[2023 Six Nations] England vs Scotland - 4 February 2023

[AlRums]

He doesn't play it for his Club at all, it's like asking the sous chef if he can be the head chef for a night, but that night you've got Heston and Ramsey in the diner

RamsAy, he's my distant cousin

 

[thejackal]

Scotland get battered everywhere they go

 

[LIONSxv]

England defence atrocious. Holes everywhere
Steward gets skinned way to often as as international FB
Not sure if this has been said before but Farrel isn't an international centre
Line outs poor
Young's is terrible
England kicked too much again
Ref awful and inconsistent, however we need to take the ref out of the equation

 

[BrokenWing]

Youngs came on and completely bolloxed the attack with his slow and predictable (except in its accuracy) delivery.

I think a lot of people would have predicted the accuracy.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Us losing to the Scott's isn't new is it, they are hardly the whipping boys these days, I think your being a little disrespectful towards them, England need to learn to defend properly and things do need shaping up, from what I did see of the game the attack was much improved but defence was porous.

That's the point, they ARE still the whipping boys, just not for England because the Scots turn up and we don't. English teams just dawdle along in a daze and I'm sick of it. Until the players get it into their thick heads that most teams out there will give their all to beat England, they will continue losing. Work it the **** out! Turn up FFS and stop wandering around in a daze just for once!

As I said we keep going on about players physical stats but not their mental. English teams are consistently mentally fragile, falling to pieces and making poor decisions, not coordinating and giving away penalties. We don't need a more physical team, we need a team who actually have something in between their ******* ears for once.

 

[Reiser99]

Congratulations Scotland, better team today and you'll be best of the rest in 3rd. England fighting for 4th now I think.

England looked good at times in attack, but generally looked completely disjointed in attack and defence. Too much aimless kicking or kicking in the wrong places. Defence, especially scramble defence we atrocious. Replacements didn't have an impact outside of Earl. Youngs came on and any attacking shape we had disappeared.

Overall not the improvement we wanted. Borthwick has a tough job because at the moment we're out in the QF's.

 

[AlRums]

That's the point, they ARE still the whipping boys, just not for England because the Scots turn up and we don't. English teams just dawdle along in a daze and I'm sick of it.

They're only the whipping boys to the English

5 out of six Calcutta Cups days otherwise. Next time it will be 8 years since England win at HQ

 

[Wasps92]

Must be a record for missed tackles. Absolutely shocking from England.

 

[higgik]

South African literally tore England apart single handedly, defence shocking at times, I only watched patches as was out with the family but looked more positive in patches for England whilst I rate Marchant very highly if your going to put Farrell at 12 you need a heavier brute at 13, for me has to be OL really, Malins from what I could see looked ok in attack but got rad dolled a couple of times and maybe just too light weight.

With the midfield, there needed to be more power from the back 3, I was expecting OHC to be used in the midfield more, while Malins should be used as 2nd playmaker with more power in midfield.
For next week
10 Farrell
11 Steward
12 Kelly
13 Lawrence
14 Malins
15 Watson

Or
10 Smith
11 Freeman
12 Lawrence
13 Marchant
14 Steward
15 Malins

 

[MarkyH]

Smith Farrell weren't even that bad.

First turn out against a well coached Scotland and we were ok, not great, but we had the lead and had possession on the edge of their 22.

Youngs kicked. And kicked again. That was where we lost control.

England had control till that point.

We were doing ok till then. England aren't meant to be dominant against a drilled Scotland. But we were in control...

So frustrating but Youngs apart we did ok

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Surely time for the biased swine at ITV to get a caption up for English players saying "hasn't beaten Scotland at Twickenham for 7 years" (or whatever it is).

I expected good things from Scotland from their lineup. That has to be their 10, 12, 13 settled. Happy for them that another inevitable bottling of a basic pass by Hogg didn't cost them the game. Does he do this in an Exeter shirt?

