[Closed] 2013/14 Rugby Thread

The Clancy Clown is ref. Dont expect an open flowing game. Good luck England I love seeing the crims lose.

Good game so far....

It certainly is a slog.

Yay, Farrell! 😀

Poor decision imo but get in!

Poor decision

Really? Two international referees agree that the obstruction wasnt sufficient to justify denying the try but you think it's "poor"?

I reckon Hartley was as fooled by the dummy as the Ozzies, which was why he stopped moving (and hence got in the way)(a bit)

Really? Two international referees agree that the obstruction wasnt sufficient to justify denying the try but you think it's "poor"?

seeing as how clancy told the video ref what to say we'll nsvsr know will we.

12trees is as bad as I expected. Has he ever broken a tackle in his career?

I don't think 36 will remember this game with great fondness in years to come ffs!

Lovely.
Burrell for inside centre next game please.

Not an amazing game for the neutral but the England fans seem to be content. A win is a win... which I suppose should be the England motto 😉

Turning point was replacing the chubby centre who can't throw for the Kiwi loiterer 😀

Genuine question, who is world class in the England squad? There are a lot of "good" players but you could probably pick 2 or 3 different starting 15's and not gain or lose anything. Brown is perhaps the only X-factor in the team but we all know about his defense... Wood seemed to be everywhere too which is encouraging

wrecker - Member

Even so, the saxons team depresses me. Crane, Slater, Waldrom, Monye etc (a few examples) are all good players but the team should be brimming with bright young things preparing for a step up to the EPS. At 29, is Myler realistically going to break into the 1st XV?

Agreed, apart from one thing, Ed Slater is a very good player, who gets better every week, and is only 25.

Ed Slater is a very good player, who gets better every week, and is only 25.

Sheesh. Where was his paper round, Beirut?

England workman like. Yarde shows promise, Ashton still shite and neither centre can draw and pass. Dickson wasnt much cop. Billy V shows promise too, Wood was very good. Hartley has to start next up and I reckon Cole maybe on borrowed time Scrum looked more stable with Wilson on.
Australia were dogshit poor but will still beat Wales at the end of all this.
Sky Sports are a ****ing comedy act of one eyed shitness.

Fair summary a_a

I would add... Lawes still standing in the backline half the time and diving in to "tackles" with no arms and head first, Farrel still a tad wobbly since the IRB player of the year nomination and new "Ice Man" nickname

Let's be honest, Farrell is never going to be a great. He's currently the best we've got and will keep the shirt until we can breed a better FH. I thought the pack were very good today, no problems with lawes' game at all.
36 is the most overrated player in rugby IMHO. Brown is immense going forward, we were lucky that his defence didn't get tested too hard today. I'm not really worried, that 15 shirt is Anthony watsons soon enough I reckon. We still haven't got an inside centre, and didn't pass to him anyway. We may as well have got a couple of flankers and stuck them in the centre, although tomkins looked good in defence (didn't get a chance to get the ball in his hand).

Tomkins didnt look that great when he got the massive hand off from Kudriani (I think it was).
Folou is ace isnt he.
Lineout is a worry.
Wish Wales could beat Aus when not playing well. We lost to them 240 000 times last season.

Weird match - neither side excelled at all. England flattered by the score IMO. Set pieces were weak. The ex-hooker in me makes it hard to watch Youngs inability to throw in and scrummage was also poor. But the most frustrating thing was the total lack of ambition in the back line. Watching live was odd - the back line was like an U11 side, No shape for most of the time - literally groups of 3-4 players in a group without shape or structure. And hard to remember any back move at any stage. I get so frustrated watching front row forwards playing at inside centre, and merely slowing everything down. Where is the speed, the dummy runners, the moves etc?

Disappointed that Lawes didn't seem able to use his strength to break tackles. But Brown and Yarde really stood out especially Brown. Hard to see why he gets so much flak when he stood out so much today.

How did Farrell last so long? It would have been good to see Flood for whole of 2H.

But the mood and excitement did build in the end and we did finish the stronger team. Left the ground in good spirits but fearful of what the AB would do to this team in a couple of weeks.

