Beach Hut
Brighton Bhuna Boy
Schoolboy errors by England
What did Joubert blow up for then?...we haven't had the rub of the 'green' from the ref
Then it goes backwards and he blows for a knock on...t.....r
Ref was shockingly one sided
There were indeed some iffy calls, but we were awful at the breakdown and their set piece was better.A fair result and I would love an explanation of why we carried on the same unsuccessful tactic of kicking into their 22 when we had nobody getting anywhere near the catcher. Whereas their kicks were followed up aggressively.
How can so many players at international level be so incompetent in their ability to catch a ball when its kicked high in the air? Spilling a catch or missing it completely seems to be the standard performance for the English backs. An inability to cleanly take a high ball means they shouldnt be in the team in the first place.Which is why Ireland kept the tactic going for all the match.
George Ford? Clueless in the main. Watson? Worst tackler on the field,again. Nowell? Clumsy and uncordinated.All good players at club level but out of their depth on the international platform.
And Englands dire kicking...idiocy to give away possession so easily so often.
Advantage, advantage over, advantage, advantage over. Four times in a row he called advantage over when we had little or no advantage.There were indeed some iffy calls, but we were awful at the breakdown and their set piece was better.A fair result and I would love an explanation of why we carried on the same unsuccessful tactic of kicking into their 22 when we had nobody getting anywhere near the catcher. Whereas their kicks were followed up aggressively.
Sexton is a god.
We were much quicker to recycle the ball once Youngs went off.
Imknow Ireland had stepped down a gear, but very pleasing to see our subs make a positive impact. Twelvetrees (36) looked hungry.
My man of the match (for England) was Big Billy.
Fair enough but some of his decision making and execution wasn't great, not that he was the only one you could level that criticism at. I haven't seen a replay of the "try" near the end it was a forward pass from Twelvetrees I think. He was also responsible for the obstruction that resulted in an earlier try being disallowed, hopefully the "fat boys" will have words.
Ireland won that match because Sexton is a top drawer kicker, they are a more disciplined side and because their hooker always hits his target. Swap Sexton and Best for Ford and Hartley and England win that match, such are the fine margins.
That said, if Wales beat Ireland then it's all game on again, and I wouldn't be surprised if that Ireland win took more out of them than it showed.
I don't think England fans should be too harsh - we are still missing the quality of Launchbury, Parling, Care, Farrell, Tuilagi and Brown, and any thought of a Grand Slam without all of them is unrealistic.
Why do the RFU choose not to pick foreign players?And Armitage...