International Rugby

[taylorsworkrate]

You've got to give massive credit to Wales, they not only managed to stop England playing, they also got points on the board. England can have no complaints.

England stopped themselves playing by kicking (extremely poorly) on pretty much the 1st or 2nd phase all second half. I (perhaps naively) thought that the coaching staff would have been working on other tactics than what we saw for the France game. Players like Liam Williams and George North aren't going to be as defensively woeful as Huget was. We didn't adapt, and in fairness didn't look like we were trying to adapt.

Wales raised their intensity after half time. What we shouldn't have done so easily was allow ours to drop.

[manic-road]

Poor second half from England, got what they deserved

[Tuscans]

Brilliant match. Kept them narrow, brought on Biggar then went wide. Didn't let England kick into space to attack.

[taylorsworkrate]

Poor second half from England, got what they deserved

It was beyond poor. There's been some awful stuff under Jones the last couple of years, but that 2nd half is probably the worst we've been.

For instance how many times did Manu touch the ball in the game? One of the only times he did he beat two defenders and gained about 45 metres. So I don't know why we insisted on kicking so much when it was patently obvious it wasn't working. It's almost as if our coaching staff and players didn't realise that someone as world class under the high ball as Liam Williams isn't going to be as bad as Henshaw for Ireland or Huget for France. It obviously didn't help that Youngs and Farrell had such poor games in that regard.

We clearly have a squad of players that could potentially compete for a world cup, but it won't if we refuse to change a gameplan when it becomes clear during the match that its toilet.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Indeed, I'm still knackered from watching it. Despite the victory today, I still fancy Ireland to beat Wales on the 16th.

[PaulWinch again]

Brilliant match. Kept them narrow, brought on Biggar then went wide. Didn't let England kick into space to attack.

Wales did ok, but England lost the game rather than Wales winning it. I don’t mean that to be antagonist or disrespectful at all. Wales capitalised really well, but England were below par. It also showed how important Farrell is, he was off his game and the team’s game dropped a lot.

[paul_e]

Brilliant match. Kept them narrow, brought on Biggar then went wide. Didn't let England kick into space to attack.

Wales did ok, but England lost the game rather than Wales winning it. I don’t mean that to be antagonist or disrespectful at all. Wales capitalised really well, but England were below par. It also showed how important Farrell is, he was off his game and the team’s game dropped a lot.

I agree with you, that's what I found frustrating, Williams did his job well but otherwise I don't think Wales had to do anything special to win the game. England needed to play a few phases before putting the kicks through but they let Wales manipulate them into kicking early, all Wales had to do was over-commit to 1 breakdown and then appeal for anything around it and England panicked and kicked the ball away.

I don't think Farrell was the one who was off his game though, he misplaced a kick or 2 but the ball he got was shit and that was mostly because Youngs had a truly awful match, he was the one that the Welsh got to, a few well timed shoves in the ruck and Youngs just didn't want to know. On top of that I think Wales played the ref far better (in part because they had a captain who was at the breakdowns whereas ours was stood off at first receiver, this is why I like a forward as captain), when I talk about them appealing for everything I do't mean it as a negative as such, it's that everything they could paint as foul play by England they made sure he saw it once he got it into his head that they were trying to play and we were stifling them by skirting the edge of the rules they were always going to get the rub.

In the post match interviews Farrell said enough for me to think that he saw the same problems I did so hopefully he'll take that back and it's something we'll work on. After being pissed off at the end of the game I'm now of the view that I'm glad this happened during the 6N because someone was always going to try to disrupt our game like this and hopefully we can learn from it.  Aside from that we haven't beaten Wales in the nations cup (in it's various formats) during a year ending with a 9 in about forever so I'll take this one as fate and go with battering the fuckers next time.

[PaulWinch again]

Yes I’d still say England are much better shouts (if key players are fit) for the World Cup than Wales. England’s best game can probably beat anyone in the world.

[Tuscans]

Yes I’d still say England are much better shouts (if key players are fit) for the World Cup than Wales. England’s best game can probably beat anyone in the world.

You probably said that in 2015

[ChicagoLion]

Can someone explain why we kicked so often and so poorly.

[dave shelley]

Can someone explain why we kicked so often and so poorly.

No plan B.  When it works it's brilliant but yesterday it was abysmal.

[PaulWinch again]

It’s about being able to adapt. It was obvious Liam Williams was going to catch everything in the air, but we kept bloody kicking it to him.

[ChicagoLion]

Can someone explain why we kicked so often and so poorly.

No plan B.  When it works it's brilliant but yesterday it was abysmal.

It reminds me of other England teams that have bottled it in the past, just kept kicking it away at every occasion.
I have allways believed that the box kick is a massively over used tactic as was the case yesterday.
The drive just before half time when Farrell went for the spectacular was the game,if England come away from that drive with points we win.

[Jon Crofts]

Can someone explain why we kicked so often and so poorly.

No plan B.  When it works it's brilliant but yesterday it was abysmal.

It reminds me of other England teams that have bottled it in the past, just kept kicking it away at every occasion.
I have allways believed that the box kick is a massively over used tactic as was the case yesterday.
The drive just before half time when Farrell went for the spectacular was the game,if England come away from that drive with points we win.

Toby Flood was a classic example of that, time after time, game after game he'd just hoof it away aimlessly straight down the full backs throat, yesterdays second half was just like watching Flood all over again.

I'd still fancy England for the title, Ireland won't make the same mistakes we made and to be honest Wales are bang average.

[Tuscans]

That average team haven't lost a game for a year to this day and made England look one dimensional.