Skip to content
  • Categories
Collapse

The Silver Fern

  • Tipping
  • Team Sheets
  • Highlights
  • Results
    • All Blacks

      Search every All Blacks Test. Filter results by year, opposition, location, venue, city and RWC stage

    • Super Rugby

      Search every Super Rugby since match 1996

    • NPC

      Search NPC results. Only first division matches from 1976-2005. All results from the 14 team competition (2006-present) are included

England & Eddie

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Sports Talk
rwcengland
105 Posts 27 Posters 4.5k Views
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • rotatedR rotated

    Eddie...What isn't to like about Eddie? He seems to have the right attitude, is able to develop players, can coax epic performances out of teams with semi-regularity.

    I'm sure England fans are disappointing at the loss - but I doubt they are left scratching their heads at puzzling selections throughout the cycle and can see the players were well prepared and went out there with a clear gameplan which just didn't come off.

    Every interview I've seen with him where he isn't shit stirring I've quite enjoyed.

    Who posted a series of off-the-record comments he made at a function (that were swiftly deleted and probably rightly so)? His views were pretty insightful and remarkably candid for the coach of England.

    England... I mean they've made more RWC finals in the pro era than we have? Can't really stick the boot in.

    Chris B.C Offline
    Chris B.C Offline
    Chris B.
    wrote on last edited by Chris B.
    #86

    @rotated said in England & Eddie:

    England... I mean they've made more RWC finals in the pro era than we have? Can't really stick the boot in.

    I guess if you look at the Big Five (with a nod especially to Wales who've upset the apple cart on several occasions) in nine World Cups, par is probably something pretty close to:

    2 x World Cups
    2 x Beaten Finalists
    3 x Beaten Semifinalists
    2 x Beaten Quarterfinalists
    9 x Made it out of pool play

    Obviously with a bit of adjustment for SA missing the first couple.

    1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • CrucialC Offline
      CrucialC Offline
      Crucial
      wrote on last edited by
      #87

      @NTA I know you are likely being contrary just to find some excitement in the RWC after the Wobblies produced their predicted shite tournament 😉

      But seriously, if your boy won a silver medal at big event and refused to even have it put around his neck I would like to think you'd have words with him about how he handled losing.

      Throw the thing in the bin or off a bridge afterwards, give it away or even just take it off a little later but refusing to accept it properly at presentation or ripping it off while still with the officials? Just poor manners really.

      NTAN 1 Reply Last reply
      3
      • CrucialC Crucial

        @NTA I know you are likely being contrary just to find some excitement in the RWC after the Wobblies produced their predicted shite tournament 😉

        But seriously, if your boy won a silver medal at big event and refused to even have it put around his neck I would like to think you'd have words with him about how he handled losing.

        Throw the thing in the bin or off a bridge afterwards, give it away or even just take it off a little later but refusing to accept it properly at presentation or ripping it off while still with the officials? Just poor manners really.

        NTAN Offline
        NTAN Offline
        NTA
        wrote on last edited by
        #88

        @Crucial said in England & Eddie:

        @NTA I know you are likely being contrary just to find some excitement in the RWC after the Wobblies produced their predicted shite tournament 😉

        I'm at peace with it. Have been since early October 😉

        But seriously, if your boy won a silver medal at big event and refused to even have it put around his neck I would like to think you'd have words with him about how he handled losing.

        Yes. However, that is talking to him about it afterwards.

        We're having a discussion about how whether the professional rugby players should have behaved that way in the first place.

        So, in your scenario, my credentials as a parent are under serious question if we're saying the England team culture is shit. 😉

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • canefanC Offline
          canefanC Offline
          canefan
          wrote on last edited by canefan
          #89

          Eddie is staying with England

          https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12282366

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • SiamS Offline
            SiamS Offline
            Siam
            wrote on last edited by
            #90

            The medals thing:

            Small stuff that we sweat on too much these days.

            I can definitely get myself riled up about such things and found an involuntary head nodding at all the reasonable admonishments posted here.

            It wasn't ideal behaviour. But not especially representative of anything other than 20 something year olds behaviour being over ridden by emotions for a time in their life spanning less than 60 seconds.

            Fast forward anytime from now and you meet one and he acknowledges that it was a pretty spack thing to do, and he was a bit het up at the time. Some degree of contrition and acceptance of the yucky optics.

            Well, the whole outrage fire inside just fizzles out from that point.

            Cory's right. Save your outrage for non hand shaking or public denigration of the winners.

            In other words,, keep your outrage powder dry 😉

            1 Reply Last reply
            1
            • taniwharugbyT Offline
              taniwharugbyT Offline
              taniwharugby
              wrote on last edited by
              #91

              Eddie Jones has vowed to stay on as England head coach after Saturday's humiliating World Cup final defeat to South Africa

              Why was it humiliating? Saw plenty of media that labelled our loss humiliating too.

              canefanC 1 Reply Last reply
              1
              • taniwharugbyT taniwharugby

                Eddie Jones has vowed to stay on as England head coach after Saturday's humiliating World Cup final defeat to South Africa

                Why was it humiliating? Saw plenty of media that labelled our loss humiliating too.

                canefanC Offline
                canefanC Offline
                canefan
                wrote on last edited by
                #92

                @taniwharugby said in England & Eddie:

                Eddie Jones has vowed to stay on as England head coach after Saturday's humiliating World Cup final defeat to South Africa

                Why was it humiliating? Saw plenty of media that labelled our loss humiliating too.

                Standard media histrionics

                1 Reply Last reply
                2
                • rotatedR rotated

                  Eddie...What isn't to like about Eddie? He seems to have the right attitude, is able to develop players, can coax epic performances out of teams with semi-regularity.

                  I'm sure England fans are disappointing at the loss - but I doubt they are left scratching their heads at puzzling selections throughout the cycle and can see the players were well prepared and went out there with a clear gameplan which just didn't come off.

                  Every interview I've seen with him where he isn't shit stirring I've quite enjoyed.

                  Who posted a series of off-the-record comments he made at a function (that were swiftly deleted and probably rightly so)? His views were pretty insightful and remarkably candid for the coach of England.

                  England... I mean they've made more RWC finals in the pro era than we have? Can't really stick the boot in.

                  Billy WebbB Offline
                  Billy WebbB Offline
                  Billy Webb
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #93

                  @rotated said in England & Eddie:

                  Eddie...What isn't to like about Eddie? He seems to have the right attitude, is able to develop players, can coax epic performances out of teams with semi-regularity.

                  I actually really like Eddie Jones. Sure, he can say some things to rile people up, but for the most part I find him both insightful and entertaining. And he is clearly a bloody good coach.

                  Oh - and did I mention that Eddie has now been involved in both SA's last 2 RWC victories? 🙂

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  6
                  • mofitzy_M mofitzy_

                    @junior said in England & Eddie:

                    @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                    @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                    @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                    @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                    Is this a troll post? No English here to troll....

                    Last night showed how tough it is to win a World Cup. If you look at the three tournaments South Africa have won, they haven't been very good in any of them.

                    • 1995 they beat Samoa, France and New Zealand.
                    • 2007 it was Fiji, Argentina and France.
                    • 2019 it was Japan, Wales and England.

                    Relatively speaking those are very easy runs. In the two most recent cups we won we had off performances in the knock outs. 2011, it was the final. 2015, it was the semi. We could have lost either game.

                    Before this game people clearly discounted the effect that England's tougher run had had. It's exceptionally tough to win a World Cup having had three tough knock out games. In 2015, we beat Australia in the final who had a much easier draw. However, Australia were much worse than us. England and South Africa are generally closely matched so the tough run was always going to be a factor.

