[RWC2019][Pool C] Round 1 - England vs. Tonga (22/09/2019)

[bushytop]

Having Monye at the game was a breath of fresh air.

Stuart Barnes is useless, his bath ale beer tasted like ****. His rugby analysis is so embarrassing.

Sorry. He grinds me gears way more than most.

Nah you're in the firm majority on that one.

 

[Goodey]

Generally agree with the consensus here that there were a lot of positives to take and we got the job done. Let's not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

There's still nothing quite as irritating as watching your side repeatedly drop the thing in attacking positions, though.

We can probably defend our way out of the pool but will need to up our handling significantly to win knockouts.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Stu Barnes talking about Manu would be proud performing against his home nation... and his family still lives there... yikes mate his first name is literally Manusamoa.

Sadly, I suspect in years to come Stu Barnes will come out and tell us he has some kind of dementia or Alzheimer's. I notice it in his commentary that he gets really easy things like that completely wrong including players' names.

 

[Every Time Ref]

Sadly, I suspect in years to come Stu Barnes will come out and tell us he has some kind of dementia or Alzheimer's. I notice it in his commentary that he gets really easy things like that completely wrong including players' names.

He may just be a stupid man with little interest in other cultures/languages

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Total bare minimum. Waiting til the 76th minute for the BP really wasn't in the script.

I wouldn't mind if Tonga had been any great shakes, but we were error strewn and yet again looked pretty disjointed when the bench emptied.

Bar one drop I thought Underhill looked pretty decent. Watson showed what he can do. Daly was a total mixed bag, but butchering a 2 on 1 is inexcusable at U12s let alone senior international level.

The first half gave us a decent platform to rack up a score. That we didn't kick on was the really concerning aspect.

The wisdom was that Jones was looking to lay down a marker by picking a strong team. We didn't.

 

[Not Eddie Jones]

Total bare minimum. Waiting til the 76th minute for the BP really wasn't in the script.

I wouldn't mind if Tonga had been any great shakes, but we were error strewn and yet again looked pretty disjointed when the bench emptied.

Bar one drop I thought Underhill looked pretty decent. Watson showed what he can do. Daly was a total mixed bag, but butchering a 2 on 1 is inexcusable at U12s let alone senior international level.

The first half gave us a decent platform to rack up a score. That we didn't kick on was the really concerning aspect.

The wisdom was that Jones was looking to lay down a marker by picking a strong team. We didn't.

I think it's a measure of the level that Jones has raised England to that a 35-3 win is considered not to be laying down a marker. In the opener of the 2015 World Cup, the ABs beat Tonga 41-10, so a very similar margin of victory to England's, and the ABs went on to do alright in the tournament as I recall.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Sadly, I suspect in years to come Stu Barnes will come out and tell us he has some kind of dementia or Alzheimer's. I notice it in his commentary that he gets really easy things like that completely wrong including players' names.

I definitely heard Billy Tuilagi or Manu Vunipola during the game.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

I think it's a measure of the level that Jones has raised England to that a 35-3 win is considered not to be laying down a marker. In the opener of the 2015 World Cup, the ABs beat Tonga 41-10, so a very similar margin of victory to England's, and the ABs went on to do alright in the tournament as I recall.

47-9 in the final group game.

Was only 14-3 at half time and the ABs did exactly what we didn't do and exerted total dominance in the 2nd half when you'd expect a top team to. Our first XV is reasonable, but I'm really not seeing a bench that's going to up the ante much. Teams will be thinking they're in with a real shot if they can be in touch at 55 minutes.

 

[Not Eddie Jones]

47-9 in the final group game.

Was only 14-3 at half time and the ABs did exactly what we didn't do and exerted total dominance in the 2nd half when you'd expect a top team to. Our first XV is reasonable, but I'm really not seeing a bench that's going to up the ante much. Teams will be thinking they're in with a real shot if they can be in touch at 55 minutes.

Sorry, my mistake, I meant the 2011 World Cup opener. And NZ were at home in that one. Okay, how about England in 2003 having a helluva a lot of trouble seeing off Samoa in the pool stage? England were actually behind in that one midway through the 2nd half, but that game was no guide to England's chances of lifting the cup.

England are damned if they do and damned if they don't in these games. Rack up a huge score and everyone says it doesn't count because the opposition were rubbish; fail to rack up a huge score and it's all doom and gloom. England didn't play their best today, but we know they can go up several gears, we've seen this team do it before. I'm just not going to put too much weight on a World Cup pool opening game against Tonga. (Sorry Tonga).

 

[RugbyTackle91]

47-9 in the final group game.

