The Rugby Union Thread

digitalscream

koneguitarist said:

digitalscream said:

fretmeister said:

Dodgiest call was Webb not getting a yellow for the deliberate knock on.

Or when one of the England players got clotheslined in front of the ref...

Did not see that, saw the hand in eyes by Nathan Hughes though! Saw a couple of highish tackles by both sides which ref correctly dealt with I thought. Only Welsh thing we got away with Moriarty late tackle. 

The point is that, much as you try to see it without bias, you can't. If you look back at every post of yours after Wales have played England in this thread, you've complained about bias against Wales in almost every one of them.

Either there's a worldwide conspiracy to make England's life easier playing against Wales (given that just about every ref in the world has been involved), or your bias is blinding you to the instances where it works in your team's favour.

It strikes me that the simpler, more obvious explanation is probably the correct one

koneguitarist

I think we all complain about issues, my complaints are generally about inconsistency, as I said above, we got away with Moriarty late challenge, we all seem to get them at times. We lost the game due to stupidity not ref, but momentum swings on not one decision but generally a couple  in a row. 

Fretwired

koneguitarist said:

I think we all complain about issues, my complaints are generally about inconsistency, as I said above, we got away with Moriarty late challenge, we all seem to get them at times. We lost the game due to stupidity not ref, but momentum swings on not one decision but generally a couple  in a row. 

Wales had lots of possession but played narrow which suited England's defence. Wales also failed to take penalties when common sense said take the points on offer. Ultimately the game came down to one error - Wales should have kicked for touch.

exocet

Fretwired said:

koneguitarist said:

I think we all complain about issues, my complaints are generally about inconsistency, as I said above, we got away with Moriarty late challenge, we all seem to get them at times. We lost the game due to stupidity not ref, but momentum swings on not one decision but generally a couple  in a row. 

Wales had lots of possession but played narrow which suited England's defence. Wales also failed to take penalties when common sense said take the points on offer. Ultimately the game came down to one error - Wales should have kicked for touch.

They did.....only the "kicker" was JD2 who's a left footer. Chances of making a long touch kick to left hand line vastly reduced....don't know why he was stood in receiving position.

There were some positives for Wales. Our scrum is improving and our loose forward play is very good.  Biggar had a great game in my opinion, when he plays like that I understand why he's still first choice. Liam Williams is class and Scott Williams had more impact than I thought he would have. 1/2 p is very solid but will never have the attacking edge required. Roberts....no point in him being on bench. He's either on playing "that style" or he's not there at all.

However, when it really matters, the lineout still creaks.

rsvmark

exocet said:

Fretwired said:

koneguitarist said:

I think we all complain about issues, my complaints are generally about inconsistency, as I said above, we got away with Moriarty late challenge, we all seem to get them at times. We lost the game due to stupidity not ref, but momentum swings on not one decision but generally a couple  in a row. 

Wales had lots of possession but played narrow which suited England's defence. Wales also failed to take penalties when common sense said take the points on offer. Ultimately the game came down to one error - Wales should have kicked for touch.

They did.....only the "kicker" was JD2 who's a left footer. Chances of making a long touch kick to left hand line vastly reduced....don't know why he was stood in receiving position.

There were some positives for Wales. Our scrum is improving and our loose forward play is very good.  Biggar had a great game in my opinion, when he plays like that I understand why he's still first choice. Liam Williams is class and Scott Williams had more impact than I thought he would have. 1/2 p is very solid but will never have the attacking edge required. Roberts....no point in him being on bench. He's either on playing "that style" or he's not there at all.

However, when it really matters, the lineout still creaks.

Plus the welsh pack competed far more effectively at the break down and scored 8 turn overs with the added benefit of slowing England ball down. The English pack often didn't compete and opted to defend another phase. Don't forget there were 5 points went begging for missed kicks whereas the Welsh didn't  opt to go for goal when they had the chance. The game didn't hinge on 1 missed touch.

Gassage

That truly was an amazing test; the atmosphere was unbelievable- prob best I have ever witnessed since Lions 97 in Durban.

