The Official English Rugby Thread

[Madness]

Well that went well......

Positives
The crowd - best I've heard at Twickenham for a long time, really made an impact on the players
The front 5 all put in massive performances and I think Farrell must be concerned that his tight 5 is good, excellent round the park but lacks a bit of heft against the biggest packs
Nowell - exactly his sort of roll your sleeves up, 50% wing/50% flanker, smash people get high balls game
Randall - added some pace and rapid distribution, I give no fucks that he was run over by a No 8 2 metres from the line as there's not a 9 in the world who would have stopped that try but bet Eddie holds it against him and starts Youngs vs France.
Smith - managed the game well, always a player down in the backs it was sensible to play the high ball game
Commitment in defence was outstanding and to be fair we did get the rub of the green on a couple of ref decisions after the sending off.

Ok
Simmonds and Dombrandt worked well and was surprised to see Dombrandt come off for Launch, I think at that point it would have been more sensible to swop Malins for Launch, get Nowell back into the backs and continue to keep it tight, the only way to win would be to continue to overpower Ireland up front,
Marchant and Slade good defensively and would not have taken Marchant off for Daly
Steward - still early on and easy to give him hassle about his pace but just his presence seems to stop the box kicks that plagued England with Daly at the back,

Negatives
Biggest is that this performance allows Eddie and his coaching team off the hook despite likely to be a 2nd six nations with only 2 wins.
Sub timing and choice - not a lot of choice for Curry and Sinks but Launch/Dombrandt and Daly/Marchant were poor decisions
Youngs - cant even be bothered to gob off at his performance again
Malins - really not his day, not fast enough to off Lowe the outside, not strong enough to smash him, vanished from the game and should have been subbed for another forward.
Did we ever get decent possession inside the Ireland 22?

Breath......

And Ewels
Monumentally stupid and guaranteed a defeat. Never really seen what point of difference he offers at international level, he's a decent club player but should be nowhere near the starting XV for England. Apparently he talks well in training and thats getting him in. Far better players have been dropped never to be seen again on much less of a fuck up that him so if Eddie has any credibility then Ewels has to be done for England.

[sockwithaticket]

For anyone who didn't know, Wasps - Saints is on ITV today.

Teams





Both teams are capable of playing some very good stuff, but do tend to mix in plenty of being completely inept and conceding loads of points. Could be a topsy turvy game with little control. Enjoyable for the neutral rather than the fans.

[Ovals]

Whilst they can be proud of the 'effort', it doesn't really count for much - it was still a loss and there are still huge issues with our team that don't seem close to being resolved.

1. We miss far too many tackles.
2. The centre partnership is completely toothless and lacks creativity (but also see 6.)
3. The back three, as a combo, is too slow.
4. Our performances seem to drop off a cliff when the 'finishers' are brought on.
5. We lack enough (if any) real ball carriers that get us over the gain line or suck in defenders.
6 The speed of our rucks is still far too slow.
7. We rarely see our players offloading the ball - whether this is a lack of skill/technique or poor support running.

[Hal Jordan]

12 is a real issue. Slade is not an inside centre, no matter how much Jones is wedded to the second playmaker concept. Other than getting a whack on the head and not kicking for the posts when the ref moved the ball forward, I honestly can't remember a single thing he did. Apparently he stood at 10 sometimes according to the commentator.

Youngs for Randall is just embarrassing now.

[sockwithaticket]

Aside from the rare occasion of a fit Tuilagi, the most balanced partnership we've had is Farrell - Joseph because Joseph was quick. Yes, he's a highly skillful and intelligent player, but he worked in the outside channel because he was fast enough to get around a man, accelerate through a half gap or bust flailing tackle attempts. It goes some way to mitigating a lack of gainline in the midfield. For the qualities Slade might have, he doesn't offer that.

Well that went well......

Positives
The crowd - best I've heard at Twickenham for a long time, really made an impact on the players
The front 5 all put in massive performances and I think Farrell must be concerned that his tight 5 is good, excellent round the park but lacks a bit of heft against the biggest packs
Nowell - exactly his sort of roll your sleeves up, 50% wing/50% flanker, smash people get high balls game
Randall - added some pace and rapid distribution, I give no fucks that he was run over by a No 8 2 metres from the line as there's not a 9 in the world who would have stopped that try but bet Eddie holds it against him and starts Youngs vs France.
Smith - managed the game well, always a player down in the backs it was sensible to play the high ball game
Commitment in defence was outstanding and to be fair we did get the rub of the green on a couple of ref decisions after the sending off.