                    People also discounted how South Africa were a much different team to us. We didn't try to take England on up front; South Africa were always going to. If Sinckler doesn't get injured, England could have won. Maybe if the first couple of minutes of how semi had happened differently, we could have won as well.

                    Eddie Jones is a great coach who has achieved great things with England over the last four years. I would still have him as coach of the year.

                    Not sure about this and commented on it earlier.

                    England's schedule was tough on paper - and I wrote before the tournament started that England wouldn't win the WC because they had Argentina, France, Wales/Australia, SA/NZ, SA/NZ on the trot - but the reality was very different.

                    They comfortably beat a 14-man Argentina; the France match was cancelled; and they comfortably beat an average Australia side who'd already lost to Wales.

                    They produced one of the performances of the decade by dismantling NZ in the SF but really that was their only serious challenge prior to the Final.

                    Conversely SA had to play NZ first up; then a very good Japanese side who were unbeaten with wins over Ireland and Scotland, in the QF; then Wales who were also unbeaten, in the SF.

                    For me, SA had the harder path - admittedly losing to NZ didn't derail their progress.

                    Eddie has done wonders with England but he made some fatal flaws this tournament and in the years leading up to it.

                    1. Sinckler.
                      Great tournament. But if his best back up is Dan Coles then you're always going to struggle if Sinckler gets a YC or an early injury.

                    2. Youngs
                      Great going forward. Shithouse going backwards. I would have yanked him at half-time. Spencer couldn't have been any worse.

                    3. Daly
                      Great athlete, average full-back. Exposed badly today. Willie looked like Cullen in comparison.

                    4. May
                      He was carrying an injury. Barrett caught him ffs. No way Barrett was catching Watson.

                    5. Slade
                      Not match fit and made significant mistakes in the games he played in

                    6. Ford
                      This was not the match to start Ford

                    7. No nasty fluffybunny in the forwards
                      England have great, technical athletes in all positions but no real hard bastard in the Martin Johnson mould who can bollock them.
                      Lawes was stuffed twice by Kolbe ffs

                    How's that for starters?

                    Strongly disagree with this. Pool play is a bit of an irrelevancy unless you have a tough pool. The New Zealand vs South Africa game happened a long time ago and both teams were going to beat Wales. Japan had had two very good victories but were unlikely to have the physicality to beat South Africa in that game. Japan had already played their final. Wales may have been unbeaten but they were exceptionally poor in the semi final and couldn't threaten the South African line.

                    Not for the first time today I've questioned whether posters watched the SA v Wales SF.

                    We scored a try. A good one. England couldn't today, despite 20 odd stabs at it in one passage of play.

                    It was 16-16 going in to the last 10 minutes.

                    We had two opportunities to take the lead and blew both.

                    SA had one chance in the last 5 minutes and took it.

                    So if we were exceptionally poor, then SA were just poor.

                    SA didn't do much different tonight, so England lost to a poor team.

                    Not buying it.

                    Well, Mike, I get your point, but where does that leave England's performance against us, given that we beat RSA and then spanked Wales? Perhaps England weren't that great after all and, in fact, we were just really shit...?

                    They were very good on the day, but we were also really shit. Some pundits seem to think that if a team plays shit, then it's 100% because they were forced to play shit but obviously that isn't true. Likewise its possible to play well when the opponent also plays well.

                    juniorJ Offline
                    juniorJ Offline
                    junior
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #94

                    @mofitzy_ said in England & Eddie:

                    @junior said in England & Eddie:

                    @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                    @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                    @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                    @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                    Is this a troll post? No English here to troll....

                    Last night showed how tough it is to win a World Cup. If you look at the three tournaments South Africa have won, they haven't been very good in any of them.

                    • 1995 they beat Samoa, France and New Zealand.
                    • 2007 it was Fiji, Argentina and France.
                    • 2019 it was Japan, Wales and England.

                    Relatively speaking those are very easy runs. In the two most recent cups we won we had off performances in the knock outs. 2011, it was the final. 2015, it was the semi. We could have lost either game.

                    Before this game people clearly discounted the effect that England's tougher run had had. It's exceptionally tough to win a World Cup having had three tough knock out games. In 2015, we beat Australia in the final who had a much easier draw. However, Australia were much worse than us. England and South Africa are generally closely matched so the tough run was always going to be a factor.

                    People also discounted how South Africa were a much different team to us. We didn't try to take England on up front; South Africa were always going to. If Sinckler doesn't get injured, England could have won. Maybe if the first couple of minutes of how semi had happened differently, we could have won as well.

                    Eddie Jones is a great coach who has achieved great things with England over the last four years. I would still have him as coach of the year.

                    Not sure about this and commented on it earlier.

                    England's schedule was tough on paper - and I wrote before the tournament started that England wouldn't win the WC because they had Argentina, France, Wales/Australia, SA/NZ, SA/NZ on the trot - but the reality was very different.

                    They comfortably beat a 14-man Argentina; the France match was cancelled; and they comfortably beat an average Australia side who'd already lost to Wales.

                    They produced one of the performances of the decade by dismantling NZ in the SF but really that was their only serious challenge prior to the Final.

                    Conversely SA had to play NZ first up; then a very good Japanese side who were unbeaten with wins over Ireland and Scotland, in the QF; then Wales who were also unbeaten, in the SF.

                    For me, SA had the harder path - admittedly losing to NZ didn't derail their progress.

                    Eddie has done wonders with England but he made some fatal flaws this tournament and in the years leading up to it.

                    1. Sinckler.
                      Great tournament. But if his best back up is Dan Coles then you're always going to struggle if Sinckler gets a YC or an early injury.

                    2. Youngs
                      Great going forward. Shithouse going backwards. I would have yanked him at half-time. Spencer couldn't have been any worse.

                    3. Daly
                      Great athlete, average full-back. Exposed badly today. Willie looked like Cullen in comparison.

                    4. May
                      He was carrying an injury. Barrett caught him ffs. No way Barrett was catching Watson.

                    5. Slade
                      Not match fit and made significant mistakes in the games he played in

                    6. Ford
                      This was not the match to start Ford

                    7. No nasty fluffybunny in the forwards
                      England have great, technical athletes in all positions but no real hard bastard in the Martin Johnson mould who can bollock them.
                      Lawes was stuffed twice by Kolbe ffs

                    How's that for starters?

                    Strongly disagree with this. Pool play is a bit of an irrelevancy unless you have a tough pool. The New Zealand vs South Africa game happened a long time ago and both teams were going to beat Wales. Japan had had two very good victories but were unlikely to have the physicality to beat South Africa in that game. Japan had already played their final. Wales may have been unbeaten but they were exceptionally poor in the semi final and couldn't threaten the South African line.

                    Not for the first time today I've questioned whether posters watched the SA v Wales SF.

                    We scored a try. A good one. England couldn't today, despite 20 odd stabs at it in one passage of play.

                    It was 16-16 going in to the last 10 minutes.

                    We had two opportunities to take the lead and blew both.

                    SA had one chance in the last 5 minutes and took it.

                    So if we were exceptionally poor, then SA were just poor.

                    SA didn't do much different tonight, so England lost to a poor team.

                    Not buying it.

                    Well, Mike, I get your point, but where does that leave England's performance against us, given that we beat RSA and then spanked Wales? Perhaps England weren't that great after all and, in fact, we were just really shit...?

