Canada scored some great tries, very unlucky against Italy.

I didn’t read anyone saying this. The general feeling is, with the biggest Union in the world by membership we should be world beaters, but are often shite, I think we all seek answers for this. It is obvious that we got beat by the better side, otherwise we would not have been beaten.

Although a big problem that blights all england play is resorting to Tindall ball, not distributing, thinking you are going to break the line and score a try under the gaze of a princess and get a medal for it. When they should be playing like the AB’s, and always getting the accurate offload, because there are support runners behind you in every qaudrant.(whilst am dreaming can I have a bike that climbs like an Xc whippet and descends like a Dh bike, and magically lose 4 stone, and fill my bank accoun t with gold)

@ourman – Burgess want responsible for the loss but his and Farrells selection was IMO responsible for the way we played and for the fact that Wales where able to stay close. I can’t imagine if the England mgmt had known the Welsh scrum would be so poor (arguably they should have done) they would have picked the same side. We missed a probable try when Youngs (?) should have shipped the ball out to Watson rather than take a tackle.

Rubbish to say England supporters believe we are the best at every support, certainly not rugby nor this RWC where NZ and RSA are far stronger. We have the largest Union not least as we have a population of 50m but rugby is not the preeminent sport it is in NZ, RSA and Wales for example. We should have won that game but that’s the beauty of sport, the Welsh where heroic and well deserved that win.

As I posted late last night (after a few beers, wines and drams, so not very eloquently) I had dinner with a chap who helped broker the union switch for burgess, there’s a lot more than Bath having deep pockets. there’s no way he wasn’t getting picked for the squad and at least a few games. Stinks really, however as posted above, he was certainly the best English centre last night. Barrett was awful, again. Utterly useless in attack (which is a given) but also now being found out in defence.

As for the best team in the world comments, well, clearly.in this thread (which had quite a few England fans), there’s going to be quite an outcry against such a poor performance as we have get again failed to live up to our hopes and after several years at the helm, our coach still seems completely clueless about what our best team is.
I certainly haven’t heard anything other than congratulations for Wales who were clearly the better team last night.

Quite right, and by miles in the 2nd half.

14 x centre pairings for England, throwing to the front of the line out – which shows Youngs confidence IMO – on a match winning attempt, and as Gareth Edwards correctly said on the telly, Brad Barrit – all tell a story of uncertainty. Watson was a tad lazy in defence also by allowing Wales to run onto him which brought width into play.

Lancaster won’t admit defeat and bring Burrell and Slade into the team or can’t. Giteau will have a field day out there. I think the game against Aus will go down the same as this one, with England being outplayed at the end. Lets hope JJ is fit to play, as Burgess/JJ might be thought only hope we have left in the centres for the remaining RWC.

Burrell can only be brought in as an injury replacement and the only declared injury in the backs is JJ so it’s unlikely we’ll see that pairing?

A poor performance from England key errors for me were:

Giving away penalties at the breakdown, these were completely unforced (as compared to Wales who only gave away penalties at the scrum or under considerable pressure).

Poor game management and decision making – if we were going to roll the die and go for a try then the penalty under the posts when we were 4 points up and Wales had just made lots of injury replacements was probably the one to go for; although I may be employing 20/20 hindsight there. Equally given our lineout had been shocking all game (and not great this year) and we’d been on top in the scrum all game then why not go for a scrum for the crucial last penalty?

Fair play to Wales – a good win for them which showed lots of Hwyl, grit and determination; hope the butchers bill isn’t too high.

@aa was that the first scrum ? Can’t see how the ref can ping a prop on the far side particularly on the first scrum, as a min it should be a reset so he can have a look. I can’t see Jenkins commiting such a clear offence that it can be called from the wrong side

We’ve discussed the league convert thing to death but aside from Robinson the converts hVe been poor anot least ad they are rushed into International rugby. I don’t agree Roberts schooled Burgess, in fact Roberts was pretty anonymous. Farrell played his game well but his game was not what was required.

The group is far from over but were reliant on Australia doing us a favour and Figi duffing up the Welsh a bit first

Watching Australia now. England have no chance.

Not sure about the human interest story before the game. ” I ate my dead team mates and now my son is playing for Uruguay.”

Ok, so I got a name wrong, and rather than politely correct me you add insults to the post. You really do have some issues my friend, no wonder you get some many cautions and bans.

Screw you pigface, ya dick!

I’ve nothing to “pack in” pig face. I came on here this morning to discuss yesterday’s rugby, yet not for the first time find myself singled out for attention by AA, the result of which I now can’t post on here again today without possibility of personal prejudice.

A shame.

*shrugs*

All this discussion of performances and quality etc, lets face it the chances are Eng wont make it out of the group and then Lancasters achievement will be no better than Johnsons in the previous effort. It’s funny how perception and press opinion colour the position of a team/coach in the nations eyes.
In 2011 the warm ups we beat ireland and wales and then wales beat us, not unlike our performance in the warm up matches this year.
At least under Johnson we won the 6N in the RWC year.
I don’t give Lancaster any credo now, we need a new boss, and coaching team to bring on some of the better talent.
(unless of course by some miracle we beat OZ, make to the finals and then stomp NZ but I’ve been fantasising enough today as it is.)

No one has said it yet (I think) but credit to both goal kickers yesterday.

Indeed. They were both brilliant. Which makes the decision to go for the corner even more strange.

Wasn’t sure if they were trying the hinge / rush defence i.e. rush up on the 2nd / 3rd receiver that Wasps used to employ effectively? The line speed was good in the first half where it was effective but they lost coherence in the 2nd half particularly the last 20. If you’re going to use that rush defence you can’t miss tackles otherwise big holes appear.

The Scotland of old is back with a ton of handling errors. Must be very frustrating!