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June International Test: Australia vs. England [1st Test] (11/06/2016)

Not necessarily on here, but they're all over Facebook. And yes England did manage to nullify him yesterday by adding more players to the rucks, but he was still making an impact as that was why the Aussie backs had so much space to work with, our players were all in rucks. With him gone, the likes of Folau and Kuridrani aren't going to make nearly as big of an impact.

Right, well let's not make generalizations on New Zealanders based on whatever happens to appear on your social media feed elsewhere. It paints a lot of reasonably fair minded posters with a pretty unfair brush.
 
Well my to do list for England:

- Drift defence needs to improve, Aussies were creating overlaps for fun because our defence was always too tight. We are doing the Sarries wolfpack but are only doing it half heartedly. We are pressing enough to bring the defence forward but not enough to pressure anyone. That means when the ball gets to the wing, the entire defence is forward of where it needs to be. This happened in the 6N too. If we are going to press up in defence, we need to be engaging the Aussies before the ball gets to the wings.

- Midfield defence. Especially with Burrell they were getting through here so easily. Suprised to see Ford made 2nd most tackles, didn't notice the Aussies really running through players that much but bouncing off some very passive tackling.

- Youngs is too damn slow. Every single breakdown he slows the ball right down. The England U20 scrumhalf could have taught him something in fast delivery. Youngs always does a step, wind up and then pass. It makes it easy for the Aussies.

- 1 out passing to forwards. Stupid and easy to defend. Achieves nothing. Aussie forwards look to do something more with the ball. Our forwards, especially the front 3, do nothing more than trot into the highest concentration of players they can find. Extremely ineffective carrying and they should look for the odd pop up to a player on their shoulder (there never is one).

- Less aimless kicking to the back 3 but a kick chase to Folau will be good, he very rarely kicks and if we pressure him to try to run or pass from his 22, he could cause errors again.

- Stop ****ing about in the scrums. Seriously, it's so **** to watch.
 
Right, well let's not make generalizations on New Zealanders based on whatever happens to appear on your social media feed elsewhere. It paints a lot of reasonably fair minded posters with a pretty unfair brush.

Sorry, that was uncalled for, not all of you do it, but there are the minority that are loud and stand out.
 
Minority of one here.

Pocock made 4 turnovers by my count. We didn't nullify him at all.

Final ratings (imo)

Brown - 4.5 -

Good: One good kick return where he passed the ball to Watson to establish attacking position. Got on Joseph's shoulder for his break.

Bad: Offloads said break to an Aussie player. Majority of his carrying easily marshalled. Lucky his missed tackle for Foley is called back. That catching flub.

Yarde -5.5 -

Good: Right place for his try. Mostly copes with the behemoths. One decent clearance kick.

Bad: Decision to come for Folau and cut him off goes very badly. Doesn't make the most of the space provided by Faz to attack DHP with.

Joseph - 7.5 -

Good: Good hustle for his try. Made England's two most important breaks of the first half. Defensively very, very sound.

Bad: Should have been tighter on Kuridrani for Kuridrani's try (easy to say now). Fluffs the first kick-off under pressure. Conceded late dumb penalty to let Australia have a bit more of a chance.

Burrell - 5.5 -

Good: Two decent half-breaks

Bad: Should have put more pressure on Foley for Folau's score. Not George Ford. Often misses the man when shooting up out of defence.

Watson - 4.5 -

Good: One good read on Folau to cut off Aussie overlap. Does well to stay in bounds with Hooper sniffing off of Cole turnover. Good tackle off of stepping Fardy. Good link up with Brown.

Bad: Consistently overrunning kick chases. Lack of trust in inside man twice leads to one try and one break that ultimately leads to try. Exposed by defence but does not deal well with it.

Farrell - 7.5 -

Good: Kicking all his points puts huge pressure on Australia to chase the game. Makes majority of one on one tackles, including a good one on Folau to stop 22 break out and one on Kerevi to induce final turnover. Lays on good chance for Yarde. Pulls strings nicely during his one spell at fly-half in Australia's half with inside ball to Joseph and a good ball to put Billy in space. Pressure on Foley for Joseph's try.

Bad: Folau's try is a major f' up on his part. He's nowhere. Failure to trust Ford to make a tackle makes a hole for Kerevi - leads to Hooper's second.

Youngs - 6 -

Good: Cover tackle on Hooper when kick-off goes well, covers Phipps well from the outside break. Very few inaccurate passes. Lot of accurate box-kicks (shame about Watson's chase). Nice mini-break from lineout. Stops one Aussie exit with an openside-esque read and hammer on Foley.