Just some thoughts- Cole and Marler were a huge difference between the sides- again, 3 kicked scrum pens for England and Cole toasted Evans.

England had a lot more gas when they needed; Daly's finish and composure were incredible.

And, Garces was absolutely brilliant; no fuss, no messing around, a quick wonderful game.

Gassage

MagicPigDetective said:

The subs were a bad move....Moriarty was having a monster of a game

Howley told us afterwards- Moriarty has a dead leg.

koneguitarist said:

Sheer stupidity, plus a couple of dodgy scrum calls, find it hard to wheel a scrum that fast when the Welsh front row is straight, yet England pulling it round. Also Sinkler off his feet no doubt when given that penalty. 

Probaly something to do with your tighthead not having his feet on the floor! He was flying...his job to keep the scrum down- Wales were beaten hugely in scrum- it was a pivotal part.

Fretwired

exocet said:

Fretwired said:

koneguitarist said:

I think we all complain about issues, my complaints are generally about inconsistency, as I said above, we got away with Moriarty late challenge, we all seem to get them at times. We lost the game due to stupidity not ref, but momentum swings on not one decision but generally a couple  in a row. 

Wales had lots of possession but played narrow which suited England's defence. Wales also failed to take penalties when common sense said take the points on offer. Ultimately the game came down to one error - Wales should have kicked for touch.

They did.....only the "kicker" was JD2 who's a left footer. Chances of making a long touch kick to left hand line vastly reduced....don't know why he was stood in receiving position.

But Wales did it all game - they kept the ball on the field. It seemed to be a deliberate strategy. Great game though and Wales had England on the rack for large parts of it. Wales just needed to have got a try in the first half which all their pressing of the English line deserved.

Gassage

Fretwired said:

exocet said:

Fretwired said:

koneguitarist said:

I think we all complain about issues, my complaints are generally about inconsistency, as I said above, we got away with Moriarty late challenge, we all seem to get them at times. We lost the game due to stupidity not ref, but momentum swings on not one decision but generally a couple  in a row. 

Wales had lots of possession but played narrow which suited England's defence. Wales also failed to take penalties when common sense said take the points on offer. Ultimately the game came down to one error - Wales should have kicked for touch.

They did.....only the "kicker" was JD2 who's a left footer. Chances of making a long touch kick to left hand line vastly reduced....don't know why he was stood in receiving position.

But Wales did it all game - they kept the ball on the field. It seemed to be a deliberate strategy. Great game though and Wales had England on the rack for large parts of it. Wales just needed to have got a try in the first half which all their pressing of the English line deserved.

Not surprised- their lineout was mullered.
It's not all about steals, it's about how Eng neutered their driving from it. They basically had a safety first throw option only.

koneguitarist

@gassage I think the scrum was a lot closer than expected early on. Scrum in front of English posts when we gave penalty away was Cole dropping his bind from shoulder to elbow and turning Evans in and down. Clearly illegal but he got away with it. That scrum that wheeled was rediculous though, there was no way Wales could have wheeled that scrum as English front row started to peel away from Welsh front row on right hand side, which meant England had to be pulling In that direction as Welsh were still facing forward. 
Again an area like lineout where Wales are tactically inept and badly coached. Good teams know how to play the ref and that's what England did. 
We added to our downfall through poor defensive work with Cuthbert and also our aversion to kicking to touch. This is a hallmark of Gatlands policy, but if players cannot think what's the right thing to do at this level then they should not be playing full stop. We lost the game as much as England won it.
if situations were reversed England would have seen that game out comfortably. 
All the blame cannot be dumped at players feet though as the way they are coached etc smacks of poor planning, tactical inadequacies, after all these years of Gatland and co we still have a poor set piece. We have two extremely experienced coaches now in McBryde and Howley yet they are clearly not up to the job. They should have been cut lose after last RWC and new coaches in place to move Wales forward and for Howley and McBryde to gain experience at a region or more down to their level school rugby. 
For all the Dr's and Lawyers in the team we really are thick as two short planks when on the field.

