[November Tests 2016 EOYT] England vs. Australia (3/12/2016)

[Which Tyler]

Doesn't Yarde have the worst stats of any available winger?
I remember when someone compiled all their stats yarde was considerably worse than everyone else.

That'd (probably) be me here: http://www.therugbyforum.com/threads/38166-EPS-Form-Watch?p=825880&viewfull=1#post825880
And I wouldn't really say that Yarde's stats were terrible.

Over a 2 year period, the famously bad defender averaged more tackles than all bar 1 (Nowell) of his peers; whilst missing fewer than all bar 1 (May).
Over a 2 year period, the famously selfish averaged more try assits than any of this peers.
In that period, he came 3rd for strike rate, 3rd for meters-per-run, and 2rd for defenders beaten; actually, of the 6 players I was looking at, the only thing he was in the lower half for, was clean breaks, and his frequency of touching the ball.
This current season is a slightly different story; but with a quarter of the data points, and half the players not having enough data to draw any conclusions.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

The thing about Roko as well is whilst Bath were having a terrible season last season, he was still topping the stats. Surely it must say something that a winger can still be competing in the AP when everything else about his side is shambolic?

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Hard to see what is the more redundant fixture.

The third Bledisloe vs NZ
The second England vs Wales match in May
Or this, the fourth meeting in a calendar year between England and Oz (and fifth in 12 months).

Whoever is scheduling these (at a time Tier 2 is desperate for more exposure and World Rugby wants to expand the game into new markets) needs their head examined.

That said, I think this could be still quite entertaining, but i don't think Oz have it in them away from home to pull this off.

 

[The Jones Boy]

It begs the question as to why England are not playing the All Blacks between the RWC at the end of 2015, and their next meeting in 2018?
I'm confident that Eddie Mojo Jojo would have loved to have had a crack at the greenhorn AB's this Autumn but the numpties in charge of the fixtures have other ideas.

This fixture is a small banana skin for England.
Aussie were a distant second in the RC.
The Poms have beaten the Wallabies down under in Aussie 3 nil this year so we know the Poms have got the wood on the convicts but if Oz turn the tables on England by some small miracle then its great for Cheika to get the Mojo off his back and a backward step for England's ongoing growth and confidence.

I reckon England by 13+

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Hard to see what is the more redundant fixture.

The third Bledisloe vs NZ
The second England vs Wales match in May
Or this, the fourth meeting in a calendar year between England and Oz (and fifth in 12 months).

Whoever is scheduling these (at a time Tier 2 is desperate for more exposure and World Rugby wants to expand the game into new markets) needs their head examined.

That said, I think this could be still quite entertaining, but i don't think Oz have it in them away from home to pull this off.

I talked to mike Tolkien, former eagles coach, at a dinner last week and he said that tier 2 nations are at the mercy of world rugby.
They schedule the fixtures they want to see. He said good news is that they are willing to force tier 1 nations to play tier 2s every once in awhile but even WR doesn't have a whole lot of urgency. Only reason oz and nz came to the states was for money. And now they know they can play another tier 1 side here and make just as much money.

So yeah unions aren't helping but neither is world rugby.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Just when I thought Cheika couldn't spout any more nonsense, he notches the idiocy up to 11.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38177590

Some key bits: Claiming England were treated with respect when they toured Australia, claiming Jones is respected immediately after saying his reputation had been tarnished, claiming Glen Ella is simply bitter or wants a job in Australia for saying the 3-0 whitewash will give Cheika nightmares and still trying to claim Cole is a cheat despite it being clear for all to see that the Aussies were the culprits in the scrum collapses when we toured.

Seriously, for any Aussie posters, does this guy not embarass you? He's just a verbal trainwreck. Jones in comparison looks very level headed and calm.

The Hask scale for on field stupidity never really caught on, maybe The Cheika scale for general gobbiness will?

 

[ncurd]

The Haskscale still has a warm place in my heart. Even if under Jones he appears to ignore it now.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

The cringe is toooo much.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3fd2...68.jpg?w=620&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&

 

[Duck a l'Orange]

The cringe is toooo much.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3fd2...68.jpg?w=620&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&

Jesus, where's that from?

 

[The Jones Boy]

Handbags at dawn as both coaches look for a moral high ground.
All the paper talk is over tomorrow at Chinese dentist.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Jesus, where's that from?

The Australian.

Guardian had an article on it.

