Wales vs England - 13/08/2011 - RWC Warm Up

[TVH11]

Ah i get you, I agree that Wales should be given more credit, and people should have more confidence in us to qualify out of the group (been saying this before the two warm ups). I think England will find some form though, always do the jammy buggers It'll "click" in the second game of WC for them, i can see it now

Hope wales can sort out the set pieces for next week and WC.

Anyone know if "THE ORANGE ONE" was actually injured, or was there some other reason???

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Apparently a wrist injury - probably late for a filming for The Bachelor though



Who have Wales got next week? Is it Argentina at home?

 

[TVH11]

Argies in the Millenium stadium. Got tickets, so i hope its not a cretin team we put out.

Hopefully we try to capitalize and build some sort of "winning" mentality, the Argentinian's will be a huge test up front Lets not F!!k about, put out todays side, with a new front row and an actual full back

And yes, i would play THE ORANGE ONE if fit!!!

 

[TRF_Olyy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/14517441.stm
Suspected broken arm for Henson

 

[TrueSlawter]

BBC says suspected broken arm, he played well tbf. Was a pretty close game, good welsh defence one thing, ref gave final warning to England about the ruck, happened again they had another warning where 10 odd mins before Wales had a guy binned after their final warning

 

[adrocks]

we all hear about the passion of the welsh supporter. Well hear this, what the kin hell was that, just a month left to go. In the 6 nations we saw some glimmers of moving the ball out to the runners. What we saw today was that old pointless straight down the middle, lets just rely on the grunt of the forwards gesame. Why is it always 2 step forward 1 step back. We know we're strong in the front. Come on Martin johnson, lets have more confidents in the talents of our backs, give them the freedom in the game planes. More imagination, less predictive play. Lets make defenses think. Rant over, Mr Johnson. P.s. I don't think the southern boys are to worried.

 

[racingmetrofan]

Banahan to be taken outside and shot. Hape and Tindall were also shocking. I see no reason why Fluety and Tulagi shouldn't start next week. Arguably the best England backline that Johno might actually play next week would be 9: care 10: wilko: 11: Ashton 12: Fulety 13: Tindall 14: Tulagi 15: Foden.

Shocking performance from England imo. Hape and Banahan must have played themselves out of the squad. Cole didn't impress and England need Hartley's aggression. We don't have a good crash ball option either in the forewards, if only Stephan Armitage had been selected as he should have been a year ago...

Also where the hell were the tactics. I've got nothing against trying to score tries, but would far prefer England to try and score them in the final 30 with 15 points from drop goals/penalties on the board...


All credit to Wales though for that defense, and taking the oppertunities when they came.

 

[j-dawg]

England players:

1) Corbiserio - Much better scrumming wise, but nothing in attack
2) Thompson - Real lump of granite. Got in their faces and loved the confrontation. Starter.
3) Cole - Scrum time and made a few dents. Good tackles.
4) Lawes - Welcome back. Shined in the lineouts but needs to get the ball more.
5) Deacon - Were you playing today Deacon? Never noticed him. Not even worthy of a bench spot.
6) Wood - Didn't notice him much at the breakdown. Needs to get in there more.
7) Fourie - Terrific tackling and rucking work. A real positive.
8) Easter - Headless chicken. Still slow, predictable and not a world class number 8. Get Haskell in.
9) Care (I know he didn't start but played most) - Made one slashing run but thats it. Still WAY WAY WAY!!!! too slow at the breakdown. Let them turn us over, he should command these areas!!.
10) Flood - Jonny Wilkinson. End of.
11) Cueto - Finally realised, not up to international standard. Not scoring tries, not making these runs. Its been like this for too long and its time to drop him.
12) Hape - So crap it makes me want to gouge out my own eyes. Still slow and I would be banned from this forum for typing my thoughts down on him.
13) Tindall - Not much better than Hape, but better still and its an old head in the team. Extremely slow but made some good touches.
14) Bananahaganan - Crap, so so crap. Contender for crappest player award along with Hape. Failed to get past Shane Williams for f*@%ks sake!
15) Foden - Looked lively with the ball but wasn't utilised. Possibly Englands best player.

