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Rugby World Cup 2015
[2015 RWC] Pool A: England vs. Fiji (18/09/2015)
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<blockquote data-quote="Yoshimitsu" data-source="post: 746340" data-attributes="member: 71899"><p><strong>With time to reflect I don't think it's any better than I did last night</strong></p><p></p><p>I'm a tad hangover and I will admit to being a glass half full England supporter. I'd love us to do well, but I struggle to paper over the cracks as some of our media and amazingly our coaching staff appear to be able to do.</p><p></p><p>I fear we fundamentally don't understand the game, game plan or how to execute some pretty basic skills. Some things appear to be getting worse.</p><p></p><p><u>Set piece</u></p><p></p><p>It appears that the days of easy (or any) scrum dominance have gone. Especially for this England 8. Fiji had at least parity and at times alarming looked like they had the nudge. Marler I thought looked to be struggling (and has on more than one occassion)? Cole? Is he the player he was pre-injury? I suspect we're just not as good as we'd like to be or actually need to be. The lineout was better and looked functional and when we did turn lineout into maul that looked tidy. Probably the most positive play we had. Morgan looked like a man that hasn't played much in the last year..... funny that.</p><p></p><p>The breakdown has all the hallmarks of a union skill being coached by someone with a league background. Keeping the ball alive whilst maximising numbers in both attack and defence seems to be the main aim. Laudable as an aim maybe but This gives virtually no chance of offensive turnovers and on our own ball we're easy to disrupt and turn over. The sight of Wrigglesworth trying to rescue the ball whilst three Fijians wandered through unmolested was frankly embarrassing. 9's at club level get better protection that that. Better teams will kill us in this area and I don't believe there's time or the inclination to make any significant changes. I don't understand what we are trying to do? Watching teams attack us is like watching the tide come in. There's no attempt to make the big tackle or to win the ball when it's on the floor. That being the case good simple execution is enough to make good ground against us. Please for god's sake stop trying to get Lawes to carry anything other than widish. In the tight spaces he lacks grunt and his body position is poor.</p><p></p><p>Back play generally. I have enormous respect for wholehearted nutcases like a certain Mr Barritt but Jesus Christ he brings absolutely <strong><u>nothing</u></strong> apart from defence. Yes, that is important but it castrates the rest of the line as teams simply don't have to bother about the 12 channel at all. He doesn't carry any running threat and doesn't have the skills to release others. Very easy to then drift onto JJ who is class but can't always beat the 3 he needs to given that no one has been held. Burgess isn't the answer either. He's a functional 6 and obviously quite a guy. International starting 12? Nope, not yet, maybe never. We had a more than functional 12 and Lancaster binned him for some reason. That reason is Barritt's ability to tackle himself into the ground. Wrongheaded in my view. Our back play was schoolboy. Shift laterally until tackled, then repeat. it took Launchbury, Vunipola and Burgess to understand that going forwards is probably a good idea at some point. It's not like Fijiians did anything particularly clever they just organised and England as usual failed to adapt. A bit more positional pressure surely would have brought reward?</p><p></p><p>Back 3 - Big promise here for me. Watson has something about him I reckon and may be a very very good player. Even when he got outjumped for that Fijiian try his positining was O.K and he put up a decent contest. Sometimes you will get beat in that way but it's a hard skill to execute to that precision. Jonny May is well Jonny May. If we get him away, he's going to score and sometimes he'll manage to get himself away. On other occasions he'll run his fast slight frame into somewhere it shouldn't be and where he <u>will</u> get turned over. Also not convinced about his propensity to jump into tackles. I suspect someone may call him on it at some point. Mike Brown. Sometimes I doubt the guy and then he plays like he did last night. He's pretty bloody good at what he does and when he's like he was last night he affects the play of other which is what you want. He hasn't got electric pace but he does appear to have a diesel engine. He carries massive power and uses it effectively.</p><p></p><p>If you are going to try and use your fitness to win games you need to explain to your pack that's the plan. ******* about not getting the ball out of scrums and stuff allows teams to recover. Fiji looked to be struggling for maybe the last 7 minutes. It's a brave man that constructs a plan to win it then.