Good points on both games Cumbrian, not too long to wait now though…
good start to Wales - Ireland, looking like a humdinger. Wales looking very strong.
Thanks for reminding me it is on. I’m off to grab a beer and take control of the remote.
Well Wales won well, come on France!
England are every bit as bad as I feared. Little leadership, little invention, brainless penalties all over the place. They are even losing their lineouts now.
France are better than they were but they don’t really need to that great. They are applying a little pressure and England are dutifully cracking.
What’s worse is that England are trying to play an expansive game, contrary to their nature. They need to slow the game down and play to their strengths in the second half to get back into the game.
On the other hand France are on fire and would lead any tema in the world at half time with that performance.
Well I’m finding it difficult to judge how well France are playing. More like their old form certainly but England are shooting themselves in the foot so much (and their handling is deserting them now) that any moderately competent team would be leading them.
However, I don’t mean to diminish France’s performance too much, they executed their tries very nicely indeed.
Oh well, on with the second half…my hopes are not high. I am currently comfortable in my misery so now watch England score and get my hopes up slightly. I’m not sure I can bear that.
What did I tell you? They’ve only gone and scored a try. Why can’t they just leave me be?
I’ll have to care for the last 25 minutes now.
Well that’s that!
France deserved it, England played reasonably for a 20 minute period but overall, too slow. Not good enough.
A decent comeback but not enough against a fired up France. The French loosies had a huge game tonight, particularly Harinordiquay. And my guess was pretty damn close(17-11 versus an actual score of 19-12).
We couldn’t even beat a French team that had previously showed the teamwork and unity of purpose… of the French football team.
With the draw, I was half expecting us to stumble through to the final and a possible record defeat.
I had a game to ref this morning, so only watched France v England on record in the afternoon. I wasn’t able to escape the score, so I knew we’d been beaten – I also knew that, apparently, we’d been abject.
I won’t do this again likely but, with 10 mins gone in the opening half, I’ve decided to do a retrospective running diary on the game, because, frankly, from what I have seen thus far, England, far from being abject, are playing pretty well.
tl:dr version of the below
England were not as bad as might have been expected and I am mildly concerned about the standard of the reporting on the game – having looked at a few news websites; it is not the end of the world – as putting it right is a matter of making better decisions in attacking areas of the field. England had the right idea – their strength is not in the forwards (scrums today indifferent, line-out poor, too few turnovers generated) and they attacked in their outside backs. Too often though, they panicked when in key positions and lost control of the ball, made a bad decision, threw a poor pass. What England lack is leadership and this manifests itself in an inability to cope with pressure. Your captain should not be there due to time served, he should be someone who can galvanise the team, settle them when required and make decisions to slow the game down to build pressure when in the red zone. England could do with two or three of these personalities. All this said, by my reckoning, England were outplayed for only 25 minutes of the game – but by the end of that, the game was already lost (you don’t spot international rugby sides 16 points head start and get away with it)
Youngs had a bad game, didn’t think Stevens went well nor Thompson, Wilkinson is passed it – England looked a lot better when Flood was being shipped quick ball instead of Wilkinson. The team needs to be based around getting the most out of Manu Tuilagi, who is comfortably our best player in terms of invention and ability to get over the gain line. We may need to get rid of our coaching unit – I’d certainly get shot of John Wells as forwards coach – and probably Johnson too – with Toby Booth or Jim Mallinder to come in. Unfortunately, England’s RFU is currently, literally, leaderless – there isn’t even a head of HR to hand out the P45s, so no one will be getting their marching orders just yet I would have thought . People will have to quit.
France were excellent – dead eyed throughout, giving penalties away only in positions where it didn’t cause damage, ratcheted the pressure up on England both when they had the ball by building phases but also when they didn’t by taking the odd calculated gamble in defence and getting organised to close space down at other times, causing England to panic. They too their chances extremely well. Well played to them.
Running diary
10 mins in – England 0 France 3, I’m not unhappy at this point. England have fed their outside backs more consistently than the French and look threatening in the wide channels. If I were watching this live, I’d be pretty positive, certainly had the best of the game. England have conceded two penalties – the first for Tuilagi getting in front of the ball after a tackle is fair. The penalty England have conceded the score from is wrong – Flood is penalised for not releasing the tackled player – problem is, he wasn’t the tackler, Youngs was (and on replay, it is clear the Youngs is being held by the French player on the floor to prevent him rolling away – tell tale sign, his shirt is stretched at the collar). Flood is the first man arriving, is on his feet and is entitled to play the ball. This one should have gone the other way. I fear a narrative has set in for refs who see England – they’re cheats, so penalise them. This second penalty is a worrying sign – England are going to have to be whiter than white.