Bad performance overall. Now for my starting team.

1) Sheridan
2) Thompson
3) Cole
4) Lawes
5) Palmer
6) Croft - missed him today
7) Wood/Moody - We NEED leaders on the field
8) Haskel - More dynamic and a presence than Easter
9) Youngs
10) Wilko - Keeps the scoreboard ticking over which then opens up the midfield for tries.
11) Armitage - Showing great form
12) Tindall - Need an old head in the line
13) Tuilagi - England simply need him. End of.
14) Ashton - What if it was him and not Banahan today? What if what if what if...
15) Foden

Notable Subs7)
16) Stevens - Good scrummer, really enthusiastic today.
18) Shaw - Lightyears ahead of Deacon and Botha...metaphorically aswell as literally.
21) Flood or Hodgson? Flood is getting worse everytime he plays.

 

[psychic duck]

The moment I saw Luke Charteris and Lloyd Burns were named in the team I knew the lineout would be sh*t, and I was right, I really don't rate either of them, I never thought Wales could still get worse than Huw Bennett but Lloyd Burns is even worse, and Luke Charteris has very little talent and is purely in the side due to his size and nothing else

England were poor, they've gone gradually backwards since they thrashed Italy in the 6N since then every performance has got a little bit and worse each match

Shontayne Hape was poor in this match, I don't really see what he offers, dreadful in attack, he's England's version of Andrew Bishop (probably worse actually), surely England can do better than Hape?

The next crap player in this match for England was Matt Banahan, the fact with his size he couldn't get past Shane is pure embarrassment, looking at the stats on scrum.com he also conceded the equal highest amount of penalties in the match, a poor decision to put him in ahead of Sharples in the first place

Louis Deacon was his usual Mr. Average self, I get the feeling he has only made the team because he plays for Leicester

a positive for England was the front row (there is a strong argument for all of them to be starting against Argentina), and the lineout

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Henson is probably out of the World Cup ... broken his arm.

 

[JW.]

Worst England performance in a long time. England lost that game, Wales didn't win it. We weren't aggressive enough at the breakdown, and Flood's distribution was very poor. They looked clueless at times. Set pieces were good + Armitage,Thompson, Foden, Fourie played well. Cole, Lawes, Corbiesiero and Easter were average. The rest were poor I thought, and Bahahan + Hape were dreadful haven't seen International players make so little impact for a long time.

Funny how 1 injury can ruin a match (from an England perspective that is). If Ashton would've played he would've scored and England would have gone on to score more, but if...if..if....

MJ has some serious decisions to make now. Out with Flood, Banahan, Hape and maybe Queto got the feeling Sharples or Monye can deliver more for us. Never seen such inability to score a try apart from England a couple of years ago and that... says it all.

 

[Duckdee]

Ugh.

Bomb out in the groups, replace the staff, drop anyone over 32, play rugby.

 

[j-dawg]

What good would that do? The average age of a world cup winning team is 30+ and under Jonno this team is in the best place it has been for a long time.

P.S Simon Shaw has already put his name down for the 2015 world cup training camp anyway.

 

[Thingimubob]

Well, not a clue how we won that! Wales tackled their way to victory, and took their chance to secure the win. This was the type of game we'd lose in the past and I'm very happy that we've started being able to drag our way into the tight matches and finish them off.
Rolland was bloody awful, Banahan should have been binned, Cueto too (always believed that any intentional interference on a quick tap should be an automatic yellow) since both offences were far more cynical than what Roberts and Phillips did. Also wasn't impressed with how he'd ping Wales for being off their feet then ignore England doing exactly the same. Best example of this was Care made a break towards the end of the 1st half and the first England player to the ruck (was Fourie I think) flew in off his feet and went un-penalised. Didn't see any of level of consistancy in penalising either team at the breakdown or even at the scrum. Bullsh*t was Cole driving straight. Would have been interesting to see how that game would've turned out if Wales had their best front row playing, England definitely wouldn;t have had the dominance they had in the scrum anyway.
Was impressed by Henson until he went off, had a tidy little run and pass for his first touch and tackling the crap (like the whole Welsh team) out of anything English(ish). Was impressed by Shane's defence, one hell of a try saving tackle to stop Banahan scoring, and think he did another one on Hape to stop the ball going wide for a try too. Warburton was bloody fantastic too, well deserved man of the match, shaping up to be one hell of a successor to Martyn Williams.

