**OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

croyals · Post by **croyals** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 4:48 pm

Eddie you beautiful son of a bitch

JM2K6 · Post by **JM2K6** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 4:57 pm

A huge caveat over how bad the Irish have been so far but there's no question he's got England fired up for this, and the kicking game has been brilliant.

Mr. Very Popular · Post by **Mr. Very Popular** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 4:58 pm

JM2K6 wrote:A huge caveat over how bad the Irish have been so far but there's no question he's got England fired up for this, and the kicking game has been brilliant.

Nah, we've been made look shïte, England are just playing a brilliant game

Wendigo7 · Post by **Wendigo7** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 4:58 pm

Youngs having for him one of his better games helps a fair bit.

So far, Lawes has been decent.

croyals · Post by **croyals** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 4:58 pm

JM2K6 wrote:A huge caveat over how bad the Irish have been so far but there's no question he's got England fired up for this, and the kicking game has been brilliant.

Without rehashing the Eddie discussion, I think it is pretty clear he can still motivate and fire up the changing room. There seems to be a real desire 1-15 to silence the critics.

Though maybe I should wait a half to confirm this, don’t want another Scotland on our hands

blindcider · Post by **blindcider** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 5:00 pm

Reading a bit of the match thread at half time reminds me why I usually avoid England match threads

45jumper · Post by **45jumper** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 5:45 pm

Lawes man of the match?!

He's had a good game, but come on.

croyals · Post by **croyals** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 5:46 pm

Anyone have the ‘get used to us being superior’ clip handy? No particular reason...

DragsterDriver · Post by **DragsterDriver** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 5:52 pm

JM2K6 wrote:A huge caveat over how bad the Irish have been so far but there's no question he's got England fired up for this, and the kicking game has been brilliant.

Yeah Ireland are shite, it’s been flattering. Eddie is concerning us but fudge me faz sr is a ludicrous appointment.

Wendigo7 · Post by **Wendigo7** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 5:53 pm

Decent performance.

We're limited in attack outside set phase strike moves, but we always have been under eddie. 5 sets and if you ain't going anywhere, hoof it away..

Dobbin · Post by **Dobbin** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 5:54 pm

Don't know what to think of that, really. A fairly straughtforward win in the end but could have been so much more complete if the backs had a shred of an idea what to do when they're not running a set move.

A good but strangely disappointing win.

Keith · Post by **Keith** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 5:54 pm

Keith wrote:We're going to get pumped by the Micks, aren't we?

What do you know, you thick plum?

marcopolio · Post by **marcopolio** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 5:54 pm

Ford poor again. EJ consistently refusing to pick players in their correct position.

Not a good second half at all. Dominant in the majority of play but failure to get points.

Ireland were horrible. That should have been a much bigger win.

ChipSpike · Post by **ChipSpike** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 5:59 pm

We had complete forward dominance there, but in the second half we seemed unable to get any control. You could say the ref wasn't helping, but such was our dominance it shouldn't be a factor. I think we needed to play for the corners more maybe.

croyals · Post by **croyals** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:00 pm

ChipSpike wrote:We had complete forward dominance there, but in the second half we seemed unable to get any control. You could say the ref wasn't helping, but such was our dominance it shouldn't be a factor. I think we needed to play for the corners more maybe.

I think we were trying to secure the win after the Scotland debacle

Joost · Post by **Joost** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:00 pm

To be fair to Eddie:

- Daly was good at the f/b stuff - won ball in the air, kicked and countered well, mugged Stockdale nicely for the try

- Lawes MOM - carried well, good in the lineout, put lots of tackles in

- Joseph on the wing - did something whenever he had the ball and played well

Why Youngs can’t play with that sort of tempo every game I really don’t know!

JM2K6 · Post by **JM2K6** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:01 pm

marcopolio wrote:Ford poor again.

um

Wendigo7 · Post by **Wendigo7** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:01 pm

Best I've seen Daly in a fair while.

croyals · Post by **croyals** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:02 pm

Joost wrote:To be fair to Eddie:

- Daly was good at the f/b stuff - won ball in the air, kicked and countered well, mugged Stockdale nicely for the try

- Lawes MOM - carried well, good in the lineout, put lots of tackles in

- Joseph on the wing - did something whenever he had the ball and played well

Why Youngs can’t play with that sort of tempo every game I really don’t know!