 

[Makos]

Just when I thought Cheika couldn't spout any more nonsense, he notches the idiocy up to 11.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38177590

Some key bits: Claiming England were treated with respect when they toured Australia, claiming Jones is respected immediately after saying his reputation had been tarnished, claiming Glen Ella is simply bitter or wants a job in Australia for saying the 3-0 whitewash will give Cheika nightmares and still trying to claim Cole is a cheat despite it being clear for all to see that the Aussies were the culprits in the scrum collapses when we toured.

Seriously, for any Aussie posters, does this guy not embarass you? He's just a verbal trainwreck. Jones in comparison looks very level headed and calm.

The Hask scale for on field stupidity never really caught on, maybe The Cheika scale for general gobbiness will?

Did you follow him during the RC? He's lost the plot. Aussie rugby should drop him and restore some integrity and maturity to their Union. How are boys meant to become men under this childish obnoxious loser.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Cheika was at the same **** at Leinster and no one cares because he was winning games. Jones is exactly the same apart from results, when Cheiks starts winning no one will care.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

cheika was at the same **** at leinster and no one cares because he was winning games. Jones is exactly the same apart from results, if cheiks starts winning no one will care.

ftfy

 

[Scotty]

Itoje playing for sarries this weekend...anyone else think we should least get him on the bench for england...does he really need gametime to come back from injury i mean it is itoje after all

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Itoje playing for sarries this weekend...anyone else think we should least get him on the bench for england...does he really need gametime to come back from injury i mean it is itoje after all

I am curious why Kruis got brought straight back in but Itoje didn't. Do they want to be more careful with Itoje?

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Cheika was at the same **** at Leinster and no one cares because he was winning games. Jones is exactly the same apart from results, when Cheiks starts winning no one will care.

How can you compare the 2? Show me where Jones makes comments even half way as stupid as what Cheika says. Jones will try to wind the Aussies up yes but he isn't going about it even remotely the same way. Where are the accusations of cheating, saying others have a chip on their shoulder, calling others bitter and saying their reputation is forever tarnished? Also a winning whiner is still a whiner. If Cheik starts winning, that won't make him any less of a terrible sportsman. Having a dig at the team is one thing, making personal attacks on individuals is another thing all together. That's not mind games, that's just being an arse.

 

[RoosTah]

How can you compare the 2? Show me where Jones makes comments even half way as stupid as what Cheika says. Jones will try to wind the Aussies up yes but he isn't going about it even remotely the same way. Where are the accusations of cheating, saying others have a chip on their shoulder, calling others bitter and saying their reputation is forever tarnished? Also a winning whiner is still a whiner. If Cheik starts winning, that won't make him any less of a terrible sportsman. Having a dig at the team is one thing, making personal attacks on individuals is another thing all together. That's not mind games, that's just being an arse.

Jones has carried on like a complete ****whit since joining England and I honestly don't know how you can claim he has any mind games or hasn't shown himself to be a complete and total arse. What he's done with an underperforming England (even if they're the richest and most well resourced rugby country on the planet by far) is impressive, but he's still carried on like an asshole in my view - and a thin skinned one at that. He loves to dish out garbage but the minute people start giving him crap back he acts like a hurt school girl.

Frankly, Cheik is right about the chip on Eddie's shoulder too. A lot of people here say he is trying to get back at the ARU and Australian rugby in general because he felt he was hard done by as Wallabies coach when he took the Wallabies from a golden age of sweeping all before them to commencing the start of our era of decline into a middling average rugby country where no one watches the game anymore. He was a very average wallabies coach, but obviously couldn't accept responsibility for all his failures here so he is lashing out at all things in Aussie rugby. The irony is that for all his *****ing and needling it barely hit the deck here - the England series massively underperformed from a financial standpoint (they couldn't even attract a sponsor) and none of the matches even cracked a million viewers - the average viewers for a good NRL or AFL friday night CLUB game.

So Eddie failed both as a coach for Australia and he even failed to generate interest in the country in stoking the traditionally strong Aus-Eng rivalry and I get the feeling he resents he never gets the praise he craves and thinks he deserves here.

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

I'm not quite sure you can claim that the England-Oz series getting hardly any recognition in Oz is Eddie's failure. I agree with you that he can be annoying and his confidence very often crosses the line to cockiness, but as long as he's winning games, then I don't care.

 

[RoosTah]

He was desperately trying to get attention here - he was virtually jumping up and down yelling "look at me" but he barely got a bite