Gassage

Taff, the scrum pen you refer to- it's Evans' job to keep it up; Cole wrapped him with his right arm and drove straight, Evans buckled.

Gassage

 

IMPACT OF THIS WIN ON LIONS SELECTION?

I’ve got no interest in the Lions. I’m not coaching the Lions. Ask Warren, don’t ask me. Seriously, I’ve got no interest. I’ll fly down there and have a look at a Test - and have a bit of lamb…

 

DO YOU EXPECT ENGLAND TO MAKE A GREATER CONTRIBUTION OF PLAYERS ON THE BACK OF THIS SUCCESS?

We’re not interested in the Lions at this stage, we’re worried about winning the Six Nations. You guys can guesstimate on the Lions.

 

WERE THE FINISHERS ALWAYS GOING TO HAVE A KEY ROLE IN THIS FIXTURE?

I said today to the team that the starters had to win the game. We didn’t quite do that, so the finishers did the job again. They were brilliant. Like Benny Te’o came on, looked sharp on his feet, carried through line; Danny (Care) looked sharp, the forwards all did their jobs. Jonny May comes on and looks sharp. So, yeah, it was a great effort by the 23.

 

IS JAMIE GEORGE ONE YOU MIGHT LOOK TO START NEXT TIME?

You’d love that one! Errrrrrrr maybe, I’m looking at it all mate. I want to do something a bit different against Italy. I want to play differently against them; experiment a bit in how we play…and maybe the team might be different.

 

HOOKED DYLS VERY EARLY?

Every decision is made on the ability of the player to work. When they start to drop off - we have parameters for how quickly they get off the ground - and when they start getting slow off the ground we make a change. It’s got nothing to do with anything else.

 

IS EXPERIMENTING AGAINST ITALY AN EXPRESSION OF YOUR CONFIDENCE THAT YOU’RE GOING TO WIN THAT GAME?

Errrrrrrr, no. But I want to keep developing the team. My job is to keep doing that. We’ve got to win against Italy to win the Six Nations. It’s bloody important we beat Italy and we’ll make sure we do.

 

GIVE ELLIOTT A GO AT FULLBACK?

Possibly. Yeah.

 

IMPROVEMENTS FROM LAST WEEK, WHERE EXACTLY?

Our first 20 was much than last week. I thought we put enormous pressure on them with our attack in the first 20. We just didn’t finish off a couple of opportunities. We were sloppy on the outside with our running lines and our passing. If we were a bit sharper on the outside we could have been ahead by two tries after the first 20, so that was the biggest improvement.

 

SURPRISED WALES HOOKED MORIARTY WHEN THEY DID?

I didn’t even know he came off. I saw the big bloke come on and thought it was skinny Billy. He’s a decent player. I don’t know how you criticise brining on a bloke like him.

 

BACK-ROW CONTEST….

They shaded us to be honest. It was Nathan Hughes’ third starting Test and I’m really pleased with how he's going.

 

It was Jack Clifford’s second Test.  His only other game was the Twenty20 game (in May) when the sun was shining. Today was his first real Test match. It was difficult for him but he showed enough to show he will be a good player for us.

 

FEEL LOSS OF VUNIPOLAS, KRUIS ETC...

We're missing probably six first-choice players so it's a big hole in the team. To win a Test like that really just shows the depth of players coming through and development of some of the young guys.

I thought Haskell again came off the bench and did well. He's getting close to be able to getting more time.

 

IS HE OKAY? HOLDING SHOULDER..

I think he got a stinger. The Terminator.

 

COURTNEY PACKING DOWN AT BLINDSIDE…

One of Maro’s great attributes is his scrummaging. He's a strong scrummager so he scrummed at lock and played at six. If we could have numbers we wouldn't have those. We’d have four and a half and five and a half ..

 

HOW'S HE DOING AS A “SIX"...?

Excellent. He's doing really well. I’m so pleased with him. Again that’s his second Test as a starting number 6 and playing against Warburton who's played 70 Tests.

 

WHEN DID YOU DECIDE THAT...

