International Rugby

[paul_e]

Cole and Haskell making stupid mistakes at bad times again, the sooner we get the pair of dickheads out the better.  I don't like Farrell and Manu at 10 and 12 either, the lack of discipline means there are gaps that shouldn't be there. The Youngs pass that led to their first try was shocking as well.

All the complaints done, itoje, billy, nowell and watson were superb.

[DaveD]

Cole and Haskell making stupid mistakes at bad times again, the sooner we get the pair of dickheads out the better.  I don't like Farrell and Manu at 10 and 12 either, the lack of discipline means there are gaps that shouldn't be there. The Youngs pass that led to their first try was shocking as well.

All the complaints done, itoje, billy, nowell and watson were superb.

Cole and Haskell have always been walking penalties, I don't understand why they keep getting picked. Youngs' pass was a shocker but I thought he played well otherwise.

I'd add Kruis to your list. It was like having four flankers at times.

[paul_e]

Cole and Haskell making stupid mistakes at bad times again, the sooner we get the pair of dickheads out the better.  I don't like Farrell and Manu at 10 and 12 either, the lack of discipline means there are gaps that shouldn't be there. The Youngs pass that led to their first try was shocking as well.

All the complaints done, itoje, billy, nowell and watson were superb.

Cole and Haskell have always been walking penalties, I don't understand why they keep getting picked. Youngs' pass was a shocker but I thought he played well otherwise.

I'd add Kruis to your list. It was like having four flankers at times.

Yes, Kruis, Hartley, Robshaw and Brown all played well but not quite on the same level, Itoje was a step above the other 3 as well, didn't have quite the same influence in the 2nd half but was still very good, 9.5/10 for me.

[Villa in Denmark]

I was reduced to watching my first full game in 18 months on a shit stream, see previous bitching about Viasat buying the rights and not showing the games.

I knew the stream had been slipping behind real time. Every time it froze up, it picked up where it had locked up. Until it froze as the Welsh peeled of the scrum for what I presume was their second try, only for it to recover with the score at 23-21 and the Welsh piling down the far touchline. I can now confirm that adrenaline is brown.

From what I could see between the stream freezing

Itoje was immense.
Generally the discipline that's been a problem since the end of Woodward looks to be getting better with a dis-honourable mention for Coles.
In general the game management was better than anything I saw after the first 12 months of Lancaster.
For all the first half dominance, 16 points was an insufficient return.

[Jon Crofts]

I'm not sure what's worse:

"Swing low..." Etc.

Or

"Let's go Andy, let's go" (as in Andy Murray).

Both inisipid upper class nonsense, in my opinion.

'on the piss m'lord' wins hands down for shit song of the century.

[Jon Crofts]

Haskell had some great moments in the first half before him and Cole reverted to type.
Itoje was immense, Manu looked shit scared.
Im sure we'll put the French to the sword next week, we need to show we can be clinical, today 40 points should have been attainable against a pretty lack lustre Welsh side who only played for 20 minutes.

I know that kicking has become an integral part of the game but I do wish we made better choices with ball in hand, a few times today we kicked away decent possession, it was almost like Toby Flood was back in the side.

[paul_e]

Haskell had some great moments in the first half before him and Cole reverted to type.
Itoje was immense, Manu looked shit scared.
Im sure we'll put the French to the sword next week, we need to show we can be clinical, today 40 points should have been attainable against a pretty lack lustre Welsh side who only played for 20 minutes.

I know that kicking has become an integral part of the game but I do wish we made better choices with ball in hand, a few times today we kicked away decent possession, it was almost like Toby Flood was back in the side.

On the kicking I think a big part of that was the positioning of Farrell at 12.  a fair few times he just wasn't in the right place so Ford kicked instead.  I'm not trying to absolve Ford of any blame but I honestly don't think it helps that when he comes flat Farrell is slow into the line and when he goes deep Farrell gets too close so he's static when Ford passes.

I agree on the 40 points thing, the 'treatment' of Watson is the worst example, I reckon 2/3rds of the ball he got was him catching long kicks and trying to make something happen.  The few times we gave him good ball with space in front of him he made things happen.

Haskell - I've said it plenty of times, I don't think he's a bad player, I just think he's a fucking idiot, he's making the same mistakes now that he's made all through his career.  I also find it insulting that england were willing to break the 'must play in England' rule for this meathead but won't do it for the best 7 in the northern hemisphere.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

I'm not sure what's worse:

"Swing low..." Etc.

Or

"Let's go Andy, let's go" (as in Andy Murray).

Both inisipid upper class nonsense, in my opinion.

'on the piss m'lord' wins hands down for shit song of the century.

Maybe, but the people sing it because they really fucking love the Villa and care what happens to the Villa (rightly or wrongly). The songs I mentioned are sang in the same way the National Anthem is. They sing it because they feel like they have to (and probably read the Daily Mail.)

[paul_e]

I disagree, there is no defending singing songs about getting pissed as an 'ode' to one of your modern legends when he has had well reported drinking problems.  I really fucking hate that song.

Swing low, Let's go and the slow version of when the saints are all shitty and annoying as fuck but they're not out right insulting towards the person they're supposed to be in praise of.

[PaulWinch again]

Itoje was outstanding today. I thought Ford was pretty poor. We were excellent for 65 and then rubbish for the last 10-15.

[paul_e]

Itoje was outstanding today. I thought Ford was pretty poor. We were excellent for 65 and then rubbish for the last 10-15.

You say Ford was poor (and I don't disagree) but our performance dropped noticeably once he went off.  The problem is Farrell and Manu like to 'smash' tackles and they don't have enough discipline to hold a defensive line, our whole shape looked wrong with them at 10 and 12, this is one of the reasons I'm so against Farrell and I don't think Manu is the golden child so many claim him to be.  poor defence because of bad technique I can live with because it can be fixed in young-ish players, poor defence because of attitude is more difficult.  I thought Farrell was particularly poor today because he was forcing Ford into bad decisions, there were 2-3 times in the first half where straightening up and taking the ball at pace would've given us big overlaps but instead Farrell charged up early to chase a kick meaning Ford either threw a wide one against a rush defence or did what Farrell wanted.  As well as we played for the first hour I think we should be ashamed of how little we did to get JJ, Watson and Nowell involved in 'good' areas.  He needs to fix that, those 3 are the key to unlocking teams like NZ and Aus but we need to get them confident that they'll get the ball if they make the runs, Watson made 3-4 good support lines today and got ignored.

[Proposition Joe]

Itoje was outstanding today. I thought Ford was pretty poor. We were excellent for 65 and then rubbish for the last 10-15.

Ford was OK until the kick was charged down for their try and then he lost it big time.  There was one point in our own 22 I think where normally he would have booted it but he dithered and got tackled.

[cdbearsfan]

Good weekend for Scottish sport.

[Jon Crofts]

England win 2 of the 3 up for grabs, the big one against the French next week, England by 25.

Marler could be sanctioned for a comment made to Samson Lee in the first half, he's alleged to have called Lee 'Gypsy boy' and could face a 4 week ban.

[PaulWinch again]

Woohoo! First win since 2011 great start to Jones regime.