<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (gingergenius @ Nov 21 2009, 04:52 PM)
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Another f***ing **** performance from England.
I know everyone is going to go on about how much better we were than last week and blah blah blah, but that's really just a smokescreen. Today, we chased our kicks well and blitzed well in defence, which put NZ under pressure.
But aside from that, it was same old same old. The only reason we weren't down by more is because New Zealand played awfully as well. Carter missed some very easy kicks. They fumbled the ball on several occasions.
England still look absolutely clueless in attack, and a lot of it is thanks to Wilkinson. In the 1st half we had quick ball and great field position and JW f***s it all up by taking a second to try a drop goal before thinking better of it. In the 2nd half, the same but this time we're 10m out, he actually does take the dg and also misses it.
There were numerous other occasions when we were looking good before yet another handling error cost us.
The post-match interviews gave the impression that England were patting themselves on the back for being more passionate. Fact is, they should take a look back at that game and think "That was a very poor NZ performance. Losing by that margin, and not even scoring a try, is not good enough".
On to players - thought Hartley, Shaw and Borthwick were effective. Croft and Moody were good too. Haskell needs to stop doing good things then ruining them with an error.
Wilkinson had a shocker. Erinle and Hipkiss were ineffective. Monye was much better, Cueto excellent, and I think Geraghty's confirmed his future role for England lies in being an impact sub. Banahan was **** again.
Looking at the NZ players, none of them stood out. Carter was very poor. If NZ had played like this against Wales, you might have seen an upset.[/b]
Our main issue is that there are no inside centres left in England. There's no way our backs could ever play with ball as our only two quality inside centres - Turner-Hall and Flutey - are both injured. Was content with the performance given we had so many injuries. Our defense was excellent too. Aside from that:
Positives of the series:
- Hodgson looks to have nailed down the 9 shirt, finally got some consistant quick ball for us to play with, unfortunately, we didn't play with it.
- Our front row looks competitive enough, even though we're down to 3rd choice. Gives experience to players so in another injury crisis they can step up.
- We now know for sure that Payne, Deacon and Crane are not good enough for England, and that Care and Banahan are not ready yet.
- We know Cueto is a quality option at full-back for the future.
- Our back-row looks very good. at blindside we have Worsley and Croft who are both quality operators in their different ways, at openside we have Moody, Armitage and Rees who all have their advantages and at 8 we can choose between the leadership and brawn of Easter or the dynamism and athleticism of Haskell ( who i think can become a quality 8 with a bit more experience).
- Defense was very good throughout. Wilkinson and Moody shined above others but everyone played their part. Mike Ford seems to be doing his job well.
- We know that Geraghty is not a centre, Erinle is not an inside centre and Monye is not a fullback.
Negatives of the series:
- Despite putting in hard work up the field, as soon as we get into the 22 we seem scared of the try-line.
- We have no depth at inside centre.
- Half our backline cannot catch
- Our locks were pretty useless
- We have no attacking moves
- Wilkinson lacks the confidence to play flat
- As soon as we sense trouble, it's back to the old pod and this lead to several turnovers and New Zealand's second try.
- Tactical kicking was poor, though improvements vs. New Zealand
- No international standard outside centre. Erinle - not long term option, Hipkiss - can't give a pass wide, Tindall - doesn't do enough, Tait - not performing well enough for Sale at the moment.
- Johnson lacks the confidence to make big tactical decisions i.e. not bringing Lawes on against Argentina, leaving Lawes out of the squad for New Zealand, putting Goode and Erinle on the bench instead of Tait and Foden against Australia and Argentina, picking Payne ahead of the second best tighthead in the league Dave Flatman.
. though they made a lot of unusual mistakes (for a part because of the english pressure) . 
