What sources are you looking at? If it's ones with a primarily Engflish audience then I think that's pretty self-explanatory.I like neeps wrote: ↑Mon Feb 07, 2022 10:50 am
But it's annoying that after the game on Saturday most commentary is on Smith, who didn't really have a good game. England had the majority of possession, they had all the territory, 64% of their rucks were under 3 seconds so they had quick ball all game. That is the ideal platform for a 10. Really you couldn't ask for much more.
Also, we've seen the media do this before with Cipriani. They latch onto a player and want to make anything and everything about them because it's a lot easier than doing some actual writing about a broader range of personnel involved. Christ, the old guard journos would actually have to start paying attention at matches instead of talking amongst themselves and quaffing if they were actually trying to do their jobs properly.
As to the non-bolded, I can't bring myself to watch the game again, but it felt at the time like a lot of our possession was kicked away by men outside Smith. Squandering possession and position in those instances can't really be laid at his door.
At the same time, we've seen this happen before with Ford too. Basically single-handedly winning games at Prem level, but then playing completely differently once in the England set up because if you aren't prepared to do exactly what Eddie tells you, no matter how much it might run against your natural game, you'll get dropped.