His selections worked, he had a plan and in the first half we executed it well. Superb coach and we’ll miss him when he’s gone

Raggs · Post by **Raggs** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:03 pm

JM2K6 wrote:
marcopolio wrote:Ford poor again.
um

He had a bad moment, that's enough for the doubters. In truth, it doesn't even take that.

SaintK · Post by **SaintK** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:04 pm

Wendigo7 wrote:Best I've seen Daly in a fair while.

And Youngs

croyals · Post by **croyals** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:04 pm

Raggs wrote:
JM2K6 wrote:
marcopolio wrote:Ford poor again.
um
He had a bad moment, that's enough for the doubters. In truth, it doesn't even take that.

This comment can be applied to more than one member of the backline...

Ford played well fwiw - no one really cares about the odd brainfart

JM2K6 · Post by **JM2K6** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:04 pm

I do think we were poor with ball in hand past the first half - we barely saw Manu again, for example - and we definitely should've had the bonus point. The subs were a mixed bag and Genge was good, LCD was excellent, but the rest messed things up a bit. Ewels at 8 for an international is just bonkers.

It does worry me what happens when the opposition deals with the kicking game.

Farrell's meltdown was funny but could have really cost us. He has no excuse there at all.

terryfinch · Post by **terryfinch** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:05 pm

That no arms late tackle on May! WTF!

JM2K6 · Post by **JM2K6** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:06 pm

terryfinch wrote:That no arms late tackle on May! WTF!

To clear this up - he clearly gets away with it because he supermans like he's trying to block the kick.

The fact that the ball was long gone before he even started was the problem there...

blindcider · Post by **blindcider** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:07 pm

terryfinch wrote:That no arms late tackle on May! WTF!

FFS the Irish player was going for the kick block and actually pulled back. Refs got that one right. Some of the spears into rucks from all angles were far worse.

croyals · Post by **croyals** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:08 pm

blindcider wrote:
terryfinch wrote:That no arms late tackle on May! WTF!
FFS the Irish player was going for the kick block and actually pulled back. Refs got that one right. Some of the spears into rucks from all angles were far worse.

I’m astonished their clearouts didn’t get picked up by the TMO. Dirty stuff

DragsterDriver · Post by **DragsterDriver** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:08 pm

croyals wrote:
Raggs wrote:
JM2K6 wrote:
marcopolio wrote:Ford poor again.
um
He had a bad moment, that's enough for the doubters. In truth, it doesn't even take that.
This comment can be applied to more than one member of the backline...

Ford played well fwiw - no one really cares about the odd brainfart

Basically the Farrell fanclub want him on the pitch and he’s a poor centre, Ford is the fall guy.

Wendigo7 · Post by **Wendigo7** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:09 pm

We aren't as big as Ireland though. Man for man they look the bigger side but our rush now is very good and the intensity and consistency of it was too much for the Irish half backs and particularly tight 5 to deal with.

The gang tackles and the decision making of when to use them helped out with the workload and size issue.

DragsterDriver · Post by **DragsterDriver** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:09 pm

croyals wrote:
blindcider wrote:
terryfinch wrote:That no arms late tackle on May! WTF!
FFS the Irish player was going for the kick block and actually pulled back. Refs got that one right. Some of the spears into rucks from all angles were far worse.
I’m astonished their clearouts didn’t get picked up by the TMO. Dirty stuff

Ryan had a couple that could be cited.

Joost · Post by **Joost** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:09 pm

JM2K6 wrote:I do think we were poor with ball in hand past the first half - we barely saw Manu again, for example - and we definitely should've had the bonus point. The subs were a mixed bag and Genge was good, LCD was excellent, but the rest messed things up a bit. Ewels at 8 for an international is just bonkers.

It does worry me what happens when the opposition deals with the kicking game.

Farrell's meltdown was funny but could have really cost us. He has no excuse there at all.

Ewels was only at 8 on the defensive scrums - more power through the middle, which seemed to work well on several scrums.

Ireland defended their line pretty well tbf and we left plenty of scoring chances out there - shame the ref didn’t check the Henshaw block on May; that would’ve been a hilarious try.

How good was Itoje in the first half as well!

croyals · Post by **croyals** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:10 pm

DragsterDriver wrote:
croyals wrote:
Raggs wrote:
JM2K6 wrote:
marcopolio wrote:Ford poor again.
um
He had a bad moment, that's enough for the doubters. In truth, it doesn't even take that.
This comment can be applied to more than one member of the backline...