                    They were very good on the day, but we were also really shit. Some pundits seem to think that if a team plays shit, then it's 100% because they were forced to play shit but obviously that isn't true. Likewise its possible to play well when the opponent also plays well.

                    Yeah, look, I never really bought the "no one would have beaten England that day" view of things. True, that they got it spot on tactically and mentally. But, there's no doubt that we were tactically stupid and got some selections way wrong.

                    Even so, we still had some opportunities to swing the match back into our favour, which we again cocked up through poor options (A Smith's attacking box kick, Jordie's running it and getting smashed by Underhill), poor handling (Brodie's awful pass on the break) and ill-discipline (Whitelock's palm to Farrell's face).

                    canefanC 1 Reply Last reply
                    4
                    • juniorJ junior

                      @mofitzy_ said in England & Eddie:

                      @junior said in England & Eddie:

                      @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                      @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                      @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                      @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                      Is this a troll post? No English here to troll....

                      Last night showed how tough it is to win a World Cup. If you look at the three tournaments South Africa have won, they haven't been very good in any of them.

                      • 1995 they beat Samoa, France and New Zealand.
                      • 2007 it was Fiji, Argentina and France.
                      • 2019 it was Japan, Wales and England.

                      Relatively speaking those are very easy runs. In the two most recent cups we won we had off performances in the knock outs. 2011, it was the final. 2015, it was the semi. We could have lost either game.

                      Before this game people clearly discounted the effect that England's tougher run had had. It's exceptionally tough to win a World Cup having had three tough knock out games. In 2015, we beat Australia in the final who had a much easier draw. However, Australia were much worse than us. England and South Africa are generally closely matched so the tough run was always going to be a factor.

                      People also discounted how South Africa were a much different team to us. We didn't try to take England on up front; South Africa were always going to. If Sinckler doesn't get injured, England could have won. Maybe if the first couple of minutes of how semi had happened differently, we could have won as well.

                      Eddie Jones is a great coach who has achieved great things with England over the last four years. I would still have him as coach of the year.

                      Not sure about this and commented on it earlier.

                      England's schedule was tough on paper - and I wrote before the tournament started that England wouldn't win the WC because they had Argentina, France, Wales/Australia, SA/NZ, SA/NZ on the trot - but the reality was very different.

                      They comfortably beat a 14-man Argentina; the France match was cancelled; and they comfortably beat an average Australia side who'd already lost to Wales.

                      They produced one of the performances of the decade by dismantling NZ in the SF but really that was their only serious challenge prior to the Final.

                      Conversely SA had to play NZ first up; then a very good Japanese side who were unbeaten with wins over Ireland and Scotland, in the QF; then Wales who were also unbeaten, in the SF.

                      For me, SA had the harder path - admittedly losing to NZ didn't derail their progress.

                      Eddie has done wonders with England but he made some fatal flaws this tournament and in the years leading up to it.

                      1. Sinckler.
                        Great tournament. But if his best back up is Dan Coles then you're always going to struggle if Sinckler gets a YC or an early injury.

                      2. Youngs
                        Great going forward. Shithouse going backwards. I would have yanked him at half-time. Spencer couldn't have been any worse.

                      3. Daly
                        Great athlete, average full-back. Exposed badly today. Willie looked like Cullen in comparison.

                      4. May
                        He was carrying an injury. Barrett caught him ffs. No way Barrett was catching Watson.

                      5. Slade
                        Not match fit and made significant mistakes in the games he played in

                      6. Ford
                        This was not the match to start Ford

                      7. No nasty fluffybunny in the forwards
                        England have great, technical athletes in all positions but no real hard bastard in the Martin Johnson mould who can bollock them.
                        Lawes was stuffed twice by Kolbe ffs

                      How's that for starters?

                      Strongly disagree with this. Pool play is a bit of an irrelevancy unless you have a tough pool. The New Zealand vs South Africa game happened a long time ago and both teams were going to beat Wales. Japan had had two very good victories but were unlikely to have the physicality to beat South Africa in that game. Japan had already played their final. Wales may have been unbeaten but they were exceptionally poor in the semi final and couldn't threaten the South African line.

                      Not for the first time today I've questioned whether posters watched the SA v Wales SF.

                      We scored a try. A good one. England couldn't today, despite 20 odd stabs at it in one passage of play.

                      It was 16-16 going in to the last 10 minutes.

                      We had two opportunities to take the lead and blew both.

                      SA had one chance in the last 5 minutes and took it.

                      So if we were exceptionally poor, then SA were just poor.

                      SA didn't do much different tonight, so England lost to a poor team.

                      Not buying it.

                      Well, Mike, I get your point, but where does that leave England's performance against us, given that we beat RSA and then spanked Wales? Perhaps England weren't that great after all and, in fact, we were just really shit...?

                      They were very good on the day, but we were also really shit. Some pundits seem to think that if a team plays shit, then it's 100% because they were forced to play shit but obviously that isn't true. Likewise its possible to play well when the opponent also plays well.

                      Yeah, look, I never really bought the "no one would have beaten England that day" view of things. True, that they got it spot on tactically and mentally. But, there's no doubt that we were tactically stupid and got some selections way wrong.

                      Even so, we still had some opportunities to swing the match back into our favour, which we again cocked up through poor options (A Smith's attacking box kick, Jordie's running it and getting smashed by Underhill), poor handling (Brodie's awful pass on the break) and ill-discipline (Whitelock's palm to Farrell's face).

                      canefanC Offline
                      canefanC Offline
                      canefan
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #95

                      @junior said in England & Eddie:

                      @mofitzy_ said in England & Eddie:

                      @junior said in England & Eddie:

                      @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                      @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                      @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                      @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                      Is this a troll post? No English here to troll....

                      Last night showed how tough it is to win a World Cup. If you look at the three tournaments South Africa have won, they haven't been very good in any of them.

                      • 1995 they beat Samoa, France and New Zealand.
                      • 2007 it was Fiji, Argentina and France.
                      • 2019 it was Japan, Wales and England.

                      Relatively speaking those are very easy runs. In the two most recent cups we won we had off performances in the knock outs. 2011, it was the final. 2015, it was the semi. We could have lost either game.

                      Before this game people clearly discounted the effect that England's tougher run had had. It's exceptionally tough to win a World Cup having had three tough knock out games. In 2015, we beat Australia in the final who had a much easier draw. However, Australia were much worse than us. England and South Africa are generally closely matched so the tough run was always going to be a factor.

                      People also discounted how South Africa were a much different team to us. We didn't try to take England on up front; South Africa were always going to. If Sinckler doesn't get injured, England could have won. Maybe if the first couple of minutes of how semi had happened differently, we could have won as well.

                      Eddie Jones is a great coach who has achieved great things with England over the last four years. I would still have him as coach of the year.

                      Not sure about this and commented on it earlier.

                      England's schedule was tough on paper - and I wrote before the tournament started that England wouldn't win the WC because they had Argentina, France, Wales/Australia, SA/NZ, SA/NZ on the trot - but the reality was very different.

                      They comfortably beat a 14-man Argentina; the France match was cancelled; and they comfortably beat an average Australia side who'd already lost to Wales.

                      They produced one of the performances of the decade by dismantling NZ in the SF but really that was their only serious challenge prior to the Final.

                      Conversely SA had to play NZ first up; then a very good Japanese side who were unbeaten with wins over Ireland and Scotland, in the QF; then Wales who were also unbeaten, in the SF.

                      For me, SA had the harder path - admittedly losing to NZ didn't derail their progress.

                      Eddie has done wonders with England but he made some fatal flaws this tournament and in the years leading up to it.