</p><p></p><p>Overall the most pleasing thing was the result. But on that performance we could lose to both Australia and Wales.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yoshimitsu, post: 746340, member: 71899"] [b]With time to reflect I don't think it's any better than I did last night[/b] I'm a tad hangover and I will admit to being a glass half full England supporter. I'd love us to do well, but I struggle to paper over the cracks as some of our media and amazingly our coaching staff appear to be able to do. I fear we fundamentally don't understand the game, game plan or how to execute some pretty basic skills. Some things appear to be getting worse. [U]Set piece[/U] It appears that the days of easy (or any) scrum dominance have gone. Especially for this England 8. Fiji had at least parity and at times alarming looked like they had the nudge. Marler I thought looked to be struggling (and has on more than one occassion)? Cole? Is he the player he was pre-injury? I suspect we're just not as good as we'd like to be or actually need to be. The lineout was better and looked functional and when we did turn lineout into maul that looked tidy. Probably the most positive play we had. Morgan looked like a man that hasn't played much in the last year..... funny that. The breakdown has all the hallmarks of a union skill being coached by someone with a league background. Keeping the ball alive whilst maximising numbers in both attack and defence seems to be the main aim. Laudable as an aim maybe but This gives virtually no chance of offensive turnovers and on our own ball we're easy to disrupt and turn over. The sight of Wrigglesworth trying to rescue the ball whilst three Fijians wandered through unmolested was frankly embarrassing. 9's at club level get better protection that that. Better teams will kill us in this area and I don't believe there's time or the inclination to make any significant changes. I don't understand what we are trying to do? Watching teams attack us is like watching the tide come in. There's no attempt to make the big tackle or to win the ball when it's on the floor. That being the case good simple execution is enough to make good ground against us. Please for god's sake stop trying to get Lawes to carry anything other than widish. In the tight spaces he lacks grunt and his body position is poor. Back play generally. I have enormous respect for wholehearted nutcases like a certain Mr Barritt but Jesus Christ he brings absolutely [B][U]nothing[/U][/B] apart from defence. Yes, that is important but it castrates the rest of the line as teams simply don't have to bother about the 12 channel at all. He doesn't carry any running threat and doesn't have the skills to release others. Very easy to then drift onto JJ who is class but can't always beat the 3 he needs to given that no one has been held. Burgess isn't the answer either. He's a functional 6 and obviously quite a guy. International starting 12? Nope, not yet, maybe never. We had a more than functional 12 and Lancaster binned him for some reason. That reason is Barritt's ability to tackle himself into the ground. Wrongheaded in my view. Our back play was schoolboy. Shift laterally until tackled, then repeat. it took Launchbury, Vunipola and Burgess to understand that going forwards is probably a good idea at some point. It's not like Fijiians did anything particularly clever they just organised and England as usual failed to adapt. A bit more positional pressure surely would have brought reward? Back 3 - Big promise here for me. Watson has something about him I reckon and may be a very very good player. Even when he got outjumped for that Fijiian try his positining was O.K and he put up a decent contest. Sometimes you will get beat in that way but it's a hard skill to execute to that precision. Jonny May is well Jonny May. If we get him away, he's going to score and sometimes he'll manage to get himself away. On other occasions he'll run his fast slight frame into somewhere it shouldn't be and where he [U]will[/U] get turned over. Also not convinced about his propensity to jump into tackles. I suspect someone may call him on it at some point. Mike Brown. Sometimes I doubt the guy and then he plays like he did last night. He's pretty bloody good at what he does and when he's like he was last night he affects the play of other which is what you want. He hasn't got electric pace but he does appear to have a diesel engine. He carries massive power and uses it effectively. If you are going to try and use your fitness to win games you need to explain to your pack that's the plan. ******* about not getting the ball out of scrums and stuff allows teams to recover. Fiji looked to be struggling for maybe the last 7 minutes. It's a brave man that constructs a plan to win it then. Overall the most pleasing thing was the result. But on that performance we could lose to both Australia and Wales. [/QUOTE]
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Rugby World Cup 2015
[2015 RWC] Pool A: England vs. Fiji (18/09/2015)
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