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

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/sir-ian-mcgeechan-new-zealand-should-have-lost-by-more

 

Ben Spencer on his way out as injury cover for Heinz. Many will have felt he should have been there as 2nd or 3rd choice anyhow.

 

*spends 50% of the post moaning about ref decisions doesn't mention 2 trys England lost on marginal calls*

 

Eddie Jones the mastermind

 

So in an indirect way the French still managed to knock NZ out of the tournament??

What if they demanded their last pool match to have been played?

 

Marginal?? a shepard and and lost foward, pretty clear cut to me

 

This morning I was finally able to watch highlights of NZ-Ireland without finding it too spooky.

 

Okay how many final warnings should there be before a yellow card is brandished?

Whitelock another day would of seen yellow for deliberately pushing a player in the face.


But sure England got the rub of the green.

 

I’d add Sexton to that in recent years especially he just winges like a child...

 

Especially as everything England did had to go under the micro scope (hence the 2 disallowed try’s), the ABs doesn’t get looked at, if that was England there defiantly would have been a closer look.

 

It felt like the Rugby equivalent of when Germany crushed Brazil in the World Cup a few years back.

We completely dominated and the tension stress and worry we’re still evident in me till about 75mins, a Welsh guy I know say after 60 mins we’d got this and I couldn’t believe him, such is the perceived invincibility of the All Blacks with me.

We stressed them from start to finish and I’ve never seen anything like it from the AB’s, penned in their own half for long periods just squeezed and squeezed. It was Brilliant it really was even if I thought we needed to be more clinical taking points every time we got to their 22.

Curry was my man of the match, Underhill and Itoje were also brilliant as was Ford, if anything 7 points flattered the AB’s they were completely out played.

I just hope we’ve not shot our load and we turn up next week

 

To be fair they were 50/50.. That means both could have been interpreted either way.

The obstruction probably wouldn't have prevented the try. Still it was an infringement. Based on other calls in the match it was consistent. NZ got pinged for tackles off the ball that didn't affect play.

The maul scenario. Brodie knocked it out of the English hand but still went forward to the English player. NZ were lucky the camera got in there. Otherwise it was a try. Anyone that has played knows the ball in the maul can go anywhere before it gets to the back.

 

Put these two things together with the two big forward passes that NZ got away with in the second half too. Nothing decisive was incorrect, it was honestly a pretty well officiated game, but if it were to be replayed exactly how it went I think England would probably get more decisions than they got yesterday.

I don't have much issue with the disallowed Youngs try but I have never seen the passing within a maul examined like that before, it was something of a fluke that there happened to be a shot of the infringement. The Underhill non-try was a correct call for me, as Curry was never in a position to catch, he was running a line solely for blocking. Even then, I've seen those not given as you can argue that Whitelock makes the wrong decision.

The Slade tackle was the marginal call England got in their favour. I find it odd to hold up that one as an obviously incorrect decision as well. I thought it might be given as a penalty, and then come on here to find everyone complaining about how you used to get 20 of them a game and it's all gone soft and blah de blah.

So yeah, I'm not really saying England were hard done to but to claim NZ were on the short end is pretty rich too.

Edit: I went back and had a look at the Slade hit. At the point of contact (which is how the TMO is supposed to officiate), Slade's height is fine, and his arms are either side of the ball carrier. It's a legal tackle. His left arm gets bumped back after intitial contact, which makes it look worse than it is. So I think people who are upset about it are picturing where Slade ended up rather than what he actually did.

(For some reason I'm unable to get screenshots off ITV. Self-defeating *****. How dare we attempt to discuss their product)

 

No, no kickable penalties given up in the England half as I remember. Not even by Dan Cole.

 

I like him. A lot.

 

It wasn't lost forward though. The player who regathered the ball was in possession of it before it got fumbled. That's a try that should have been awarded. New Zealand conceded 3 or 4 penalties after getting a final warning without getting carded. 2 or 3 blatant forward passes from the all blacks were missed, Whitlock using Farrell to clean his studs of the ball went unpunished. Its laughable to whine about the ref for a shoulder charge that wasn't when multiple highly important calls went new Zealands way.

 

I haven't seen much mention of it on here, but as well as employing the blitz, England were very good at shifting suddenly into the drift defence when the situation required it, which meant they took away the touchline attacks from NZ. How many times did NZ try to go wide only to be bundled into touch or forced to cut back inside into the white wall? The ability of the England defence to read and react to what NZ were doing and to blitz or drift as necessary was excellent. We always talk about players playing what is in front of them, but that goes for defence as well as attack and England played what was in front of them on defence perfectly.

 

Ben Spencer on his way out as injury cover for Heinz. Many will have felt he should have been there as 2nd or 3rd choice anyhow.

England's discipline was very impressive yesterday and something they've obviously worked on. In these tight knock out games it can make all the difference. Dan Cole was always a walking penalty. I thought he was done but him and Marler coming on offers real stability in the set piece to close out a game.

 

It’s now been confirmed that he’s a replacement, not cover.

So straight to the bench for the final. Oh wow.

Jones pulled off a master stroke yesterday. Let’s hope his unfathomable blind spot doesn’t come back to bite us.

 

I remember EJ dropping him last Autumn (along with a number of other players) following England's losing streak and saying that Cole had to work on some areas of his game to get back into the squad. Recently, EJ said Cole had done that and that was why he was back in. As Cole hasn't really improved as a carrier and was always a good scrummager and tackler and occasional turnover merchant, I can only assume the area EJ was talking about was his penalty count. And he's fixed that, so kudos to Dan Cole, and well done to EJ for improving yet another player during his tenure. EJ does have a habit of making players better on his watch - May, Lawes, Slade, Sinks, Binny, Curry etc etc.