Ford played well fwiw - no one really cares about the odd brainfart
Basically the Farrell fanclub want him on the pitch and he’s a poor centre, Ford is the fall guy.

Well I don’t agree with any of that but life is all about perspective isn’t it. For me as a Faz fan I much prefer Ford playing well given I like him and if he plays well we probably win.

JM2K6 · Post by **JM2K6** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:10 pm

Alright, early stats check.

Elliot "best I've seen in ages" Daly: 21m made, 3 turnovers conceded. Didn't miss a tackle though!

Farrell: 7 carries for 3 metres, 14 tackles made + 4 missed

Itoje: 18 tackles and 1 miss

May: 2 penalties conceded & 2 turnovers conceded

Apart from the tackle stats being racked up the stats look pretty poor, no-one making more than 40m with ball in hand (May) and 202m made in the entire match tells a story. It's no surprise we struggled to actually score that bonus point try. Second half we had 24% possession and 21% territory

Some things worked great, obviously, and that fast start helped us a lot. We need more to our game though, jeez.

sockwithaticket · Post by **sockwithaticket** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:12 pm

JM2K6 wrote:Alright, early stats check.

Elliot "best I've seen in ages" Daly: 21m made, 3 turnovers conceded. Didn't miss a tackle though!

Farrell: 7 carries for 3 metres, 14 tackles made + 4 missed

Itoje: 18 tackles and 1 miss

May: 2 penalties conceded & 2 turnovers conceded

Apart from the tackle stats being racked up the stats look pretty poor, no-one making more than 40m with ball in hand (May) and 202m made in the entire match tells a story. It's no surprise we struggled to actually score that bonus point try. Second half we had 24% possession and 21% territory

Some things worked great, obviously, and that fast start helped us a lot. We need more to our game though, jeez.

100%.

Nice to get the win and it was a better performance than the other two, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

Wendigo7 · Post by **Wendigo7** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:13 pm

We're limited in attack I don't disagree. Outside set phase and good kick chase, our decision making and spotting issues in the opposition defence is quite poor.

I don't think we'll do any different under Eddie though. Been like this since 2016 bar the odd match or spell, it certainly isn't going to change now. For us it's about the mindset on the day, like so many teams. Getting psychologically up for and being at home seem to be the big indicators at the moment as to whether a team is more likely to put in a good performance or not. The systems and consistency of them help, but I don't think there's a huge difference between many of the top 6 or 7. We're a very good home team though.

DragsterDriver · Post by **DragsterDriver** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:14 pm

If opposition packs dig in we’re screwed. Again, flattering stuff from Ireland.

JM2K6 · Post by **JM2K6** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:14 pm

Defensively we look great, and a real pain in the neck to play against. Can't praise that highly enough, and when LCD comes on we have like 4 ridiculous breakdown merchants in the team and it's so much fun to see. The maul defence was excellent today too, not always a strength.

Just... need more with the ball. Even if it's literally just to make a bit of space for Manu more often.

DragsterDriver · Post by **DragsterDriver** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:16 pm

Manu starts well and then fades completely. Listening to Woodward you wouldn’t believe we got a couple of lucky bounces.

ChipSpike · Post by **ChipSpike** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:17 pm

JM2K6 wrote:Alright, early stats check.

Elliot "best I've seen in ages" Daly: 21m made, 3 turnovers conceded. Didn't miss a tackle though!

Farrell: 7 carries for 3 metres, 14 tackles made + 4 missed

Itoje: 18 tackles and 1 miss

May: 2 penalties conceded & 2 turnovers conceded

Apart from the tackle stats being racked up the stats look pretty poor, no-one making more than 40m with ball in hand (May) and 202m made in the entire match tells a story. It's no surprise we struggled to actually score that bonus point try. Second half we had 24% possession and 21% territory

Some things worked great, obviously, and that fast start helped us a lot. We need more to our game though, jeez.

Usually when your forwards are on top you keep it tight in there using pick and drives until they run out of men. You should not play high risk stuff, its not needed. Play territory and keep it tight (could be too old school these days). Need to look at that 2nd half again. And if you're on top no unnecessary subs.

blindcider · Post by **blindcider** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:17 pm

Ireland looking really poor today. Farrell was anonymous today other than when humping Standers leg. Daly is still a 23 at best and Ewels at 8 WTF?