                      1. Sinckler.
                        Great tournament. But if his best back up is Dan Coles then you're always going to struggle if Sinckler gets a YC or an early injury.

                      2. Youngs
                        Great going forward. Shithouse going backwards. I would have yanked him at half-time. Spencer couldn't have been any worse.

                      3. Daly
                        Great athlete, average full-back. Exposed badly today. Willie looked like Cullen in comparison.

                      4. May
                        He was carrying an injury. Barrett caught him ffs. No way Barrett was catching Watson.

                      5. Slade
                        Not match fit and made significant mistakes in the games he played in

                      6. Ford
                        This was not the match to start Ford

                      7. No nasty fluffybunny in the forwards
                        England have great, technical athletes in all positions but no real hard bastard in the Martin Johnson mould who can bollock them.
                        Lawes was stuffed twice by Kolbe ffs

                      How's that for starters?

                      Strongly disagree with this. Pool play is a bit of an irrelevancy unless you have a tough pool. The New Zealand vs South Africa game happened a long time ago and both teams were going to beat Wales. Japan had had two very good victories but were unlikely to have the physicality to beat South Africa in that game. Japan had already played their final. Wales may have been unbeaten but they were exceptionally poor in the semi final and couldn't threaten the South African line.

                      Not for the first time today I've questioned whether posters watched the SA v Wales SF.

                      We scored a try. A good one. England couldn't today, despite 20 odd stabs at it in one passage of play.

                      It was 16-16 going in to the last 10 minutes.

                      We had two opportunities to take the lead and blew both.

                      SA had one chance in the last 5 minutes and took it.

                      So if we were exceptionally poor, then SA were just poor.

                      SA didn't do much different tonight, so England lost to a poor team.

                      Not buying it.

                      Well, Mike, I get your point, but where does that leave England's performance against us, given that we beat RSA and then spanked Wales? Perhaps England weren't that great after all and, in fact, we were just really shit...?

                      They were very good on the day, but we were also really shit. Some pundits seem to think that if a team plays shit, then it's 100% because they were forced to play shit but obviously that isn't true. Likewise its possible to play well when the opponent also plays well.

                      Yeah, look, I never really bought the "no one would have beaten England that day" view of things. True, that they got it spot on tactically and mentally. But, there's no doubt that we were tactically stupid and got some selections way wrong.

                      Even so, we still had some opportunities to swing the match back into our favour, which we again cocked up through poor options (A Smith's attacking box kick, Jordie's running it and getting smashed by Underhill), poor handling (Brodie's awful pass on the break) and ill-discipline (Whitelock's palm to Farrell's face).

                      They dominated the collisions, however I always thought we could turn it around with a change of mindset and tactics. I was sure that Hansen would apply the hairdryer and we would come out and rumble it up the guts. But nothing changed, and that was probably the most disappointing thing of all for me

                      juniorJ 1 Reply Last reply
                      1
                      • rotatedR rotated

                        @Frank said in England & Eddie:

                        @rotated said in England & Eddie:
                        England... I mean they've made more RWC finals in the pro era than we have? Can't really stick the boot in.

                        I'd say winning the finals is much more important.
                        Unless you want to give out participation awards.

                        No doubt - but it's all a bit binary to say win the RWC or everything is a failure.

                        England have put together more good RWC campaigns than NZ in the pro era, and some absolute shockers as well.

                        juniorJ Offline
                        juniorJ Offline
                        junior
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #96

                        @rotated said in England & Eddie:

                        @Frank said in England & Eddie:

                        @rotated said in England & Eddie:
                        England... I mean they've made more RWC finals in the pro era than we have? Can't really stick the boot in.

                        I'd say winning the finals is much more important.
                        Unless you want to give out participation awards.

                        No doubt - but it's all a bit binary to say win the RWC or everything is a failure.

                        England have put together more good RWC campaigns than NZ in the pro era, and some absolute shockers as well.

                        But this is exactly what Eddie has banked on - his whole reputation has been built upon a few epic World Cup performances from "underrated" teams. In truth, he's shown little regard for rugby outside of the RWC by taking an all-conquering team in 2016 and accepting muddling performances for the next 3 years in the hope / expectation that it would be rewarded with a RWC victory.

                        Sure, the Boks have been largely shit since 2015 and, so, it would be inaccurate to say that they haven't sacrificed all the rugby in between in order to win this tournament. But, their shitness has largely been due to political machinations. As soon as they got a decent coach who has able to rise above it (or wasn't constrained by it), they started and were able to play to win, understanding that you actually need to build off a winning base to win the RWC.

                        nzzpN 1 Reply Last reply
                        1
                        • CrucialC Crucial

                          @Disgusted-of-TW said in England & Eddie:

                          Yesterday I was simultaneously happy for the victorious Boks, and pissed off at the manner of England's defeat. Last night I watched "Building Jerusalem", though, and felt relatively sanguine about the loss. Winning Bill is hard, there's a thousand things that need to go right in execution and even then you need a dollop of good fortune along the way; in contrast only a few things need to go awry, or the breaks don't fall your way, and you're farked. I don't believe in fate, I think , but I do like Terry Pratchett's idea of the narrative imperative - that some stories are just so good they have to happen. History loves a good narrative, and Kolisi's was just a great story! England will rise again, and win it again - 2023 looks a good shout given the age of the current squad and the quality of the age group cohorts coming through.

                          A couple of other random thoughts (before I forget my Silver Fern password until at least the 6N):

                          Japan - excellent hosts, honoured by their gallant and exciting national team.

                          Medalgate - I don't care how pissed off the England players were, awarding medals to the losers is part of the ritual - flush it down the hotel bog afterwards for all I care, but whilst you're at the ceremony suck it up and play your part with grace. Given the politeness of Japanese culture I thought that it was poor show by those who balked at the medal. But it's equally poor show that some will take this incontrovertible evidence as an opportunity to trot out all the tired old xenophobic tropes about arrogant hateful English rugby, the bane of the global sport. Hey ho.

                          I do agree with your post but would also point out that those very cliched tropes do have a basis to feed off and that actions like those the other night will keep stoking the fires.
                          There is no denying that rugby in England is a sport propped up by the 'entitled'. Yes, you may have gone a long way to spreading the player base away from elite schools but the financial support and administration is still mainly 'moneyed'.
                          I'm not saying they are bad people, just that there are attitudes that flow down and a certain level of arrogance that many don't like. Many in England itself don't like it either so this isn't just us poking you.
                          So, you can either embrace it as part of who you are and wear the barbs of others or try and change the fabric of the game there. I think the first option is easier.

                          Victor MeldrewV Offline
                          Victor MeldrewV Offline
                          Victor Meldrew
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #97

                          @Crucial said in England & Eddie:

                          I do agree with your post but would also point out that those very cliched tropes do have a basis to feed off and that actions like those the other night will keep stoking the fires.

                          I find the whole attitude to Rugby in England quite weird.

                          On one hand you have the genuine fans who are the same as everywhere else, are great to have beer with and think the likes of Stephen Jones an even bigger dickhead than we do. Then you have the band-wagon/occasional watchers...

                          It's the later which outnumber the genuine supporters which seem to be the problem, believing every poaching/cheating/ban-the-haka/arrogant opposition coach clickbait story they can find. The media feeds the frenzy which drives the media and around we go.

                          But I also think Jones needs to look at player attitude a bit. He could learn a lot from the way Southgate has made England one of the more likable and success soccer teams

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          1
                          • canefanC canefan

                            @junior said in England & Eddie:

                            @mofitzy_ said in England & Eddie:

                            @junior said in England & Eddie:

                            @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                            @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                            @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                            @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                            Is this a troll post? No English here to troll....

