Now that this thread has calmed down a bit, and I've sobered up - here's my 2 pence on England (which admittedly is worth about as much as if it were venezuelen)
England came out in the first half and executed well the classic EJ game plan. Defended hard, attacked heavy through the middle before looking to go out wide, kicked well from hand, built a score early, backed their scrum (which was absolutely dominant) and lineout - controlled the game. Wales just seemed to struggle to get a foothold, which is the whole ethos of this type of gameplan (see WC final...). Then the apparent achilles heel kicked in in the second half after the brilliant wales try, to which they seemed to fall flat after and then the game sort of divulged into chaos as the half went on - and Wales stepped up and rallied to close the gap.
I see a lot of people complaining here and elsewhere about England being offside. Which they were. To which I have a couple of points. Firstly is you are repeatedly seeing the opposition offside, is AWJ doing enough to kindly remind the ref? If offsides aren't being called, then why aren't Wales adapting and capitilising as well in defence? England have now adopted this partial extreme rush defence where they try to slow the breakdown right down and limit the attacks options while keeping their discipline at the offside line and breakdown, when they see a predictable carry off 9 or wide play off 10 coming the call goes out to get off the line (if they ever even got behind it) and smash at all costs and try and effect the turnover - and if the ball goes outside 10 then push up and out even further and try to snag the isolated ball carrier behind the gainline. Itoje, Wilson, Underhill, Earl and Curry seem to have been given licence to flirt with the offsides when this is called and take a risk of missing the tackle on the chance that they stop the attack dead and win the ball back. It is a calculated risk, that is paying off. They did the same thing to Ireland and Wales should have predicted in their match reviews and been prepared. Something like a dart from 9 to check the defence, a well placed chip through to find grass and pressure the sweeper or runners coming through on the inside shoulder of 12 or 13 to force the missed tackle and scramble defence - instead Biggar was looking up at a wall of white shutting him down and just shipping it wider and deeper away from support, which is exactly what England are trying to achieve.
I would have liked to see more varitation in reciever at the lineout from England, who seem to be overreliant on Lawes taking most of the ball - which Wales spotted and switched to man marking him rather than their typical zonal type defensive lineout. Perhaps this is EJ trying to groom Lawes to be the lineout caller when Kruis head off to Japan.
A lot has been said (by myself included) about the carrying balance of the backrow, but interestingly for this 6N (except for France) EJ has changed up the way he uses Underhill and Curry (and in this case Wilson) in open play. Off 9 it often one of them that leads the point of the pod, where before it would have been Mako or Sinks usually, allowing them to bring the heavy carriers onto the ball at pace, or pivot pass out of the back, where the other is often running a hard line in a pod of 2 with Manu at the hinge of the defence off of Faz at 12.
On the Marler incident - whether you like it or not, at international level you are an ambassador and role model of the sport which is televised to kids and everything else. No place for it. I laughed when I saw it in the pub along with everyone else but I won't be annoyed if he gets cited looking back on it now. I get that they are mates, and if this were a sunday league game then it might be different - but its not. I'm not personally too bothered, and I like Marler - but he will have to take any consequences on this chin.
I thought in the second half the ref was pinging Wngland for a lot of things that he wasn't for Wales - but I'm not too bothered. England have often let their discipline slip when they are ahead and not adapted to referees, this is just another example and it desperately needs cleaning up. This is what cost England in the second half, not the ref in my opinion.
The Manu red could have been a yellow in a different game but realistically it probably was a red. Yes North was dipping massively into the tackle because of Slade and in real time I don't think Manu could have reacted. That being said it was a no arms tackle with contact to the head on a player about to score a try. You can see by Manu's reaction to seeing it on the big screen that he knew it was probably fair. I hope North is alright and the Wales set up look after him properly.
Curry being tipped on his head at the ruck was reckless and could have been a yellow but most likely a penalty. I thought Genge's yellow was fair, especially considering the repeated infringements.
All in all, what was all set to be a cracking game has now gone slightly stale - along with the rest of the tournament due to the cancellations - but oh well. A good fight back from Wales but ultimately wasn't quite enough - already looking forward to Cardiff next year.
