England v All Blacks
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@cgrant said in England Vs All Blacks:
@Mauss said in England Vs All Blacks:
I thought the Dingwall try was actually quite symbolic for some of the deeper-lying issues within this team. It shows that the players don’t trust each other and that the opposition is generally smarter than them.

It is honestly an embarrassingly easy score for England: Mitchell throws the long pass to Lawrence, taking out both Taylor and Lakai from the defensive picture. It leaves England and the ABs with a two-on-two: Lawrence and Dingwall against Carter and Tupaea.
There is really no reason for Tupaea to bite in here, unless he doesn’t trust Carter to make the tackle on Lawrence. And that takes us all the way back to the try in the first half, where Carter gets flattened by the English centre. Tupaea gets a flashback, wants to put in a double shot, and then it’s just easy hands at the line for Lawrence. Proctor is far back because he’s covering the English attackers hidden in the boot; he’s trusting his teammates to execute the defensive 2-on-2.
It's smart from England but it is painfully naïve from an AB perspective. Big, individual errors, like Leroy Carter’s in the first half, are a mental challenge for a team. If you’re a good side, you immediately put it behind you and start again. If you’re mentally fragile, it becomes like a domino-effect, influencing your every move and decision from that moment onwards.
After the England Test, I think it’s pretty clear what kind of team these ABs are.
This picture tells it all : both Carter and Tupaea are on their heels instead of being on their toes. AB's defense is so passive ...
That's a good description of Carter's missed tackle in the first half too. His weight was back on his heels which is partly why he got bumped off so easily.
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@Tim said in England Vs All Blacks:
Wonder if we can find a journalist in NZ rugby with enough insight and balls to say what a ton of the NZ rugby public are now saying, the Razor has to go
Instead we get phrases like concerning and underwhelming. It's almost as if they are scared
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@Jet said in England Vs All Blacks:
@Nepia said in England Vs All Blacks:
@ACT-Crusader said in England Vs All Blacks:
@sparky said in England Vs All Blacks:
@Tim Nope. That was 2012.
Nooo that must be some AI. That says the ABs had Jane and Nonu, Conrad and McCaw, Mealamu and Whitelock. And this was Hansen basically photocopying Henry’s playbook. I thought they were ruthless and calm and well coached.
Tuilagi and Barrit ripped us a new one that night.
TBF that was a one off extremely bad performance that is still talked about today because of how inept we were (especially at defending the overstayer). Whereas today's performance is not even the worst of this season.
Didnt most of our team have a dose of the shits?
Norovirus.
Yes but it comes out both ends. I have had it and it is debilitating
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@Dodge said in England Vs All Blacks:
Knew the result, read the thread, then watched the game. Blimey. Never seen a more apathetic AB team. England dominated the entire game. Won nearly every contact, ABs constantly beaten in the tackle and at the breakdown. Wow. ABs don’t look fit enough - lazy off the ball, can’t remember ever saying that before.
12-0 down but still felt like we were the better side. Ben Earl was immense, Pepper was great. But it wasn’t about individuals, they won every aspect of the game, contact after contact.
As for England, they still don’t look great structure wise but bugger me they smashed the ABs all over the park.
You were so much more focussed and composed than we were. Well, that's not strictly true - you had focus and composure and we had none.
Itoje is a different player under Borthwick. Developing into a really. really good captain.
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@Bovidae said in England Vs All Blacks:
There are no excuses for Robertson to continue starting BB from here on. Again, injury might end up being the best selector, so let's see DMac at 10 and Love at 15 against Wales.
DMac and Love will play against Wales - ranked 12th and behind Italy & Fiji - to give BB a break. And BB will have recovered by the start of next year.
Sadly.
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@MN5 said in England Vs All Blacks:
Walrus emerges from his dungeon to write some shit. It's actually not bad by his standards.
Is it because he largely speaks the truth that England were the better selected, better coached team?
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@Bovidae said in England Vs All Blacks:
@canefan said in England Vs All Blacks:
Watching the post match. I always found Goldie to be an AB fan bois, but both he and Mils are increasingly critical of this team
I've always seen Wilson as the only one prepared to criticise the ABs.
Yeah same, never got the hate for him. If anything, it always felt like he's always ready to rip into them before getting a message through his earpiece from the producers to tone it down and be more PC.
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@sparky said in England Vs All Blacks:
I've heard that Henry Pollock and co. go without caffeine all week, then chew strong caffeine gum on the bench before coming on.
Giving how fizzing with energy they were yesterday, I wonder if that isn't a trick we should copy?
That ranks well below selecting and coaching competently. Let's worry about the basics first before going after the 0.5% improvements.
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@pourfasse said in England Vs All Blacks:
Very poor choics in attack. It lacks a brain in the backline.
I know we were bad, but now we are making up words to describe how bad we were

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@Tim said in England Vs All Blacks:
`Paywalled, my video recorder still doesn't work, and the All Blacks are shit.
None of this fucking happened when my generation was in charge!

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What to say about that game? Were England that good? I don't think so really. We only had a simple game plan although we did execute that well. Ford grew into the game and put us in teh right place, took the points when they were available. All very simple. I'm always really chuffed when we beat NZ but in truth, I'm almost a bit flat after that game. NZ looked clueless and that's a rarity.
Good points for England:
Physicality in the contact area
Kicking game and importantly the chasing game.
Lawrence owning the 13 shirt nowBad points:
Lineout shambles
Discipline
A simple game plan is simple to counter so we need to add more. -
@Catogrande yeah that's essentially it, a two score win against the second best team in the world, without getting out of 2nd gear.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in England Vs All Blacks:
@booboo said in England Vs All Blacks:
Is BB injured?
Sadly, no.
In fact, yes, which makes it worse.
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@sparky said in England Vs All Blacks:
I've heard that Henry Pollock and co. go without caffeine all week, then chew strong caffeine gum on the bench before coming on.
Giving how fizzing with energy they were yesterday, I wonder if that isn't a trick we should copy?
I've heard Joe Parker....
...probably not....
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@jimmyb said in England Vs All Blacks:
@Canes4life said in England Vs All Blacks:
@frugby said in England Vs All Blacks:
Billy Proctor ain’t the man I’m afraid
That was Tupaea’s man.
No it wasn’t. The overhead clearly showed it was Proctors and he reacted incredibly late. Hes done it plenty of times
If only they’d taken @bones advice and selected Reiko!
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@pakman said in England Vs All Blacks:
@jimmyb said in England Vs All Blacks:
@Canes4life said in England Vs All Blacks:
@frugby said in England Vs All Blacks:
Billy Proctor ain’t the man I’m afraid
That was Tupaea’s man.
No it wasn’t. The overhead clearly showed it was Proctors and he reacted incredibly late. Hes done it plenty of times
If only that taken @bones advice and selected Reiko!
I'm not sure I can claim that one...