One of the sleepless nights early in the week either Monday or Tuesday night.

 

WHY…?

He’s a better scrummager and I thought we're silly not using his scrummaging as scrummaging was going to be important today and we won the scrums so it was a significant factor in the game. You want your best people scrummaging and there's a massive difference in people's ability to scrum.

 

George Kruis is a super scrummager, the best scrummaging lock in England so we’re missing him and Maro’s probably the next best. So rather than have our best two scrummaging locks out we decided we’d have him in. And Courtney can defend at six.

 

CHARACTER WIN YOU THAT…

Yes. And grit. And belief and believing we can win. And we're fit. Were a fit side now. How many games out of our last 15 wins have we won in last 20 minutes. That's not by coincidence. It's because we train to win those last 20 minutes….

 

We back ourselves. Wales were the benchmark team in Europe for winning games in the last 20 minutes. Now we've beaten them three times in a row so maybe we deserve that title.

 

LOOK INTO THEIR EYES AND THEY'RE CONVINCED THEY'RE GOING TO WIN?

Yep. You see it with Owen and George. They knew. If we just kept plugging away and moving the ball around we'd find a weakness.

 

CONSEQUENCE OF WINNING RUN?

No because today's just a standalone Test. It's got nothing to do with what we've done before or do afterwards, it's a special game against Wales. But I think you do breed good habits, yes.

 

DIFFERENT COMING TO CARDIFF WITH ENGLAND AS OPPOSED TO AUS?

I noticed driving in on the bus that people were giving us the finger.

When you come here with the Wallabies they're normally waving. I thought I'd give them a sign back but then thought I'd be

Gassage

tter not. I might get in trouble off the media guy.

 

HOW HAVE YOU IMPROVED LAST QUARTER FITNESS?

We use a methodology which I've borrowed from soccer called tactical periodisation. Every day we train a specific parameter of the game. We have one day where we have a physical session and do more contacts than we would do in a game. Then we have a fast day where we try to train for at least 60 per cent of the session above game speed. We don't do any extra fitness. It's all done within those training sessions. Because of that we've improved our fitness enormously.

 

WHERE DID YOU NICK THE IDEA FROM SPECIFICALLY?

I went down and met a bloke in Qatar. He's a Spanish exercise physiologist who had worked with Jose Mourinho. He's been involved in it quite a bit.

 

KNOW HIS NAME?

I do. Give me a Spanish name.... (Manuel, Jose, Jorge, Juan...err, that's enough Spaniards. ed.) I can't remember his name, sorry. He's a very nice fellow but I didn't like Qatar much. I definitely won't be going there for the World Cup in 2022.

 

NEW THING?

I've been doing it for Japan, probably from the second year I was there, and then I've done it with England.

 

USING YOUR GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD, FRUSTRATING?

It was a fantastic Test match. They played well, they put pressure on us, they were able to hold us at various times. How many times have you seen New Zealand win Tests in the last 20? Think back against Ireland when they were out, dead on their feet out. They ran the ball the length of the field and score. It’s not uncommon in Test rugby. We’re disappointed because we still haven’t played as well as we can. We’d love to play a really good game of rugby. It’s good for the Six Nations, it’s good for the fans and we want to do that and we will, and maybe that might be against Italy in two weeks’ time.

 

YOUR INTENSITY OKAY?

We were in and out. Our second half was excellent. We just tend to get a bit tight around the ruck which means we don’t have enough width in our defence and because of that we get worried about them going on the outside. So we’re working on that. Gussy’s been doing a great job. It’s continual work-on for us. We were better today than we have been, against France. In the second half, in defence, we got some real good line speed, they started to make some errors and that was significant in the game.

 

Parts of that defence was similar to the second Test in Australia. They had long periods on our line.

 

A YEAR AGO YOU SAID YOU’D GIVE ITALY A GOOD HIDING, MORE RESERVED TODAY?

I like Conor O’Shea, he’s a good fella. We’re going to have a nice debate over the next two weeks.

 

YOU DID SAY ‘TAKE THEM TO THE CLEANERS’ ON TV?

