<div class='quotemain'> It's funny how people keep saying it was only Englands mistakes that lost them the game, making mistakes in sport is a new phenomenon? England did so well in the first half because of Wales' mistakes, Ricky Hatton lost to Mayweather because of a mistake, Räikkönen won the F1 World Championship because of Lewis Hamilton's mistakes. You could apply the theory to everything, England's World Cup in 2003 was only down to mistakes made by Australia maybe? :wah: [/b]
- Hatton v Mayweather; Result because of a complete mismatch
- Hamilton v Raikkonen; The 'mysterious' switching off of Hamiltons car after Ecclestone saying pre race "Hamilton won't be world champion".
- Australia v England; The Australian insistance they can win a game of Union with League style forwards and fat ******** (ie can't)
England were punished today because they didn't capitalise on the good pressure applied in the first half (eg. taking a 3 pointer when the Welsh pack had just been warned and the lineout was stuttering), or completely ignoring Vinakolos wing despite him having a storming first 15 minutes. After the break a classic Rob Andrew talking-to must have occoured as it was a completely different side that came out, at the same time Wales introduced the likes of Shanklin and found some rythm. This put more pressure on the English defence, which with Sackey and Balshaw as the last 2 lines of defence is always going to result in bad news.
Combine this with strange selections such as Gommersall (who's in such a poor run of form that he can't even get a start for Quins), Kay (who's been seven shade of shite for years), 3 fly-halfs and no spare centres. Introducing Mears & Kay were poor decisions (although Kay for Rees was a necessity through injury).
The introduction of Hipkiss, Allen, Palmer, Abandaman, Lamb, Wigglesworth and maybe Varndell (yes, I did just say that useless Leicester twat) or Chris Ashton needs to happen before next week. Get rid of Gommersall, Tindall, Balshaw, Kay, Sackey, Wilkinson, Vickery, Reagan and Mears.
Hopefully we'll see a complete overhaul of the team before next week. And both Rob Andrew and Ian Balshaw being hung by the neck from the highest rafter in the new South Stand.
Wales were poor in the first half, found some rhythm in the second and became a force. England started well, but there were too many past-it old boys who faded and the Bench was too heavily stacked with names and completely unbalenced.
Overall, England deserved to lose.
On the plus side however, Haskell, Rees and
Narraway were an awsome backrow combination. [/b][/quote]
I have to admit that England's back row look immense for the future! With players like Hartley and Stevens blosoming upfront, Tom Palmer coming through at second row England will be a force to be reckoned with within 4 years!
For me Balshaw was poor this lad has lost so much confidence, I think it goes back to when he was relseased by Bath! For me I had rated Balshaw but today he was poor and I cannt see why Lewsey was not in the side!
For me the game was spoilt by some poor refereeing! Joubert (correct me if im wrong) was poor throughtout the game, his controlling of the ruck area in particular was poor! It's common with southern hem refs to now allow players entering the ruck off their feet e.g. diving in, it was common today and I wish this would be solved by refs! I also found that a few more yellow cards should have been issued in particular Mr Haskell and Mr Martyn Williams! This would have lead to a more open game!
All in all it was a poor game in which mistakes made the difference!
What are you on about? Balshaw played OK. The big problem is that Phil Vickery is a joke. His leadership is non existent. He should be dropped. England missed a chance to get rid of Ashton after the world cup. I bet they are regretting that now. Vickery and his captaincy and Ashton and his management are now too closely related. They rely on each other. Anbd both should be binned. All England rugby captains should have the ability to get through Sandhurst, Vickery wouldn't get through week 2.
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Thing is Martin Johnson was one in a million, people like him don't come round that often. Now I hated this bloke when he played Wales, but for dam sure I made sure anyone who slated him would be corrected!
Johno commanded his team and the point is that he is a hard man to follow!
in the room were various Rugby legends and I got chatting to Mike Catt. I've never seen the chap look so annoyed by the whole performance and we had a good chat about the game. When we asked him about Iain Balshaw, his comments were:
