One for the Farrell haters

World **** class 🙂

How can they pick a man of the match? they were all brilliant.

That was bloody IMMENSE.

Does Dylan have the worst ears in rugby?!?

I still hate him but he played well.

Aussies didn’t make their dominance pay. Their half backs were truly dire.

Gutsy win for England. A bit of grit even if there was little style.

Still – 2-0 is something to smile about. Think that puts us up to two in the rankings. 😀

Jamie George – the new Stuart Barnes!

So? you wouldn’t. I would! 🙂
Also, Brown wasn’t pish, he dropped 2 high catches, but was a massive past of that defence.

True, he was, but all 15 are supposed to be able to tackle. It’s a basic skill of rugby – it’s not comparable to a Phil Bennett sidestep.

He was pish because, after being pinned in their own 22 for ages, when England finally snaffled the ball he had the chance to kick downfield, with no Australians back, and he tried running out and just put the pressure back on all over again. Besides, a fullback is meant to catch high balls isn’t he? 😉

We’ve won these games because Ford is at 10. This series have proven that even below his best form is he is our forst choice 10 by a long way. Barnes pointing out now how important Ford has been.

Naughty Hooper, throwing dirt in Haskell’s face

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England with Farrell at 10 are dull and dysfunctional, he started the first test there and we where lucky not to have been dead and buried inside 15 minutes

Everyone on Sky especially Barnes praised Ford’s play, I’ll take their international expertease over yours Wrecker every single minute of every day.

Farrells future at international level is away from the 10 shirt, same as Mike Catt

There is a bit of a shortage of *proper* 12’s in the NH in general I’d say. The backline today with Watson at 15 and a form winger in his place is as good as it gets for now. A play making 10 with Farrell at 12 (for the sake of kicking points) isn’t the worst thing in the world and might even let someone like Slade creep in eventually. If they’ve managed to protect and carry Ford then it can’t be too hard to swap in someone else 🙂

As an aside, if you’ve ever played centre and been responsible for the goal kicking then you’ll appreciate how bloody hard it is to be more exhausted, constantly in the thick of things, shake off the inevitable dead legs, etc compared to 10… and still keep putting the ball over the posts. I am in no way a Farrell fan but that in itself is quite an achievement!

Well we saw in the first game who is more likely to be benched didn’t we?
Had Burrell been up to spec, ford would have played about 10 minutes and we’d be wondering what the point of the man was. Farrell has been one of the top 3 players on the field for every one of englands games this year. Ford has not.

Currently Farrell is undroppable. He’d get into most teams in the world. It hasn’t always been that way, there have been times previously when I thought he should be dropped for Ford. Presently he the the far betetr player but that could well change again if ford gets his shit together. Lots of rumours flying around regarding things at bath which might account for his average (being generous) performance this year.
Go look of the COML forum, the bath fans are unanimous in their assessment of his performances this year being sub par.

That’s surely indisputable? Noticeable that Ford also seems to be improving whilst on tour – perhaps being away from a toxic club environment is helping?

Today was very much a victory for the forwards and the defence and whilst I don’t wish to take anything away from a great team effort both the conditions and the ref helped. Saying that, EJ is a great tactician and maybe he’d have had a different game plan (or even team) for different conditions.

We still seemed to overrun the ball on the odd (once, twice?) occasion we passed the ball down the line; surely a top 5 international backline shouldn’t keep making this schoolboy error? Agree with the general comments on Brown – you can’t fault him for effort but he missed a couple of high balls, is generally half a yard too slow and virtually never passes; great D though which is maybe why he’s still there?

Yes Yes Yes (just seen it).

Apart from the comments above, the best bit about this team is how they adapted to the Aus attack. No same ‘ol same ‘ol as per the last regime. Good players playing good rugby.

I did think we lacked attack, but obviously Eddie knows how the team will win a particular kind of match better than I do, and the players aren’t that different from previous, so he must be a fairly decent coach eh.

What a difference 40 minutes makes. Was looking like a cricket score for Ireland at one stage but what a heartbreaking end

I really want to see the new look gnarly england play SA. I wanna see itoge vs etzebeth.

At times it can be a great feeling listen to Aussie’s commentating on their defeat… Must have something to do with having to endure it as an Englishman for so long.

But the biggest positive was the completely contrasting styles of the 2 games. Good teams win in their own style, great teams win. Having the confidence to be able to swap or change tactics depending on what you face is brilliant.
Regardless of the series being over there is everything to play for – 3-0 is something the Aussies don’t want to to let happen, hopefully a better pitch and my Saturday night is sorted

Deadslow- love the second article, God they are whinging. I did like the bit about Nsw winning a minimum of 10 of the last 10 league cups, maybe more!
Maths isn’t a strong suit either