Very interesting to hear suggestion that Townsend went with a more attacking team selection due to the weather forecast. I'm not sure I believe him, more looking for an excuse to justify poor selections and overly conservative tactics in the past. But he is clearly a top level coach despite finally getting on the same page as Finn about what Scotland needs to do to win.

Glad to see England weren't as physical as I thought they'd be. They have to show ambition and be very experimental with selections and tactics to have a hope in hell of winning the RWC given their coach has less than a year.

The only thing more predictable than Scotland botching a key pass in a huge moment is Scotland collectively dropping the ball after a big result.

Scotland leapfrog England into 5th with this result.

 

[Jimbo]

That's the point, they ARE still the whipping boys, just not for England because the Scots turn up and we don't. English teams just dawdle along in a daze and I'm sick of it. Until the players get it into their thick heads that most teams out there will give their all to beat England, they will continue losing. Work it the **** out! Turn up FFS and stop wandering around in a daze just for once!

As I said we keep going on about players physical stats but not their mental. English teams are consistently mentally fragile, falling to pieces and making poor decisions, not coordinating and giving away penalties. We don't need a more physical team, we need a team who actually have something in between their ******* ears for once.

Only in your head are they, England should do much better without a doubt but you can't call a team that finish consistently off the bottom whipping boys the tables tell us they have been more than competitive holding their own around 4th place in recent years, yours view would hold true if it was against Italy but it isn't.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Until the players get it into their thick heads that most teams out there will give their all to beat England, they will continue losing. Work it the **** out! Turn up FFS and stop wandering around in a daze just for once!

This is what annoys me as well - people will write off our poor defence on us having a new coach and not being settled yet, but it was **** poor effort and commitment that did it, not some mad structure we didn't execute perfectly
If you're not busting a gut to get back into the line for the next phase then get off the pitch

 

[AlRums]

I got the impression that England wanted to close down Russell so much that enabled the Scots back three almost free reign at times

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Im gutted but not annoyed, could have won but scotland played well. The base in there for England to build on.

Maybe, but at the end of the day Scotland are a mid table team who we've just lost to at home.

 

[87Dreamer]

It is a bit of a joke that their two best forwards and two best backs were all South African
But that's what international rugby is these days, I guess, and it's only going to get worse

Unlike those ancient Anglo Saxon clans of Itoje and Vunipola

 

[Duck a l'Orange]

England's forwards also looked totally knackered by the end. Can't fault them for effort, but lack of control made England work far far harder for parity on the scoreboard and it showed at the end.

There was a ruck in the last 10 that no-one got to, Farrell went into and then a second later Mako, Isiekwe and Cole lazily trotted over to and literally stood around.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Unlike those ancient Anglo Saxon clans of Itoje and Vunipola

Itoje's from London, Vunipola moved here as a kid not an adult looking to exploit lax eligibility laws

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Only in your head are they, England should do much better without a doubt but you can't call a team that finish consistently off the bottom whipping boys the tables tell us they have been more than competitive holding their own around 4th place in recent years, yours view would hold true if it was against Italy but it isn't.

Scotland barely ever finish outside the bottom half of the table with 3rd being the lofty heights they have achieved. They are not Italy level whipping boys but, even now, they are statistically the 2nd worst team in the tournament. The exception? Against England. The Scots get fired up for this and we don't. Someone needs to give the players a slap round the head and shout out them, if they can't be bothered against the Scots they are out. I am tired of England just not bothering on the field against the Scots, players not getting back in position etc. Every English try was hard fought whilst every Scottish try came from a gaping hole in our defence the players were too lazy to fill. These holes were right in the ******* centre of the pitch. These are paid professionals. If I ****** up this much at my job, I'd be fired. Maybe these players need to be reminded of that?

 

[Jimbo]

Unlike those ancient Anglo Saxon clans of Itoje and Vunipola

I'll be honest my geography isn't great but last I checked London was the capital of England and Itoje place of birth, the validity of your argument is very questionable if you fact check….