The rugby world cup begins tomorrow!

England looked more of a unit against Japan, some good performances although you’d have to say Japan are a formidable unit themselves. The kick from Ford to Steward for the try was top class and that score really took the wind out of the Japan sail.
 
England sensed Japan had tired themselves and started to play a bit more rugby. The final two scores were really good.

Defence and fitness look a totally different level from the England of the last weeks months too. Long may that continue.
 
Just watched the game after my trip to the cinema and it was really scrappy at times with too many handling errors. I wonder if we can get Joe Marler to play centre forward for the Boro, it wasn't a bad nodder to set Laws up. 🤣 🤣 🤣

Too much kicking at times and feel we should have kept the ball in hands at times. Ford's kick to Steward was brilliant.
 
Last edited:
Otto42 said:
Remember watching Fiji win the Sevens Gold at the Olympics.
Click to expand...
That was the most complete performance of sevens I've ever seen. In the record books GB for silver but it might as well have been tin. No one could touch Fiji. I love the way they play
 
Norman_Conquest said:
Off to the pictures and missing the end and the England game. 😳
Click to expand...
You chose the right one to miss. Apart from the end when it opened up that was a dire turgid, clueless England performance. We are lucky Japan have regressed lately too .

For the first sixty minutes Marchant had TWO carries. If your inside centre isn't getting the ball then you clearly just kicking everything. I hate to moan but it's horrible to watch. I don't actually believe we are that limited that we have to resort to that. We can play. We have decent forwards who can set a platform
 
SmallTown said:
You chose the right one to miss. Apart from the end when it opened up that was a dire turgid, clueless England performance. We are lucky Japan have regressed lately too .

For the first sixty minutes Marchant had TWO carries. If your inside centre isn't getting the ball then you clearly just kicking everything. I hate to moan but it's horrible to watch. I don't actually believe we are that limited that we have to resort to that. We can play. We have decent forwards who can set a platform
Click to expand...
I watched it on catch-up without knowing the score and have to agree with you regarding the poor performance. I lost count of the number of times we tried to kick it instead of keeping the ball in hand. I do feel a better side would have taken us to the cleaners.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
I watched it on catch-up without knowing the score and have to agree with you regarding the poor performance. I lost count of the number of times we tried to kick it instead of keeping the ball in hand. I do feel a better side would have taken us to the cleaners.
Click to expand...
Definitely too much kicking from the scum half position. Daly kicked numerous times too, but that seemed to be more in response to Japan’s very quick defensive line.

Once the Japanese line speed started to drop the backs seemed to sense that and the running lines changed. George Ford mentioned something about that post match.

Plus points were no try conceded and another game where fitness looked very strong. Only 6 or 7 penalties conceded, which is very good. Still loads to work for on though.
 
Nero said:
Definitely too much kicking from the scum half position. Daly kicked numerous times too, but that seemed to be more in response to Japan’s very quick defensive line.

Once the Japanese line speed started to drop the backs seemed to sense that and the running lines changed. George Ford mentioned something about that post match.

Plus points were no try conceded and another game where fitness looked very strong. Only 6 or 7 penalties conceded, which is very good. Still loads to work for on though.
Click to expand...
It was highlighted in the analysis that we've only given away 13 penalties in two games.
 
Jedi boro said:
The pundits ex players are hyper critical of the result last night.
Click to expand...
And quite rightly. There was no thought, no creativity, no attempt to move the ball through the hands. It was route one rugby, which is a valid, if boring, tactic. But it was route one without any thought. It was kick to compete regardless of the position. Often a pass or developing the play a bit longer would have been better but no, they just kicked regardless. Lemeki quickly went from sub to the busiest player on the pitch. Spending all night picking up aimless hoofs
 
Although it wasn’t effective and was awful to watch I understood why we were kicking so much. The ball seemed very slippy and both teams were struggling to hold onto it there were a lot of fumbles many backwards but plenty of knock ons as well for both sides. Sometimes it’s about playing to the conditions. That said ROI and SA would of destroyed us.
 
Priv said:
Although it wasn’t effective and was awful to watch I understood why we were kicking so much. The ball seemed very slippy and both teams were struggling to hold onto it there were a lot of fumbles many backwards but plenty of knock ons as well for both sides. Sometimes it’s about playing to the conditions. That said ROI and SA would of destroyed us.
Click to expand...
Yeah, kicking for territory is a tactic. It's just how badly thought out half the kicks were. And the fact there was no room for anything else. I felt sorry for Manu and Marchant. They didn't seem to know what to do
 
Jedi boro said:
The pundits ex players are hyper critical of the result last night.
Click to expand...
Matt Dawson isn’t today and he is usually highly critical. I actually agree with Dawson that England got better bad the game went on.

Japan did tire though so it’s hard to get carried away.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
Just watched the game after my trip to the cinema and it was really scrappy at times with too many handling errors. I wonder if we can Joe Marler to play centre forward for the Boro, it wasn't a bad nodder to set Laws up. 🤣 🤣 🤣

Too much kicking at times and feel we should have kept the ball in hands at times. Ford's kick to Steward was brilliant.
Click to expand...
Very humid this evening in Nice and handling errors on both sides. The ball looked greasy.IMG_3096.jpeg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top