International Rugby

[paul_e]

Absolutely abysmal from Argentina. They look like a team that have never met each other before. Error after error after error.

I think a big part of it was the drop goals in the first half, they setup to outnumber us in defence so we'd wear ourselves out trying to break them down, by not doing what they wanted we build a bit of pressure on the scoreboard and it's led to them being very reckless in the breakdown. It's been a a weirdly perfect 14man performance from us that I don't think anyone saw coming.

I think it's just Argentina being shit. They knocked on as many passes as they made. They gave away penalties. They never looked like scoring themselves until the 70th minute. Credit to England,  they took their points and slowly choked the life out of Argentina, but you can't overstate how awful Argentina were.

As happens so often in football though a really poor performance by a team often comes about from the other team knowing how to rattle them and forcing the errors. I agree the hnadling was poor but even then most of their handling errors came because England were right up in their faces early.

As I said just above England haven't washed away all the problems but what they've done is show that they can execute the basics properly and make it a lot more difficult for teams than they might have expected after the summer and 6N.

[PaulWinch again]

Yeah Argentina were poor, but a lot of that was down to England. Ford and Earl in particular were brilliant.

[Fasth56]

Yeah Argentina were poor, but a lot of that was down to England. Ford and Earl in particular were brilliant.

Agreed, and even those with different tinted glasses cannot fail to agree with that.

[paul_e]

I'd add Lawes, Manu and Mitchell as well.

[Lsvilla]

Very happy with that. Got quarter final tix and was preparing myself not to see England. Hopefully go through now and ensure a decent 10 day break in Marseille / Nice coinciding with the international break so no games missed.

[AV84]

Yeah Argentina were poor, but a lot of that was down to England. Ford and Earl in particular were brilliant.

Agreed, and even those with different tinted glasses cannot fail to agree with that.

England had nothing to do with the fact Argentina were constantly over or under committing to rucks, or weren't supporting players who had the ball. They knocked on when nobody was near them. Couldn't even throw the ball into a line out at one point.

England played their own game really well, Ford was very clever taking points when he could, and their line speed in defence was good, but Argentina were flawed in every aspect of their game from the very start. It will be very interesting to see how the rest of the games in this pool play out.

[Fasth56]

Yeah Argentina were poor, but a lot of that was down to England. Ford and Earl in particular were brilliant.

Agreed, and even those with different tinted glasses cannot fail to agree with that.

England had nothing to do with the fact Argentina were constantly over or under committing to rucks, or weren't supporting players who had the ball. They knocked on when nobody was near them. Couldn't even throw the ball into a line out at one point.

England played their own game really well, Ford was very clever taking points when he could, and their line speed in defence was good, but Argentina were flawed in every aspect of their game from the very start. It will be very interesting to see how the rest of the games in this pool play out.

We'll take the win and move on

[PaulWinch again]

Of course England played a role in how Argentina played. That’s not to say Argentina weren’t poor, but part of the reason they struggled was the game management by England. They tried to react but couldn’t channel it in the right way, hence the overcommitting at rucks etc.

[Jon Crofts]

Sounds like the French authorities managed to fuck it up royally for thousands of people last night. A mate was there last night took him over 90 minutes to enter the stadium, 45 minutes at half time to get a beer, hundreds of toilets were out of use and after the game the Metro wasn’t running.

[Meanwood Villa]

Sounds like the French authorities managed to fuck it up royally for thousands of people last night. A mate was there last night took him over 90 minutes to enter the stadium, 45 minutes at half time to get a beer, hundreds of toilets were out of use and after the game the Metro wasn’t running.

I was at a gig there this summer and the food and drink offering was poor to say the least. The Metro afterwards was incredibly well organised though so sounds like they've dropped a bollock there.

[nigel]

I'd add Lawes, Manu and Mitchell as well.

The pack as a whole were excellent, but I also think the front 3 deserve some plaudits.
They held, and dominated, one of the top fronts rows in world rugby.

The forwards, in turn, gave George Ford the time to weave his magic.

And even this morning I still think it should have been two reds, or two yellows.

[nigel]

Yeah Argentina were poor, but a lot of that was down to England. Ford and Earl in particular were brilliant.

I actually thought Ben Earl came of age in this game.
For me, although a very good player, he seemed to flatter to deceive. Maybe struggled to step up.

In this game, however, we saw the Ben Earl people have raved about

[Axl Rose]

A foreigner with tattoos scores a try for Japan.

Tut tut 😂

Deport him immediately.

Come on Chile.

[Jon Crofts]

Is the tattoo thing still a thing with Japanese society?

[Axl Rose]

Is the tattoo thing still a thing with Japanese society?

Yes, absolutely. You can't have any visible tattoos and work for a big company, for example. It's hard to go to an onsen, or bathhouse, also. You'd basically have to get a private onsen, or cover the tattoos with tape.

Young people are getting tattooed more frequently, though.

I've been here 10 years, and on the whole, they're not a bad bunch, the Japanese. I did after all marry one! 😂 I don't like the blatant xenophobia when it comes to blaming foreigners for any kind of problem there doesn't seem to be a clear reason for (see the latest bollocks regarding overcrowding on Mount Fuji) , yet the Japanese are happy to have foreigners playing for their rugby team when it suits them. (ie, when they're winning). See Naomi Osaka, also. When she wins, she's Japanese, when she loses, she's a foreigner. It's not so black and white of course, but yeah, it's fucking irritating.

I am not a fan of the media here when it comes to sport. Think England and football's coming home x 600. Any little victory in anything is celebrated as being down to some sort of Japanese exceptionalism. It was shit being a foreigner during the whole Covid thing, feeling singled out and treated like a leper, and it's really tarnished my experience of living here in some ways. Some days I couldn't give a fuck, however, as I'm lucky to have a great family, some great mates, and a bunch of really decent students. 'Shoganai' as the Japanese say.

Anyway, doesn't look like Chile are going to cause an upset, so the telly will remain off until November 😂