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Sean Edwards is good but he needs to be told that defence is only part of the game. Howley must go. Possibly Gatland too. The coaching team is just going though the motions
And we must start thinking about replacing Roberts good though he is he is far too predictable and therefore ineffective.
Time for change. We have been dreadful this season even though the results are acceptable, apart from Saturday.
Manchester based original indie band Random White:
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I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd
We haven't played well for quite some time now, a limited game plan albeit well executed has managed to sustain some reasonable results or at least put pay to the thrashings that we have been given in the not so distant past.
In many ways, the England game was the same for us as the opening game v Ireland, we were so slow out of the blocks against an opposition who knew what they were doing and executed at pace. We've were equally poor against France and Scotland but got away with it because Scotland lacked confidence and France are just the most awful team on the planet right now.
What did surprise me was just how poor we were defensively, falling off tackles left right and centre and more often than not, failing to get our defensive lines in place. Here's where I'll get contentious and wind up our English friends, we did this even when we weren't being subjected to a pacey organised attack. In fact I'd say that England didn't do anything particularly special. It was late in first half / early in second half that really shocked me. In my view, England had eased off / lost their way a bit and we weren't under pressure, we won some reasonable ball but there was no attacking structure, Roberts was at 1st receiver a number of times but took the ball stationary. It wasn't blind panic, just no discernable game plan executed slowly.
I actually think that we were hard done by on one of the following penalties. The one where Charteris was pinged for failing to roll away. The Ref pinged very quickly and having seen the state of Charteris' dislocated finger at this point I'm not surprised that rolling away wasn't higher up his agenda.
So why am I mildly optimistic? For significant periods of the 2nd half (before the circus of subs) we demonstrated parity with English pack, even getting the upper hand occasionally. As a result I'm feeling more positive about the future of our front row.
We also started to show some decent attacking flair. Particularly at 58 mins where we had a try disallowed. Perhaps it's my rose tinted specs but it looked to me like Nowell knocked the ball backwards during follow up tackle on JD2?
To me, JD2 was starting to look his old self in the 2nd half and he made some decent ground quite aggressively at times.
Yes, we scored 2 tries once Eng down to 14 men but I've seen far worse from Wales I.e actually conceding tries when in this position.
The final attack did not generate the rewards but we were damn close and on another day would probably have scored. To me, North is finding his form again.
The big question is how to best use the limited resources that we have because we've reached a bit of a dead end? I'd say that Howley needs to go and that Edwards needs to accept that defence isn't everything. We haven't got the cash to pay Gatland off and there are no obvious replacements even if we could.
We also need a few more Liam Williams and less Cuthburt !
I'll finish by saying that England deserve to win this year's Championship and GS (France have already surrendered) BUT don't get too carried away just yet because Wales were very poor on Saturday. If you have a successful summer tour, that's when you know you've turned a corner. I'm hoping that we can cancel ours....we don't need that tour right now
Most of the "good" rugby I've seen has been due to terrible opposition rather than quality or inventiveness. England will Grand Slam it and it's well deserved tbh, as the only three teams which could've stopped them haven't bothered to turn up.
It's not all good news for England either, they actually haven't progressed at all since the World Cup. Their games against Wales were pretty much the same in both tournaments - the difference between winning or losing was just a matter of two or three minutes on the clock.
I know it's all about small margins but the script was identical and this time they just got away with it. That's not really progress, certainly not in the way the "Eddie Jones Effect" has been hyped. You know, the man who said before the game that they weren't going to fade away at the end this time?
Having watched almost every game in this tournament since around 1970 I was really looking forward to this one in particular. It's always interesting to see what we as a hemisphere have learned from a World Cup in the following tournament but the inevitable answer is absolutely fuck all, not even the Grand Slam winners.
The only perennial rugby question which has finally been answered once and for all is that at last we DO know "which France is going to turn up".
Yes, that one.
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd
This was also (on paper) a better Wales side than the one in the World Cup. They had Francis and Gethin Jenkins starting that day at prop - and England still lost the battle at the scrum. A quick glance at the team sheet reveals that they also were missing people like Jonathan Davies and Charteris. They also had a youngster called Hallam Amos on the wing, who hasn't been able to crack the 6N line up.
England still need to improve at openside, and I'm not sure that Farrell is the best long term option at centre but there has been progress.
Should be the citing commission rather than his own Union surely?
Manchester based original indie band Random White:
https://www.facebook.com/RandomWhite
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Manchester based original indie band Random White:
https://www.facebook.com/RandomWhite
https://twitter.com/randomwhite1
Manchester based original indie band Random White:
https://www.facebook.com/RandomWhite
https://twitter.com/randomwhite1
Manchester based original indie band Random White:
https://www.facebook.com/RandomWhite
https://twitter.com/randomwhite1
Their much lauded front row came off second best, their number 8 was rendered ineffective. Wales gifted them a few lineout turnovers. And we stayed in bed when they had the ball in the backs.
What they do have to optimistic about is Otoje and their running in open play. Don't underestimate how badly off they'll come against SH teams if they play like that. They will turn England over in the last 20.
Wales would have been 40 points down against SH teams playing like we did.