Agree. SA are a level above. Going to need another level up to topple them, but this is that next step on the ladder. Take it and we start to look like the real deal. Fail, and the momentum loss could be significant. Beating the Argentinians won’t count for much.
Agree with this completely I'm calling it now unless the weather conditions are horrendous Steward to be a complete defensive liability, BB and DVM continue to make him look terrible as his lack of pace and defensive positioning get horrifically shown up, I’d love to be wrong but we’ve seen it too many times, there are games I can see him being ok to good, but some tests just amplify his weakness, he doesn’t have the attacking sharpness to make up for the defensive frailties in these games.
Isn’t this the thing though we don’t have a good round obviously defensive fall back option currently, I don’t like M Smith at fallback but I’d rather take his defensive frailties paired with his attacking instincts than Stewards
Yeah I know, I’m done with it tbh. Cue England being absolutely shocking on Saturday, losing by 20 and reminding us all why we’re so negative in the first place
. If we lose because the ABs outplay us on the day, then fair game. What I don’t want to see is England throwing a win away through stupid mistakes, indiscipline, poor tactics/subs etc. I’m actually looking forward to the game.I mean being realistic here how positive can we be, a 12 that probably isn’t quite there internationally a fallback IMHO certainly isn’t and has been shown up against this same opposition, yes England are on a descent winning streak but let’s be honest here they have mostly won games you would have expected them to win, the France one probably not so much, but did feel like a game France just were not France for a descent chunk, the way I see it England are there or there abouts but have glaring issues which are just to easy to expose not to say they aren’t evolving nicely just feels like the cracks remain.
Not sure how to read this mate, I’m not sure if that’s aimed and the last post towards me or generally speaking but that’s exactly my point it has happened on more than one occasion Steward has been exposed at the back and not least by this opposition, fair on Dingwall he hasn’t but he has had passes picked off and the ABs have always been good at capitulating on mistakes. Whilst a lot will come across as negative for negative sake there is certainly elements of flaws which have been there for some time being exposed and more akin to educated guess work and predictions.
Go to day Jimbo it’s starting to sound a lot like making excuses ahead of time rather than being negative. You get injuries in rugby, and that sometimes means you don’t have your best people where you’d like em, but teams that want to lift a WC, or Grand Slam, need to adept and overcome. Even with the areas of weakness I still expect this England team to perform. There are no excuses for me, and I’m sure there won’t be for them in camp. England are fielding some genuine superstars: Earl, IFW, CCS, Itoje, Pollock, Curry, Underhill. Ford is a seasoned and top quality 10, Mitchell has to be up there in world rankings for 9. I’d even argue OL is up there for centres. Roebuck has shown some real promise. These lads can, and should, win come Saturday. If they don’t it will be right to wonder why.
IM not sure id say we're a better team, we have some great individuals but a real archillies heal in recent years has been how these individuals work together, we saw it as recently as the irish game, roigard was at the breakdown ready to pass and the pod was shuffling back a forth like they were workign out what to do
