Torquemada 1420 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 10, 2020 9:28 am
Marylandolorian wrote: ↑Wed Dec 09, 2020 9:33 pm
Torquemada 1420 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 09, 2020 8:53 pm
Where? For one moment (the linebreak for a try), he looked like he could play. He never attacked again save to f**k up a counter with a pass to Raka that would have embarrassed a thalidomide victim.
How did Macalou cost the game? I suggest you try watching some rugby before continuing to make an arse of yourself publicly.
By responding to you I do, but you are the one making an arse of yourself , the proof is every time you post somebody is reminding you that.
You were the main reason why posters didn’t come anymore on the top14 thread on PR, you disgusted them with your nonsense and ramblings, as you have been doing here,
Even the Times is on my side, yes it is...
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/matt ... -b0pkh7grv
Oh and go ... never mind, on ignore you go
With all due respect cretin, the T14 thread died without me.
No point in posting a link that no-one can read: Times is a pay for site.
You still haven't answered how Macalou cost the game, cretin.
Bold Matthieu Jalibert makes mug of George Ford and his fear of the ball
France fly half gave proof that creativity is possible with possession of the ball
Stuart Barnes
Monday December 07 2020, 12.01am, The Times
Eddie Jones and his Autumn Nations Cup champions ground out victory against a second-string French team. They won the battle at Twickenham but on this evidence it is not long before France will overtake them in the world rankings. England and their explosive forward runners — Billy Vunipola was metaphorical dynamite at times — can blast most teams to pieces.
Let’s stick with the cordite analogy, shall we? England are a team who rely on that power and aerial bombardment like few others. The kickers hoof it as quickly as possible.
George Ford, the England fly half, is frightened of holding on to the ball. In the build-up to the game, he described it as a “ticking time bomb”. Ford did the entire sport a disservice with this comment, likening a rugby ball to an object capable of causing havoc, with potentially terrible outcomes.
In short the philosophy is to kick the thing up the other end of the bloody field. Let “them” deal with it. Rugby has not always been this way. And it doesn’t have to be.
Historically the rugby ball has been treasured. In another time, indeed another century, Barry John would flirt with the muddy mess that was then a rugby ball. A decade later in the 1980s, the Australia fly half Mark Ella wove spells on the gainline, bringing the ball to life with the tips of his fingers.
Ah, but that was another time. This is the era of defensive dominance. So we are told. Yet it took only 15 minutes for us to realise both a rugby ball and the much-vaunted defensive line speed are not things of which a player need be petrified.
The English fly half was made to look a mug by his opposite number, Matthieu Jalibert. The Bordeaux Bègles No 10 produced an exemplary opening quarter of an hour. It reminded me of an early Dan Carter. Never mind the autocratic game plan; mix and match and make the opposition wonder what is coming next. An orthodox pass, a kick into the corner, a couple of clearing punts and, most importantly, a daring delay to the passing game.
Daring because England are, by their own head coach’s assertions, a frightening prospect without the ball. Jalibert, 22, was drawing England on to the gainlines on his terms; taking control of the situation.
He darted right to left, sprinting past and handing off Jamie George on the inside of Owen Farrell. The tap tackle didn’t disturb his balance sufficiently to prevent the tryscoring pass to the impressive Brice Dulin.
It was the moment of the day. Proof that creativity is still possible. England offered little such evidence.
The utter predictability of England and Jones’s unwavering belief in the ability of his side’s explosive power to wear down opposition was countered by a young fly half ready to challenge the assertion. He was not foot-perfect but the hour he was on the field should be a salutary lesson in how to play rugby.
Jalibert created France’s first try with an outside break and a neat pass
J
There is an utter absence of variety in the England approach. The Ford phrase cuts through the core of this team. Big, but not so bold. Nowhere is the waste of undoubted talent more obvious than at fly half. There have been fly halves who were not afraid of a rugby ball in more recent times. The one that most springs to mind was a 17-year-old English kid — by the name of Ford.
He was a mesmerising teen. When he kicked away the ball it was with intent to manipulate the opposing defence. He found space where none seemed to exist. Now the quality has been replaced with sheer quantity. It was enough for England to draw after 80 minutes with a second-string France side yesterday but it is hard not to see France as a likelier World Cup winner in 2023.
The two tens symbolise their sides. A young, improving fly half (second choice behind Romain Ntamack at the moment) and Ford, whose threat diminishes seemingly Test by Test. Sure, it was his deadly penalty kick that established the five-metre lineout to take the tie into extra time, but while Jalibert improves, he stagnates.
The Frenchman wasn’t afraid to play it flat, to lure the England midfield to him, as Ford used to do. The Leicester Tigers ten, in contrast, has become the most predictable of kickers. Jalibert was often awaiting the Ford kick. All 2,000 spectators in the stadium as well as the Frenchman knew it was coming.
Ford and Farrell are no longer thinking when they launch ball after ball into the winter skies. It is an act of faith, Eddie says. There is no point replacing the one with the other in the pivotal ten position. It wouldn’t alter the rigid structure in the slightest.
Ford cannot have forgotten what made him such a wonderful match winner in his youth but Jones has tamed him. When Farrell takes his minutes kicking for goal, watch Ford. He is marching around, gesticulating, calling the shots. He is more his head coach’s shop steward than fly half these days.
He has to get back to the gainline as his opposite number did. But when a ball is described as a “ticking time bomb” it doesn’t suggest a change in the balance of England any time soon. When England are in possession he scans — there’s no doubting the rugby brain — but he tends to take the majority of his passes deep and shuffle along, a footballer making a sequence of easy ten-metre sideways passes. Once, he was flat and Jonny May flashed through France off his shoulder. We need to see more of the old Ford.
Given the autocracy of management that seems unlikely. Jalibert taught the home side a lesson but I fear they are not listening. This was a better day for France than England.
Rugby union
it's getting the second string time with the staff and game time in the system. 
