EOYT: England v Australia, 17/11/2012

[martinspoonboy1]

poor decision making and handling errors cost us the game, Australia played very well and deserved their win, frustrated but not too disappointed. We showed glimpses of quality and a passion to win! cant ask for more than passion from the players (something that was evidently lacking this time last year and appears to be lacking currently in the wales camp). optimistic about the upcoming tests and six nations!

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

utter utter dross. Some players today just looked out of their depth. Some truly awful decision making in some quarters. Poor control of the brakedown area. Its getting to the point with some players where they've had their chance and it becoming increasing clear they're not delivering. I think Lancaster is great but if he sticks by players like waldrom, farrell and co he's going to become easier and easier to criticise.

I can't put into words how **** our attack is. It's so predictable and with Floods style its so easy to see who he's going to pass to. We really need to invest in Burns' development asap. Loose kicking killed us off, Care was poor in that regard, while Ben Youngs just runs in circles like a goat who's been electrified. Mako offered far far more than Marler today, Launchbury more than Palmer, and Wood more than our starting back-row combined.

We've gone backwards with this performance, just as we did two years ago.

 

[racingmetrofan]

England utter ****. Since 2008 we haven't been able to develop and have simply chosen not to play a decent centre partnership.

Flood isn't good enough, would far prefer Farrell.

Both scrum halfs were poor should still be playing Dickson.

Scrum suffered without Hartley.

Robshaw shouldn't be captain, he has no control and doesn't really step up and make decisions, doesn't seem to have much impact on the backs.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Only saw the last 10-20minutes but looked like we went left to right and went nowhere.
Reading this it seems that's what we did all game.
Don't see the point in calling for Farrell, flood may not be amazing but Farrell is the least imaginative flyhalf in England.
Need to get burns in there - bring him in for Farrell and either start him or just get him a good amount of time.
Waldrom looked crap again from what I saw too. Tom Youngs was dropping off tackles as well, yet his lineout throwing was good - bit back to front there.

Sent from my HTC Incredible S using Tapatalk 2

 

[j'nuh]

It beggars belief that there's not one person in the England team who could figure out how to exploit that Aus defense. Their line was flat and blitzed. Simple methods of exploitation: chip kicks (like, I don't know, what Burns has been doing all season?) and long passes (would require a distributor in the centers) around players who rush out of their lines. Flood played too safe, the centers played too up-the-middle. We didn't see a single fluid backline movement - it always broke down in midfield. Credit to Australia - if it works, keep doing it. Poor form for England - it was easy to exploit, and no one had the balls to try.

It's clear that clubs need to invest more time on improving basic skills. The passing wasn't good enough. "Those" passes from Farrell and Robshaw broke down two promising attacks.

Glad that the premiership is back next weekend.

 

[smb64]

England crowd booing is disgraceful.

Actually I was there, the booing was because the TMO decisions were taking so long, and the big screen was lagging quite a bit behind the decision.
Didn't notice much booing for the kicks.

Edit : Also booing for Aus first try - One of our defenders blocked off the ball and forward pass..just saying

 

[smartcooky]

Never, never, never again will I put money on England to win a rugby game.

[rant]
Oh, and note to England managers and RFU hierarchy;

If you want to build and maintain some PRIDE in the England jersey, don't keep changing the colour to a colour that has no meaning or significance. In recent years we have seen England turn out in Purple, Black, Blue with red & white hoops, Orange & Yellow, "Anthracite" and now Maroon.

There was no colour clash on this occasion and no reason to swap away from White, the jersey that generations of England players have built 140 years of tradition upon. Doing so cheapens the jersey, insults those who have gone before, and ****** on tradition.

[/rant]

 

[j-dawg]

England should use the best players at their disposal and pick players playing abroad if they are the best option. Stop wearing away kits, it's difficult to look at.

 

[Mr.cyclopede]

Didn't see the match but suggest an explanation to the English defeat...the shirt, England will have the headake without the euphoria of Beaujolais Nouveau !

 

[dullonien]

Also booing for Aus first try - One of our defenders blocked off the ball and forward pass..just saying

Not convinced that was blocking. Just a case of back vs forward. Also the pass wasn't forward, it was a lovely flat pass which drifted slightly forward due to momentum, nothing wrong with that.

 

[Darwin]

Just saw some highlights of the match - I will try to catch a full replay later today. A couple of thoughts:

- England were wearing Purple: :lol::lol::lol::lol:
- From the grainy highlights I saw the Tuilagi try looked fine to me (I need to watch clearer highlights though)
- Phipps again made a break when he ran the ball (due perhaps to his Sevens background) - I think he needs to use this running game more often.

