Spring Tour: South Africa - England - 1st Test (09/06/2012, 16:00 GMT)

[Tony Manx]

Dickson and Joseph on now please.

Good call.....immediate difference in box kick!

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

I have to commend the handling of both teams. South Africa look after the ball incredibly well when taking it into contact

 

[Wilko's left boot]

Come on bring on Joseph, we might as well take a risk.

 

[callsign.springbok]

hopefully that's the end of Hartley's tour, if the citing commisioner is doing his job

: love to see the English front row getting murdered!

 

[Tony Manx]

hopefully that's the end of Hartley's tour, if the citing commisioner is doing his job

Missed that....what did he do?

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Paul Doran-Jones straight down = game over. Well played guys

 

[Teh Mite]

Oh well, PDJ to blame for that one. Should be game over

 

[Teh Mite]

Missed that....what did he do?

Being Dylan Hartley. Its an easy excuse.

 

[Tony Manx]

Good consolation try but...................

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

i hope Brown Strettle and co were watching that lesson from Foden on how to finish a try

 

[Wilko's left boot]

More creativity in that last 4 minutes than in the rest of the match. Flood, Dickson and Joseph to start the next test would be desirable.

 

[Peat]

i hope Brown Strettle and co were watching that lesson from Foden on how to finish a try

You mean that technically incorrect lesson where he had the ball under the wrong arm?

 

[TRF_heineken]

Morne Steyn scoring a try, getting his backline away... Who would have thunk!!!??

Very happy with the game, especially with the little time they had... The score board is flattering england a bit...

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk

 

[peanuts40]

Good game, mostly dominated by South Africa. The scoreline does not really reflect the game, but credit to England for making it so close.

Habana, F.Steyn and Alberts were immense.

Tuilagi continues to show he is one of the most over hyped players in world rugby.

 

[Sker]

I'm not happy, there were long periods of time when we messed up and got nowhere, when we did play a bit of running rugby we scored tries and we made good ground. When we tried the kicking game, we failed!


EDIT: Hougaard my MOTM he was incredible defensively, offensively, everything.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

You mean that technically incorrect lesson where he had the ball under the wrong arm?

shush, he had it covered .

I'm enormously proud of that effort from the team. It's impossible to overestimate South African physicality. We looked threatening when in the right positions, but we just never were. Something happened about 50 minutes in where , (and I know South Africa sort of engineered this themselves) but we seemed to give up the tactical kicking game as a lost cause. Our guys need to really practise the kicking. Can't be bothered to make a full analysis, but Flood looked very swish when he came on.

Then again, that's always the case with England. Grass is always greener on the other side; substitute always looks better than the starting player.

 

[Wilko's left boot]

Also, I agree with someone earlier who said our bench is lightweight. Mears and Dowson for Hartley and Morgan isn't exactly what you want vs the South Africans.

 

[racingmetrofan]

Botha should be dropped from the England team permanently, just throws himself at the ground in the hope that people trip over him and a hopelessly inept runner.

Ben Youngs was ultimately ****! Dickson is the form player, plenty of time with Farrell, then we start Youngs?? :<( Can;t even pass the ball to the 10 properly, lost count of the number of times Farrell was having to turn into his 12 to catch it or grab it above his head. And a couple of times tapped and went from penalties which was clearly the wrong option - we had won all of our lineouts with 5 minutes to go, we're in our own half, we need 7 points for the draw, so why not kick the ****ing ball down field and have a lineout on their 22.

Our back row is lacking clearly as well, but injuries so hey ho.

Farrell didn't look the part today would start Flood next week - but Farrells poor game was probably more due to Youngs passing than anything else. The missed ouch was inexcusable though.

Brown wasn't good enough either doesn't offer anything meaningful in attack and we must have a winger who can field high balls - one of the most basic things out there.

Tulagi - should be a weapon for us but he seeks contact far too much and cant offload. Also we need to get him running Aussie style from about 10 meters back from where he is going to take the pass - not jogging for it 5 meters in front of the SA defense! Unless we can use him as a world class crash ball or linebreaker, then we should put someone more creative in.

For next match:

Dickson to start, Care to come in for Youngs on the bench.
Farrell benched for Flood.
Maybe Joseph in at 13, Tulagi on wing, Brown on the bench, Foden back at 15.


Hats of to the bok, played their game very well.

 

[Peat]

The positives from that match for me are pretty much everything to do with 1-8. Barring the early engage thing the set-piece went well, the counter-rucking was excellent, and there were some lovely lines and hands. Robshaw's rebirth as a credible international 7 continues apace. The newbies did a solid job. Not good enough to out-arm wrestle SA in SA, but still rather good. Oh, and Foden on the wing went ok in terms of defence. An experiment worth repeating imo.

The huge sodding negative was creativity in the backs, of which there was none. Kicking wasn't great, but that didn't cost us the match, not in a way that an inability to carve linebreaks did. There needs to be a very hard look at Farrell-Barritt-Tuilagi.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Also, I agree with someone earlier who said our bench is lightweight. Mears and Dowson for Hartley and Morgan isn't exactly what you want vs the South Africans.

*cough* you know what you're supposed to do when you agree with someone...