Hilarious newspaper report bias! No surprise, then?

[bc]

Sunday Telegraph gave Croft the lowest rating of any the England! Having not seen the game I can't really comment except surprised that he scored less than Easter of Borthwick!

[GEH]

Michael Aylwin in the Observer ('sadly' Eddie B was at Cardiff) didn't give marks out of ten - more sense than that - comments mostly about the 'new' back line & included:
Cipriani was not at his best
Armitage....almost faultless

[kornboy130]

that's the most anonymous i'v seen Croft for a while - not deserving of an 8/10 seeing as we know what he can do.

Easter was good - deserved quite a high rating.

Cipriani was not good, charged down kicks, missed tackles and not even that incisive in attack.

[DickyP]

I can assure you that having watched the game Tom Croft was the pick of the back row by a distance: he made all his tackles, passed well on the few occasions he had the ball in hand in the open, didn't just flop to the ground when making yards, and turned the PIs over both at the breakdown and in the lineout. He did knock on when going for a cross kick but by the time the kick came he was outnumbered 3 to 1(and still got to it first!)

His problem is that like Richard Hill when he started, you don't realise just how good he is until he's not there!

I can only assume that Paul Akford (who gave the poor rating in the Sunday Telegraph) was watching a different game!

[westwinds31]

Sunday Times had Croft as "lucky to keep his place next week"...Haskell pushing him for the "6" slot.

[Darc Tiger]

Mail on sunday also made out like it was the Cipriani show... I was raging into my breakfast! They also talked down Crofty... Can somebody who knows about rugby and who isnt hooked on Cipriani fever do rugby reviews please!

[Mat]

I htought croft had a good game doidn what he does but wiht out a chance to open up those long striding legs.

I think the reason people are saying he may loose his place to Haskell is the fact we had terrible problems at the breakdown. the ball was so slow. We need to have a big lump to smash the contact area.

We need a big basher at lock and in the backrow to get the ball out faster especailly against Mcaw etc.

[captain_insaino]

Jordan crane?

[Bill W]

We need to learn how to cheat without getting caught!

How to stay on your feet whilst lying on the ground; how to enter from the side through the gate; and how to go over the top whilst staying behind the ball. And to bind without binding. To run into your own man infront of you without being offside and to play the man without the ball from an offside position whilst remaining on side.

[gooders060981]

Being a telegraph reader i was very disapointed in the review the gave Croft 6/10 and said he was by far the worst in the pack "too rigid". I was pleased however that they gave cipriani 6/10 and said that he didnt play well at all and looked like a "rabbit in the headlights". However my opinion is that Croft had an ok game but thought when Harry Ellis came on her was playing a blinder, Flood was not bad either. However (even though it hurts me to say) Armitage was very good, almost Geordan Murphy like in the high ball and line picking,

[next214]

I was at Twickenham on Saturday - well, they were selling tickets on a BOGOF basis and they still only got 55K+.
To give Cipriani 8 or 9/10 is a travesty. His was a lacklustre game where he tended to run cross-field so cramping the space for the outside backs.
Armitage hand Sackey had very good games but I was disappointed at Monye's defence. He was twice caught out of position and so missed his opposition wing. However, we did get one glimpse of his pace when he skinned said wing on the inside.

I hope Johnno starts with Ellis, Flood and Cipriani at 9, 10 and 12 vs Australia.

[wardy]

According to the Mail today (Monday) Cipriani only gives himself 5/10 which I entirely agree with having watched the match. Agree there is a lot of bias against nothern based players in the press.