England v All Blacks

nonpartizan

The most improved player for England this autumn is Immanuel Feyi-Waboso. He was all over the shop for England A against France A in June.

Yesterday he made most line breaks (3) and topped metres gained (99). A massive threat for England every time he touched the ball. He topped dominant tackles too with two.

Yeah, he is a serious weapon. England have a plethora of quick wingers - him, Arundell, Radwan to name three.

England have the cattle to win a couple of 6N and genuinely contend for a WC in 2027. It just comes down to coaching.

Victor Meldrew

@BerniesCorner said in England Vs All Blacks:

Lakai was getting stuck in.

He impresses me. Just doesn't give in, looks composed and seems like a bloke who gets pissed off with losing.

Victor Meldrew

@Tim said in England Vs All Blacks:

Also Wilson: "We spent years, and years trying to work out how to win World Cups. We let all that expertise walk out the door, and now those coaches don't want a bar of us. We burned those bridges."

That is not something that I ever expected to hear on the Breakdown.

Hate to keep banging the same old drum, but a fish rots from the head down. When people like Gilbert Enoka publicly express disgust at the treatment of AB coaches and players by those who run NZR, you know where the real problems lie.

The most important selection in NZ rugby isn't 10, Robertson's assistants or himself, - it's the NZR CEO

pakman

@pakman said in England Vs All Blacks:

@akan004 said in England Vs All Blacks:

Even our scrum is under pressure. Ratima is as stupid as they come, clear it FFS.

I have severe doubts about Lord’s scrummaging. No point in tank with four cylinder engine.

Lord basically half stood up when we gave away a
scrum penalty with Codie off. Rassie would have
brought on the fresh legs of Darry when Sami came on.

Catogrande

@MiketheSnow said in England Vs All Blacks:

@Devon-Kiwi said in England Vs All Blacks:

The English are the worst team in World Rugby to lose to and we did it so well!

Wales says hold my beer

That view upsets the narrative. Back in your box please. We are the fluffybunnies.

sparky

@Catogrande said in England Vs All Blacks:

@MiketheSnow said in England Vs All Blacks:

@Devon-Kiwi said in England Vs All Blacks:

The English are the worst team in World Rugby to lose to and we did it so well!

Wales says hold my beer

That view upsets the narrative. Back in your box please. We are the fluffybunnies.

No, we are the fluffybunnies.

MiketheSnow

This is who you lost to

MN5

@MiketheSnow said in England Vs All Blacks:

This is who you lost to

I’d be embarrassed if I hadn’t seen some of Ardie and Reikos social media efforts

African Monkey

@Jet said in England Vs All Blacks:

@African-Monkey said in England Vs All Blacks:

@Tim said in England Vs All Blacks:

Around 32:30 we nearly scored in the corner, then meekly allowed England to drive us off the ball. See if you can spot a loose forward in these pictures ... Savea stands way off the ruck and looks disinterested. Terrible openside. Absolutely shithouse selection. They never even looked interested in the follow-up ruck after LF was tackled.

The much maligned Sam Cane at his peak would have cleaned someone out there.

Rewatch Crotty try after the hooter that won us the game in Dublin in 2013. The cleanout work is incredible. The Franks brothers made the try. Messam makes a bust down the right edge at one point and McCaw absolutely melts an irish player in the clean.

Watch it. Watch all the unseen stuff. Compare it to what we are served up by the current bunch.

You would have liked the photo of Ardie sitting against the post after the game so his social media dickriders could wank on about how wonderful he is.

kpkanz

@MiketheSnow said in England Vs All Blacks:

This is who you lost to

We deserve this

sparky

@MiketheSnow Not bothered about them enjoyed their happy moments.

MajorPom

Honestly, we can talk about moments, but one thing really stuck out for me all game. Short carries.

England: scrummie passes once, they make 2-3 metres.

NZ. Scrummie passes once, we make 0 metres.

It was that simple stat which killed us. Meant they were going forwards with the ball, and we weren’t. The whole game was won and lost right there.

Nepia

@Jet said in England Vs All Blacks:

@African-Monkey said in England Vs All Blacks:

@Tim said in England Vs All Blacks:

Around 32:30 we nearly scored in the corner, then meekly allowed England to drive us off the ball. See if you can spot a loose forward in these pictures ... Savea stands way off the ruck and looks disinterested. Terrible openside. Absolutely shithouse selection. They never even looked interested in the follow-up ruck after LF was tackled.