                            Last night showed how tough it is to win a World Cup. If you look at the three tournaments South Africa have won, they haven't been very good in any of them.

                            • 1995 they beat Samoa, France and New Zealand.
                            • 2007 it was Fiji, Argentina and France.
                            • 2019 it was Japan, Wales and England.

                            Relatively speaking those are very easy runs. In the two most recent cups we won we had off performances in the knock outs. 2011, it was the final. 2015, it was the semi. We could have lost either game.

                            Before this game people clearly discounted the effect that England's tougher run had had. It's exceptionally tough to win a World Cup having had three tough knock out games. In 2015, we beat Australia in the final who had a much easier draw. However, Australia were much worse than us. England and South Africa are generally closely matched so the tough run was always going to be a factor.

                            People also discounted how South Africa were a much different team to us. We didn't try to take England on up front; South Africa were always going to. If Sinckler doesn't get injured, England could have won. Maybe if the first couple of minutes of how semi had happened differently, we could have won as well.

                            Eddie Jones is a great coach who has achieved great things with England over the last four years. I would still have him as coach of the year.

                            Not sure about this and commented on it earlier.

                            England's schedule was tough on paper - and I wrote before the tournament started that England wouldn't win the WC because they had Argentina, France, Wales/Australia, SA/NZ, SA/NZ on the trot - but the reality was very different.

                            They comfortably beat a 14-man Argentina; the France match was cancelled; and they comfortably beat an average Australia side who'd already lost to Wales.

                            They produced one of the performances of the decade by dismantling NZ in the SF but really that was their only serious challenge prior to the Final.

                            Conversely SA had to play NZ first up; then a very good Japanese side who were unbeaten with wins over Ireland and Scotland, in the QF; then Wales who were also unbeaten, in the SF.

                            For me, SA had the harder path - admittedly losing to NZ didn't derail their progress.

                            Eddie has done wonders with England but he made some fatal flaws this tournament and in the years leading up to it.

                            1. Sinckler.
                              Great tournament. But if his best back up is Dan Coles then you're always going to struggle if Sinckler gets a YC or an early injury.

                            2. Youngs
                              Great going forward. Shithouse going backwards. I would have yanked him at half-time. Spencer couldn't have been any worse.

                            3. Daly
                              Great athlete, average full-back. Exposed badly today. Willie looked like Cullen in comparison.

                            4. May
                              He was carrying an injury. Barrett caught him ffs. No way Barrett was catching Watson.

                            5. Slade
                              Not match fit and made significant mistakes in the games he played in

                            6. Ford
                              This was not the match to start Ford

                            7. No nasty fluffybunny in the forwards
                              England have great, technical athletes in all positions but no real hard bastard in the Martin Johnson mould who can bollock them.
                              Lawes was stuffed twice by Kolbe ffs

                            How's that for starters?

                            Strongly disagree with this. Pool play is a bit of an irrelevancy unless you have a tough pool. The New Zealand vs South Africa game happened a long time ago and both teams were going to beat Wales. Japan had had two very good victories but were unlikely to have the physicality to beat South Africa in that game. Japan had already played their final. Wales may have been unbeaten but they were exceptionally poor in the semi final and couldn't threaten the South African line.

                            Not for the first time today I've questioned whether posters watched the SA v Wales SF.

                            We scored a try. A good one. England couldn't today, despite 20 odd stabs at it in one passage of play.

                            It was 16-16 going in to the last 10 minutes.

                            We had two opportunities to take the lead and blew both.

                            SA had one chance in the last 5 minutes and took it.

                            So if we were exceptionally poor, then SA were just poor.

                            SA didn't do much different tonight, so England lost to a poor team.

                            Not buying it.

                            Well, Mike, I get your point, but where does that leave England's performance against us, given that we beat RSA and then spanked Wales? Perhaps England weren't that great after all and, in fact, we were just really shit...?

                            They were very good on the day, but we were also really shit. Some pundits seem to think that if a team plays shit, then it's 100% because they were forced to play shit but obviously that isn't true. Likewise its possible to play well when the opponent also plays well.

                            Yeah, look, I never really bought the "no one would have beaten England that day" view of things. True, that they got it spot on tactically and mentally. But, there's no doubt that we were tactically stupid and got some selections way wrong.

                            Even so, we still had some opportunities to swing the match back into our favour, which we again cocked up through poor options (A Smith's attacking box kick, Jordie's running it and getting smashed by Underhill), poor handling (Brodie's awful pass on the break) and ill-discipline (Whitelock's palm to Farrell's face).

                            They dominated the collisions, however I always thought we could turn it around with a change of mindset and tactics. I was sure that Hansen would apply the hairdryer and we would come out and rumble it up the guts. But nothing changed, and that was probably the most disappointing thing of all for me

                            juniorJ Offline
                            juniorJ Offline
                            junior
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #98

                            @canefan said in England & Eddie:

                            @junior said in England & Eddie:

                            @mofitzy_ said in England & Eddie:

                            @junior said in England & Eddie:

                            @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                            @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                            @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                            @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                            Is this a troll post? No English here to troll....

                            Last night showed how tough it is to win a World Cup. If you look at the three tournaments South Africa have won, they haven't been very good in any of them.

                            • 1995 they beat Samoa, France and New Zealand.
                            • 2007 it was Fiji, Argentina and France.
                            • 2019 it was Japan, Wales and England.

                            Relatively speaking those are very easy runs. In the two most recent cups we won we had off performances in the knock outs. 2011, it was the final. 2015, it was the semi. We could have lost either game.

                            Before this game people clearly discounted the effect that England's tougher run had had. It's exceptionally tough to win a World Cup having had three tough knock out games. In 2015, we beat Australia in the final who had a much easier draw. However, Australia were much worse than us. England and South Africa are generally closely matched so the tough run was always going to be a factor.

                            People also discounted how South Africa were a much different team to us. We didn't try to take England on up front; South Africa were always going to. If Sinckler doesn't get injured, England could have won. Maybe if the first couple of minutes of how semi had happened differently, we could have won as well.

                            Eddie Jones is a great coach who has achieved great things with England over the last four years. I would still have him as coach of the year.

                            Not sure about this and commented on it earlier.

                            England's schedule was tough on paper - and I wrote before the tournament started that England wouldn't win the WC because they had Argentina, France, Wales/Australia, SA/NZ, SA/NZ on the trot - but the reality was very different.

                            They comfortably beat a 14-man Argentina; the France match was cancelled; and they comfortably beat an average Australia side who'd already lost to Wales.

                            They produced one of the performances of the decade by dismantling NZ in the SF but really that was their only serious challenge prior to the Final.

                            Conversely SA had to play NZ first up; then a very good Japanese side who were unbeaten with wins over Ireland and Scotland, in the QF; then Wales who were also unbeaten, in the SF.

                            For me, SA had the harder path - admittedly losing to NZ didn't derail their progress.

                            Eddie has done wonders with England but he made some fatal flaws this tournament and in the years leading up to it.

                            1. Sinckler.
                              Great tournament. But if his best back up is Dan Coles then you're always going to struggle if Sinckler gets a YC or an early injury.

                            2. Youngs
                              Great going forward. Shithouse going backwards. I would have yanked him at half-time. Spencer couldn't have been any worse.

                            3. Daly
                              Great athlete, average full-back. Exposed badly today. Willie looked like Cullen in comparison.

                            4. May
                              He was carrying an injury. Barrett caught him ffs. No way Barrett was catching Watson.