Next week is going to be interesting, would've liked to play Henson but it's a pity about his injury. Quite a few positions are gonna rely on the fitness of various player. Assuming their fit, this is the team I'd start:

15. Lee Byrne 14. Leigh Halfpenny 13. Scott Williams 12. Jon Davies 11. George North 10. Stephen Jones 9. Tavis Knoyle
8. Gareth Delve 7. Martyn Williams 6. Ryan Jones 5. Alun Wyn Jones 4. Bradley Davies 3. Adam Jones 2. Richard Hibbard 1. Gethin Jenkins

 

[shtove]

Funny how 1 injury can ruin a match (from an England perspective that is). If Ashton would've played he would've scored and England would have gone on to score more, but if...if..if....

Disagree. Ashton wouldn't have made a difference. England are just clueless in converting possession. They'll go back to Jonnie, and hope it ends up in another borefest with SA in the final.

Good for Wales. They have strong defence, and I think that's the most important thing to establish in the warm up matches. Everything else builds on that foundation.

I reckon Wales will have a good RWC. Best of luck to them, but they're going down to Ireland in the semis!

 

[Thingimubob]

Disagree. Ashton wouldn't have made a difference. England are just clueless in converting possession. They'll go back to Jonnie, and hope it ends up in another borefest with SA in the final.

Good for Wales. They have strong defence, and I think that's the most important thing to establish in the warm up matches. Everything else builds on that foundation.

I reckon Wales will have a good RWC. Best of luck to them, but they're going down to Ireland in the semis!

Can Wales and Ireland even meet in the semis? I know that they can meet in the quarters if one of them wins their group, though atm I'm guessing that Australia and SA will be favourites to win their groups over Ireland and Wales, though personally I can't call either. If Wales can defend like that against SA then we have more than a good chance to beat them!

 

[TrueSlawter]

Can Wales and Ireland even meet in the semis? I know that they can meet in the quarters if one of them wins their group, though atm I'm guessing that Australia and SA will be favourites to win their groups over Ireland and Wales, though personally I can't call either. If Wales can defend like that against SA then we have more than a good chance to beat them!

Yeah, for 1/4's Wales or Ireland have to top their group with the other coming second, for semi's both have to win their 1/4s if they come 2nd in the group from what I understand?

aka 1/4's
NZ v Scotland/argentina,
England v France
Australia v Wales
SA v Ireland

semi's
NZ v England/France
Wales v Ireland

 

[samlockstone]

i hope next time Johnson says how "defensively strong" Shontayne Hape is, whoever is interviewing him shows him that slow-mo footage of Jamie Roberts doing a "Lomu/Catt" on Hape. if he can't tackle a big man, he really does have nothing going for him

 

[Feicarsinn]

we all hear about the passion of the welsh supporter. Well hear this, what the kin hell was that, just a month left to go. In the 6 nations we saw some glimmers of moving the ball out to the runners. What we saw today was that old pointless straight down the middle, lets just rely on the grunt of the forwards gesame. Why is it always 2 step forward 1 step back. We know we're strong in the front. Come on Martin johnson, lets have more confidents in the talents of our backs, give them the freedom in the game planes. More imagination, less predictive play. Lets make defenses think. Rant over, Mr Johnson. P.s. I don't think the southern boys are to worried.

In fairness, if I had Hape, Banahan and Tindall on the field I wouldn't have much faith in the talent of the backs either.

 

[Sixesandsevens]

I thought Tindall played pretty well, won two penalties at the breakdown, took a restart really well, great pass for Banahans no try and made the 2nd best break of the game. Hape was awful and should be nowhere near the plane, ditto Banahan, he kept going into contact upright! Wood was also surprisingly bad, repeatedly getting knocked off the ball at the breakdown by the likes of Phillips and Warbutton.