The much maligned Sam Cane at his peak would have cleaned someone out there.

Rewatch Crotty try after the hooter that won us the game in Dublin in 2013. The cleanout work is incredible. The Franks brothers made the try. Messam makes a bust down the right edge at one point and McCaw absolutely melts an irish player in the clean.

Watch it. Watch all the unseen stuff. Compare it to what we are served up by the current bunch.

Imagine current BB is the 10 in that team. We don't win that, he has a panic attack and does something stupid.

Nepia

@canefan said in England Vs All Blacks:

Ratpoo would do it wouldn't he? He has no more bridges to burn

But it doesn't mean much coming out of haters of NZ rugby like him - and the above discussed Devlin, they're just getting to exercise the chips on their shoulders. We need one of the pro NZR/Crusaders journos to get stuck in.

canefan

@sparky said in England Vs All Blacks:

@Tim said in England Vs All Blacks:

@sparky said in England Vs All Blacks:

Tupou Vaii and Josh Beehre will better options for the ABs at 6 in 2026, maybe Devan Flanders too.

Cam Christie is our player to watch there.

Only 21, but behind both Simon Parker and Devan Flanders for me at the moment.

God knows, what's going on with Samipeni Finau and why he had to go home?

6 will be a very open jersey next year.

Not if Razor has anything to do with it

reprobate

In the interest of self-flagellation, thought I'd have another watch of the first half.

We kick off deep. In itself that's fine. But is our tactic to kick deep rather than contestable? Their bloke belts it back over halfway. Savea dithers over ruck ball, killing the momentum from a nice Roigard snipe. Then it's static ball and runners getting knocked over for a couple of phases, before we find space outside some pretty average English defence and Leicester loses the ball.
We win the ball from an English high kick, do not much then Roigard kicks long. Steward returns with another high kick, which for some reason Roigard is catching surrounded by Lord, S Barrett, and Jordan... Steward regathers. England waves of attack making great metres, into our 22 and Ford makes a terrible decision and kicks their attacking ball away when they should have scored. Goal-line drop out long, England return another high kick which BB drops, cleaned up by Carter, then BB pop-guns it to the 22. Poms win the lineout and attack competently, Lakai gets stranded taking nobody, de Groot slow to come across and cover, and they blow the try by dropping the ball with the line open in Proctor's cover tackle. Lakai good off the back and Roigard clears well from the resulting scrum.
Poms mess up their lineout, we lose some ground with our carries, then BB kicks aimlessly. Neither long nor contestable. They return and attack well, and Savea gets a turnover penalty to relieve the pressure. From that lineout we ruck and Roigard puts up a kick which is contestable and is not taken cleanly. Poms under pressure but they clear well from their line.
We attack well from the lineout, until Roigard has to join a ruck and BB playing halfback passes to nobody, well behind Newell. Parker cleans up well, Roigard snipes and we're back where we were. More attack, in which LF gives two bad passes, Proctor cleans up and kicks long, chases hard and gets the charge-down. BB kicks long and well into 22, and Poms mess their lineout up again giving us a scrum in the 22, and LF barrels over after a few phases. Missed conversion.
Ford kick-off out on the full. Roigard with the pinpoint 50-22 off the scrum. From the lineout we go wide and Jordan in space ignores his unmarked winger. Swing back the other way, Tupaea sees the space and Taylor scores. BB converts and we are undeservedly up 12-0. Pom defence looks fragile out wide.
From the kick-off Roigard a good contestable which we win back, then he immediately kicks long which they return. Barrett with numbers attempts something between a chip kick and a bomb for himself, which is claimed uncontested by Earl. Why? Poms reply with a kick which is contestable, which they win, then attempt another which is too deep and Jordan claims. From the mark he kicks long and the poms put up another contestable which they win, then grubber through to get a lineout 5m out. Steward off injured. Roigard clears well from the lineout.
The poms mess up their lineout again. Roigard puts up another reasonable contestable kick which they win and go wide quickly. Our defence is too slow to scramble, and we are fortunate to hold them up over the line (Roigard + Proctor). Rather than relieving the pressure, BB attempts a contestable goal-line drop out and with the next phase they are back in our 22. WTAF? When we kick off from halfway we go deep and uncontestable, when we do it from our line, we go short and contestable? Who is making these decisions?
Injury break, English scrum, Carter misses one-on-one badly, BB misses trying to cover, try.
Our kick off is again too deep to contest, and poms clear, then are penalised at the lineout. BB misses touch from the penalty and kicks it dead, scrum back. Jesus Christ.
They cross kick accurately and retain possession. Then contestable kick which they knock back but Roigard grabs and gives us great turnover ball and momentum. BB kicks it away - a planned chip kick for Savea. Seriously? Poms grab it and clear to near our 22. We lose the lineout, pom handling lets them down on attack. Roigard goes straight to Tupaea who skips Proctor to Carter in space; he chips and regathers but can't quite find support. Good play. Poms win the ruck but knock it on.
Attacking scrum. Roigard again straight to Tupaea who again throws a good skip pass putting Jordan and LF in space. Carter tries a pick and go and the other backs can't secure the ruck while Savea stands by watching. Poms clear and we muck around going nowhere for a while before getting a side-entry penalty 43m out straight in front. Decide to go for touch, BB doesn't want to kick (presumably injured already?) so Roigard takes it and misses touch. Poms clear.
A few rucks and BB puts up another aimless non-contestable kick. They kick long, we run it back and with Taylor nearly in touch lose the ball which they kick through. BB jogs back, and is consequently forced onto his left foot from our line when with a bit of urgency that didn't need to be the case. Pop-gun clearance to the 22. Poms finally win a lineout, couple of rucks and Ford hits the droppie.
Kick off secured easily, Poms put up a contestable which we don't even bother to contest? Poms swing back onto attack and Ford kicks the droppie. BB another uncontestable kick off and that's half time.

