RBS 6 Nations - France vs England - 11/03/2012, 15:00

[racingmetrofan]

Wait my bad for some reason I thaught England had 5 points currently, However for the points difference currently in the table above (Wales - 44, England 4) I know now its a points difference of 6 for england Wales will have to be destroyed by France by 40+

The difference between them is 38 points. So Eng would have to beat Ireland 20-0 and Wales would have to lose to France 19-0 for England to win it, which would take Wales pd down to 25 and increase England's to 26. But yeah, its very unlikely that England will score 20+ whatever Ireland score, and that France will score 19 + whatever Wales score.

The ***le is pretty much a Welsh cert.

 

[racingmetrofan]

England really let France back into that. 15 points the French scored were through English players having poor discipline and giving away stupid stuff within kicking distance. This has been my pet hate for England ever since the 2003 team left and we've had new players in. Is discipline not taught properly any more? If England had not given away stupid stuff the French would have struggled far more for territory and the scoreboard would have been much more in England's favour. England will never be a world class side while they keep doing this, it just lets other teams back into them game without them having to do anything.

One wouldn't expect an inexperienced side playing against a v experienced french side to not be pressured into giving away penalties at the very least...

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

To whoever mods these boards: I think the value for Scotland's Tries Scored in the Six nations table is wrong.says they've only scored 1

 

[Macsen]

Fair play to England that was a great result. I think we were lucky to play them early on in the tournament as they seem to get better every game!

England v Ireland on the last weekend will be a hell of a match.

I think there will be an outcry if Lancaster doesn't get the job now. He's also much more modest and likeable that most rugby managers.

(Difficult to admit as a Welshman but I actually quite like this England team)

I wonder what effect playing so many matches on the trot is having on France and Ireland. I can see them being knackered by next week.

 

[Big Ewis]

Beauxis and Szarzewski can certainly shoulder some blame in my opinion, in general France were lethargic until the last 10 minutes. Parra made a difference imo. England played well, but their first two tries were definitely opportunistic rather than well built.

Yeah thanks...I didn't want to be "that guy", being bitter and unfair but they were these two tries...totally killed us mentally and we weren't the same after that. France (barring Italy) is clearly the most psychologically fragile team in this tournament...if only we could be consisteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeent .......

 

[barthelemy]

I wonder what effect playing so many matches on the trot is having on France and Ireland. I can see them being knackered by next week.

I think for France it is becoming complicated. When you look our forwards, most of them being above thirty years old and keeping in mind that they did not have any holidays since the preparation of the world cup (which has started in august..and they finished their previous season quite late with the summer tour), being under quite a lot of pressure for these national teams event, I guess they start to be really exhausted. The fact for example that they did not chase balls properly after kicking today shows maybe a lack of fresh state...And they only have 5 days to recover for the welsh match of saturday.

Overall, I'm really worried for our forwards. Most of them are above thirty, we are highly dependent on performances of guys like Dussautoir, Harinordoquy or Bonnaire and in one year time, we will have to have some replacement for these guys...I do not see a lot of french players being at the level to replace these guys currently.

England is totally in an opposite phase as they play with young players (the difference of caps between French forward and english forward today was quite incredible today) and they have renewed their generation. And Matches like today are building up their confidence and experience.

Hope Saint Andre will use the summer tour smartly and will bring on some youth in this team...if not, I feel that we will have a lot of down years...

Apologies to not be very fair-play with our english forum members in my earlier answers, it was a bit of frustration in front of the poor performance of France, England deserved the win, they played with their head and made the most of their opportunities. I think we have really great individuals, better on the paper than most of the team of the 6th nations, but we are unable to bring up collective performances on the pitch....This is highly frustrating

 

[Big Ewis]

I think we have really great individuals, better on the paper than most of the team of the 6th nations, but we are unable to bring up collective performances on the pitch....This is highly frustrating

Clearly. There were some plays (for example in today's game) where you could see the individual qualities of our guys and where this could have easily been much worse would we not have that type of flair...
And I'm not even talking about the obvious Harinordoquy, Vincent Clerc, Dussautoir, Parra...

And I just can't swallow this DAMN defeat !! I admit it. England should never have won, this is a much bigger victory for them than it seems and a greater loss for us than people will admit.
How did we let this happen ? And in Paris...
Down right strange...
There was a chance in a hundred England would be so opportunistic and we would be so destabilized mentally...How did this fkn happen ?!
We were fkn RWC finalists and lost by a single point to the AB for crying out loud ! And England has an average of 15 year olds !...

Nice one England...but it really hurts...coz it ain't fair.

 

[Big Ewis]

....I mean, this is the team that barely made it on top of Italy a few weeks back !!!....yeah it was in Rome, but so was this in Paris !!...

 

[mustardcharlie]

The difference between the teams today was in defence. When a you lose tries to back row forwards, that happens. Still a trowsers down, six of the best spanking though. Excellent and enjoyable game and the margin of defeat flatters the French.

 

[Eirian]

Here we go! So Ben Fodens try wasnt good work from open play? load of ****

It was a good try, a great break and good support play and amazing offload, yes. It was a sexy try.

The point I was making was that it wasn't a well built try...

It came from returning a poor clearance kick, and the chase was almost as hopeless as the tackling that followed. So for me it wasn't a well built try. What I mean by a well-built try, is a try where the attacking team has gone through the phases and engineered a mismatch, be it a man over or prop caught up in the back line - or even someone hitting an angle that wrongfoots the defence.