That’s all right, isn’t it? That’s not bad.

 

LOZOWSKI COME INTO THINKING?

Errrrr [medium- to long-range errrrr]. Well, he’s doing well for us, I’m so pleased with the way he’s going at training for us, but we’ll let him play for his club next week. He needs some game-time so we’ll let him play for his club next week.

 

YOU SAID PLAYERS WILL HAVE THINGS TO DO…

The players have got something. ‘Changing houses’ or something. What is it? A quiz. Then we’ll a few other things I can’t tell you because the players don’t know yet.

 

YOU TRAIN IN HYDE PARK?!

I think we’ve got a line-out session. Prince Harry might come out and have a look.

 

OTHER THINGS – OUTSIDE OF RUGBY?

Yeah, we have a bit of fun next week.

 

ONE THING?

Ah, I actually don’t know yet because our girls are doing it. I have asked them to go away and find something the boys like doing. So they think they will be going to training and they will be doing something different.

 

NORTH KOREA?

I don’t know where that comes from.

 

CIPRIANI?

Yeah, well.

 

COURTNEY LAWES – SIGNIFICANT STEP FORWARD?

Massive mate. He is a different boy mate from when I first saw him. He trains with intensity, I thought his carries today were super. He has always been a good defender and he defended well today, but I thought he really carried.

 

We are missing two of our most significant ball carriers. You are looking at a deficit of 25 carries a game without the Vunipolas. Courtney he would have had 15 carries today at least and good carries too.

 

IMPORTANT ROLE GIVEN BACK ROW INEXPERIENCE?

What I like about this team and I really mean it, is the way we find a way to be effective. We are short of firepower at the moment, there is no doubt about that – we are missing our two best ball carriers and it makes it difficult.

 

But everyone does a little bit more, everyone pitches in and does a little bit more carrying and we are getting by. It is hard for us to blow away teams at the moment because we are lacking a bit of firepower. We are not getting that smashing over the gain line and getting that quick ball.

 

We are having to work hard to get yardage, work hard to push the defence back and everyone is doing their little bit.

 

HUGHES? MORE LIKE BILLY?

He is only a young guy. Billy has played a lot of Test matches. He just has to find his running lines. He has got a tendency to drift across the field a little bit rather than run straight.

 

MAKO ITALY?

Big chance.

 

WATSON?

He ran at 95 per cent on Friday so we are confident that he will be able to play against Italy so it will be great to have him back. We will probably use him against Italy.

 

FITNESS IN LAST 20 – BACK AT CLUBS?

We give them pick ups to do six weeks before they go in camp and most of them do with their clubs who agree to do it – it is the great thing about the cooperation we have got between the national team and the clubs working together to improve the players.

 

NOTICE THAT IN THE BOUNCE TIME?

100 per cent. I went through it with the staff today and we were talking about the gap between us and New Zealand. In terms of getting off the ground we are 7% below New Zealand. We are still not where we need to be.

 

WHAT WERE THEY LIKE WHEN YOU STARTED?

I think some of the blokes had a cup of tea and a scone with jam and cream before they got off the ground. It was terrible. Just go back and have a look at some of the early tapes and you will see it. The improvement has been enormous.

 

WATCHING EVERYTHING WHILE THINKING IS THIS WHAT IT WOULD TAKE TO BEAT NZ?

Gassage

Yeah. That’s our aim to be the best team in the world. We are not happy being the best team in Europe, we want to be the best team in the world. Everything we do is geared towards bridging that gap between us and NZ.

 

MAKO RETURN TO TRAINING?

He will play for his club this week and if he gets through that game OK we will bring him into camp for the Italy week.

 

FAST-TRACK HIM?

We will have a look at him. Joe Marler has been super for us as well. He has done really well and then Mullan has been doing well off the bench. Then you have the young gangster from Bristol. We have got great depth in that area.

 

ANTHONY PLAYING FOR BATH?

Probably have to negotiate that one. He will probably be with us because he has not done much rugby with us.

 

BILLY LONG WAY AWAY?