Was only 14-3 at half time and the ABs did exactly what we didn't do and exerted total dominance in the 2nd half when you'd expect a top team to. Our first XV is reasonable, but I'm really not seeing a bench that's going to up the ante much. Teams will be thinking they're in with a real shot if they can be in touch at 55 minutes.

Surely your last sentence applies to every team

 

[Scotty]

What was our intended gameplan? Should it have all gone to plan without handling errors ect.

We didnt play to our strengths outwide but rather trucked it up against the big lads. I think we intended it and used this as a training game. Hand we stopped with the handling errors it could have worked beating a side with our forwards while our biggest strength is a back up. Unfortunatly we wernt switched on it seemed or were overconfident...sorry i meant arrogant English.

I think next week will be fast and wide upping the tempo massivly.

Any thoughts? Not going into the pros and cons of today thats been done alot more interested in the gameplan.

 

[MarkyH]

I think we need to stop giving one. I'm not going to give any more kudos for this than I should our hammering of Ireland.

The whole sending a message is balls, it doesnt matter. It's the first game of the world cup against a competent physical team. Tonga were not gonna give up.

We weren't going to show off all our moves. We were good enough and defensively solid. That's ok.

5 points. Job done. Plenty to do. Plenty not to give away.

Job. Done.

 

[Every Time Ref]

What was our intended gameplan? Should it have all gone to plan without handling errors ect.

We didnt play to our strengths outwide but rather trucked it up against the big lads. I think we intended it and used this as a training game. Hand we stopped with the handling errors it could have worked beating a side with our forwards while our biggest strength is a back up. Unfortunatly we wernt switched on it seemed or were overconfident...sorry i meant arrogant English.

I think next week will be fast and wide upping the tempo massivly.

Any thoughts? Not going into the pros and cons of today thats been done alot more interested in the gameplan.

Kicking in behind early was clearly a plan, as it was in the 6N. I expect that to be the same against the Tier 1 teams as well.

 

[MarkyH]

Kicking in behind early was clearly a plan, as it was in the 6N. I expect that to be the same against the Tier 1 teams as well.

I expected england to wear them out with the kicking game. It wasnt executed well. I'm sure we would do better, and have a more varied plan when it counts.

 

[Scotty]

Kicking in behind early was clearly a plan, as it was in the 6N. I expect that to be the same against the Tier 1 teams as well.

Kicking behind was a clear plan i agree and was badly executed IMO, vs teams like NZ they'd run it back and rip us apart as we could if teams do it to us.

But i was more talking about gameplan in attack ball in hand before rather than kicking. When we want to go forward ball in hand it didnt seem we were playing to our strengths.

 

[Every Time Ref]

Kicking behind was a clear plan i agree and was badly executed IMO, vs teams like NZ they'd run it back and rip us apart as we could if teams do it to us.

But i was more talking about gameplan in attack ball in hand before rather than kicking. When we want to go forward ball in hand it didnt seem we were playing to our strengths.

It looked fairly similar to most of the last couple of years to me? Lots of forward carries close to the ruck, then go wide. I don't think we got enough momentum to go wide as often as we wanted.

Crash ball runner/pass out the back to 2nd distributor was a key part as well, as always with Ford/Farrell together. The beauty of Tuilagi is he is so perfect for that move, if he gets the ball there's danger, if he doesn't get the ball there's danger.

 

[TommiG88]

Tonga were a lot fitter than I expected, but the the officials let them have a drinks break at every stoppage. Only in the last 5 mins did they start to look weary in defence.

 

[higgik]

Aye, he had an exceptional crop of players and was sort of right place right time in terms of the rugby landscape to oversee huge changes in the way the sport/team was run.
He basically presided over the side going from amateur to pro, upping/implementing the analysis, physio, sports psychology, strength and conditioning etc. aspects of the game

The main thing about those players was not that they were exceptional, but they were also great leaders with no egos between each other. All of them could be counted on to make the right decision at the right time. For example, when they found out who was ref in the final, they got Dawson to do the talking as Johnno had previous with him.

It is this that is the missing piece of the jigsaw in the current team.

 

[MarkyH]

Kicking behind was a clear plan i agree and was badly executed IMO, vs teams like NZ they'd run it back and rip us apart as we could if teams do it to us.

But i was more talking about gameplan in attack ball in hand before rather than kicking. When we want to go forward ball in hand it didnt seem we were playing to our strengths.

I don't think we wanted too tbh. Odd as it sounds we could win without width, and the backs playing their A game moves.

I have been know to be rather optimistic at times, but I'm normally not far off being right

 

[MarkyH]

Tonga were a lot fitter than I expected, but the the officials let them have a drinks break at every stoppage. Only in the last 5 mins did they start to look weary in defence.

Abso-bloomin-exactly

We couldn't maintain momentum when we had it. Tonga could chill to slow it down. Kudos to Tonga, played it well.