Thanks Jambalaya!!!!

Ashton backed out of quite a few tackles right in front of us. Borrowed time?

Being handed off once doesn't indicate a poor performance. He played far better than the lauded twelvetrees.

Why has no-one mentioned Billy V? Good performance, I thought.

I said to my son when they showed 12trees warming up "Oh no, not him at centre again!"
Just don't get it. At least Tompkins showed some good defensive qualities. There has to be a better 12 in England! Bringing a 10 on at 12 ain't the answer (as Australia showed!)
Gonna be another hard slog against the Argies next week.

A little hard on 12t, he's not exactly experienced at this level, and is a good inside centre (not fly half), although admitdly not great this game. who would you have had in place?

A little hard on 12t. Yes, he has broken a tackle or two if you have seen him on a regular basis. Live.

12t has been off the boil in the 3 games I've seen him play this season. Trinder has been excellent by contrast.
I'd put Burrell in for the next game, he's been on fire this season. Prob put trinder in too.

England looked very rusty, Australia didn't do enough (anything ?) in second half. We won ugly but plenty to work on

I thought Billy V was good, Brown the stand out player. Farrell for me had his worst game for England and should have come off at half time. I thought Twelvetrees was hopeless generally and dreadful capitulation for the try.

AA I agree with your thoughts on England but of Wales cannot beat this Australian side in Cardiff then that's a very poor show, they won't get a better chance.

I watched Wade score two great tries this evening, quick isn't the word. Kingsholme was not a happy place.

Being handed off once doesn't indicate a poor performance. He played far better than the lauded twelvetrees.

my Gran could have played better than Twelvetrees.
Wales wont beat Aus. Frustrating but true. On yesterdays showing Wales should have nothing to fear in their world cup pool either but they'll still lose.

As for England centres Eastmond is talked up but no Bath back has been passed the ball by Ford this season. Apparently v Worcs Eastmond played 12 and didnt get one pass all game.

anagallis_arvensis - Member

Wish Wales could beat Aus when not playing well. We lost to them 240 000 times last season.

Proper LOL!!

jambalaya - Member

AA I agree with your thoughts on England but of Wales cannot beat this Australian side in Cardiff then that's a very poor show, they won't get a better chance.

England's first try yesterday came from the penalty kick thrown back in by an English player standing in touch. If the officials had been competent, England would have been on their own 5m line defending rather than making their way upfield on their way to score. (Via a blatant forward pass which was also missed by the officials.)

Their second try was the disputed 'was there blocking, wasn't there?'

Two tries which on any other day may not have been given. Simply put, the history books will show that England won, but they were very, very lucky to have the most incompetent refereeing team so far this autumn.

With any luck Wales will have the same 'luck'!

Even so, England were the better team on the day. Perhaps the score should have been closer, but they should not feel remotely guilty in taking the win.

I agree with wrecker that Farrell isn't the long terms solution at 10. Given that his kicking game is his strength then for me his goal kicking is below than standard required of an international 10, and has been all of this calendar year.

36 was awful yesterday, but he is still very inexperienced and lets not forget the amount of stick Brown got after the 6n's yet was mom yesterday (admittedly now he isn't playing out of position). I'd like to see Burrell in the side in place of Tomkins.

As has been said though, no shape at all in the backs and very little attacking threat. How Wade didn't make the squad I'll never know. Hopefully we've got a solution to the number 8 problem now though....Billy V was very impressive.

[b]Tom B[/b] - Member
I agree with wrecker that Farrell isn't the long terms solution at 10. Given that his kicking game is his strength then for me his goal kicking is below than standard required of an international 10, and has been all of this calendar year.

Ashton is yesterday's news and I think the disrespect he showed the coaching staff and Martin Johnson with the swallow dive nonsense show's his attitude is not right.

Ashton is yesterday's news and I think the disrespect he showed the coaching staff and Martin Johnson with the swallow dive nonsense show's his attitude is not right.