11 min – oh dear, straight out on the kick off. Not good. There follows a very good passage of French play. Ominously, England’s defensive organisation is poor. Not enough men positioned on the short side twice in succession. France look good with ball in hand. Give them space and we’re in trouble.
16 mins – France 6 England 0. Bad penalty from England – pretty clearly coming round and down at the scrum.
17 mins – sweeping up a returning French kick, England look ragged in organising the attack and send Stevens into a tackle in too isolated a position – forcing him to hold on waiting for his support with a penalty following. This one is not on Stevens – it’s bad English attacking skills. The kick is missed. The ensuing play ends with a very strong kick chase from France, forcing the England error.
22 mins – France 11 England 0. An English lineout is thrown away and England miss two easy tackles on Clerc who goes over. They isolated Wilkinson and danced around him – Wilkinson’s movement is probably not what it was – he was in the right position initially but gets it wrong when Clerc changes his alignment. Nevertheless, Foden should have cleaned him up and doesn’t. Well taken but two basic errors. The defence coach will not be happy.
25 mins – England produce a good passage of play – working hands up the short side and setting up a ruck 2 phases later in the middle of the French 22. Spreading it right, Rougerie gambles, comes out of the line and nails Flood. A take and give would have put Foden and Ashton away. Rougerie should take credit – it galvanises France, they force England back and a bad pass from Youngs results in a poor DG attempt. I still don’t think England have been as bad as the ITV commentators reckon (who seem to have forgotten the opening 10 mins of the game though they have been second best since then), but it is clear that they are struggling to cope when France increase the pressure. Given England’s recent history in big games (the Grand Slam game in Ireland, the South Africa game in the autumn – where they should have pressed home their improvement from the win v Oz), it is clear England have a leadership problem when the chips are down.
27 mins – England fail to capitalise on a broken field break from Tuilagi. The talent is clearly in the backs – unfortunately the link play results in the ball being thrown on the floor. Youngs sympathy of pass is poor – he’s not having a good game – like against Ireland.
28 mins – the first real howler of a penalty from England – a brainless offside when France are not going anywhere fast. Thank God I am not watching this live – I’d probably have lost it there.
30 mins – France 16 – England 0. From that very penalty, France kick to the corner and England, despite trying to infringe at 3 successive phases (noticed by the ref who plays a great advantage), fail to stop France going over in the same spot Clerc went over. This was great attacking play by France, they got in behind, committed defenders and when it went wide, there were not enough England numbers as they had to go to the ball earlier in the passage. Nevertheless, no penalty – probably no score.
34 mins – correct penalty for Poux slipping his bind. England get in the corner and drop the ball in the ensuing move. Perhaps too intricate. Sending Tuilagi over the gain line and trying to build some pressure of our own would have been a good move – he has been England’s one real source of go forward ball. (It may have been an error to drop Haskell on this score – might have been better to play him at 6 and drop Croft.) Scoring quickly is attractive but England haven’t been down here enough and it would probably be best to camp out down here and try and get some points.
40 mins – England finish the half with the best passage of play of their whole RWC making 80 yards in 90 seconds, popping out of tackles, supporting well. Goes down when Youngs turns back to the blind side, sees 4 England players in a disorganised clump and passes anyway. The ball goes down. Final passage of play – Wilkinson at full stretch, can’t control the ball to Ashton.
At the half, I know England are going out but, honestly, they have not been as abject as I was lead to believe. They are not good under extreme pressure and France have a) created that and b) taken their chances extremely well. They are good value for the lead. England’s accuracy with ball in hand has let them down. Otherwise, they have made two errors in defence and have been made to pay. This is what Test match rugby is about.
47 mins – England prove that they can play rugby by going through multiple phases twice in the opening portion of the second half. Unfortunately, they’re doing it in the middle of the field, not in the French 22. Nevertheless, building pressure is what they failed to do in the first half. Tuilagi continues to be the main English/Samoan spark.