Ok
Simmonds and Dombrandt worked well and was surprised to see Dombrandt come off for Launch, I think at that point it would have been more sensible to swop Malins for Launch, get Nowell back into the backs and continue to keep it tight, the only way to win would be to continue to overpower Ireland up front,
Marchant and Slade good defensively and would not have taken Marchant off for Daly
Steward - still early on and easy to give him hassle about his pace but just his presence seems to stop the box kicks that plagued England with Daly at the back,

Negatives
Biggest is that this performance allows Eddie and his coaching team off the hook despite likely to be a 2nd six nations with only 2 wins.
Sub timing and choice - not a lot of choice for Curry and Sinks but Launch/Dombrandt and Daly/Marchant were poor decisions
Youngs - cant even be bothered to gob off at his performance again
Malins - really not his day, not fast enough to off Lowe the outside, not strong enough to smash him, vanished from the game and should have been subbed for another forward.
Did we ever get decent possession inside the Ireland 22?

Breath......

And Ewels
Monumentally stupid and guaranteed a defeat. Never really seen what point of difference he offers at international level, he's a decent club player but should be nowhere near the starting XV for England. Apparently he talks well in training and thats getting him in. Far better players have been dropped never to be seen again on much less of a fuck up that him so if Eddie has any credibility then Ewels has to be done for England.

Absolutely nothing to disagree with there.

[Oxbow]

12 is a real issue. Slade is not an inside centre, no matter how much Jones is wedded to the second playmaker concept. Other than getting a whack on the head and not kicking for the posts when the ref moved the ball forward, I honestly can't remember a single thing he did. Apparently he stood at 10 sometimes according to the commentator.

Youngs for Randall is just embarrassing now.

You have to hope that this Six Nations will spell the end for Youngs, but, Eddie. Imagine having Quirke or Mitchell come on and run at a tiring defence. Instead we get Youngs hoofing it, usually 20 yards too far.

[Ovals]

12 is a real issue. Slade is not an inside centre, no matter how much Jones is wedded to the second playmaker concept. Other than getting a whack on the head and not kicking for the posts when the ref moved the ball forward, I honestly can't remember a single thing he did. Apparently he stood at 10 sometimes according to the commentator.

Youngs for Randall is just embarrassing now.

You have to hope that this Six Nations will spell the end for Youngs, but, Eddie. Imagine having Quirke or Mitchell come on and run at a tiring defence. Instead we get Youngs hoofing it, usually 20 yards too far.

I think we can be pretty certain that, as soon as he is fit, Farrell will be back at 12. TBH, if Eddie is never going to pick someone who regularly plays 12, and given that Tuilagi is a permacrock, Farrell will be a better option than wasting Slade there. It might work tolerably well if Youngs gets canned for good, we get someone in the backrow who is a big carrier - oh, and some pace in the back three.

[Paddington Bear]

One other observation - Lawes deserves a lot of credit as skipper for how we reacted after the red. Growing into the role

[JM2K6]

Dave Ribbans having a strong start. Shame he's not as good as Ewels eh

[JM2K6]

Amazing. Umaga got away with dropping the ball in the act of scoring.

[JM2K6]

Barnes not having a good game so far. Huge forward pass leads to a wasps try. Not the first one he's missed. Tmo jumped in though.

[Paddington Bear]

This is poor TMO work - the forward pass was blatant at the time and we’ve now wasted 2 minutes

[Oxbow]

Dave Ribbans having a strong start. Shame he's not as good as Ewels eh

Ribbans should have had a dozen caps by now. Eddie is a dick.

[sockwithaticket]

Barnes not having a good game so far. Huge forward pass leads to a wasps try. Not the first one he's missed. Tmo jumped in though.

I'm not even sure why we're checking it tbh, it was so obvious.

[I like neeps]

Barnes not having a good game so far. Huge forward pass leads to a wasps try. Not the first one he's missed. Tmo jumped in though.

Making for quite an entertaining spectacle though.

[sockwithaticket]

Jack Willis

[Ovals]

Jack Willis

Amazing turnover - maybe a bit soon for him to replace the injured Curry for England ?

[Dinsdale Piranha]

Any live streams of Bristol v Quins?

[sockwithaticket]

Jack Willis

Amazing turnover - maybe a bit soon for him to replace the injured Curry for England ?

You'd think so. A few more games for Wasps would probably be better for his comeback than being tossed in against this French side.

[sockwithaticket]

This is exactly the game I expected so far, both teams looking good going forward.

[happytramp]

Lads, is there any chance of England doing Ireland a favour and beating France next weekend?... Is it a remote possibility or should I just give up the dream?

[Paddington Bear]

Lads, is there any chance of England doing Ireland a favour and beating France next weekend?... Is it a remote possibility or should I just give up the dream?

I think we may well do it but am in a minority of one here I think

[sockwithaticket]

Well that half sputtered to a conclusion after some enterprising stuff. Wasps reverted to their 2022 mean of looking generally a bit naff and like they don't know what to do when in possession.

