England V All Blacks

APJones · Post by **APJones** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 3:12 pm

Tough game , down to 13 men - TOO MANY PENALTIES , is Borthwick doing his captain job well enough ?
3-12 at half time .
Why didn't Ellis start with Flood , club team pairings seem to work well in international games.

Darc Tiger · Post by **Darc Tiger** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 3:43 pm

Hmm, 15 vs 15 again now... 3 yellows for England and Armitage nails a beauty of a peno from the touchline.

6-12, England can win this!

Darc Tiger · Post by **Darc Tiger** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 3:51 pm

Well maybe its to much now... Muliaina in the corner... Carter misses his 4th of the day tho

6-17 but a single try could change everything.

England playing on sheer English grit.

Darc Tiger · Post by **Darc Tiger** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 3:58 pm

Game over now, we are looking tired.

Carter produces perhaps the shortest cross field kick ever.
He gets the ball draws about 3 defenders and dinks it 10 metres diagonally for Muliaina to pluck out the air with acres of space to score in the corner.

Magnificent, Spenser-esque brilliance.

Tho he misses again with the con. 6-25. 12mins left.

Darc Tiger · Post by **Darc Tiger** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:07 pm

Well when England look remotely threatening just out side the black 22, Waspie Payne is isolated, The entire AB back row pile in rip the ball, turnover, then smart handling and Nonu runs 60m to score.

6-32 this is getting bad.

Harry is looking good, Flood has had a bit of a mare. Croft and Danny havent had enuf time to make impacts.

This game shows you that pure grit is not enough and England attack is just not sharp enough

Darc Tiger · Post by **Darc Tiger** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:08 pm

Another wasp, Rees, collect Englands 4th yellow card of the night! This is gonna get very ugly in the last few minutes.

Coby · Post by **Coby** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:12 pm

Anyone think that we have the most useless centre pairing in world rugby?

Bring back Geraghty at 12 and someone with excitement like sinbad at 13???

Darc Tiger · Post by **Darc Tiger** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:14 pm

Well game over literally now. Not as bad as last week.

6-32, and England just have no edge. Plenty of spirit and grit, but ill-discipline and a lack of edge cost us dear.

Darc Tiger · Post by **Darc Tiger** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:18 pm

Coby wrote:Anyone think that we have the most useless centre pairing in world rugby?

Bring back Geraghty at 12 and someone with excitement like sinbad at 13???

Im sure JSD would have started at 13 if he was fit.

But England have a distict lack of quality at centre and its telling, our attack is hopeless, we cant break down the top sides.

Coby · Post by **Coby** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:22 pm

regardless of score, massive imprvement there though.

soggytiger · Post by **soggytiger** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:23 pm

Not convinced about the Ref, Floods yellow was accidental and no worse than 2/3 AB 'tackles'! His comments in pushing away Borthwick, when trying to ask an explanation just came accross as biased. Particularly as he had time to chat to the AB's

Don't get me wrong AB v good value for the win, but just felt ref was not entirely fair.

Ohh well, roll on Strictly, more Glogg and work out how to put up the new xmas tree!

Darc Tiger · Post by **Darc Tiger** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:29 pm

Coby wrote:regardless of score, massive imprvement there though.

Well i wouldnt say massive improvement, id put it down to just the effort and passion that the majority of players seemed to show today, just not enough quality.

I said it before, we have no edge.

APJones · Post by **APJones** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:35 pm

Generaly speaking the ref wasn't that bad .
Until we were on the AB try line then the two AB players came in from the side and over the top. No penalty given to England tho'

Coby · Post by **Coby** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:37 pm

Well i think the mistakes that we are making tend to be quite amateur, this is experience, we have huge amounts of potential Johnnos doing the right thing slowly phasing them in. The edge i think is there but i think theyre are some players that need to be removed and the others that need refinement! But there was definately something there, passion, enthusiasm are a must and they were there from most.

Big Dai · Post by **Big Dai** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:39 pm

..............Hmmmmm! Just a surprise not to see more on the ABs 16th player...Mr Rolland? Off the feet, dragging the ball back with the hands when on the floor, there was one instance where a lazy runner came back in fornt of Ellis and dragged his feet over the ball...Nothing given.

All we had to do was fart out of place!

I don't like this ref at all....never have done. In fact I've gone as far as to say the refs with all this micrphone action are getting bigger than the game and their inconsistency can ruin the spectacle. England were well beaten, don't get me wrong, but Mr Rolland was abismal.