So what can you take from that?
We were disorganised receiving contested kicks, using the wrong player or even no player to catch them. Our attempts at contested kicks from Roigard were good, from Barrett were poor. Why have we not fixed this yet? Likewise our clearances from Roigard were good, from Barrett were poor. We also missed touch from two penalties, a basic error which seems to be happening most weeks.
England blew 2 tries and another very good attacking opportunity, and gifted us good possession from the lineout repeatedly, which we repeatedly threw away. If we aren't good enough to take advantage of that, we aren't good enough. We did find space on the outside, but in the middle very frequently our runners were getting the ball well behind the advantage line.
We play dumb rugby: we make poor decisions and can't execute basic kicking skills.

antipodean

@Catogrande said in England Vs All Blacks:

We only had a simple game plan although we did execute that well.

In the contest that put them two steps ahead of the All Blacks.

antipodean

@Tim said in England Vs All Blacks:

See if you can spot a loose forward in these pictures ... Savea stands way off the ruck and looks disinterested. Terrible openside. Absolutely shithouse selection

Because he only wants to carry the ball or pretend to be a five-eighth. He's the softest loose forward I've ever seen.

reprobate

@antipodean said in England Vs All Blacks:

@Tim said in England Vs All Blacks:

See if you can spot a loose forward in these pictures ... Savea stands way off the ruck and looks disinterested. Terrible openside. Absolutely shithouse selection

Because he only wants to carry the ball or pretend to be a five-eighth. He's the softest loose forward I've ever seen.

We've got BB doing chip kicks for him (when he's not trying them himself from our line). Now admittedly I'm not privy to the training numbers, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I reckon Jordan or Carter might have a bit more gas.

mariner4life

@antipodean said in England Vs All Blacks:

@Tim said in England Vs All Blacks:

See if you can spot a loose forward in these pictures ... Savea stands way off the ruck and looks disinterested. Terrible openside. Absolutely shithouse selection

Because he only wants to carry the ball or pretend to be a five-eighth. He's the softest loose forward I've ever seen.

but, but the leg drive!! beast mode!! And that one breakdown steal a game where he gets up looking staunch as fuck!! Amazing player.

The part of his game that fucks me off is he will often pick the worst possible time for a pick and go, killing opportunity, and often making no yards because he trips over the obvious obstacles that SHOULD have meant he didn't take it on. I am so over his state of play.

The Silver Fern

England v All Blacks