Lads, is there any chance of England doing Ireland a favour and beating France next weekend?... Is it a remote possibility or should I just give up the dream?

What do you think your odds of winning the lottery are?

[Ovals]

Lads, is there any chance of England doing Ireland a favour and beating France next weekend?... Is it a remote possibility or should I just give up the dream?

I think we may well do it but am in a minority of one here I think

I think we can make life difficult for them - but we'll lose it when Eddie sends on his 'finishers'. We still don't have the backline to make full use of the work our forwards do.

[Paddington Bear]

Lads, is there any chance of England doing Ireland a favour and beating France next weekend?... Is it a remote possibility or should I just give up the dream?

I think we may well do it but am in a minority of one here I think

I think we can make life difficult for them - but we'll lose it when Eddie sends on his 'finishers'. We still don't have the backline to make full use of the work our forwards do.

Yeah I think this is potentially the most likely outcome, but I think if it’s close France will bottle it

[sockwithaticket]

Dim from Waller that.

[sockwithaticket]

Good score, came from out of nowhere a bit, but well taken in the end and badly needed.

[Ovals]

I think we may well do it but am in a minority of one here I think

I think we can make life difficult for them - but we'll lose it when Eddie sends on his 'finishers'. We still don't have the backline to make full use of the work our forwards do.

Yeah I think this is potentially the most likely outcome, but I think if it’s close France will bottle it

They did appear a bit rattled by Wales - but I think they're a bit more composed than French teams of yesteryear - especially in defence. If our forwards can get the better of theirs - it will make it interesting - but we just don't have the firepower elsewhere - unless Smith can find some magic.

[ASMO]

Lads, is there any chance of England doing Ireland a favour and beating France next weekend?... Is it a remote possibility or should I just give up the dream?

More chance of finding a pork chop in a synagogue. France will utterly shame this England team by 25-30 points

[Ovals]

Saints got away with that - scored a try instead of giving a away a penalty and a yellow.

Good response though - excellent try to get back within a score

[I like neeps]

This game is very fun.

[happytramp]

Lads, is there any chance of England doing Ireland a favour and beating France next weekend?... Is it a remote possibility or should I just give up the dream?

More chance of finding a pork chop in a synagogue. France will utterly shame this England team by 25-30 points

You're probably right.. although Ireland (supposedly the most composed and cohesive team in the world) were absolutely rattled for most of that game and looked like loosing it until about 15min to go.... France definitely have form in that regard and Smith looks like an absolute banger at punishing mistakes from the tee.

[sockwithaticket]

Saints got away with that - scored a try instead of giving a away a penalty and a yellow.

Good response though - excellent try to get back within a score

There was an angle that seemed to show a pretty clear knock on that only got replayed once for some reason.

Porter's been excellent since coming on.

[sockwithaticket]

Grayson's boot preserves Wasps' losing bonus point. Shame that for him personally as I thought he had a fantastic overall game. Generally seems to, I don't really understand why he seems to get so little time for Saints.

A scrappy game between two mid-table teams edged by the home side.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

Smith looks like an absolute banger at punishing mistakes from the tee.

As in misses a few? If so true, but it's probably going to improve an awful lot in the coming seasons as it looks like his work ethic is excellent

[Oxbow]

Grayson's boot preserves Wasps' losing bonus point. Shame that for him personally as I thought he had a fantastic overall game. Generally seems to, I don't really understand why he seems to get so little time for Saints.

A scrappy game between two mid-table teams edged by the home side.

Once again let's blame Eddie Jones. He got it into his head that Furbank was a 10 which filtered down to Saints trying to turn him into a 10, which meant Grayson didn't get a look in for months. We look far better with Grayson at 10 and Furbank at 15.

I'll take a scrappy win, think we just about deserved it overall.

[Hal Jordan]

Looks like Quins left it late again to win away at Bristol, 29-38.

[happytramp]

Smith looks like an absolute banger at punishing mistakes from the tee.

As in misses a few? If so true, but it's probably going to improve an awful lot in the coming seasons as it looks like his work ethic is excellent

Sure, but he's also scored almost as many penalties as Russell, Biggar and Sexton combined. Sure it's probably down to the pressure being put on the opposition giving him a ton of chances... But still, it's more than decent.

[notfatcat]

Looks like Quins left it late again to win away at Bristol, 29-38.

Not so much left it late as started early and then ambled through 76 minutes playing mostly like cunts. Bristol were pretty useless too. I expect it was a great watch for the neutral.

[Lady P]

Looks like Quins left it late again to win away at Bristol, 29-38.

Not so much left it late as started early and then ambled through 76 minutes playing mostly like cunts. Bristol were pretty useless too. I expect it was a great watch for the neutral.