I have no problem with the Ashton diving (although he is nowhere near as good at as Williams was) its just the fact he's shit, well not shit but without anyone making half breaks and offloading to him he is well and truly neutered, the England midfield without Manu Tuilagi create nothing. His tackling is pure league style, he goes high to stop offloads, they do it all the time in league, go high and wait for others to come and knock them over as offloads win games in league. He needs to be intensively coached in how to tackle low. I don't think its lack of heart just lack of technique.
Wade appears to be the next cab of the rank and he's hardly a defensive colossus. Might as well pick Monye as all England wingers seem to do is chase kicks and tackle.

As I said yesterday Wade took his two tries really well, his defense isn't great but that is not what he is there for. Shane wasn't the greatest defender, mainly due to size. Taking the Bath swamp donkey down is not a great example the man is hopeless. I would have Wade in front of Ashton but Lancaster seems to be a size freak.

Or get Mathew Tait back in the side. Yes A-A u know exactly what video you're about to post, but it wouldn't happen now, and last year his running for leicester was absolutly incredible. Think the type of runs that he did against the Soith Africans in a certain World Cup final, easily beating the first 3 defenders. That's the type of winger we could do with.

Banahanahanahan for England
[IMG] [/IMG]

I'd rather have my gran, and she's been dead for 18years....

Yes A-A u know exactly what video you're about to post

it wasn't just two tackles and one kick:

[img] [/img]

tinybits, Tait lack the pace now for an international winger IMO

Has everyone forgotten that we destroyed them in the scrum, massively improved in the loose and had a pretty good defensive game?

Agree with the centre comments. I think Yarde played better at centre when he had to. I'd like to see Tuilagi inside Yarde, still perplexed who'd play 12 though.

As for the comments from the armchair refs, you forget there's three refs on the field. Small snippets of cheating happen all over the park and get unseen, not just by England. We could talk about trips, shirt pulls and the winding up of Ton Youngs that went on (did they forget what Hartley looked like) by the Aussie, not to mention numerous attempts to slow the ball in the loose plus that awful hit on Launchbury which had nothing much to do with securing a ball.

But if you're not going to put you're wingers into any space, then you might as well have players who go looking for work and can break the gain line with good footwork. I can't recall the last time I saw an English winger properly open the taps.

Thats true tiny. If you watch the game again look at the build up to the Farrel try. Bily V busts the gainline quick ball goes left, it just needed some straight running and drawing and passing to put in Yarde but it was butchered. Brown was involved and drifted left didnt commut anyone and then just shunted it on. It reminded me off the Strettle non try at the end of the last eng wales game at twickers. Basics done really really badly. The all blacks would have strolled it in making it look easy.

I'd love to see Tuilagi and Yarde in the centres too especially against Wales!!!

AA quite correct, though at least brown had some good moments enough to hold 15

Ashton needed to go from the squad 5 matches ago

Not convinced by Lawes and missed Parling. Still would have T Youngs over Hartley ....just cannot abide him.

Robshaw may not be an openside but another great match. Woods excellent. Billy was Billy

Farrell stuck in there yeaterday, not the 10 we need 11/ 12/13/14 all open, but need to give players a run to see how they settle in.

Good job I don't write about rugby for a living! The idea that we had agood scrummaging match is completely at odds to how I saw it live. Ditto Ian Robertson was pretty positive on the radio on the way home.

Perhaps I was watching a differern match.

"If" Hartley was guilty of blocking then he was merely reflecting his "true" nationality - the Aussies should be used to that!!!

I couldn't help thinking at the time it was a very "NZ" block 😀 .... as in preventing the defender from being where they needed to be but done just well enough to con the officials. Plenty of blocks far more marginal get punished in the middle of the field normally. NZ have this type of thing absolutely dialled and their split lineout towards the try line where the hooker cruises through untouched is a prime example of this. There is no way Hartley should have been in that area though so is far less subtle. Personally I'm amazed England got away with it but there you go.

As far as England go- not knowing your starting 15 (or probably more precisely, your backs) 2 years out from a WC is a bit worrying.

Wales know their starting 15 but can't ever get them on the pitch at the same time as each other 😀