fortunate today. That said, its still a win, and slightly re-assuring that a poor england can beat a very good scotland. Without a doubt Ireland will be well up for it next week, even if it is just to prevent a grandslam, and if we play like we did today, then we WILL lose. Fact. We need to be seeing performances like we displayed against austrailia, and italy. For me England have taken a backwards step in terms of performance. The only changes i would make are to tindall and or hape, see to be weak links in the team at the moment. HMS played fairly well, not great though. Croft should start over wood, who would go to the bench, and lawes must have a look in. Deacon didnt seem to do a lot, shaw added bulk, but thats it.

overall very nervous for playing ireland away.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

That over rated, petulant tosser should never play for England again.

Agreed completely, but it's inevitable with Johnson

 

[WetAndCold]

Hape had his best game in an England shirt today. I never thought I would say it, but he was very good. Haskell was brilliant as well, thoroughly deserving man of the match, although Richie Gray was also a contender for that award.

England as a whole though, were dire. I was screaming for some forwards to get into the breakdown. What where they doing? Trying to reverse rolls with the backs? There where times where I saw backs struggling to secure the ball at the breakdown, and there where just no forwards to be seen. Terrible. Also, because virtualy every breakdown was nearly turned over, Youngs had trouble getting good ball, which in turn led to Flood playing off par. the worst I've seen England play since last years six nations.

I guess the old cliche: "A win's a win" holds true. But if we play like that against Ireland at the Aviva, we won't win.

 

[Prestwick]

Really? Really really? I don't see it. He's got Foden who has performed well and would probably even resort to Cueto and tap someone else to play on the wing.

I honestly don't see a way in for Armitage right now in the run up to the World Cup.

 

[Teh Mite]

Hape had his best game in an England shirt today. I never thought I would say it, but he was very good.

When exactly?

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Wow well if I were an Ireland fan I'd really fancy my chances.

Man I disagree. That tends to be said after a team underperforms but Ireland have been well off form, consistently. I'd say England will be taking confidence by winning games in such different ways. England will point to how close we were to getting things right and say that cutting out the errors and tweaking our execution will make things right. biggest problem today was trying to force things because we felt we HAD to get a big score. Mayeb too many offloads

I wouldn't say that Ashton played bad, but his decision making has been shown up slightly in the last two games. That last pass that needs to go the right way, stay in hand, and its a try.

Veux, you can't think of changing the halfbacks. theres literally no reason in it. Flood wasn't on top of his game at all. But its a question of tweakign things not makign wholesale changes(except maybe banahan to 13) Dunno if Deacon did anymore wrong than anyone ekse but to be fair bearing in mind the credit Lawes has in the bank already it have have been enough to displace him from the starting 15.

 

[eot345]

i said earlier on on this thread that bannahan was good although many others said he was **** *cough* bullit... i hope his performance today helps to prove that he has a place in the england team. I think croft should start next week for wood. who ever said armitage should play for england is surely wrong with foden playing such fantastic running rugby. It might be a good idea for lawes tocome onto the becnch for next game with shaw starting for deacon.

 

[WetAndCold]

I saw him make a lot of very good tackles. People where saying the only reason he's in the team is because of his high tackle rate. I thought: "Nah, he's crap, lets get another centre in who can run a bit." But I watched him closely and I have to admit, he made lots of tackles. Other than that he only made a couple of half breaks. However, he's definately not as crap as I thought he was.

 

[Prestwick]

I've only got one thing to say to the idea that Hape was great today: