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[RWC2019][Quarter-Final 1] England vs. Australia (19/10/2019)

I absolutely agree. I do however wonder whether Cheika's siege mentality sometimes distracts from his ability to apply logic. Two teams have adopted the "it's so unfair we've always operated like this" defence notably Samoa (7 yellows and 1 Red) and Australia (3 yellows and a postdated red for Hodge) who were lucky to avoid further sanctions for Hooper cheap shotting Biggar and Arnold for smashing someone in the head in the same tackle that got Naisarani binned. You also got the epic whine about Kerevi forearm smashing Patchell in the throat.

Personally I hope that Australia continue to play the victim and don't alter their behaviour. As I stated above if they do that they'll end up playing with less than 15 for large parts of the game and England will roast them if they choose to do that.
Agree with everything but the forearm. That was patently ridiculous.

I think people claiming Cheika is putting on a Mourinho style act are giving him too much credit. It's possible, but our lack of any kind of tactical nous on the field suggests otherwise.

At this point he's just a whiney oaf. His value is motivation and recruitment. He's great at identifying a weakness and squeezing extra effort out of a team over a short period, hence our success last world cup.

He can't do long term planning, lacks the ability to critically analyse or plan for other teams. His value to us is gone and his deficiencies are weighing us down.

We'll lose this game, Cheika will whine but he'll also be gone and we can get in an adequate coach to bring through the under 18s and under 21s who both beat their kiwi counterparts.
 
Recipient, and then everyone will say how he deserves it - again.

This. Despite all that has been written about Farrell he's a pretty disciplined sort he's also not stupid. He knows he's under the microscope and will be aware of the consequences of making high shots in this tournament. This is probably cursing the guy but I don't reckon there's much chance of him dealing out the kind of tackle he made against Esterhuizen / Rodda. if we're looking for someone to do something stupid in the England camp I reckon Manu has to be top of the list. You can take the guy out of Samoa but etc...................
 
If it happens again in this game, I think we have to regard it as a tactic: 'England will generally try to win through set piece pressure, their kicking game, and letting their opponents smack Faz in the head'
 
Faz getting smacked in the head is deliberate - because now players aren't targeting Ford.

/tinfoil
 
Interesting isn't it? My view is that this line-up marginally favours the Australians. In my opinion Garces is the worst referee when it comes to policing the breakdown, the offside line and is entirely random when it comes to scrum enforcement. He also makes at least one utterly baffling call per match which could go either way.

The most important point being the breakdown. If you compare and contrast say Nic Berry's approach with Garces you have chalk and cheese. With the former the ruck contest is a very small window in which either a player wins a penalty / turnover or the contest is nullified. With Garces it's much much longer with players loitering around and on the ball (imo Garces is Wales' dream ref), multiple cleanout attempts etc. Now whilst I'm sure Pocock, Hooper (and Curry too) would prefer the former (more lightning turnovers / pens) the Aussies will quite happily adapt to the latter. England play best off fast, clean ball. If we don't get that then Youngs does his stupid arm flapping thing (+ ref moaning) and the service becomes glacial. Which then leads to booting the ball away and if we stay true to type that'll be up the middle to someone like Beale........... That still feels like a stupid plan to me.......

Ben Skeen - Well the match might take 4 hrs to play as he decides to intervene over the most trivial incidents. But both teams will need to manage their tackle discipline. Thus far only one team in this contest has proven capable of doing so. If Australia adopt the "well that's just how we do it" mentality they've displayed so far they'll be playing with 13 men for some of the game.

I hope it doesn't but this might come down to which random call Garces decides to make and who it favours..........

I havn't considered it this way. Against NZ in the pools the slow ball killed of any hope of structured attack from us. On top of that SA don't tend to contest the opposition ruck en masse but prefers lone pilferers. I had been pulling at my hair all match with Garces not calling for a penalty but holding out until inevitably the Bok going for the ball gets pushed off.

While I think the former plays against England in that I think Asu wil possibly be better equiped to attack off of poor ball the latter plays against Aus IMO as they have the specialist 'fetchers' that won't be as effective as Garces will give England 5 minutes to get rid of them rather than award a penalty to Aus.
 
Can not wait to watch Cheika's (& Eddie's actually) post match presser with those officials... particularly Cheikas though.
 
I would like to predict a red card to be dished out in this game. This is a ref lineup from hell with the New Zealander Skeen as the TMO :D:D:D. Will both teams get knocked out in the QF ?
 
Faz getting smacked in the head is deliberate - because now players aren't targeting Ford.

/tinfoil
Hey Australia could always try the tactic of running up Ford's channels. A tactic that's shown zero effectiveness at international level.


On refs, I'm ambivalent Garces is shite but England rarely get the run of the green and at best we get an even match.
 
For me Australia need to start Toomua at FH. He changed the game vs Wales, & who knows they may have won had Cheika picked him from the start. England are favourites here, but something tells me the Aussies will bring there A game, & if they do they have the firepower to trouble any team. England will try to physically dominate as is their mantra, & if they go a couple of scores ahead I can't see them being caught. Conversely, if they have to chase the game then I reckon the Aussies will pick them off from turnover possession. Could well be a good un.
 
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Hey Australia could always try the tactic of running up Ford's channels. A tactic that's shown zero effectiveness at international level.


On refs, I'm ambivalent Garces is shite but England rarely get the run of the green and at best we get an even match.

Yeah but remember that one game where Hughes ran over him a few times in Bath vs Wasps? Clearly Ford is therefore useless in defence and Hughes has some of the best carrying ability of any international. Nothing else matters. Also Farrell is an absolutely **** kicker based on his last game and none of the other games matter.
 
Yeah but remember that one game where Hughes ran over him a few times in Bath vs Wasps? Clearly Ford is therefore useless in defence and Hughes has some of the best carrying ability of any international. Nothing else matters. Also Farrell is an absolutely **** kicker based on his last game and none of the other games matter.
Yeah but in reality Hughes is the worst carrier in the history of the international game because Faf sent him backwards in one tackle. So on the scale of 1 to 10 that puts Ford at -7. Obvious when you really put a bit of thought into it.
 
Early kick off for this QF of 8.15am BST on Saturday. So better get that breakfast on in time.:)

Hopefully full strength England 23 for this one. Any update on Binny's ankle?
They're better off resting their top team I reckon
I keep reading stuff like this but really can't see where it comes from. Maybe on paper, but utterly unproven on grass.

RWC so far. 2 minnows and 14 man Arg. Can't read anything into those. Or the warm ups that went before.

So it's back to the 6N for anything meaningful and that was a total mixed bag. Sublime against Ire, and ridiculous against Sco. The mental softness we showed v Sco and others beforehand bothers me far more than having lost a little momentum in a week off. Really not convinced how we'll react when the going gets tough. Opponents know we've shown a soft centre on a number of occasions.

TBH the Aussies best chance is to throw the first half and let us build a lead.
They're hardly going to get complacent in a World Cup playoff?
The stereotype that our pack is weak is old hat. It's just about our only strength. Solid scrum and lineout with several decent carrying options and finally an actual number 8.
The English always overrate their pack, Just like their football team. The wallabies destroyed them up front 4 years ago, though I'm not sure we'll see exactly the same they should have some degree of parity
For England to win this game they will have to stop man mountain 13......and I heard a certain Mr Steve Smith was spotted in Tokyo......
Ahh crap hell sandpaper the ball, making it extra slippery
Recipient, and then everyone will say how he deserves it - again.
He will always deserve it, his face just reeks of English arrogance
 
This is why I was gutted about the France game, I need my fix. It's been too long since England have played and I'm getting edgy.

Demolish Aus by 30+ ;):confused:
 
They're hardly going to get complacent in a World Cup playoff?

Not a case of complacency. The question mark is over mental hardness, particularly the ability to manage a game when the flow starts going against them.

Bit like Andy Murray in the old days. Ultra competitive and then his head would go and he'd lose 8 games in a row and the match would either be gone or a lot more difficult than it should have been.

For me, that's the missing piece of the jigsaw. And that mental toughness was why Jones put a lot of faith in the early days in the likes of Brown and Hartley.
 
Not a case of complacency. The question mark is over mental hardness, particularly the ability to manage a game when the flow starts going against them.

Bit like Andy Murray in the old days. Ultra competitive and then his head would go and he'd lose 8 games in a row and the match would either be gone or a lot more difficult than it should have been.

For me, that's the missing piece of the jigsaw. And that mental toughness was why Jones put a lot of faith in the early days in the likes of Brown and Hartley.
The man speaks a lot of wisdom. We are good enough to beat anyone but I can't see us maintaining the right mentality through 240 minutes of knock out rugby.

I don't think it will be Australia to knock us out though, fingers crossed
 
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