He might get back for Ireland. He’d be pretty useful off the bench, 150kg.

 

???

We have got Italy next and they will want to do well after their loss today. They can be quite a niggly side. I think it was 3-4 years we beat them 18-11 [correct score in 2013] at Twickenham in one of the world’s worst games of rugby. They can make the game pretty horrible.

 

PERCEPTION OF YOUR TEAM?

Just that we are hard to beat. When you have got a good team sometimes you get beaten but you don’t get beaten. That’s when you know you have got a good team. Today we were never going to get beaten. We were always there, we were there hanging in enough. If we can get some consistent possession then we are going to score points; we are either going to force some penalties or we are going to score a try. There’s a feel about us that we never got beat.

 

I.E. NOT BEING BETTER SIDE BUT STILL WINNING?

Yeah, yeah.

 

COMPLACENCY NOT AN ISSUE?

I think it is always a factor. We have got to make sure we knock that out and we will do that by training hard. We have two pretty hard sessions next week. I have got some nice sessions planned.

How much improvement within side and how much will you need to improve for Dublin?

 

I am not worried about Dublin. You can go to Dublin, I am going to Twickenham in two weeks. We want to get better against Italy. We want to improve a couple of percent against Italy and a couple of percent the following week and then things will be fine.

 

EXPERIMENTS AGAINST ITALY WOULD YOU INCORPORATE V IRELAND?

One of the things I would like to do is to develop multiple ways that we can play the game so if we have a game where we want to play a certain way then we have done it once and the players understand and can do it again. This is all about building a plan for the World Cup. It will be a bit of fun.

 

-ENDS-

 

exocet

Fretwired said:

exocet said:

Fretwired said:

koneguitarist said:

I think we all complain about issues, my complaints are generally about inconsistency, as I said above, we got away with Moriarty late challenge, we all seem to get them at times. We lost the game due to stupidity not ref, but momentum swings on not one decision but generally a couple  in a row. 

Wales had lots of possession but played narrow which suited England's defence. Wales also failed to take penalties when common sense said take the points on offer. Ultimately the game came down to one error - Wales should have kicked for touch.

They did.....only the "kicker" was JD2 who's a left footer. Chances of making a long touch kick to left hand line vastly reduced....don't know why he was stood in receiving position.

But Wales did it all game - they kept the ball on the field. It seemed to be a deliberate strategy. Great game though and Wales had England on the rack for large parts of it. Wales just needed to have got a try in the first half which all their pressing of the English line deserved.

Wales have been doing this for some time now. My point was that at that moment in time, I don't believe that they intended to do that but by passing to a left footer kicker, they were very unlikely to find left hand touch.

Gassage

Here you go: my piece for Rugbyunplugged

There are test matches and then there are tests of character itself.

 

This was, without question, the biggest test of Eddie Jones’ coaching reign, in every aspect and interpretation of the word.

 

Let’s examine the evidence; 7 players unable to start due to fitness or unavailability. A back row that was so makeshift Courtney Lawes, disguised in the 5 shirt, played on the flank all game; only one ‘unit’ (half-back) where England could field first choices and first choice finishers; two points behind with five minutes to go and so on.

 

When you tot it all up, you can truly see the enormity of this win, a win reminiscent of an All Black side digging deep into their flint-like character and depth of experience in the last ten minutes.

 

Let’s face facts; Wales were immense and could have taken the game.

 

The compelling performances from their back-row and their skipper Alun-Wyn Jones, Biggar in attack and defence, and both of the Williams lads could, rather worryingly, inspire Max Boyce to pen an album about ongoing English millennial subjugation, such was the heroism in defeat of the hosts.

 

But it’s fine margins that win test matches and England were better in the offload, set-piece and most importantly of all, the impact of the respective benches.

 

In the scrum, Marler and Cole, players who go about their business like the unnoticed session musicians on hit records, were immense; three scrum penalties yielded nine points and in a game where every metre counted, their contribution in destroying any form of clean ball from the Welsh setpiece platform was crucial.

