England v New Zealand
Discussion
New Zealand are FAR from unbeatable. When England had quick ball and it went down the line at pace, there were huge gaps in the Kiwi backline. A better, slicker, my experienced backline (France) would have walked through. In the first half the Kiwis seem to be taking the ball far too flat when attacking and looking for an England missed tackle or mistake to create the space to attack. (England did make those mistakes unfortunatly). The main All Black weakness, The Lineout, is still very much a weakness.
The Kiwi front row were in total charge and McCaw did look like he bullied Moody a bit, which was very dissapointing.
Good signs from England. Ashton's coaching has paid off in the backs, much better, coming from deep, taking the ball at pace and crisp passing. Made some big mistakes, but thats going to happen. Pery and Allen looked good. Corry had a great game and lead well.
England missing, Stevens, Borthwick, Lewsey, Cueto, Abbott, Forrester, Tom Rees, Mathew Tait, Olly Barkeley, Jonny Wilkinson, from the squad. 5 of which would probably have played. So its not all bad.
I'll be deff watching France vs NZ, if France can secure enough ball (big if) then they can easily put one over the AB's.
No way is this next World Cup a one horse race.
The Kiwi front row were in total charge and McCaw did look like he bullied Moody a bit, which was very dissapointing.
Good signs from England. Ashton's coaching has paid off in the backs, much better, coming from deep, taking the ball at pace and crisp passing. Made some big mistakes, but thats going to happen. Pery and Allen looked good. Corry had a great game and lead well.
England missing, Stevens, Borthwick, Lewsey, Cueto, Abbott, Forrester, Tom Rees, Mathew Tait, Olly Barkeley, Jonny Wilkinson, from the squad. 5 of which would probably have played. So its not all bad.
I'll be deff watching France vs NZ, if France can secure enough ball (big if) then they can easily put one over the AB's.
No way is this next World Cup a one horse race.
thegreatsoprendo said:
White_van_man said:
half the team is out injured
Half a team? Abbott, Cueto, Lewsey and Stevens, who else?
Besides, NZ have injury problems of their own, their fly half, Nick Evans, is injured so they've had to draft in his understudy - some guy by the name of Dan Carter.
England missing, Stevens, Borthwick, Lewsey, Cueto, Abbott, Forrester, Tom Rees, Mathew Tait, Olly Barkeley, Jonny Wilkinson, from the squad. 5 of which would probably have played. So its not all bad.
Nowhere near as good a game as yesterday - not the same level of intensity or excitement.
The All Blacks deserved to win - but not by so much. I thought that the referee was awfull - ignoring the the first Noon try (which defo was), the Mauger try included a forward pass (as they went over the 22), and som eof his other decisions were very strange. It's difficult enough to beat the All Blacks, withot having to play against the referee as well.
However Enland looked OK when attacking at times, improvement over 6 nations.
The All Blacks deserved to win - but not by so much. I thought that the referee was awfull - ignoring the the first Noon try (which defo was), the Mauger try included a forward pass (as they went over the 22), and som eof his other decisions were very strange. It's difficult enough to beat the All Blacks, withot having to play against the referee as well.
However Enland looked OK when attacking at times, improvement over 6 nations.
I though England did OK. The postives were that the ball moved occasionally quite quickly. Thought Allen was OK, made mistakes but did well and found the space for the first Engalnd try. Perry not so sure... Did OK, but needs time. Also, thought Sackey was OK when he was going forward but certainly could have stopped one NZ try if he'd had the balls to pick the ball up. He was actually looking at the ref waiting for him to say it was out! Just pick the thing up and gove away 3 if he blows rather than 7...
Didnt think the ref was awful, yes should have allowed the try and pinging each side once for engaging to early but other than that he was OK.
The bad... Well NZ hadnt played for a while and it showed. There was no intensity in their game at all, compare yesterday with the Tri Nations, had that been a Tri nations game the gap would have been 30 / 40 points easy. Basically they won without trying because England gave away to much ball and when they went into gear NZ were just too good.
For England, certainly better than last year but as it stands Wales and Ireland will still have us. If they can cut ou tthe mistakes and actually get fast ball then maybe we'll see an improvement, the back row needs sorting out quick. If the 3 that started are he starters then play them in the right place!
Didnt think the ref was awful, yes should have allowed the try and pinging each side once for engaging to early but other than that he was OK.
The bad... Well NZ hadnt played for a while and it showed. There was no intensity in their game at all, compare yesterday with the Tri Nations, had that been a Tri nations game the gap would have been 30 / 40 points easy. Basically they won without trying because England gave away to much ball and when they went into gear NZ were just too good.
For England, certainly better than last year but as it stands Wales and Ireland will still have us. If they can cut ou tthe mistakes and actually get fast ball then maybe we'll see an improvement, the back row needs sorting out quick. If the 3 that started are he starters then play them in the right place!
twit said:
the back row needs sorting out quick. If the 3 that started are he starters then play them in the right place!
Corry only started at 6 because AR thought Jerry Collins would play and Corry could stop him on the gain line. When the NZ team was annouced why they didnt swap Corry and Sanderson back i'll never know. However its not all bad as the back row swapped around most of the afternoon. We don't have too many options for flankers. Moody has to play 7, Sanderson has to play 6. I would like to see Forrester getting a chance at 8 and Rees to feature, but Lund and Hazel look good club players, but not International class. Hope Lund can develop.
Thought Perry was superb, great distribution and a pretty good showing for his first test up against Kelleher, who i consider to be the toughest 9 to play against.
With some players coming back, England now need to step up the performance, the quality and cut out the mistakes against SA. I think Eng should beat SA at least once in the two games.
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