52 mins – good 5 minutes for France. England defend pretty well though. Game is stuck in midfield. Lawes has come on for Croft. Already he looks like more of a workhorse than Croft – has hit more rucks and made more tackles than I saw Croft make in the opening 45 mins.
55 mins – France 16 England 7. At last, from a quick tap penalty, England generate quick ball, then don’t panic when in the 22, put together 5 phases and Foden goes over. Poor French cover tackling though when Foden steps back inside. Harinordoquy was over committed. See what I mean about generating pressure though?
60 mins. Walsh talks to the French captain about two penalties in quick succession at line out. Despite my fears in the first half, England, by my count, are winning the penalty count handily. France are smart though, none have been kickable.
63 mins – England put a good passage of play together, which gets broken up by good French cover defence on the intercept. Then France do the same to England before dropping it. This has actually been quite a good game.
67 mins – another excellent passage of play goes begging for England when Flood breaks the gain line and throws a ball up with no one on his shoulder. A long kick releases the pressure on France. Fine margins – that pass was wrong by about half a metre. But it’s enough. Referee Walsh warns France re: number of penalties.
69 mins – Easter manages to sum up England in 30 seconds. Excellent work to control a ball in a messed up scrum. Seconds later, throws a terrible pass over Tuilagi’s head to give the ball back to France.
72 mins – France 19 England 7. From that scrum, France put on several phases worth of possession in England’s 22. Get a scrum and do it again, before a DG to get 2 converted tries up. The lack of panic in the opposition 22 is what has separated the two sides. France have been ice cool.
75 mins – France finally concede a kickable penalty – but England need tries. This is the time to give those away. France win the line out back anyway.
77 mins – France 19 England 12 - a big bust up the middle by Bananananananahan and England get in behind. A well placed grubber by Flood creates havoc and Cueto sneaks over. To be honest, England have deserved the try for endeavour – they have continued to try and attack in the outside centre channel, have got through numerous times but failed to put the final pass to hand. At least they get some reward.
80 mins – France close it out – easily in the end. England throw it around reasonably but to no great purpose and can’t get out of their own half.
Special word for Steve Walsh – one decision apart, I thought he was excellent. Best reffing performance of the cup so far (high praise from me, because usually I think he’s a preening ninny).
Well done Australia - massive defensive effort, we made all the opportunities in the world and just couldn’t convert…
Grim
(Come on Wales!!)
When you have the best back line in the world, and your tactical kicking is as poor as the Wallabies was, you don’t deserve to win. Cooper showed how fragile he is, Pocock showed how good he is and Deans showed what a poor tactical coach he is. Thank god we’ll be playing Argentina next week.
well now, 33 minutes into the first half and Argentina are indeed leading NZ, 6-7.
Fun times, is that something stuck in your throat All Blacks?
NZ starting to get ahead now. Good match though.
The final score was flattering to the All Blacks, but Argentina just couldn’t keep up their defensive intensity.
Who’s the worse first-five at the moment, Slade or Cooper? Surely the coaches must see sense and start with Cruden and Barnes next week.
There’s no way they’ll dump Cooper for the semi.
Barnes must get a start at inside centre, though, and perhaps he can take over the tactical kicking.
If Genia can get his box kicking back on track, and they can actually get the ball Digby more than twice in the match, they have what it takes to shock NZ.
Wales will beat France, and with their 9 and 7 firing, could be a chance to take this thing.
You’d have to say that Australia and Wales are likely to pose a tougher and more consistent defensive and attacking threat than Argentina. The All Blacks are going to have to step it up from this performance to win it.
Two really entertaining matches this morning though, very enjoyable.
My pick is Slade will be ruled out through injury, saving face for Henry & co. He really looked out of sorts last night, hesitant and fragile, not what we need against Australia next week. God knows who’ll they’ll call up as fourth choice first-five though.
Looking forward to this weekend’s games.
Wales, who haven’t played a bad game all tournament will beat France (who’ve only played one good one) to make their first final, 27-22.
Australia v New Zealand should have been the final (damn Irish) and will be a great game. Last night Australia proved they can win with mere scraps of possession so New Zealand can’t rely on defence to win. Personally I’d start with Dagg, Kahui and maybe even Guildford and go for a mass of tries to make sure of things. Final score 32-23 to New Zealand.
Random trivia:
-the pool runners-up won 3 of the four quarter finals.
-the seminfinalists are the same as in 1987, the last time the World Cup was in New Zealand.