Australia 27 vs England 17 FT

[TRF_Olyy]

Strettle for Ashton?
I though Ashton played well today, good tackling and what little ball he had he did well with

 

[iWin]

Strettle for Ashton?
I though Ashton played well today, good tackling and what little ball he had he did well with

Really? I thought he tried to force things that weren't on, and ended up giving away turnovers. Didn't really see more than one good run from him.
That said, his try-saver was amazing. I would just say that dropping him could force him to buck his ideas up and get a bit more consistency.
I'd be happy to let that one slide to be honest, but the others are set in stone.

 

[wjd23104]

Only England could score two tries without ever crossing the try line. Apart from the obvious scrum dominance I think the Poms have been very ordinary. It's not often you would expect a side to get a win with absolutely no scrum but that is the difference in the quality of the backs and go forward ball.

Totally Agree. But what do the Aussies do about there scrum for next week? the only options for changes are Al Baxter and Dunning, last time the Aussies gave up a penalty try against England both Dunning and Baxter where playing. Lol.

 

[Wally]

Totally Agree. But what do the Aussies do about there scrum for next week? the only options for changes are Al Baxter and Dunning, last time the Aussies gave up a penalty try against England both Dunning and Baxter where playing. Lol.

Haha yeah it's not a great scenario. I don't know how far off Ben Alexander is but if he's not back by next week I guess they stick by the same boys. Possibly bring Pek Cowan in for Ma'afu. They can only get better.

 

[Quadecooper#1]

we should hopefully get polota nau back this week, but i would love to see our props back and what the score would be. with our best players last year we belted the english and south african scrums. england played to their strength and our absolute weakness and thats why the score was like that. full credit to them though id like to see some better use of the ball when attacking as they have some talented backs but dont use them and although tindall made meters he blew great opportunities to pass and score a couple of tries.

 

[Teh Mite]

Really? I thought he tried to force things that weren't on, and ended up giving away turnovers. Didn't really see more than one good run from him.
That said, his try-saver was amazing. I would just say that dropping him could force him to buck his ideas up and get a bit more consistency.
I'd be happy to let that one slide to be honest, but the others are set in stone.

Ashton was the only England player who looked remotely interested yesterday. If the rest of the team showed even half of his enthusiasm, it would have been much better then that lethargic & constipated performance.

Strettle will get a start over the tour, but offers nothing that Ashton, Foden or Cueto couldn't do better. Except perhaps a defensive fuckup or 2.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Cueto up in front of the citing people today (midnight BST) for an alleged dangerous tackle on Berrick Barnes,
Can't say i noticed it, i remember the commentators mentioning Shaw shouldering Barnes late, but nothing about Cueto
11. Strettle 14. Ashton if he's banned?

 

[Loane]

I didn't notice it either - would be strange if he was punished considering what the Fijians got away with the previous week.

 

[Tomsey]

I'd give him the sack tbh, yes he was a good player, and I know he hold great respect from England (maybe not by next year), but he really isn't qualified to coach England. He relies on the same strategy England used in the 2003 RWC, and doesn't take into account that the game has changed, especially considering England has promising new backs.

Spot on. Everyone is listing the changes they'd make to the lineup, I would be making changes in the coaching box. As Nick said, he was a great player, but lacks coaching experience and that was blatantly obvious on Saturday. England honestly looked like they didn't have any game plan except “destroy they're scrum and we'll just winâ€. Every time Toby Flood got the ball he would stand still, look around for options, find none, kick it AND NOBODY WOULD CHASE! This is a very average game plan. I'm not blaming Flood at all because his only runner was Tindall, he had no option to kick. When this didn't work England tried to keep it in the forwards and got smashed back several metres every phase until they had to kick it again. Tactics like that won't win you a game no matter how bad the opposition scrum is.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Cueto didn't get the ban

Team for the second match against the Aussie BaaBaas (which i completely forgot was happening, hence me moaning about how there's no midweek game this week )

England team to play the Australian Barbarians; kick-off 10.35am:
http://www.salesharks.com/news/england-make-seven-changes

D Armitage (London Irish); D Strettle (Harlequins), D Waldouck (Wasps), O Barkley (Bath), M Banahan (Bath); C Hodgson (Sale Sharks), R Wigglesworth (Saracens); J Golding (Newcastle), L Mears (Bath), P Doran-Jones (Gloucester), D Attwood (Gloucester), D Ward-Smith (Wasps), J Worsley (Wasps, capt), S Armitage (London Irish), J Haskell (Stade Francais).

Replacements: R Webber (Wasps), D Flatman (Bath), C Robshaw (Harlequins), P Dowson (Northampton), P Hodgson (London Irish), S Geraghty (Northampton), M Tait (Sale Sharks).


