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[RWC2019][Semi-Final 1] England vs. New Zealand (26/10/2019)

They did, but I'd argue England were that good and that's my point...

How many times today did the itv commentator say this proved that NZ are human after all, one thing being respectful of the opposition another being in awe of the opposition.

sorry, but we don't hear the itv commentary here in SA, nor did we hear the NZ commentary, we had our own guys.

Is it really that unexpected to think that NZ would lose? Seriously? They're not invincible, that has been shown already this year and last year. They are not gods or inmortals. They were outthought, outplayed, and England wanted it more and showed their hunger. NZ looked old, lazy and out of touch.

it was inevitable.
 
View attachment 7757 I predicted last year a NZ v SA final and had a bet with someone on this forum who said it wouldn't be. The loser donating a tenner to their chosen charity. Happy to say I was wrong and just made good the bet and donated £20 to the wonderful MacMillan Cancer support, plus gift aid of £5. :)

**** it, I made £70 on England +7

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He was battered fairly early on. Apart from his 'try' Youngs was dreadful.

I do not understand why Youngs gets so much ****.

Having seen the slating he got on here last week, I rewatched the Aus game as I thought he played well and On second watching I still reckoned he did.

I would say the same again this week.

He has bad games for sure but he's stepped up as this tournament has progressed imho.
 
A new Age has dawned.
The time of the black orcs is over . The time of the men in white is just beginning !!
 
Did they honestly? Yes they were beaten, but they weren't terrible by any means. Broke the gainline quite a few times. However England gave them nothing and didn't panic once. Yes they made more mistakes as the game wore on, but that was purely the pressure England put them under. I think playing like they did they still would have beaten anyone else last weekend except England and possibly S.A. For me an off day is where you play badly or make mistakes without the pressure. This was all down to English pressure.

I think it was both things. We made some unforced errors and dumb decisions, compounded by fantastic English defence.

That's what is frustrating as a NZ fan, we were inaccurate and didn't control things we should have, then England forced a whole heap more errors through their good play.

Lost to the better side, no arguments. Still annoyed that we didn't show up.
 
NZ's gameplan to kick everything was insane
It's like they watched the Wallabies game and thought "Well they tried to run everything and got battered so we'll do the opposite"
Like who the hell box kicks on the opposition's 22m without penalty advantage?
I know Daly isn't the best in the air but May is very good and Watson is world class - did they really think we'd be that bad that it was an easy possession win?
 
Having watched every game of the All Blacks the last decade and got to know them as well as any non NZ person ever could I am of the opinion that three things caused their demise today:
1- they were not allowed to be disruptive, their clever off the ball tactics were picked up and blown - dirty uncle Sam and his knack of pulling and pushing players off play; tackling people of the ball, side entries, offside line etc.
2- their inability to handle brutally honest in your face defense and a **** load of continuous pressure.
3- coaching staff losing the plot in the last 6 months - yes leaving one of the most destructive runners in Laumape at home, carrying semi injured players & over the hill ones based on past legacies and playing a past world rugby player of the year out of position - they created their own downfall.

England did the basics well, very well and thoroughly deserves this final, whether they have the mental aptitude to have two fabulous performances in a row remains to be seen

Arguably played like that vs Aus, defended hard and only let in 1 try. Even though Aus had about 65% possession. We defended the whole game and even after we conceded and they got within a score we put them to the sword with a 3rd of the possession and then after defending for 80min they performed even better for 80 min and now need to dig deep 1 more time.
 
NZ's gameplan to kick everything was insane
It's like they watched the Wallabies game and thought "Well they tried to run everything and got battered so we'll do the opposite"
Like who the hell box kicks on the opposition's 22m without penalty advantage?
I know Daly isn't the best in the air but May is very good and Watson is world class - did they really think we'd be that bad that it was an easy possession win?

yup. We outsmarted ourselves and did dumb stuff. Then didn't have the likes of McCaw and Carter to pull it back together and change it. Very frustrating as a kiwi fan knowing what we are capable of to turn in that kind of performance.
 
