[RWC2023 SF2] England vs South Africa (21/10/2023)

[TopTen2003]

Really proud of the team

Did a lot better than expected.

Shout out to Mitchell who has been criticised as not being a big game player on these boards a few times. Thought he was overall really good and one of our best players.

He had an excellent game and delivered the plan to a tee

 

[Mumbles119]

Thank you England. I have struggled to watch, engage and enjoy as an England fan for a while now. This performance regardless of result was so great to see from this team. The passion, effort and determination that has seemingly been lacking previously was there to see in buckets tonight.

(Special shout out to an amazing effort from George Martin!)

 

[stus768]

Billy the major disappointment. First involvement was a knock on and he looked his usual lacklustre self.

Why was he there? Doesn't fit the game plan and if ur looking for points against SA game already lost

 

[IT157]

What was the point of Underhill?

He was brought in for practice to mimic Levani Botia for the quarter final.

 

[jordiev]

I think borthwick proved he is good at setting an initial game plan for games all tournament. Which offers hope. Aled walters is actually a magician as well thought the peaking was bullshit but really did play out looking forward to him working with the team for a full cycle.

Borth made massive flubs in constructing the squad, think it costed in the end, dropped two of our starters from the final squad initally, billy v, no second hooker he trusted for mins etc… hopefully thats a product of it being a world cup and will improve now we start a fresh cycle.

Locks look decent martin and chessum are exceptionally good for their age. Front row is frightening george cole and marler good but all far to old, and little in the way of young guys that have proven themselves.

 

[Grizwald]

BV is rightly getting a lot of heat butI thought minus Care the whole bench was a big drop off.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

TBF as much as England did well in the air and at the breakdown winning penalties, they never looked like scoring tries to put enough daylight between them and the Boks. 9 point lead never looked like cutting it with 15m to go. It was however much better performance than the rubbish from last 4 years, but it was a massive opportunity missed to get to another final.

 

[Derpus]

It's crazy to me that it was ultimately England's depth that held them back. Surely you should have more depth than anyone?

 

[AngloScotsHybrid]

Well gutted.

Last scrum was NEVER a bok scrum. Koch was going in.

England subs not good enough.

Borthwick is turning this team around...I've said it from long back.

New squad a few new faces...new attack Coach...and the 6n is going to be fascinating.

I'm wearing my Kiwi shirt next week.

Yes you could clearly see Koch boring in at an angle on the overhead shot.

 

[g6mcg]

Really engrossing game. Always fun to see how much a side can elevate their performance - England were more physical and tactically disciplined than I've seen for a long time.

I'm still struggling to enjoy tight SA games though. Three pretty clear penalties to my eyes during the final phase, though I thought O'Keefe was pretty decent otherwise.

 

[IT157]

TBF as much as England did well in the air and at the breakdown winning penalties, they never looked like scoring tries to put enough daylight between them and the Boks. 9 point lead never looked like cutting it with 15m to go. It was however much better performance than the rubbish from last 4 years, but it was a massive opportunity missed to get to another final.

That scrum near the line due to the Arendse knock on was the best opportunity. Score points from there and I can't see South Africa coming back from that. Huge momentum shift.

 

[Lé Ddanno]

It's crazy to me that it was ultimately England's depth that held them back. Surely you should have more depth than anyone?

Failed to develop or pick it for ~4 years so we had Billy "why do I have this ball I don't want it" coming on.

Absolutely seething at him being picked now.

 

[TopTen2003]

I think it's really important to applaud Dan Cole's performance tonight by the way guys- thought he scrummaged very, very well under the pressure and scrutiny of that extremely difficult 2019 final.

In fact, one could argue that in true ironic fashion, England only looked like conceding once he left the field.

Great effort, mirrored by young George Martin also.

 

[Derpus]

Really engrossing game. Always fun to see how much a side can elevate their performance - England were more physical and tactically disciplined than I've seen for a long time.

I'm still struggling to enjoy tight SA games though. Three pretty clear penalties to my eyes during the final phase, though I thought O'Keefe was pretty decent otherwise.

O'Keeffe is never decent

 

[Aristodemus]

You have to tip your hat to an England side given zero chance

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

England gave it their all, and made it a much closer game than most expected. Absolutely dominant at the breakdown and the high ball. Freddie Steward would have been the MOTM if England had held on for the win. South Africa had no answer for England's gameplan and it showed. The early subs were the best move the coaching staff could have made. Taking off Libbok early was the right call.

Like Wales 4 years ago, a tough heartbreaking loss at the boot of Pollard in the final minutes. It's tough. But this could have easily gone England's way.

On the other hand, the entrance of Ox Nche really turned it all around. The guy is a ******* monster at the scrum and he tipped the scales in SA's favour forcing several penalties including the match-winning one at the end. That guy deserved the MOTM more than Pollard in my opinion.

I am dreading next week's game. All Blacks with an extra day off and a much easier road to the final, will certainly have the upper hand are are favourites going into next Saturday.

 

[croadymeister]

How on earth have we lost after leading for 78 mins,won't be getting over this until next World Cup. Feels like the botched George line-out really cost us;also not having that ambition to go for tries. We haven't scored one against them for 20 years now

 

[croadymeister]

Englands tactics and bench lost us the game. Once we had that lead we sat back and sweet FA. Really angry because we could have won that and we threw it away.

Also Billy is ****, I've said it for years and he proved me right once again. SB will hopefully learn a lot but he's really let us down today.

Yeah sitting back at 15-6 against the World Champions was just asking for trouble,sounds like Vuinopola totally cost us with everything he did too.

 

[IT157]

How on earth have we lost after leading for 78 mins,won't be getting over this until next World Cup. Feels like the botched George line-out really cost us;also not having that ambition to go for tries. We haven't scored one against them for 20 years now

 

[croadymeister]

Vunipola being on bench and coming on instead of chessum was a travesty. If we were going to play that game should always have been ludlam on bench.

Yeah Borthwick will regret that decision