 

At ruck time, some will argue that a turnover count of 8 v 2 in Wales’ favour shows domination. A detailed view of the game will counter this argument by illustrating England were throwing one body into a ruck to three Welshmen, leaving numbers outside to prevent Wales going wide. Conversely, every time Launchbury, Lawes and Hughes crashed into contact, three or four Welsh bodies were taken out of the defensive supply chain earning England the right to go wide and the right to retain.

 

Bench players in Eddieland are no longer the poor relations of the starting XV. Renamed as ‘finishers’ by Jones, the last quarter saw a volte face in the game as Ben Te’o, Jamie George and the man who needs no re-branding whatsoever, James Haskell, simply rejuvenated England with a display of ruthless power and outrageous bullying that would be the envy of President Donald Trump himself.

 

Key to this was Jamie George’s ability to offer continuity; his mobility was such that at one point his handling on the left wing caused one seasoned Fleet Street sage to mistake him for Elliot Daly!

 

In those final minutes, the attritional war England had waged on Wales’ set piece bore fruit as Wales, turning over England’s push for the line, opted to kick infield but deep. The speed of thought, fleetness of foot and passing accuracy of George Ford, Owen Farrell and Daly ripped Wales apart and Daly’s raw pace left Alex Cuthbert for dead, as the Wasp buzzed around the Welshman to score in the openside corner.

 

It was the stuff of dreams. Eddie Jones had mischievously suggested that he’d no idea what the big fuss was about in this most traditional of matches. However, post-match the Australian was effusive in praise for Wales, the crowd, the atmosphere and, most of all, the grit and composure of his young charges.

 

Looking forward to Italy, England’s boss has mooted some changes. Daly at 15 is a given, with Watson and half of the Vunipola show returning. It’s also possible that Ben Te’o may be given an outing at 13 where Jonathan Joseph’s defensive brilliance appears to have slightly blunted his sharpness in attack.

Elsewhere, Jones is sure to give Jack Clifford, who coped well in clearing out and securing for 50 minutes, more test experience, but those who know our Eddie will also expect a degree of preparation for the vastly improving Scotland the week after.

 

So there you have it. 16 from their last 16 games is laudable. However, the cupboard, whilst not bare of silverware, is sparse and Jones will want further improvement from his team in the weeks ahead.

 

kjdowd

Nice piece @gassage. Loving the rebranding of the bench as finishers - jones seems to have a knack of making players feel good while demanding more. 

For me, it was AWJ's baffling decisions not to take points that were decisive. With 1/2p on the pitch those were nailed on certs, and he seemed to forget the pressure that the scoreboard ticking over has on the opposition. Wales should have been at least 6 more clear at half time and that would have demanded a looser game from England in the second half and in all likelihood a Welsh win.  As it was, a 2 point game meant that England could nick it at the end. 

Chuffed as an England fan, but that was poor captaincy. 

kjdowd

Oh and can we please stop bemoaning the referee. It's dull (not to say that I haven't been guilty of it myself, mind..)  Garces had a good game. Rugby is impossible to ref faultlesssly or even absolutely consistently - there is just too much going on. And I can ref any single incident better than the best sat at home watching the 15th repeat in slo-mo. 

Egregiously bad reffing is worth picking up on, but it's rare and didn't happen yesterday. 

Gassage

Bemoaning the ref? He was utterly bloody brilliant.

exocet

kjdowd said:

Nice piece @gassage. Loving the rebranding of the bench as finishers - jones seems to have a knack of making players feel good while demanding more. 

For me, it was AWJ's baffling decisions not to take points that were decisive. With 1/2p on the pitch those were nailed on certs, and he seemed to forget the pressure that the scoreboard ticking over has on the opposition. Wales should have been at least 6 more clear at half time and that would have demanded a looser game from England in the second half and in all likelihood a Welsh win.  As it was, a 2 point game meant that England could nick it at the end. 

Chuffed as an England fan, but that was poor captaincy. 

6 points missed? Not so sure. Had the 1st 3 been taken its a restart from halfway, different game then follows. I agree that 3 were spurned.