No need to repeat it all but Aus exposed everything that is wrong about that team, well done Australia, well played.

Burgess should go and paid-to-play stamped out immediately, no doubt the RFU whillst wearing blinkers were oversold some magic beans. May has proved he can’t catch a ball under pressure without exposing his wing and letting it bounce, he needs to go.

Lancaster should resign and let someone else who can make a decision settle on the young guns for a revised back line at least for the 6N probably Care, Ford, Slade, JJ, Watson, Brown + an other wing. We need to find a genuine 7. If he can bear it Robshaw can play 6 but there needs to be a new dominant decisive captain. 2016 should be about forming a teasm plus understudies for the 2019 RWC.

Anyway moving forward, I shall cheer Wales, Ireland and Japan while they remain, and expect 2 of the the AB’s Aus or Boks in the final.

Agreed with everything you said there wrecker apart from the above statement.

Barritt is a solid duffer at club level, no doubt. At international level he is a one-paced, leaden footed, mindless waste of space who can’t run, kick, pass or even tackle that well despite the “defensive leader” tag bestowed on him. His main attacking strength seems to be as a dummy runner although that’s somewhat mitigated by the fact that the opposition know he probably won’t get the ball and aren’t worried if he does. He looked ok alongside the human-wrecking-ball Tuilagi in the win over the ABs (who wouldn’t?) and he got blood on his shirt in a “heroic” performance against Australia where he didn’t miss too many tackles. I can’t recall too many other games when I didn’t think anything other than – “He’s shit.”

Am I missing anything?

No.

We need someone with actual talent inside JJ or Tualigi. .

I’m not sure if Scotland are moving forward or not. I think that we’ve got better individual players than we’ve had in recent years but there’s something missing. Scotland have always played better than the sum of their parts. I think Al Kellock was a very underrated captain. He was never the best second row but he was a real leader and always seemed to bring the team together both for Glasgow and Scotland. That’s the reason he kept his starting spot long after bigger faster stronger second rows were coming through.

I hope we can find someone to replace him soon.

Delighted Wales are through, but not jumping for joy at England being knocked out, I’ve never been in the “I support anyone playing England” crowd – staggered thier fans were marching out of the grown with 10 mins to play – I know they say “England expects” but it’s disgusting, you’ve got to clap your team off the field especially if they lose.

What about Wales though – does Gatland send out the reserves against Australia and save the A team for the Semis or play to win and try to secure an easier game in the Semis?

P-jay i suspect a lot of the England fans thought they would try and get their last trains home.
Stupid idea playing the games with an 8pm kick off.
But yeah am sure a load of them just thought sod this I’m off

Fundamentally it’s the sloppy and careless loss to Wales which cost Englandcombined with poor selection. You cannot be 10 points up in a vital game with 10 mins to go and lose it. Ford was by far the best 10 in the 18 months prior to RWC but Lancaster insisted on reverting to Farrell. I have no idea how Lancaster was given a 6 year contract to cover 2 world cups. We’ve questioned Farrells temperament on here before and it was certainly a yellow card. It will be fun to watch the next Saracens Toulon game as I have an incling Ownes going to take a battering.

England had the right squad, aside from Tuilagi who ruled himself out Imwouodnt have made any squad changes, to me it was selection. Launchbury was excellent. Armitage isn’t dynamic enough for international rugby in my view. It was interesting that it’s widely believed the Aussie coach got the eligibility rules changed so he could pick Giteau, having watched him many times alongside JW at Toulon he’s a very creative player and a match winner.

Australia had a fabulous first half and really the game was done there.

@aa yes the seeding was strange I think it was done based on combination of last RWC and the rankings. Given England’s dominance of Welsh scrum and Australia’s performance last night that’s going to be an interesting area. As above Wales will get RSA and Australia will get Scotland or Japan assuming Australia win the group.

An amusing anecdote to end with, the wife sent a message to a friend of hers saying good and bad news, bad news England lost,mood news Andynwint be watching as much rugby 😯 I quickly put her right on that one 😀 Will be supporting France at the Mikenium next week and then either Japan or Australia depending on who gets through and thereafter on a game by game basis with a bias for the Northern hemisphere sides

Seeding was based on Dec 2012 rankings, when Wales were ninth after that uncharacteristic run of defeats.

I suppose I hadn’t considered the practicalities of getting home, I know it’s been a nightmare getting home from Cardiff – the train companies didn’t seem to be able to cash-in on all that trade.

But personally I wouldn’t have paid so much money to see one a game that was always going to be very important and likely a great game without any sort of a plan as to how I was going to get home if I watched it all.

He was hardly given a fair go – 5 caps, some from the bench, 2 against Argentina when Moodos was injured; all back in 2009.

Since then he’s moved to Toulon and been named European player of the year which surely merits another look at him particularly given that our back row has been a key weakness this RWC?

The problem is that the premiership doesn’t develop decent open sides – it’s much better value for money for a club to have a 6’4 battering ram who can play anywhere in the back 5 of the scrum rather than a specialist openside, particularly given the focus is on not losing rather than scoring tries.

Drawn from pots I believe. 1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 4 quals.

Japan are in the SH,…
POSTED 50 MINUTES AGO #

?

You speak more sense on rugby than on geography

They play with and are lumped with the SH teams Loum.

Fairly standard practice I think to stop the coach doing a bit of a “Scott Johnson” and lose interest in the team with a WC approaching as they are looking for work elsewhere and the coach also benefits from a nice payout if they get fired before the contract is up. So both sides have some benefits from this.

The problem for England will be that they will always be under immense pressure to win every single game. That makes the development a bit stagnant since they’ll be reluctant to try new things, new players and play to win rather than play to not lose, even in a “friendly”. They need a BC-esque development cycle where you can accept some defeats for a better team every 4 years

Who are the up and coming backrowers in England?

Wood may be solid but you wouldn’t have known he was playing if it were not for the team sheet at the start of the match. Robshaw is either immense or absent. I thought Morgan was actually quite good, as is Billy although neither is possibly as well rounded (no pun intended) as England really need. The Hask actually looked alright in the 6N so it was odd he didn’t get any game time (not that he is England’s long term solution)

Lancaster must still be in shock listening to the rubbish he came out with post match so far

That kind of grovelling from a professional sportsperson makes me feel quite nauseous, even more than I already am.

We might be out, but the legacy has started!

Also the straightest feed I’ve seen this WC!!