Bad: Should have organised defence for Hooper's first try better. Some box kicks too long (lucky Folau committed suicide off of one).

Mako - 4.5 -

Good: Came out on top on Poite Scrum Lottery. Great reactions to rescue turnover ball in their 22. Some okay carries.

Bad: Has no business defending a wide channel and was a tower of strength for Australia doing so in the first ten minutes. Knocks on from first carry. Another knock on for little reason in their half. Twice fails to clear Pocock from ruck leading to turnover. Most of his carrying well marshalled.

Hartley - 7.5 -

Good; Makes Joseph's break by working hard to get on blindside to act as first receiver. Lineout virtually immaculate with him on. High work rate. First forward over Hask's break.

Bad: Uhm... oh yeah, doesnt support Robshaw when going for a restart leading to turnover. Tiny thing.

Cole - 6.5 -

Good: Wins Poite scrum lottery. Two good turnovers. Reads the short lineout to Mumm and disrupts Aussie line out when they were pressing.

Bad: An embarassingly bad pick and carry. Lost some on Poite scrum lottery too. Decision to hunt Foley rather than push out helps create the Kerevi break that sets up Hooper's second.

Itoje - 6.5 -

Good: Turnover under posts huge. Makes a good rescue of one of our bad lineouts. Good physicality.

Bad: Little responsible for LCD's lost line out (Not as much as LCD). Dumb penalty in front of the posts just outside our 22. Twice second man in when Pocock steals it. Twice misses tackle wider out (okay, I'm being a little harsh here). Flops needlessly on a ruck to slow down our own ball.

Kruis - 6.5 -

Good: Lineout goes well. Second forward to Hask's break.

Bad; Carrying doesn't make much impact. Loses a restart for no obvious reason.

Robshaw - 7

Good: Great chase on Faz's missed kick. Lovely hands to provide space for Watson in our 22 and for Faz to create Yarde's space. Wins a turnover penalty. Supported Care's last break.

Bad: Can't stop Hooper's second try as he's too slow. Flubs a restart.

Haskell - 8.5

Good: Great turnover in 22. Good reactions off of Cole's kick out (but offside, so bit lucky). Huge tackle rate. Big hit on Pocock. Good kick chase. Good clear outs. That break. Forces two knock-ons. Great support to force Kuridrani into touch.

Bad: Misses a couple of tackles on Pocock and Hooper I'd like to see made. Part of allowing one steal by Pocock.

Billy - 7

Good: Consistently makes ground. Deals well with kicks when in back field. Some big hits. Wins one turnover penalty and would win another if not for Ford being offside.

Bad: Couple of bad defensive reads. Also exposed by Folau when on end of defensive line.

bench:

LCD - 5

Doesn't do a huge deal but underthrows at the end allowing a steal.

Mullan - 6

Scrum is wobbling but I love his awareness to pop up that last knock-on to Care so he stays a 6

Hill - 5.5

Scrum is wobbling to be fair

Launchbury - 6.5

One big hit, great support for Care's break

Lawes - 6

Busy without standing out

Care - 6

Big part in conceding one try, big part in scoring one

Ford - 8

Second game in a row where he changes a game against Australia. Lays on two tries on a plate. Tactical kicking could be better but good clearances and restarts. Defensively solid.

Nowell - 6.5

Good tackle on Kuridrani, good speed for try.


Additional thoughts

Launchbury + Itoje are clearly not trusted as lineout combo. Whatever needs to be done to make a lineout unit that can contain both should be done.

Hard day for back three as their only purpose was to be run at by Australians. Hard day for tight five as they watched the Australians pass it from one end to the other except for Mako, who instead got run by at Australians.

Tight five probably deserve an extra .25 each for decent day at maul but blaaah.

We're beginning to look like a team with plenty of leaders. Robshaw, Itoje, Fazlet, Ford, Youngs all vocal and encouraging at times

The Australians were incredibly dumb and suicidal with Fardy leading the way. Poor support of their own ball carrier.

Slow back row is still an issue.

Finally, since I've spent so long slagging him off, I'd like to note that Hartley is the biggest winner from the Jones era to date and had his best game in a long time.
 
Finally, since I've spent so long slagging him off, I'd like to note that Hartley is the biggest winner from the Jones era to date and had his best game in a long time.
Ennit,
I was very vocal in my dislike of his selection/captaincy selection, but fair play he's taken it with both hands.
Good captain and has taken his shot with both hands.
Don't think he's the best hooker in the country, but no qualms with his selection at all. Still really want George brought through more, though.
 
