The Rugby Union Thread

ewal

Attritional rugby from the two teams in the world who are best at it.

Come on New Zealand! We"re relying on you to entertain!

TJT1979

Eng go out with heads held high. We were the better team for 60 mins. It all started going wrong in the scrum when Marler came off. Gutted!!

Still, compared to what I expected before the tournament (and before this match to be fair), we did really well. 

Cheering for NZ in the final!!!

rsvmark

To be fair, that was the best England performance for years. Win or lose, they regained some pride there. Fair play, they showed they can do it. Just now need to to do this every time!

guitars4you

Well we were never expected to win - Like an 800 metre race and lead from start to 780 metres - But those last 20 metres cost you

We did far better than expected- not an enthralling game but certainly asked the Boks to dig deep 

I’m kind of not gutted as I didn’t think we’d be there or there about - Yet equally can we say we came away with credibility when we’ve flattered to deceive for so many mins of this tournament? - We didn’t set the world alight tonight but we certainly scared the world champions 

Not sure where we go from here but hope the next 4 years produces more positive performances and results and gives us something to shout about 

I’m not gutted or empty about tonight as I feel the last 3/4 years has driven you to such low expectations- But equally a bad time to loose a match- Why the hell we have to play a 3/4 place playoff next weekend is beyond belief- Let them all go home 

fretmeister

I don’t care how good a ball carrier a prop is.
If they can’t prop, they shouldn’t be playing in that position.

I’m completely gutted. I’d rather have no hope than dashed hope.

TJT1979

I really hope that in a year’s time we’ve managed to cycle in young blood to replace the older players who definitely won’t make the next WC. 

MaxA867

fretmeister said:

I don’t care how good a ball carrier a prop is.
If they can’t prop, they shouldn’t be playing in that position.

I’m completely gutted. I’d rather have no hope than dashed hope.

Never a truer word spoken, Genge and Sinckler were never ever going to be able to compete with the SA props from the bench. 4 penalties given up to the scrum in the last 20 minutes! 

crunchman

MaxA867 said:

fretmeister said:

I don’t care how good a ball carrier a prop is.
If they can’t prop, they shouldn’t be playing in that position.

I’m completely gutted. I’d rather have no hope than dashed hope.

Never a truer word spoken, Genge and Sinckler were never ever going to be able to compete with the SA props from the bench. 4 penalties given up to the scrum in the last 20 minutes! 

With hindsight, he should have given Marler and Cole an extra 8 to 10 minutes to try to take the sting out of the replacement SA front row.

The worry is that Cole is 36 and Marler is 33.  We need to find some young guys who are good.

We need more depth at Hooker as well.  It probably didn't help that George had to play the full 80.

koneguitarist

Very tight game, some inexplicable reffing at times. 

Will we now see the end of Farrell, and his sneering aggressive attitude with refs. Guy cost England the game with his backchat. 

MaxA867

crunchman said:

MaxA867 said:

fretmeister said:

I don’t care how good a ball carrier a prop is.
If they can’t prop, they shouldn’t be playing in that position.

I’m completely gutted. I’d rather have no hope than dashed hope.

Never a truer word spoken, Genge and Sinckler were never ever going to be able to compete with the SA props from the bench. 4 penalties given up to the scrum in the last 20 minutes! 

With hindsight, he should have given Marler and Cole an extra 8 to 10 minutes to try to take the sting out of the replacement SA front row.

The worry is that Cole is 36 and Marler is 33.  We need to find some young guys who are good.

We need more depth at Hooker as well.  It probably didn't help that George had to play the full 80.

Yeah totally agree. But it always felt like holding off the inevitable. I thought he clearly didn’t trust Billy or Theo Dan from the bench, which is totally understandable in hindsight given Billy’s awful showing. 

Absolutely spot on, I mean props generally don’t get really good until their early/mid 30’s so I’d not write Marler off yet, but it would be nice to see a few premiership teams valuing front row brute strength and dominance over all this open field/prop as a second playmaking pivot nonsense - It’s never going to win a world cup. 

Totally, massive Exeter fan here so gutted that Cowan Dickie was crocked for the tournament, he might have made a difference! Eddie has a lot to answer for though there though, never built depth at #2 

fretmeister

Seen on Facebook….

I don’t think he was particularly biased, just crap all round.

MaxA867

koneguitarist said:

Very tight game, some inexplicable reffing at times. 

Will we now see the end of Farrell, and his sneering aggressive attitude with refs. Guy cost England the game with his backchat. 

Yeah this is true also, extra ten meters gifted them an easy three points! Just like with Kolbe’s charge down last week - these games are decided on small margins! 

Schnozz

fretmeister said:

Seen on Facebook….

I don’t think he was particularly biased, just crap all round.

I do think we should have been playing France today and yes, I still think we wouldn't have made it to the final.

Nick Mullins' commentary was the only thing that was biased today. He was desperate for a SH final and once again, came across as a total bellend.

tbm

That was a proper semi final. Feel bad for England. 

theatreanchor

Another good match. Small margin, and England did well. 

TimmyO

Sinkler CAN prop, but he was mismatched (which they could have done something about) and the ref had already decided the errors were all his and was missing potential penalties the other way. 

I do wonder though whether leaving the starting front row on longer might have paid off in hindsight. 

I thought that segment of the game where England pounced on everything, got turnovers, had the line out working, was fantastic and it looked like a team that could at least give NZ a game (but not win it) 

sev112

Thought England were fantastic. Simple as that.  I was happy we won the first half, that would have been enough for me, but also the 3rd quarter .

Clearly England didn’t lose the game because Farrell got marched 10 back (although I wish far more refs would do this to all teams - say what the reason is, don’t sa6 it 5 times to 5 different people ).   England lost because from a line out and from a scrum near the SAf line, we got reasonably fairly pinged back 10 yards, 10 yards, 10 yards and then to our own 5m line, from where the penalty came.   

The last penalty that gave them the kick could have possibly gone the other way, or the ref called them to okay it.  But it was that phase that led to their try that lost the game

DrCornelius

For the uninitiated (me) , it seems that the scrum nowadays is more about collapsing the other sides front row for a penalty and less about getting the ball out to the backs or keeping it in the pack and driving the opposition backwards. Has there been a rule change that had brought on this tactic as I don’t remember it when I played hooker at college 35 years ago

theatreanchor

@DrCornelius I believe one requires a Doctorate to fully comprehend the rules of rugby. 

DrCornelius

theatreanchor said:

@DrCornelius I believe one requires a Doctorate to fully comprehend the rules of rugby. 

They mentioned yesterday that Sinkler got punished for turning his hips - that was a new one on me too !