• Help Support The Rugby Forum :

[June Tests 2018: 1st Test] South Africa vs. England (09/06/2018)

I hope Launchbury is back then. I know he was quiet but I hope Curry gets another go but sadly think it'll be him taken out for Shields with Robshaw at 7.
I hope Launchbury is back then. I know he was quiet but I hope Curry gets another go but sadly think it'll be him taken out for Shields with Robshaw at 7.
I thought curry made some good hits. Would be interested on his tackle stats.
 
I hope Launchbury is back then. I know he was quiet but I hope Curry gets another go but sadly think it'll be him taken out for Shields with Robshaw at 7.
I hope Launchbury is back then. I know he was quiet but I hope Curry gets another go but sadly think it'll be him taken out for Shields with Robshaw at 7.
I thought curry made some good hits. Would be interested on his tackle stats.
 
I thought curry made some good hits. Would be interested on his tackle stats.
19 tackles, one missed
Highest in either side, next highest is George with 13
23m off of 3 carries, as well, which is impressive. Only Binny made more metres as a forward, and he made more ground than Slade, Ford and Youngs.
 
Having Vunipola and Hughes on the field at the same time could be lethal. 2 massive 8s drawing multiple defenders to different areas of the field to create holes. Yet we just send them down the same channel at the same time. Genius.
2 massive UNFIT 8s. Neither are close to being match fit let alone at international level at altitude.
 
Bokke objectively a bit lucky to win, wasnt a yellow for ne but I'm still unbelievably happy. Love the new direction, more commentry to come when I sober up in 3 days or so.
 
19 tackles, one missed
Highest in either side, next highest is George with 13
23m off of 3 carries, as well, which is impressive. Only Binny made more metres as a forward, and he made more ground than Slade, Ford and Youngs.
I thought he was very involved. So dominant in the tackle.
 
Well my humble opinion to make up for the fact I rarely state it:

Good:
Curry
Ford
Slade
May
Attacking patterns

Bad:
B Vunipola
Itoje
Defence
Discipline
Lack of support

V bad:
Referee

I think it does raise questions when in all 3 tours, there has been an extremely dubious decision given in favour of the SH side, sometimes multiple. England struggled at the breakdown anyway but there is no way the 2 sides were playing by the same laws at all. SA getting away with extremely blatant stuff whilst England were being penalised for things where there wasn't even an English player present. NZ getting away with high tackles whilst the French got penalised badly. I hate blaming the officials but something does need to be done to look at the impartiality of the games in this tour because every single one has favoured the home side by a noticeable margin.
 
poll.png
 
You just don't chuck away 21 point leads at international level. This Bok side may be improving but they're not exactly world beaters either.

Mentally there feels like there's a soft centre to this team, or perhaps Jones has lost the dressing room. There's certainly little of the never say die and fight that characterised his early days. Physically we came off 2nd best far too often as well. Orcs on steroids feels a long time ago. More weights and less running

Let's judge when the tour is over, but that has done precisely nothing to ease my worries.

Pulling Burrell early all those games ago made us all think Jones was a bold genius (we'll overlook who picked him in the first place). Until someone can explain it to me, hooking Isiekwe early today almost felt like someone desperate to prove they still have that magic touch - didn't seem any logic to it, especially as there wasn't a Kruis or a Lawes on the bench. More likely some data indicator about bounce times or something probably went red on a laptop.
 
More likely some data indicator about bounce times or something probably went red on a laptop.

He said it was purely a pace thing. Notable that he didn't say anything about Nick, literally just said the game was quick, so he wanted more speed.
 
Well my humble opinion to make up for the fact I rarely state it:

Good:
Curry
Ford
Slade
May
Attacking patterns

Bad:
B Vunipola
Itoje
Defence
Discipline
Lack of support

V bad:
Referee

I think it does raise questions when in all 3 tours, there has been an extremely dubious decision given in favour of the SH side, sometimes multiple. England struggled at the breakdown anyway but there is no way the 2 sides were playing by the same laws at all. SA getting away with extremely blatant stuff whilst England were being penalised for things where there wasn't even an English player present. NZ getting away with high tackles whilst the French got penalised badly. I hate blaming the officials but something does need to be done to look at the impartiality of the games in this tour because every single one has favoured the home side by a noticeable margin.
Itoje needs to spend some time analysing his own game to understand why he gives so many pens away.

Plus side we look fine without Cole.
 
Until someone can explain it to me, hooking Isiekwe early today almost felt like someone desperate to prove they still have that magic touch - didn't seem any logic to it, especially as there wasn't a Kruis or a Lawes on the bench.

"Oh **** we need to cap Shields quickly before he thinks 'what is this ****, I'm going back to Wellington'" - Eddie Jones, probably
 
So he leaves the slowest forward out there?
And forces a blindside to play out of position for 45mins?

Just Eddie things

I mean, I'm not saying I agree with it.

But swapping Shields for Isiekwe is fairly objectively increasing the speed of the pack.
 
Pulling Burrell early all those games ago made us all think Jones was a bold genius (we'll overlook who picked him in the first place).
I think the selecting of Burrell in that match was done because he was under HUGE pressure to start Farrell at 10. Still is but I think hen as bigger courage that he understands Youngs/Ford/Farrell is our best combination and armchair pundits need to pushing for the anoited one to start at 10 to the deriment of our lack of options at 12.

This said I didn't understand pulling off Iskewie but I think Gustard is in big trouble our defence was shocking today.
 
Top