I would still rather we phased George in over the next two years, but Hartley's done well admittedly.

We're beginning to look like a team with plenty of leaders. Robshaw, Itoje, Fazlet, Ford, Youngs all vocal and encouraging at times
On this point, I feel that most of the credit for this goes to Jones. It is so much easier for leaders to lead a team when everyone knows what their roles are. It's just like any job. You can't tell people what to do if you have no idea what they should be doing.
 
Really, you'd rate Billy higher than Itoje? In the first half Itoje was a 1 man pack. Granted he was quiet in the second, but Billy was quiet all game. Just a little thing, but that seems unfair on Itoje.
 
I think even the most fervent Hartley supporter would have to admit phasing in the replacement of a 30 year old hooker with head knock troubles is probably a good idea ;) But I know what you mean J'nuh. And I agree. But for now, Hartley's doing us proud.

Toby - Yup. On first watch, I had the scores the other way around, but on close inspection, Itoje makes a lot of mistakes and is quiet outside his superman impressions where as Vunipola is largely error free and making lots of small vital contributions.

I'm being a grinch here, but Itoje needs to calm down and tighten his game down to reach his potential. Should happen with time but the sooner the better.
 
Ennit,
I was very vocal in my dislike of his selection/captaincy selection, but fair play he's taken it with both hands.
Good captain and has taken his shot with both hands.
Don't think he's the best hooker in the country, but no qualms with his selection at all. Still really want George brought through more, though.

George should certainly be our 16. But there's no vacancy at 2 at the moment. I think Hartley and Jones totally get each other and have bought the on and off field leadership we were so badly missing before.

Hartley's got to have a good shot at the Lions captaincy next year.
 
In fact I think some of your markings are well out, but its your opinion I know.

You gave 4.5 for
Brown,
Watson
Mako

5
LCD

5.5
Burrell
Yarde
Hill

6
Youngs
Mullen
Lawes
Care

6.5
Cole
Itoje
Kruis
Launchberry
Nowell

7
Robshaw
Binny

7.5
Joseph
Farrell
Hartley

8
Ford

8.5
Haskell
 
Sorry, that was uncalled for, not all of you do it, but there are the minority that are loud and stand out.

Every country has their loud obnoxious supporters who use their countries sports teams as an extension of their ego and nationalism.

Looking at the Euro's many of them are using football as an excuse to be d!ckheads.
 
Minority of one here.

Pocock made 4 turnovers by my count. We didn't nullify him at all.

Final ratings (imo)

Brown - 4.5 -

Good: One good kick return where he passed the ball to Watson to establish attacking position. Got on Joseph's shoulder for his break.

Bad: Offloads said break to an Aussie player. Majority of his carrying easily marshalled. Lucky his missed tackle for Foley is called back. That catching flub.

Yarde -5.5 -

Good: Right place for his try. Mostly copes with the behemoths. One decent clearance kick.

Bad: Decision to come for Folau and cut him off goes very badly. Doesn't make the most of the space provided by Faz to attack DHP with.

Joseph - 7.5 -

Good: Good hustle for his try. Made England's two most important breaks of the first half. Defensively very, very sound.

Bad: Should have been tighter on Kuridrani for Kuridrani's try (easy to say now). Fluffs the first kick-off under pressure. Conceded late dumb penalty to let Australia have a bit more of a chance.

Burrell - 5.5 -

Good: Two decent half-breaks

Bad: Should have put more pressure on Foley for Folau's score. Not George Ford. Often misses the man when shooting up out of defence.

Watson - 4.5 -

Good: One good read on Folau to cut off Aussie overlap. Does well to stay in bounds with Hooper sniffing off of Cole turnover. Good tackle off of stepping Fardy. Good link up with Brown.

Bad: Consistently overrunning kick chases. Lack of trust in inside man twice leads to one try and one break that ultimately leads to try. Exposed by defence but does not deal well with it.

Farrell - 7.5 -

Good: Kicking all his points puts huge pressure on Australia to chase the game. Makes majority of one on one tackles, including a good one on Folau to stop 22 break out and one on Kerevi to induce final turnover. Lays on good chance for Yarde. Pulls strings nicely during his one spell at fly-half in Australia's half with inside ball to Joseph and a good ball to put Billy in space. Pressure on Foley for Joseph's try.

