Well done to England. Deserved it, easily the best of the 6 teams

100% lineout today. Didn’t see the French stats, bud I’d say lineout & turnovers cost them today. There’s some big units in that team though 😯

Their lack of pace in defence was obvious again too.

Agreed, DaiD, Hartley seems to have turned a corner. Good for him.

See also Danny Care, who’s clearly dealt with whatever demons were troubling him.

Phew…that felt like a bloody long 80 minutes.

Glad we did it in the end. France played pretty well today though, Sod’s law it was the game we played them! Defence was good but they were unable to hold into possession but they still managed to cut us apart fairly regularly.

Yellow right for Sexton incident but he made the most of it. No place for that in rugby.

Am beginning to see what others have suggested about Brown…..

Owens the best ref by miles

Decided to stay up and watch it despite only getting in from Gatwick at midnight. Would have been a mare if we had lost it!!

But well done boys led by a magnificent second row effort – men of the match and saved our bacon on several occasions. Brilliant…..bloody brilliant and so much more to come by the looks of things.

Meh. At the time he seemed to be the right choice, evidently didn’t have the Midas touch and was rightly booted out after the WC debacle, but I think he did at least move the team towards the right direction. Fact is there are very few coaches of the quality of Gatland and perhaps Jones out there.

No, but the prevalence of extremely narrow losses is a bit of a conundrum, isn’t it?

Pretty much agree a_a.

Hard carrying forwards… Moriarty on form for Lydiate (?), Warbs if he could find form, Evans carried well as did Owens plus AWJ (after a long rest)? Not going to set the world alight but passable when you add in NotToby’s quick feet. That elusive other lock would help no end though in terms of carrying as well as the lineout. It’ll be even worse if and when AWJ retires.

There were rumours Roberts might retire from the international game soon but I’m not sure how they started. Foxy is more than capable of passing well but he needs regular rugby. The move back to the Scarlets to partner Scott Williams should help his game and form. Not sure the two of them are an international pairing as they are a bit too similar but it could be much worse.

I’ve been thinking for a while now that 1/2p and North on the wings with Williams at 15 could be the way forward. Williams has played very well and looked every bit as solid as 1/2p defensively despite the lack of game time through injury but gets more involved when attacking. If 1/2p had some more freedom I feel he could get back to what he does (did) well with fast, clever lines and might even keep him out of harms way for a bit!

Webb and Biggar are a complementary pair since Webb takes the ball towards the defence more, drawing attackers in and creating space whereas Davies is more of a compliment to someone like Priestland who himself plays flatter instead. Davies and Biggar together wasn’t a good combination for a flowing back line and relied even more heavily on Roberts carries (or Davies’s breaks I suppose) when they inevitably end up a touch deep and static

My other feeling is that the coaching set up brings on the forwards pretty well but we’re not seeing the same kind of development in the backs. Most of that seems to come from the clubs so I don’t know if swapping out Howley or giving him some support (Jones?) is an answer or if it is just a case of not having the raw talent to mold?

Wales are just missing a few key things to kick on

But that’s the problem isn’t it? You don’t have enough depth to solve those problems. Wales have done fantastically well under Gatland but I don’t know if you can get much better.

The fact that Launcbury and Lawes can’t get into the starting XV shows England’s depth. Once Jones figures out who some of the better uncapped players are England will surely go from strength to strength.

Too many to choose from makes it harder to identify the cream sometimes.

True but it’s a better starting point having lots than not enough….

They did indeed. I read a piece on the The Stellar Wales U20 Team of 2008 and where-are-they now follow up.

Leigh Halfpenny, Jonathan Davies, Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb, Justin Tipuric, Josh Turnbull, Sam Warburton, Ryan Bevington ,Scott Andrews, and Dan Evans have all been capped at senior level. Interestingly, Warburton was at 8 and Tips at 6 with a lad called Dan Franks keeping both of them out of the 7 jersey but his career stalled due to injuries and he’s now an optician.

Well, to be fair, they did make the 2007 RWC Final and have won more 6N games than anyone else. I think the problem is that they’ve had very poor coaching/selecting from the likes of Robinson, Johnson and Lancaster.

Most world class players don’t appear fully formed (although Itoje might possibly prove to be an exception) – rather they are introduced at the right time to the highest level and begin to excel as they find their feet and receive the correct coaching. Ma’a Nonu is a good example.

Ford, Joseph, Daly, Watson, Tuilagi, Kruis, Itoje, Launchbury, Vunipola, Clifford, Underhill and Hughes all have massive potential and some of them might become world-class if we’re lucky.

England won the u20 world up in 2013, 2014 and were beaten finalists in 2015, 2011, 2009 and 2008. George Ford was player of the tournament in 2011.

I had the honour (kind of, we got royally smashed) of playing an Aussie RL team which was over touring. You could tell the kids that had grown up with a Steeden in their hands as their skills and ability to read the game were just that much better than anyone else.
If you can combine this with nutrition / size / S & C then you can completely see where Eddie Jones is coming from, and where NZ / Aus / SA currently are.
Develop them young, keep them in the game, encourage the EPDG’s to bring them on and give them decent competitive games like the U18 / U20 6 nations to keep progressing. He’s got the right idea.

England have consistently outperformed,by some distance, australia and SA , who are more old fashioned in their youth system, at u20 world cup, only NZ has a better record. Too much is being read into one bad World Cup for the Northern Hemisphere.

Yes, like me for example. I’ve got world class talent, just never played the game much 😉

Not really – it’s not just one poor world cup. The NH has only won one and has hardly been a strong contender despite France getting a few good results and honourable mention to Wales in 2011/England 2007. Add that to the completely miserable records of the 6N sides against the SH over the last 15 years and it’s dismal reading.

I think one reason England have done well at Junior RWCs is that they concentrate on power/set piece from an earlier age which gives an advantage at younger levels. Although I think we have enough talent coming through to win the RWC again if Jones can harness it.