Rugby Union (was 2014-15, now an ongoing thread)

[paul_e]

There's no doubt in my mind that England easily have the most talented group of players in the northern hemisphere.

Today was a blue print of how we should be, and can attack. If only we'd have gone into the Ireland game with even half that intensity and tempo. Ireland wouldn't have been able to cope with that.

When we kept the ball in hand and started playing to our strengths we looked superb, if only I trusted Lancaster to let us play with that freedom more often.

[paul_e]

Nowell is a big lump, reasonable defensively and can crash through. He offers very little spark and invention which is what I want from a winger. He needs dropping.

Sorry for necro'ing a post from last week, but his tries today highlighted exactly what I was talking about last week, his first was superb footwork and his 2nd was a fantastic support line.  I still think he should be in on the right with Watson at 15 and May on the left though, I think Brown has been poor for the last year and really shouldn't be so secure in his spot.

To go back to my favourite scapegoat Robshaw was much better in the 2nd half but in the first half there were 3-4 times where him not being a proper 7 cost us which makes him still a big conundrum, he's a great tackler and he's good in the loose but I'm not convinced it's enough to continue ignoring his inability to secure possession under pressure or win regular turnovers.

[Dante Lavelli]

Let's be fair considering the injuries England had coming into this tournament that we got this close should be a huge fillip to the team. We won't concede this many again for a while but you can blame that on the situation. I think we're in great shape for the World Cup.

Ironically I think the injuries to farrell and Barritt also helped England.

[Proposition Joe]

Well, that was some second half and they gave it a really good go.  I was half expecting us to be on the verge of winning the 6N, only for YouFatBastareaux to bulldoze his way through right at the death, but in the end we just didn't quite have enough in the tank to get in the position.  Shame the drive right at the end petered out, but well defended by France.

[peter w]

Let's be fair considering the injuries England had coming into this tournament that we got this close should be a huge fillip to the team. We won't concede this many again for a while but you can blame that on the situation. I think we're in great shape for the World Cup.

Ironically I think the injuries to farrell and Barritt also helped England.

Without doubt.

[PaulWinch again]

It was an insane game. Although I think losing will be the best thing for us in the long run.

[PaulWinch again]

It was such a mixed bag of brilliance and awfulness today. Ford needs to think about his kicking out of hand sometimes. We need to be a much more streetwise team as well. We give away far too many penalties. On the plus side it's good to see an England team who are learning to finish chances.

[Dante Lavelli]

Ford needs to think about his kicking out of hand sometimes.

I'm loving Ford with ball in hand and the last thing you want to do is stifle his creativity, but his kicking from hand needs to be much better, more tactically savvy.  It might be worth restricting his freedom a bit - more predetermined kicking moves - until his execution is better.

[PaulWinch again]

He should be nailed on to start the World Cup at number 10, as his game management is excellent. However he does need to improve his kicking.

[paul_e]

It was such a mixed bag of brilliance and awfulness today. Ford needs to think about his kicking out of hand sometimes. We need to be a much more streetwise team as well. We give away far too many penalties. On the plus side it's good to see an England team who are learning to finish chances.

Not just Ford, the whole of English rugby needs to think about how they use the ball around halfway.  Kicking from your 22 I'm ok with (but land it in the crowd if you do) but how often we kick the ball aimlessly in the first 2-3 phases when we're on halfway is just wasting possession.

We have backs with pace, footwork and good running lines (and forwards that complement them perfectly).  We also have a good offloading game and impact players to bring off the bench.  We should build our play around that rather than following the up-and-under style that Ireland and Wales favour.

[Dante Lavelli]

He should be nailed on to start the World Cup at number 10, as his game management is excellent. However he does need to improve his kicking.

But isn't kicking from hand part of game management?  Or are you saying the ideas are correct just the execution wrong?

[Dante Lavelli]

We also have a good offloading game and impact players to bring off the bench.  We should build our play around that rather than following the up-and-under style that Ireland and Wales favour.

That's a point I had not considered.  With an expansive wide game we'd stretch most teams and our bench is better than any team in the northern hemisphere so likely to exploit tired defences.  Not sure about NZ but I'd guess we have a better bench than Aus and SA too.

[Jon Crofts]

Incredible day at Twickenham today, an incredible game of rugby, like watching school kids at times and at other times some of the best attacking rugby we've seen in years.  The atmosphere was electric all afternoon, pre match watching the useless Jocks fuck up, thanks Hogg you clown.

Lastly it's about time Scotland or Italy were dropped from the 6 Nations, they're shit, introduce relegation in 2 years time and let Georgia in and the following year Romania.

[paul_e]

Incredible day at Twickenham today, an incredible game of rugby, like watching school kids at times and at other times some of the best attacking rugby we've seen in years.  The atmosphere was electric all afternoon, pre match watching the useless Jocks fuck up, thanks Hogg you clown.

Lastly it's about time Scotland or Italy were dropped from the 6 Nations, they're shit, introduce relegation in 2 years time and let Georgia in and the following year Romania.

Or let both in now, split it into 2 groups of 4 and then make the 5th game soe kind of finals weekend, add bonus points for tries and changin the points system to the same as the domestic one, I'd maybe even offer a 2nd bonus point for tries (like 1 for 3 tries and another for 7 or something silly) anything that encourages teams to go for tries and keep playing positive rugby.

[Dante Lavelli]

I wish we'd have added argentina before they joined the (was) trip-nations.  Most of their players were playing in Europe anyway and they could have occasionally played out of San Sebastian/Bilbao which would have been fantastic away trips. ...Not to mention Buenos Aires/Salta/Mendoza.