Bad: Folau's try is a major f' up on his part. He's nowhere. Failure to trust Ford to make a tackle makes a hole for Kerevi - leads to Hooper's second.

Youngs - 6 -

Good: Cover tackle on Hooper when kick-off goes well, covers Phipps well from the outside break. Very few inaccurate passes. Lot of accurate box-kicks (shame about Watson's chase). Nice mini-break from lineout. Stops one Aussie exit with an openside-esque read and hammer on Foley.

Bad: Should have organised defence for Hooper's first try better. Some box kicks too long (lucky Folau committed suicide off of one).

Mako - 4.5 -

Good: Came out on top on Poite Scrum Lottery. Great reactions to rescue turnover ball in their 22. Some okay carries.

Bad: Has no business defending a wide channel and was a tower of strength for Australia doing so in the first ten minutes. Knocks on from first carry. Another knock on for little reason in their half. Twice fails to clear Pocock from ruck leading to turnover. Most of his carrying well marshalled.

Hartley - 7.5 -

Good; Makes Joseph's break by working hard to get on blindside to act as first receiver. Lineout virtually immaculate with him on. High work rate. First forward over Hask's break.

Bad: Uhm... oh yeah, doesnt support Robshaw when going for a restart leading to turnover. Tiny thing.

Cole - 6.5 -

Good: Wins Poite scrum lottery. Two good turnovers. Reads the short lineout to Mumm and disrupts Aussie line out when they were pressing.

Bad: An embarassingly bad pick and carry. Lost some on Poite scrum lottery too. Decision to hunt Foley rather than push out helps create the Kerevi break that sets up Hooper's second.

Itoje - 6.5 -

Good: Turnover under posts huge. Makes a good rescue of one of our bad lineouts. Good physicality.

Bad: Little responsible for LCD's lost line out (Not as much as LCD). Dumb penalty in front of the posts just outside our 22. Twice second man in when Pocock steals it. Twice misses tackle wider out (okay, I'm being a little harsh here). Flops needlessly on a ruck to slow down our own ball.

Kruis - 6.5 -

Good: Lineout goes well. Second forward to Hask's break.

Bad; Carrying doesn't make much impact. Loses a restart for no obvious reason.

Robshaw - 7

Good: Great chase on Faz's missed kick. Lovely hands to provide space for Watson in our 22 and for Faz to create Yarde's space. Wins a turnover penalty. Supported Care's last break.

Bad: Can't stop Hooper's second try as he's too slow. Flubs a restart.

Haskell - 8.5

Good: Great turnover in 22. Good reactions off of Cole's kick out (but offside, so bit lucky). Huge tackle rate. Big hit on Pocock. Good kick chase. Good clear outs. That break. Forces two knock-ons. Great support to force Kuridrani into touch.

Bad: Misses a couple of tackles on Pocock and Hooper I'd like to see made. Part of allowing one steal by Pocock.

Billy - 7

Good: Consistently makes ground. Deals well with kicks when in back field. Some big hits. Wins one turnover penalty and would win another if not for Ford being offside.

Bad: Couple of bad defensive reads. Also exposed by Folau when on end of defensive line.

bench:

LCD - 5

Doesn't do a huge deal but underthrows at the end allowing a steal.

Mullan - 6

Scrum is wobbling but I love his awareness to pop up that last knock-on to Care so he stays a 6

Hill - 5.5

Scrum is wobbling to be fair

Launchbury - 6.5

One big hit, great support for Care's break

Lawes - 6

Busy without standing out

Care - 6

Big part in conceding one try, big part in scoring one

Ford - 8

Second game in a row where he changes a game against Australia. Lays on two tries on a plate. Tactical kicking could be better but good clearances and restarts. Defensively solid.

Nowell - 6.5

Good tackle on Kuridrani, good speed for try.


Additional thoughts

Launchbury + Itoje are clearly not trusted as lineout combo. Whatever needs to be done to make a lineout unit that can contain both should be done.

Hard day for back three as their only purpose was to be run at by Australians. Hard day for tight five as they watched the Australians pass it from one end to the other except for Mako, who instead got run by at Australians.

Tight five probably deserve an extra .25 each for decent day at maul but blaaah.

We're beginning to look like a team with plenty of leaders. Robshaw, Itoje, Fazlet, Ford, Youngs all vocal and encouraging at times

The Australians were incredibly dumb and suicidal with Fardy leading the way. Poor support of their own ball carrier.

Slow back row is still an issue.