Just saw the game on catch up having listened to it on my way home from France.
Actually on the radio it felt evenly balanced but when you watch it i was struck by how one sided the match was.
Actually other than the line up cock up NZ never had a scoring opportunity - I have never seen an AB side so shut down . Also What struck me was how dominant some of our defensive tackling was . On thé England side Itoje Cunderhill and Ford were the standouts - On the NZ side i thought Ardie Savea was superb but he was outgunned in the loose and some of the other AB's did not show.
I actually thought England would win the World Cup but only after seeing the warm up game against Ireland in August - that performance was the first time in quite while that could be described as All Blackesque- power, pace, ruthless execution with no prisoners been taken .
Still my hat off to Hansen's team - lest we forget they have dominated world rugby for 10 years - and all good things must come to an end. And a great team it was.
 
NZ's gameplan to kick everything was insane
It's like they watched the Wallabies game and thought "Well they tried to run everything and got battered so we'll do the opposite"
Like who the hell box kicks on the opposition's 22m without penalty advantage?
I know Daly isn't the best in the air but May is very good and Watson is world class - did they really think we'd be that bad that it was an easy possession win?

To be fair to them, that's how Wales beat us in the 6N.
 
I think it was both things. We made some unforced errors and dumb decisions, compounded by fantastic English defence.

That's what is frustrating as a NZ fan, we were inaccurate and didn't control things we should have, then England forced a whole heap more errors through their good play.

Lost to the better side, no arguments. Still annoyed that we didn't show up.

England made a lot of mistakes too. Not just the two "disallowed tries" but, for example, both May and Farrell tried dubious offloads when all they had to do was take the ball to ground. I shouldn't mention the gross blunder by George, 'cos I thought he was impeccable otherwise. Saying that NZ didn't play that badly. England just played better. The front row did not give away a penalty. In fact I can't remember when the entire front 5 didn't give away a penalty. Some statto can probably remind me. Maybe I missed one. I've been watching rugby for many years, since the days the ABs lost their first game in England (in my home town vs North of England).

I thought NZ were good today. England were just better
 
I haven't managed to rewatch, but did England give away any kickable penalties or were they all in the NZ half, because I can't remember anyway and that's the level of discipline that I was jealous for Ireland having and wished England could replicate. If so they chose the perfect game to do so.
 
the gross blunder by George
To be fair I don't think the try was a George error, it was an Itoje/Curry error - Itoje switched the call last second and Curry didn't get in position quick enough. George threw where he was supposed to but Itoje wasn't high enough because Curry didn't get to where he needed to be to lift
 
England made a lot of mistakes too. Not just the two "disallowed tries" but, for example, both May and Farrell tried dubious offloads when all they had to do was take the ball to ground. I shouldn't mention the gross blunder by George, 'cos I thought he was impeccable otherwise. Saying that NZ didn't play that badly. England just played better. The front row did not give away a penalty. In fact I can't remember when the entire front 5 didn't give away a penalty. Some statto can probably remind me. Maybe I missed one. I've been watching rugby for many years, since the days the ABs lost their first game in England (in my home town vs North of England).

I thought NZ were good today. England were just better

Yep no doubt England were better.

We were bad though, and full credit to England for compounding it.
 
Of course it matters if he didn't have various connections he wouldn't speak the lingo making it pretty difficult.

if someone is interviewing him in English and he decides to speak in Japanese then I think that shows an effort to show respect

I guess I've never really thought the ease at which someone does something effects the level of respect shown
 
I do not understand why Youngs gets so much ****.

Having seen the slating he got on here last week, I rewatched the Aus game as I thought he played well and On second watching I still reckoned he did.

I would say the same again this week.

He has bad games for sure but he's stepped up as this tournament has progressed imho.
I'm actually not one of those who consistently bags out Youngs but I would judge each performance on its merits. I thought he was the one weak link for England last night, he was absent from numerous rucks, slow to get to the ones he did get to and ponderous once there. I was hoping he had a big game in him but happy to see him save that for the final. Having said all of that, he did take his try very well.
 
I haven't managed to rewatch, but did England give away any kickable penalties or were they all in the NZ half, because I can't remember anyway and that's the level of discipline that I was jealous for Ireland having and wished England could replicate. If so they chose the perfect game to do so.

I honestly cannot remember one penalty given away by the front 5 today.
 
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