After watching the game on saturday i couldn't quite understand why a more prepared england team went to play an inexperienced Boks team and just failed to deliver on many levels.
We lacked any penetration.
We lacked vision.
We lacked a game plan.
Some players looked out of place.
Are the england players just not good enough compared to others or is it the gameplan tactics that we try?
I really thought that this was our best chance to steal a win but to be honest we were never going to win playing as we did.
Is it the players or the gameplan because neither worked well.
What we need is:
A lump of a second row who is our enforcer (maybe lawes when he is back? What about lauchberry)
A nine that can actually pass and box kick properly and make a break - Care should start with Dickson on the bench.
A 10 -12 -13 combo that actually works.
I like Farrels ice cold temperament but this farrell. barrett, tuilagi thing is never going to make tries.
I'm hoping with barrett out lancaster will see this as a chance to try something that will make our axis work properly.
Our and a decent 8 who is match fit for an international.
That's v. negative. For me it was a good performance with more accuracy needed. To lose by 5 away to the boks is no embarassement, they would expect to always win at home, reagrdless who they are playing. That home advantage probably reflected itself in the scoreline.
We were going backwards in the second half and from there we lacked the game plan to dig ourslves us. Even then, both tries scored against us could have been prevented.
Try 1, 47 minutes: Hartley comes up out of the line and throws himself at Janie Du Plessis' feet. He didn't so much misss the tackle as he just missed Du Plessis altogether. Mouritz Botha then faces the wrong way for the pick and go, making his presence completely pointless. Then Johnson moves towards Steyn rather than shifting accross to cover the whole gap and prepare himself for a tackle. He comes up slightly but realises he's misjudged it and moves accross but its too late.
Second Try, 59(ish) minutes: Brown decides not to tackle but instead jabs out his hand, resulting in a broken hand and a try to South Africa. I just feel Foden would have made a hit on De Villiers, and from there, who knows.
I'm not saying that we should have won just that there are certainly things to get sorted before we start saying 'maybe we're just not good enough'.
According to ESPNscrum we missed 19 tackles, grouped as follows: (I'm only talking about the starting 15 for brevity)
3 Tackles missed: Hartley, Cole, Johnson
2 Tackles Missed: Marler
1 tackle missed: Brown, Ashton, Tuilagi, Barritt, Youngs, Botha, Parling,
0 Tackles Missed:Foden, Farrell, Robshaw, Morgan
Sometimes you have to take these with a pinch of salt, especially relatin to the front row, because when mis-matches happen you would never expect a Cole to stop a Habana... but, 19 is lots of tackles.