I would generally not count a try coming directly from turnover ball or a kick as "well built". both usually mean there is a broken field to run at from the off, hence why tries are scored from such positions - because the defence is not properly organised.

 

[mustardcharlie]

Clearly. There were some plays (for example in today's game) where you could see the individual qualities of our guys and where this could have easily been much worse would we not have that type of flair...
And I'm not even talking about the obvious Harinordoquy, Vincent Clerc, Dussautoir, Parra...

And I just can't swallow this DAMN defeat !! I admit it. England should never have won, this is a much bigger victory for them than it seems and a greater loss for us than people will admit.
How did we let this happen ? And in Paris...
Down right strange...
There was a chance in a hundred England would be so opportunistic and we would be so destabilized mentally...How did this fkn happen ?!
We were fkn RWC finalists and lost by a single point to the AB for crying out loud ! And England has an average of 15 year olds !...

Nice one England...but it really hurts...coz it ain't fair.

France wasn't even close until the last 10 mins. They were destroyed by the better team ffs. Lucky you were playing youngsters an not a a seasoned team, otherwise that was a 20 - 30 point defeat. France will be competing with Scotland and Italy for th wooden spoon next year.

 

[psychic duck]

France wasn't even close until the last 10 mins. They were destroyed by the better team ffs. Lucky you were playing youngsters an not a a seasoned team, otherwise that was a 20 - 30 point defeat. France will be competing with Scotland and Italy for th wooden spoon next year.

:lol: NO

 

[barthelemy]

France wasn't even close until the last 10 mins. They were destroyed by the better team ffs. Lucky you were playing youngsters an not a a seasoned team, otherwise that was a 20 - 30 point defeat. France will be competing with Scotland and Italy for th wooden spoon next year.

In the game we were close all the match, not on the scoreboard. Apart the 2 first tries and one action in the first half, I did not see England coming a lot in our 22s. the score is not flattering France at all, I really think that if we would have won this one on the last drop, it would have been far from a stolen victory. England has been better defensively than France but quite poor attackingly speaking. France has dominated England in the second half, apart the try, I did not see England being able to really bother us in the normal game...

 

[monkeypigeon]

France wasn't even close until the last 10 mins. They were destroyed by the better team ffs. Lucky you were playing youngsters an not a a seasoned team, otherwise that was a 20 - 30 point defeat. France will be competing with Scotland and Italy for th wooden spoon next year.

There was no 'season team' playing because all your seasoned players are shite and judging by your world cup report....not particularly interested in the team.

Probably would have lost by 30 if you'd sent that lot.

 

[Mikazuki]

Someone definitely needs to call an exorcist for Owen Farrell when he's kicking

 

[Russdog]

did any one else hear the comment about alan rolland that "it doesn't matter he can speak fluent french it it just means he's wrong in two languages" lol

 

[Macsen]

If France lose next week they could come fourth, their worst result since 2001. Come back Marc Lièvremont, all is forgiven?

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

One wouldn't expect an inexperienced side playing against a v experienced french side to not be pressured into giving away penalties at the very least...

Except England were not being pressured. The infringements were poor discipline and nothing else. These were unforced errors and they MUST be cut out. Discipline is a fundamental part of this game and, whilst tries look good, tight games are often won on penalties. If you have good discipline you give your opponents no chances at penalties meaning they must score tries or drop goals to get the score board ticking over. If you keep giving stupid stuff away like today then they just have to get within kicking range to have a good chance of keeping the score going up, which is exactly what happened today.

 

[SelimNiai]

iPlayer this game, foward to just after 30 mins of programme time, who is laughing at that?

 

[gingergenius]

Wow. Haven't felt so happy with an England team since the Australia game, and I didn't watch that live...

That performance was awesome - that same French side showed up against Ireland and got a draw, and England managed a win. Great, great performance from the pack.

Front row: Excellent in the loose all tournament, shaky in the scrum but great work today.

Second row: Botha continues to be a clumsy work horse, but worth his place at the moment. Parling has come from nowhere and is in fine form.

Back row: Even before the try, Croft was playing his best game since the Lions tour. Getting all over the ball, playing like a 6.5 which meant we didn't miss an openside so much today. Excellent carrying from Morgan too.

Halfback: Again impressed with Dickson. Farrell again not perfect but he'll grow into it and there are signs of obvious class there. To any naysayers who still decry his attacking ability, that's as maybe but there's no young English 10 with his all round ability besides Flood.

Centres: Quite quiet in general although they did a lot of dogwork, Tuilagi took his try beautifully. I think we need to develop more guile in the backline as a whole - although Ireland's centres are a major weak spot and they'll have their work cut out with Barritt and Tuilagi.

Back 3: Again unconvincing. I think Foden proved with that try and some of the tackles he's made all tournament that even when not on top of his game he's an asset. Ashton, besides his hit on Szarzewski, is yet to do that and I think Sharples deserves another run with Strettle.

As for coaching? Lancaster showed he's learning too - no more silly subs and he had faith enough to keep the midfield intact despite having an old hand on the bench. For me, he's got the team going in the right direction, and if he can do that in four games, I see no reason why he can't continue that for longer.

I would say that he may have trouble maintaining a team with the 'favourites' tag. So I would hire someone like Mallett as a technical adviser or something - a serious international coach who serves under Lancaster. The likelihood of anyone committing to this is low, but it would show their commitment...