6 Nations round 5 - France v England

[petej]

Some silly mistakes, and ('neutrals' feel free to pan me) I thought France got the rub on a fair few bounces, otherwise we could have had that. I'm far from convinced Earl's indiscretion at the end was a worth a penalty but them's the breaks.

Lawrence at 12 is looking increasingly assured, and Freeman just looks a very, very good rugby player.

I would like to move Freeman in to 13 if we could have another fast winger like say arundell with feyi-waboso on the other side.

[Lady P]

I do think that game would have been different if we had had a fullback on for more than 8 minutes. But there we are.

Just watched Alldrit and France shouldn’t be happy just because they ended up second, this is how RWC disappointments happen. They were not in touching distance of Ireland ffs.

[C69]

Lol arguing about the obvious no arms pen.
Clear pen

[el capitan]

Gutted, ultimately came up short by the finest of margins.

First half clang on for dear life, came out and found something to put ourselves in a great position in the 3rd quarter, think we punched ourselves out a bit though and the subs turned the tide a bit and France reasserted their power game for a spell and got the ascendency back. England hit back again, but for the second week in a row there was one last twist and this time it went against us.

Very much a tournament of two halves. The first three games atrocious and leaving most fans at the end of their tether with the national side, the players, and the coach. A line in the sand seems to have been made though, and the last two games have been a total turnaround in desire and urgency to play some rugby and put in a performance.

This needs to be a starting point. Ongoing process to shuffle some stale remnants out the door and get in some more size, pace, and power in certain areas (not to mention skill), but the way the tournament has ended has given some hope back.

[Hal Jordan]

Brain dead tackle from Earls.

It looked like a very tired player having an absolute brain fade at the end of a titanic match, at the end of a tournament where he has simply poured everything he had into it.

[Hal Jordan]

Some silly mistakes, and ('neutrals' feel free to pan me) I thought France got the rub on a fair few bounces, otherwise we could have had that. I'm far from convinced Earl's indiscretion at the end was a worth a penalty but them's the breaks.

Lawrence at 12 is looking increasingly assured, and Freeman just looks a very, very good rugby player.

I would like to move Freeman in to 13 if we could have another fast winger like say arundell with feyi-waboso on the other side.

He looks like the worker winger in a worker/speedster combo and I am more than happy with that, having been 100% thr worker at any time I played on the wing.

[inactionman]

Brain dead tackle from Earls.

It looked like a very tired player having an absolute brain fade at the end of a titanic match, at the end of a tournament where he has simply poured everything he had into it.

Earl has been a revelation, I'll admit I thought he was a bit light for international 8 but he's been phenomenal.

[Plim]

I’m happy with that. Expectation of winning against the best sides can wait a little.

We were good tonight. Against more or less the best.

[el capitan]

Yep, Earl has carried this team at times and clearly been our best player by miles. Was a cruel end for his tournament.

Thought Ford was fantastic tonight. Played flat at the line, kicked everything, was tactically really good to manage proceedings and shutdown the open/broken game that favoured France, mopped up a few times at the back, and this tournament he's really upped his defensive work and even become a bit of a nuisance at the tackle/breakdown. The type of leaders performance the press have told us Faz had for every game of the last decade, so will be interesting to see what they say of it....

[sockwithaticket]

You never want to lose, but if a loss happens all you want is to know that your team went down swinging and putting their collective best foot forward. Obviously this wasn't a perfect England performance, but it was good and lightyears ahead of what we saw earlier in the tournament. Hopefully these last two games encourage them to keep at it. Many of us have long said that we have the players to attack like this, they just need to be given permission to do so.

[Sandstorm]

England lack consistency. Ford was poor last week, great this week. Care was garbage, tonight he came on and moved the ball at pace.

Get that right and you’ll be a very good team.

[ASMO]

I think Freeman is great but he was shown up for pace by the French winger who left him for dead. He should replace Slade in the midfield. Also what is it with these team meetings before every penalty and line out, even with 5 minutes left so much time was wasted. You want pace on the game, then just get on with it.

[Lobby]

Bollocks to England third, head to head comes into play

They’ve got more points than us.

I don't care

Scotland should have come fifth in the table. You lost more games than Ireland, France, England and Italy and if your head to head with Italy came into play, you would have been fifth. It was only your plethora of losers bonus points that lifted you to an undeserved fourth place.

[Ovals]

I caught up with the game last last night and watched it without knowing the score.

Very impressed with how England played - thought they were unlucky to lose. There was a period in the 2nd half where every bounce went France's way and we just couldn't get a hold on it.

Great game though and some lovely tries. France so dangerous on counter.

England have made a lot pf progress during the tournament - and I think there's more to come. We missed Wabosi's pace and CCS's impact off the bench. There's still a few players we need to move on from fairly soon. Especially Daly, Care, Tuilagi and probably Slade, Marler and Cole - might still take some time for us to bring a set of props up to speed though.