Finally, since I've spent so long slagging him off, I'd like to note that Hartley is the biggest winner from the Jones era to date and had his best game in a long time.

You're a hard man to please ! Can't say I agree with your markings but understand the meaning behind them . My main gripe would be that Burrell was clearly the worst player in the park . He had to be removed on 30 mins because he was basically as useful in defence as a bloody tackle bag !
 
You're a hard man to please ! Can't say I agree with your markings but understand the meaning behind them . My main gripe would be that Burrell was clearly the worst player in the park . He had to be removed on 30 mins because he was basically as useful in defence as a bloody tackle bag !

I don't think there was ever any argument over that!

Honestly don't think Burrell was that bad. I guess maybe Eddie was thinking Faz at 12 equals a more aggressive charge out (cos they were passing it from one side to the other in front of us with no dramas) but that didn't pay out too hot. Maybe he wanted Ford as an extra cool head and organiser - I think the main attraction was someone to get some territory.

While some had quite the reverse Midas touch.

That was genuinely the worst performance you'll ever see score 39 points. Credit to how clinical we were (i.e. Ford and Faz's goal kicking) and our cool under pressure (only 8 penalties conceded while making a number of ruck turnovers is *big*) but our ability to exit our own territory was abysmal, our defence let them do what they like, we struggled with removing Pocock and are very lucky Australia gifted us ten points while failing to take nine (just from kicks, nevermind two turnovers on our own line and a try scratched off for crossing).

Feel free to suggest any I should adjust :)
 
Peats markings are good, no room for complacency and that's the attitude Eddie Jones will be promoting and always telling palyers in areas they can improve, instead of basking on a result and thinking the jobs done for the next 3 years (cough ABs vs England 2012)
 
That was genuinely the worst performance you'll ever see score 39 points. Credit to how clinical we were (i.e. Ford and Faz's goal kicking) and our cool under pressure (only 8 penalties conceded while making a number of ruck turnovers is *big*) but our ability to exit our own territory was abysmal, our defence let them do what they like, we struggled with removing Pocock and are very lucky Australia gifted us ten points while failing to take nine (just from kicks, nevermind two turnovers on our own line and a try scratched off for crossing).

I agree. I don't think England played that great. If they don't get their defence sorted out next week they could be in trouble. They did seem to improve in the latter part of the game especially when it came to shutting down attacks out wide, but there were times that Folau got though when he shouldn't have done. I don't think we will have it that easy next week though, England will look to shut down our runners down the 13, 15 channel so we are going to have to have a plan B and perhaps look to play a tad more conservatively, kick for territory etc
 
What Pocock is is the best jackal in the game. Period. Yes he can be nullified, as ABs have done in the past and England did yesterday, but it's a team effort at the rucks not to let him get over the ball, because when he does he is next to impossible to get off the ball. For me he was one of the key differences in the RWC for the Wallabies in terms of galvanising them into a great team from just merely a good one.

He will be missed big time for Australia in the rest of the series.

The rules are changing and Pocock will be even less effective than he is now.

Fact is any team with common sense can totally nullify him to the point where he's a EPIC failure in any big match. We've done it more than twice now in the biggest matches of Pococks career. Incredibly one dimensional player being played at 8 where he's totally out of his depth at international level. I'll say it again if Cheika continues to play him out of position at 8 he can kiss goodbye to this test series.
 
The rules are changing and Pocock will be even less effective than he is now.

Fact is any team with common sense can totally nullify him to the point where he's a EPIC failure in any big match. We've done it more than twice now in the biggest matches of Pococks career. Incredibly one dimensional player being played at 8 where he's totally out of his depth at international level. I'll say it again if Cheika continues to play him out of position at 8 he can kiss goodbye to this test series.

As was said previously, Pocock is out injured for the rest of this series, so Cheika won't be playing him anywhere.

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Peat - I don't agree with a lot of your markings, but as I said earlier, they are your markings and you're entitled to your opinion.

I thought it was a superb performance by England overall, and only poor in the first 15/20 minutes. That won't happen again.
Watch us play Italy in the 6N for a worse 39pts victory.

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Amazing how some Aussie supporters on here didn't think we played that great.

It was good enough to well beat Australia, even after they took a 10pt lead.

So what do we think of Australia's performance?

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Here's Foxsports markings on our players

http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/who-starred-and-who-flopped-for-england-during-their-hoodoo-breaking-win-over-the-wallabies/news-story/0ec12c5fcd4dfd14a90bba412c45f7e8
 
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