                            5. Slade
                              Not match fit and made significant mistakes in the games he played in

                            6. Ford
                              This was not the match to start Ford

                            7. No nasty fluffybunny in the forwards
                              England have great, technical athletes in all positions but no real hard bastard in the Martin Johnson mould who can bollock them.
                              Lawes was stuffed twice by Kolbe ffs

                            How's that for starters?

                            Strongly disagree with this. Pool play is a bit of an irrelevancy unless you have a tough pool. The New Zealand vs South Africa game happened a long time ago and both teams were going to beat Wales. Japan had had two very good victories but were unlikely to have the physicality to beat South Africa in that game. Japan had already played their final. Wales may have been unbeaten but they were exceptionally poor in the semi final and couldn't threaten the South African line.

                            Not for the first time today I've questioned whether posters watched the SA v Wales SF.

                            We scored a try. A good one. England couldn't today, despite 20 odd stabs at it in one passage of play.

                            It was 16-16 going in to the last 10 minutes.

                            We had two opportunities to take the lead and blew both.

                            SA had one chance in the last 5 minutes and took it.

                            So if we were exceptionally poor, then SA were just poor.

                            SA didn't do much different tonight, so England lost to a poor team.

                            Not buying it.

                            Well, Mike, I get your point, but where does that leave England's performance against us, given that we beat RSA and then spanked Wales? Perhaps England weren't that great after all and, in fact, we were just really shit...?

                            They were very good on the day, but we were also really shit. Some pundits seem to think that if a team plays shit, then it's 100% because they were forced to play shit but obviously that isn't true. Likewise its possible to play well when the opponent also plays well.

                            Yeah, look, I never really bought the "no one would have beaten England that day" view of things. True, that they got it spot on tactically and mentally. But, there's no doubt that we were tactically stupid and got some selections way wrong.

                            Even so, we still had some opportunities to swing the match back into our favour, which we again cocked up through poor options (A Smith's attacking box kick, Jordie's running it and getting smashed by Underhill), poor handling (Brodie's awful pass on the break) and ill-discipline (Whitelock's palm to Farrell's face).

                            They dominated the collisions, however I always thought we could turn it around with a change of mindset and tactics. I was sure that Hansen would apply the hairdryer and we would come out and rumble it up the guts. But nothing changed, and that was probably the most disappointing thing of all for me

                            No shit, but a contributing factor in that were our tactics and selections. As I've said elsewhere (and so has @Bones), we ran forward pods close into the ruck once all game, which resulted in Reece getting enough space to perhaps have a chance to touch down in the corner. We then scored from the ensuing lineout.

                            We did that all match against the Irish and nearly brought up a half ton. We did that once all all match against the English and it proved to be fruitful (sure not as easy or as fruitful as against Ireland, but still fruitful). So, I don't really buy "England didn't allow us to play" tripe that's been trotted out a lot since.

                            canefanC 1 Reply Last reply
                            1
                            • juniorJ junior

                              @canefan said in England & Eddie:

                              @junior said in England & Eddie:

                              @mofitzy_ said in England & Eddie:

                              @junior said in England & Eddie:

                              @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                              @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                              @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                              @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                              Is this a troll post? No English here to troll....

                              Last night showed how tough it is to win a World Cup. If you look at the three tournaments South Africa have won, they haven't been very good in any of them.

                              • 1995 they beat Samoa, France and New Zealand.
                              • 2007 it was Fiji, Argentina and France.
                              • 2019 it was Japan, Wales and England.

                              Relatively speaking those are very easy runs. In the two most recent cups we won we had off performances in the knock outs. 2011, it was the final. 2015, it was the semi. We could have lost either game.

                              Before this game people clearly discounted the effect that England's tougher run had had. It's exceptionally tough to win a World Cup having had three tough knock out games. In 2015, we beat Australia in the final who had a much easier draw. However, Australia were much worse than us. England and South Africa are generally closely matched so the tough run was always going to be a factor.

                              People also discounted how South Africa were a much different team to us. We didn't try to take England on up front; South Africa were always going to. If Sinckler doesn't get injured, England could have won. Maybe if the first couple of minutes of how semi had happened differently, we could have won as well.

                              Eddie Jones is a great coach who has achieved great things with England over the last four years. I would still have him as coach of the year.

                              Not sure about this and commented on it earlier.

                              England's schedule was tough on paper - and I wrote before the tournament started that England wouldn't win the WC because they had Argentina, France, Wales/Australia, SA/NZ, SA/NZ on the trot - but the reality was very different.

                              They comfortably beat a 14-man Argentina; the France match was cancelled; and they comfortably beat an average Australia side who'd already lost to Wales.

                              They produced one of the performances of the decade by dismantling NZ in the SF but really that was their only serious challenge prior to the Final.

                              Conversely SA had to play NZ first up; then a very good Japanese side who were unbeaten with wins over Ireland and Scotland, in the QF; then Wales who were also unbeaten, in the SF.

                              For me, SA had the harder path - admittedly losing to NZ didn't derail their progress.

                              Eddie has done wonders with England but he made some fatal flaws this tournament and in the years leading up to it.

                              1. Sinckler.
                                Great tournament. But if his best back up is Dan Coles then you're always going to struggle if Sinckler gets a YC or an early injury.

                              2. Youngs
                                Great going forward. Shithouse going backwards. I would have yanked him at half-time. Spencer couldn't have been any worse.

                              3. Daly
                                Great athlete, average full-back. Exposed badly today. Willie looked like Cullen in comparison.

                              4. May
                                He was carrying an injury. Barrett caught him ffs. No way Barrett was catching Watson.

                              5. Slade
                                Not match fit and made significant mistakes in the games he played in

                              6. Ford
                                This was not the match to start Ford

                              7. No nasty fluffybunny in the forwards
                                England have great, technical athletes in all positions but no real hard bastard in the Martin Johnson mould who can bollock them.
                                Lawes was stuffed twice by Kolbe ffs

                              How's that for starters?

                              Strongly disagree with this. Pool play is a bit of an irrelevancy unless you have a tough pool. The New Zealand vs South Africa game happened a long time ago and both teams were going to beat Wales. Japan had had two very good victories but were unlikely to have the physicality to beat South Africa in that game. Japan had already played their final. Wales may have been unbeaten but they were exceptionally poor in the semi final and couldn't threaten the South African line.

                              Not for the first time today I've questioned whether posters watched the SA v Wales SF.

                              We scored a try. A good one. England couldn't today, despite 20 odd stabs at it in one passage of play.

                              It was 16-16 going in to the last 10 minutes.

                              We had two opportunities to take the lead and blew both.

                              SA had one chance in the last 5 minutes and took it.

                              So if we were exceptionally poor, then SA were just poor.

                              SA didn't do much different tonight, so England lost to a poor team.

                              Not buying it.

                              Well, Mike, I get your point, but where does that leave England's performance against us, given that we beat RSA and then spanked Wales? Perhaps England weren't that great after all and, in fact, we were just really shit...?

                              They were very good on the day, but we were also really shit. Some pundits seem to think that if a team plays shit, then it's 100% because they were forced to play shit but obviously that isn't true. Likewise its possible to play well when the opponent also plays well.

                              Yeah, look, I never really bought the "no one would have beaten England that day" view of things. True, that they got it spot on tactically and mentally. But, there's no doubt that we were tactically stupid and got some selections way wrong.

                              Even so, we still had some opportunities to swing the match back into our favour, which we again cocked up through poor options (A Smith's attacking box kick, Jordie's running it and getting smashed by Underhill), poor handling (Brodie's awful pass on the break) and ill-discipline (Whitelock's palm to Farrell's face).