Would've preferred Dowson starting over Haskell, as he needs the gametime to prove himself for the second test (unless he's on the bench because he's already in contention and they don't want to break him?)
Strange bench, a 6, an 8 and no lock? Should get rid of Robshaw and put a lock there

 

[Teh Mite]

I'm glad the earth is in agreement that Martin Johnson is cack - As are Brian Smith and Rob Andrew.

Now if someone would just convince this fuckwit "Tigeroo" on the England board; Apparently Foden and Ashton didn't kick the ball a lot on Saturday or against France in March

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Read an article/interview with Nick Easter last night where he basically said he doesn't want Johnson to be captain,
He said something along the lines of "Heads will roll...and i'm not just talking about players"

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Easter needs to concentrate on his own game personally.

 

[Peat]

I'm guessing Worsley moves to lock if needed. In general, I think Worsley should be moving forwards in the scrum.

Johnson and all associated with him (save possibly Rowntree) need to go. I don't think we'll get that until the World Cup but it has to happen then unless something big happens. It's not even about poor coaching, its the way they sap the confidence and enthusiasm out of the players. They didn't chase kicks. They didn't run onto the ball at pace. They didn't thunder into every collision. They didn't run round the pitch. They didn't do a lot of things that aren't about tactics, imo, they're about sheer desire. And that's getting coached out of them.

And that's incredible.

edit: If I was Johnson and hoping to keep my job, this week I would spend concentrating on two things. Defence and quick ball. Work them. No stats, just enthuse them about going out in an England shirt and make the Ozzies life hard as possible. Make them aware they need redemption. If we can repeat the horrendous pounding of their scrum and combine it with a non-pourous defence and the possibility of scores by people other than T. Flood and P. Try, we should win.

We won't though.

 

[Bargoedboy]

THere is one main problem area for england , and to put all blame on johnson is wrong , ever since wells took over forwards the team has been awfull, no matter which coach has been in charge there is no coherence between backs and forwards. But how can johnson tell his old coach how to coach ? biggest mistake johnson did was not removing wells.
England has some great players , Ashton, cueto and Foden are a quality attacking back 3 but when you put two lumps in midfield who are more defensive than offensive its not going to matter who you put in back 3.
Johnson now has a worse record than ashton and robinson , yet he is being kept on out of loyalties sake.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I really think that Hape should be dropped,
He's a similar player to Tindall in that he's strong and quite big, but doesn't offer the same in attack or defence, and his distribution is pants, and he can't kick. Also, there's no need for two big centres, put Barkley at 12 and i think they'd be much better

 

[Loane]

Looking forward to tonight's game Baa Baas v England. Should be another interesting battle upfront.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Just lining up for the kickoff

There's commentators on the stream this time round Makes viewing a little easier
Or it would if they actually commented on the game they're just talking amongst themselves,
England just got a penalty and they said "Ah, Charlie Hodgson...or Ollie Barkley just got a penalty....3 - 0 either way....Now how do feel about blah blah"

Haha, i love these commentators, banahan got the ball and they were like "WOAH. Mate have you seen the size of him!? He's bigger than the locks! Have you seen those tatts!"

Hodgson having a good game, missed a penalty from the touchlines, but distribution/running has been spot on, Strettle also playing well. Waldouck is having a blinder, finding gaps all over the place, very nearly got a try but Armitage knocked on the offload. Looks like Cueto, but with more pace

Taits on now at 30minutes, think he's replaced Waldouck, i think it's a blood replacement as the player he replaced walked off the pitch

Crowd booing Berrick Barnes when he chooses to kick for goal
6 - 6 (halftime)

Flatman, Downson and Hodgson on for Golding, Haskell and Wigglesworth,
Tait still on from 20mins, hopefully Waldouck isn't injured badly,he was playing well

9 - 6 to Aussies with 22mins left

Hopefully Webber and Geraghty can get some time in the last 20

9 - 9, 15mins, Geraghty on for Hodgson

9 - 12 after a Barkley penalty,
The first twenty minutes of this game were good, England running a lot in the first 10, then Australia in the second 10, after that it's just dropped off



Full Time
BaaBaas 9 - 15 England
Boring game, all kicking. Some good runs and the such but defence was good on both sides, also a lot of errors from both sides (knockons and rucktime)
Thought the BaaBaas 10 looks very good ball in hand

 

[Quadecooper#1]

pretty boring game. the commentators are ex wallabies brendan cannon and rod kafer. youtube brendan cannon vs keven mealamu fight or something. pretty big hits

 

[Loane]

Awful game of rugby - worst display I've seen in a long time - a blight on the Baa Baas tradition.