England came out in the first half and executed well the classic EJ game plan. Defended hard, attacked heavy through the middle before looking to go out wide, kicked well from hand, built a score early, backed their scrum (which was absolutely dominant) and lineout - controlled the game. Wales just seemed to struggle to get a foothold, which is the whole ethos of this type of gameplan (see WC final...). Then the apparent achilles heel kicked in in the second half after the brilliant wales try, to which they seemed to fall flat after and then the game sort of divulged into chaos as the half went on - and Wales stepped up and rallied to close the gap.
I see a lot of people complaining here and elsewhere about England being offside. Which they were. To which I have a couple of points. Firstly is you are repeatedly seeing the opposition offside, is AWJ doing enough to kindly remind the ref? If offsides aren't being called, then why aren't Wales adapting and capitilising as well in defence? England have now adopted this partial extreme rush defence where they try to slow the breakdown right down and limit the attacks options while keeping their discipline at the offside line and breakdown, when they see a predictable carry off 9 or wide play off 10 coming the call goes out to get off the line (if they ever even got behind it) and smash at all costs and try and effect the turnover - and if the ball goes outside 10 then push up and out even further and try to snag the isolated ball carrier behind the gainline. Itoje, Wilson, Underhill, Earl and Curry seem to have been given licence to flirt with the offsides when this is called and take a risk of missing the tackle on the chance that they stop the attack dead and win the ball back. It is a calculated risk, that is paying off. They did the same thing to Ireland and Wales should have predicted in their match reviews and been prepared. Something like a dart from 9 to check the defence, a well placed chip through to find grass and pressure the sweeper or runners coming through on the inside shoulder of 12 or 13 to force the missed tackle and scramble defence - instead Biggar was looking up at a wall of white shutting him down and just shipping it wider and deeper away from support, which is exactly what England are trying to achieve.
I would have liked to see more varitation in reciever at the lineout from England, who seem to be overreliant on Lawes taking most of the ball - which Wales spotted and switched to man marking him rather than their typical zonal type defensive lineout. Perhaps this is EJ trying to groom Lawes to be the lineout caller when Kruis head off to Japan.
A lot has been said (by myself included) about the carrying balance of the backrow, but interestingly for this 6N (except for France) EJ has changed up the way he uses Underhill and Curry (and in this case Wilson) in open play. Off 9 it often one of them that leads the point of the pod, where before it would have been Mako or Sinks usually, allowing them to bring the heavy carriers onto the ball at pace, or pivot pass out of the back, where the other is often running a hard line in a pod of 2 with Manu at the hinge of the defence off of Faz at 12.
On the Marler incident - whether you like it or not, at international level you are an ambassador and role model of the sport which is televised to kids and everything else. No place for it. I laughed when I saw it in the pub along with everyone else but I won't be annoyed if he gets cited looking back on it now. I get that they are mates, and if this were a sunday league game then it might be different - but its not. I'm not personally too bothered, and I like Marler - but he will have to take any consequences on this chin.
I thought in the second half the ref was pinging Wngland for a lot of things that he wasn't for Wales - but I'm not too bothered. England have often let their discipline slip when they are ahead and not adapted to referees, this is just another example and it desperately needs cleaning up. This is what cost England in the second half, not the ref in my opinion.
The Manu red could have been a yellow in a different game but realistically it probably was a red. Yes North was dipping massively into the tackle because of Slade and in real time I don't think Manu could have reacted. That being said it was a no arms tackle with contact to the head on a player about to score a try. You can see by Manu's reaction to seeing it on the big screen that he knew it was probably fair. I hope North is alright and the Wales set up look after him properly.
Curry being tipped on his head at the ruck was reckless and could have been a yellow but most likely a penalty. I thought Genge's yellow was fair, especially considering the repeated infringements.
All in all, what was all set to be a cracking game has now gone slightly stale - along with the rest of the tournament due to the cancellations - but oh well. A good fight back from Wales but ultimately wasn't quite enough - already looking forward to Cardiff next year.