                              They dominated the collisions, however I always thought we could turn it around with a change of mindset and tactics. I was sure that Hansen would apply the hairdryer and we would come out and rumble it up the guts. But nothing changed, and that was probably the most disappointing thing of all for me

                              No shit, but a contributing factor in that were our tactics and selections. As I've said elsewhere (and so has @Bones), we ran forward pods close into the ruck once all game, which resulted in Reece getting enough space to perhaps have a chance to touch down in the corner. We then scored from the ensuing lineout.

                              We did that all match against the Irish and nearly brought up a half ton. We did that once all all match against the English and it proved to be fruitful (sure not as easy or as fruitful as against Ireland, but still fruitful). So, I don't really buy "England didn't allow us to play" tripe that's been trotted out a lot since.

                              canefanC Offline
                              canefanC Offline
                              canefan
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #99

                              @junior said in England & Eddie:

                              @canefan said in England & Eddie:

                              @junior said in England & Eddie:

                              @mofitzy_ said in England & Eddie:

                              @junior said in England & Eddie:

                              @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                              @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                              @MiketheSnow said in England & Eddie:

                              @hydro11 said in England & Eddie:

                              Is this a troll post? No English here to troll....

                              Last night showed how tough it is to win a World Cup. If you look at the three tournaments South Africa have won, they haven't been very good in any of them.

                              • 1995 they beat Samoa, France and New Zealand.
                              • 2007 it was Fiji, Argentina and France.
                              • 2019 it was Japan, Wales and England.

                              Relatively speaking those are very easy runs. In the two most recent cups we won we had off performances in the knock outs. 2011, it was the final. 2015, it was the semi. We could have lost either game.

                              Before this game people clearly discounted the effect that England's tougher run had had. It's exceptionally tough to win a World Cup having had three tough knock out games. In 2015, we beat Australia in the final who had a much easier draw. However, Australia were much worse than us. England and South Africa are generally closely matched so the tough run was always going to be a factor.

                              People also discounted how South Africa were a much different team to us. We didn't try to take England on up front; South Africa were always going to. If Sinckler doesn't get injured, England could have won. Maybe if the first couple of minutes of how semi had happened differently, we could have won as well.

                              Eddie Jones is a great coach who has achieved great things with England over the last four years. I would still have him as coach of the year.

                              Not sure about this and commented on it earlier.

                              England's schedule was tough on paper - and I wrote before the tournament started that England wouldn't win the WC because they had Argentina, France, Wales/Australia, SA/NZ, SA/NZ on the trot - but the reality was very different.

                              They comfortably beat a 14-man Argentina; the France match was cancelled; and they comfortably beat an average Australia side who'd already lost to Wales.

                              They produced one of the performances of the decade by dismantling NZ in the SF but really that was their only serious challenge prior to the Final.

                              Conversely SA had to play NZ first up; then a very good Japanese side who were unbeaten with wins over Ireland and Scotland, in the QF; then Wales who were also unbeaten, in the SF.

                              For me, SA had the harder path - admittedly losing to NZ didn't derail their progress.

                              Eddie has done wonders with England but he made some fatal flaws this tournament and in the years leading up to it.

                              1. Sinckler.
                                Great tournament. But if his best back up is Dan Coles then you're always going to struggle if Sinckler gets a YC or an early injury.

                              2. Youngs
                                Great going forward. Shithouse going backwards. I would have yanked him at half-time. Spencer couldn't have been any worse.

                              3. Daly
                                Great athlete, average full-back. Exposed badly today. Willie looked like Cullen in comparison.

                              4. May
                                He was carrying an injury. Barrett caught him ffs. No way Barrett was catching Watson.

                              5. Slade
                                Not match fit and made significant mistakes in the games he played in

                              6. Ford
                                This was not the match to start Ford

                              7. No nasty fluffybunny in the forwards
                                England have great, technical athletes in all positions but no real hard bastard in the Martin Johnson mould who can bollock them.
                                Lawes was stuffed twice by Kolbe ffs

                              How's that for starters?

                              Strongly disagree with this. Pool play is a bit of an irrelevancy unless you have a tough pool. The New Zealand vs South Africa game happened a long time ago and both teams were going to beat Wales. Japan had had two very good victories but were unlikely to have the physicality to beat South Africa in that game. Japan had already played their final. Wales may have been unbeaten but they were exceptionally poor in the semi final and couldn't threaten the South African line.

                              Not for the first time today I've questioned whether posters watched the SA v Wales SF.

                              We scored a try. A good one. England couldn't today, despite 20 odd stabs at it in one passage of play.

                              It was 16-16 going in to the last 10 minutes.

                              We had two opportunities to take the lead and blew both.

                              SA had one chance in the last 5 minutes and took it.

                              So if we were exceptionally poor, then SA were just poor.

                              SA didn't do much different tonight, so England lost to a poor team.

                              Not buying it.

                              Well, Mike, I get your point, but where does that leave England's performance against us, given that we beat RSA and then spanked Wales? Perhaps England weren't that great after all and, in fact, we were just really shit...?

                              They were very good on the day, but we were also really shit. Some pundits seem to think that if a team plays shit, then it's 100% because they were forced to play shit but obviously that isn't true. Likewise its possible to play well when the opponent also plays well.

                              Yeah, look, I never really bought the "no one would have beaten England that day" view of things. True, that they got it spot on tactically and mentally. But, there's no doubt that we were tactically stupid and got some selections way wrong.

                              Even so, we still had some opportunities to swing the match back into our favour, which we again cocked up through poor options (A Smith's attacking box kick, Jordie's running it and getting smashed by Underhill), poor handling (Brodie's awful pass on the break) and ill-discipline (Whitelock's palm to Farrell's face).

                              They dominated the collisions, however I always thought we could turn it around with a change of mindset and tactics. I was sure that Hansen would apply the hairdryer and we would come out and rumble it up the guts. But nothing changed, and that was probably the most disappointing thing of all for me

                              No shit, but a contributing factor in that were our tactics and selections. As I've said elsewhere (and so has @Bones), we ran forward pods close into the ruck once all game, which resulted in Reece getting enough space to perhaps have a chance to touch down in the corner. We then scored from the ensuing lineout.

                              We did that all match against the Irish and nearly brought up a half ton. We did that once all all match against the English and it proved to be fruitful (sure not as easy or as fruitful as against Ireland, but still fruitful). So, I don't really buy "England didn't allow us to play" tripe that's been trotted out a lot since.

                              We agree mate. I have been consistent in saying that we failed to go up the guts. We went too wide too fast, which made it easy for their rush D to isolate us and turn the ball over, or push us out of bounds

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              2
                              • juniorJ junior

                                @rotated said in England & Eddie:

                                @Frank said in England & Eddie:

                                @rotated said in England & Eddie:
                                England... I mean they've made more RWC finals in the pro era than we have? Can't really stick the boot in.

                                I'd say winning the finals is much more important.
                                Unless you want to give out participation awards.

                                No doubt - but it's all a bit binary to say win the RWC or everything is a failure.

                                England have put together more good RWC campaigns than NZ in the pro era, and some absolute shockers as well.

                                But this is exactly what Eddie has banked on - his whole reputation has been built upon a few epic World Cup performances from "underrated" teams. In truth, he's shown little regard for rugby outside of the RWC by taking an all-conquering team in 2016 and accepting muddling performances for the next 3 years in the hope / expectation that it would be rewarded with a RWC victory.

