England vs South Africa 20 / 11 / 2021

[TRF_Olyy]

there is zero replacement for him

Other than Marler, who is a significantly better scrummager, or Genge who is as good in the loose and getting better all the time in the scrum?

 

[McTallshort]

Mako started 5/6 Lions tests from 2013-2017. The only other prop that matches him is Furlong.

I'm not advocating for him to be the 23 but there is zero replacement for him. That's the point. Eddie dropped Mako and never developed a replacement. And Sinkler is poor.

2nd test against NZ and SBW gets sent off giving the Lions the numerical advantage. Mako then spends 40 minutes giving away as many penalties as possible almost costing the Lions the test. Overrated

 

[BenniMarco]

Fantastic entertainment in the last 20 minutes. Congrats to England, really good autumn considering some important wins and some great players coming through the ranks!

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

He also benefitted from Healy's injury in 2013, doubt he'd have started ahead of peak Healy as a young lad.

 

[Jimbo]

He fulfils the second FB on the pitch option. He's > Than Marchant IMO. Marchant a better 13 option but Mallins for wing and FB cover and elsewhere in a pinch.

Can't see anyone dislodging Steward if he's fit for the 6N.

You would be crazy too, whilst I don't want to over hype him so early on, him being as solid as he was under the high ball might be the single biggest reason England stayed in the game in the second half.

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Nice seeing Steward introduce himself on the big stage.
Remember hearing how promising he was way back in the U18's

You mean one year ago??

 

[Crash Hamster]

bUt We NeEd FaRrElL fOr HiS kIcKiNg...

 

[MACCA]

Slightly worrying how much SA dominated than second half, they should have won by 10 plus.

Think Boks have to look at themselves. Total domination of the scrum. 18 or more penalties and lose. They need a better attack coach and also kicked poorly today. The ref was also pretty kind to England and the yellow should have been shown earlier and also a second time. Good win for England but things went their way. May the worst player on the pitch…..

 

[Goodey]

A very special win that. I'm struggling to think of an England win in recent memory that wasn't built on at least a solid tight 5 presence. It reminded me of some of the coup results Wales and Scotland have nabbed against us in recent years.

 

[Goodey]

Think Boks have to look at themselves. Total domination of the scrum. 18 or more penalties and lose. They need a better attack coach and also kicked poorly today. The ref was also pretty kind to England and the yellow should have been shown earlier and also a second time. Good win for England but things went their way. May the worst player on the pitch…..

The boks' kicking was uncharictaristically poor I agree. Steward was very solid under the high ball but his job was made much easier than it should have by consistently taking kicks that were 5m too deep.

May didn't have a good time, but in fairness he barely saw a chance at the ball in the second half. He was also involved in both of England's tries early on. Harsh as it may seem, I think a shout for least valuable player might be Elton Jantjies, who failed in the basic 10 job of controlling the game with a dominant pack while he was on and missed two improtant shots at goal.

 

[Goodey]

Also hi fellas

 

[NickBD]

England does not have a world class front row with George or LCD. Or any other Hooker on the island. Sinkler is not a world-class player, nor are any of the other props. Mako was world-class, but him and Billy seem to be in the Eddie Jone's Doghouse. Sinkler wouldn't be in the 23 of New Zealand, Australia or South Africa. Premiership fans go absolutely nuts for a player like Wilco Louw and he is South Africa's 5th choice TH.

That is definitely not true.

 

[Grizwald]

That is definitely not true.

Almost had me until the Aussies were mentioned....

 

[TheSaffycen]

He fulfils the second FB on the pitch option. He's > Than Marchant IMO. Marchant a better 13 option but Mallins for wing and FB cover and elsewhere in a pinch.

Can't see anyone dislodging Steward if he's fit for the 6N.

Cant Malins and Steward both play together? Malins plays wing for sarries, Steward is 15 no matter. Mailns has all you want from a winger, plus hes got the kicking and playmaking skills on top of that.

 

[spartan32]

Well i said I had a good feeling about this one. It looked pretty ropey there for a while, but I think we can say the lads did the country proud. Some excellent performances, Slade was imperious today, Smith stood up to some serious scrutiny, Steward surely our starter 15 from now on, Marchant was great as was Quirk. Some clear nerves for the latter but that kids got a big future I reckon. Shame Manu is broken yet again, but it's starting to look more and more like we just won't need him anymore. Wonder how things may have looked if we had our starting front row out there? And I know that Pollard missed two kicks, and the score could have blah blah blah. In the end a pretty scratch England side jus beat the world champions and number 1 team in the world. Enough said.

Fingers crossed this is just the start of things to come….. that being said France are just in the process of tearing NZ a new one, and Ireland are looking pretty good at the moment. Bring on the 6 Nations!

 

[Which Tyler]

Worth pointing out.. the Raeburn will be spending Christmas in Twickenham

 

[Becca]

Well i said I had a good feeling about this one. It looked pretty ropey there for a while, but I think we can say the lads did the country proud. Some excellent performances, Slade was imperious today, Smith stood up to some serious scrutiny, Steward surely our starter 15 from now on, Marchant was great as was Quirk. Some clear nerves for the latter but that kids got a big future I reckon. Shame Manu is broken yet again, but it's starting to look more and more like we just won't need him anymore. Wonder how things may have looked if we had our starting front row out there? And I know that Pollard missed two kicks, and the score could have blah blah blah. In the end a pretty scratch England side jus beat the world champions and number 1 team in the world. Enough said.

Fingers crossed this is just the start of things to come….. that being said France are just in the process of tearing NZ a new one, and Ireland are looking pretty good at the moment. Bring on the 6 Nations!

Totally agree. Yes there are plenty of negatives but that team did stand up to SA and played some good rugby in parts. It was never going to be one-way traffic and those young players have shown, in the main, that they should be around for years to come.
Steward was excellent again, Smith seemingly has no nerves whatsoever and Slade showed some very nice touches again.
All in all, it was a win against a very difficult team to play against and I for one and pretty pleased I can hold my head up against my SA friends

 

[thejackal]

Cracking test match. England were impressive in attack, the younger guys can really be proud of themselves. All looked like they totally belong at that level. The second half display of power from South Africa was huge, the missed penalties came back to bite them though. Also thought they made a mistake by constantly picking the posts rather than kicking to the corner in the first half, at a time when England looked a real threat and capable of getting serious points on the board.

 

[Rinkadink]

Premiership fans go absolutely nuts for a player like Wilco Louw and he is South Africa's 5th choice TH.

Do they now?

 

[BPM]

I thought the same. I'm a Quins fan and I like Wilco, but am I 'absolutely nuts' about him? No.