 

[SomeOke]

Only caught a little bit of the game, due to it being at a similar time to the SA/Scotland game but even in the small amount that I watched I have to say - Michael Hooper is just such a find! He was fantastic in Super Rugby for the Brumbies, and he shows all the signs of being more than capable of stepping up to the international stage, what amazes me is that as good as he is on the ground and on defence he also ball carriers like an absolute monster (impressive for his size). After a season or so of playing at the top level he's already competing with the very best open sides in the world. Who's better than him at the moment? Pretty much just McCaw by my reckoning.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

Great result, soooo did not see that happening. I didn't think England played that bad at all, just that we took more opportunities for points.

tuilagi's was a try, some part of ball touching the line which was his first motion. Whatever happened after that didn't matter.
hooper, the honey badger and Phipps to an extent were great, and I didn't have to see Ashton do that dive. For the record its the one he does like a superman with both arms out in front, not a fan of any dives or dances, giteau, digby etc, so not just hating on ashton

 

[TNT88]

Great game of rugby to watch, could have gone either way. Also, got to love watching Poite referee with his limited english. "Sir I couldn't roll away "..."I don't care what you say, it's your fault!"

For Australia I liked Cummins on the wing, I'm sure I can find posts on here from years back saying he'd be a Wallaby superstar one day, the guy is built for test rugby. Also I enjoyed the chip kicks, added another dimension to our game.

England's backline was surprisingly good. Especially the halves.

Looking forward to next week.

 

[smb64]

Not convinced that was blocking. Just a case of back vs forward. Also the pass wasn't forward, it was a lovely flat pass which drifted slightly forward due to momentum, nothing wrong with that.

I'm really not sure about that pass. Watch here, pause it just as 9 passes then pause again when Commins catches the ball. Is that not a forward pass? Because it looks like he catches it in front of where the ball was passed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/20381375

Edit : Scrap that actually, have changed my mind, if anything it looks to marginal to call.

 

[Teh Mite]

Never, never, never again will I put money on England to win a rugby game.

[rant]
Oh, and note to England managers and RFU hierarchy;

If you want to build and maintain some PRIDE in the England jersey, don't keep changing the colour to a colour that has no meaning or significance. In recent years we have seen England turn out in Purple, Black, Blue with red & white hoops, Orange & Yellow, "Anthracite" and now Maroon.

There was no colour clash on this occasion and no reason to swap away from White, the jersey that generations of England players have built 140 years of tradition upon. Doing so cheapens the jersey, insults those who have gone before, and ****** on tradition.

[/rant]

Maybe now you'll start to understand that test rugby here is not about pride and tradition (no matter how lavishly they slap those words about), its about sponsorship and sales. There are no supporters at Twickenham any longer, only customers.

 

[lucky number 7]

I'm really not sure about that pass. Watch here, pause it just as 9 passes then pause again when Commins catches the ball. Is that not a forward pass? Because it looks like he catches it in front of where the ball was passed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/20381375

Edit : Scrap that actually, have changed my mind, if anything it looks to marginal to call.

If it drifts forward then it's not a forward pass.. provided the initial movement of the ball was backwards...at least that's what I believe the ruling is...something to do with relative velocity?

 

[ZeFrenchy]

If it drifts forward then it's not a forward pass.. provided the initial movement of the ball was backwards...at least that's what I believe the ruling is...something to do with relative velocity?

That's right. Here's a video from the IRB explaining all that. It should be mandatory for TV commentators to know it by heart.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

That Tuilagi try wasn't even marginal - he was still sliding when he reached out, it's only a "double movement" if you stop and then start again, that was momentum.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Just saw some SUnday times player ratings and I really don't agree with them at all. Toby Flood given the highest player rating - he may not have made many mistakes as such but he didn't inspire the backline in any great way.

For me there were two key differences between Australia and England: The breakdown, and the control and attacking variety at fly-half.

1) Beale was a personal tgreat to the English line, and it always seemed like he had more options available to him. Partly this was because there seemed to always be more AUstralian runners to use in a number of different ways. Partly it was because Beale often looked like he was about to step and go himself, and partly because his chips were always well-chosen and a threat to our defensive line. When we looked to attack we invariably did so through the midfield without any involvement from our outside backs comign off their wings.

2) The breakdown: I'm not going to make the point about not having a real 7 because it hasn't held us back thus far. But we just looked underpowered and unable to hold our own. I don't think we clocked on and put enough peopel into the breakdown.

Next week my team:

1. Vunipola
2. Youngs
3. Cole
4. Launchbury
5. Parling
6. Robshaw
7. Wood
8. Morgan

9. Care
10. Burns
11. Sharples
12. Barritt
13. Tuilagi
14. Ashton
15. Goode

I'd like to see Brown gone from squad and Wade brought in - the space he creates for others and his attacking flair could really invigorate our wider attacking play
(this ain't going to happen)