                                Sure, the Boks have been largely shit since 2015 and, so, it would be inaccurate to say that they haven't sacrificed all the rugby in between in order to win this tournament. But, their shitness has largely been due to political machinations. As soon as they got a decent coach who has able to rise above it (or wasn't constrained by it), they started and were able to play to win, understanding that you actually need to build off a winning base to win the RWC.

                                nzzpN Online
                                nzzpN Online
                                nzzp
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #100

                                @junior said in England & Eddie:

                                Sure, the Boks have been largely shit since 2015 and, so, it would be inaccurate to say that they haven't sacrificed all the rugby in between in order to win this tournament. But, their shitness has largely been due to political machinations. As soon as they got a decent coach who has able to rise above it (or wasn't constrained by it), they started and were able to play to win, understanding that you actually need to build off a winning base to win the RWC.

                                They also got to bring back NH players who were playing (as it turned out) in some very good competitions. Australia too - both teams lifted this year with the introduction of hgih quality players. It's a new thing; in the past, players coming back couldn't handle the pace and intensity of the game. That's changed and it made a difference.

                                NTAN 1 Reply Last reply
                                2
                                • canefanC Offline
                                  canefanC Offline
                                  canefan
                                  wrote on last edited by canefan
                                  #101

                                  Junior, we also agree that the game plan for the Ireland test was the one we should have gone for vs England. It is easy to forget that before all the fancy stuff in the QF we spent the first part of the game bludgeoning our way through the heart of the Irish defence. We even gave them an attacking Gary Owen FFS. Why Hansen and Co thought that England, who play a similar type of game to Ireland, would be beaten by loosie goosie all out attacking rugby, beggars belief. The more I think about it the more it upsets me!!!! We could have easily changed plans at half time. It is a total head scratcher and a systemic failure from all concerned that we didn't

                                  juniorJ 1 Reply Last reply
                                  2
                                  • canefanC canefan

                                    Junior, we also agree that the game plan for the Ireland test was the one we should have gone for vs England. It is easy to forget that before all the fancy stuff in the QF we spent the first part of the game bludgeoning our way through the heart of the Irish defence. We even gave them an attacking Gary Owen FFS. Why Hansen and Co thought that England, who play a similar type of game to Ireland, would be beaten by loosie goosie all out attacking rugby, beggars belief. The more I think about it the more it upsets me!!!! We could have easily changed plans at half time. It is a total head scratcher and a systemic failure from all concerned that we didn't

                                    juniorJ Offline
                                    juniorJ Offline
                                    junior
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #102

                                    @canefan said in England & Eddie:

                                    Junior, we also agree that the game plan for the Ireland test was the one we should have gone for vs England. It is easy to forget that before all the fancy stuff in the QF we spent the first part of the game bludgeoning our way through the heart of the Irish defence. We even gave them an attacking Gary Owen FFS. Why Hansen and Co thought that England, who play a similar type of game to Ireland, would be beaten by loosie goosie all out attacking rugby, beggars belief. The more I think about it the more it upsets me!!!! We could have easily changed plans at half time. It is a total head scratcher and a systemic failure from all concerned that we didn't

                                    Fully on board with this. I don't think that England and Ireland are that different in terms of their style - England just do it much better.

                                    canefanC 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • nzzpN nzzp

                                      @junior said in England & Eddie:

                                      Sure, the Boks have been largely shit since 2015 and, so, it would be inaccurate to say that they haven't sacrificed all the rugby in between in order to win this tournament. But, their shitness has largely been due to political machinations. As soon as they got a decent coach who has able to rise above it (or wasn't constrained by it), they started and were able to play to win, understanding that you actually need to build off a winning base to win the RWC.

                                      They also got to bring back NH players who were playing (as it turned out) in some very good competitions. Australia too - both teams lifted this year with the introduction of hgih quality players. It's a new thing; in the past, players coming back couldn't handle the pace and intensity of the game. That's changed and it made a difference.

                                      NTAN Offline
                                      NTAN Offline
                                      NTA
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #103

                                      @nzzp said in England & Eddie:

                                      They also got to bring back NH players who were playing (as it turned out) in some very good competitions. Australia too - both teams lifted this year with the introduction of hgih quality players. It's a new thing; in the past, players coming back couldn't handle the pace and intensity of the game. That's changed and it made a difference.

                                      I was having similar thoughts when thinking about the SH v NH thing - for South Africa, it really is about having a foot in two camps, and understanding - in the last 4 months - how to weld it together.

                                      Here's how:

                                      968eea7f-ddd9-40a5-b094-ec361c188687-image.png

                                      canefanC 1 Reply Last reply
                                      1
                                      • juniorJ junior

                                        @canefan said in England & Eddie:

                                        Junior, we also agree that the game plan for the Ireland test was the one we should have gone for vs England. It is easy to forget that before all the fancy stuff in the QF we spent the first part of the game bludgeoning our way through the heart of the Irish defence. We even gave them an attacking Gary Owen FFS. Why Hansen and Co thought that England, who play a similar type of game to Ireland, would be beaten by loosie goosie all out attacking rugby, beggars belief. The more I think about it the more it upsets me!!!! We could have easily changed plans at half time. It is a total head scratcher and a systemic failure from all concerned that we didn't

                                        Fully on board with this. I don't think that England and Ireland are that different in terms of their style - England just do it much better.

                                        canefanC Offline
                                        canefanC Offline
                                        canefan
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #104

                                        @junior said in England & Eddie:

                                        @canefan said in England & Eddie:

                                        Junior, we also agree that the game plan for the Ireland test was the one we should have gone for vs England. It is easy to forget that before all the fancy stuff in the QF we spent the first part of the game bludgeoning our way through the heart of the Irish defence. We even gave them an attacking Gary Owen FFS. Why Hansen and Co thought that England, who play a similar type of game to Ireland, would be beaten by loosie goosie all out attacking rugby, beggars belief. The more I think about it the more it upsets me!!!! We could have easily changed plans at half time. It is a total head scratcher and a systemic failure from all concerned that we didn't

                                        Fully on board with this. I don't think that England and Ireland are that different in terms of their style - England just do it much better.

                                        As I mentioned in the hardest RWC losses thread just now, if it wasn't for the anaesthetic of winning in 11 and 15, this cup loss would rank much higher. Let's not get carried away, we had the cattle. On the field and the bench we had the cattle to give ourselves a better shot of winning than we gave. Our tactics were piss poor

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • NTAN NTA

                                          @nzzp said in England & Eddie:

                                          They also got to bring back NH players who were playing (as it turned out) in some very good competitions. Australia too - both teams lifted this year with the introduction of hgih quality players. It's a new thing; in the past, players coming back couldn't handle the pace and intensity of the game. That's changed and it made a difference.

                                          I was having similar thoughts when thinking about the SH v NH thing - for South Africa, it really is about having a foot in two camps, and understanding - in the last 4 months - how to weld it together.

                                          Here's how:

                                          968eea7f-ddd9-40a5-b094-ec361c188687-image.png

                                          canefanC Offline
                                          canefanC Offline
                                          canefan
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #105

                                          @NTA From 2007 to 2011 my TSF moniker was "Winning Ugly is still Winning." I think I might put it back

                                          1 Reply Last reply
                                          1
                                          Reply
                                          • Reply as topic
                                          Log in to reply
                                          • Oldest to Newest
                                          • Newest to Oldest
                                          • Most Votes


                                          • Login

                                          • Don't have an account? Register

                                          • Search
                                          • First post
                                            Last post
                                          0
                                          • Categories
                                          • Search