6 NATIONS 2021

[Jimmy Skitz]

Farrell never gets subbed, its all about him, if the right decision is to kick to the corner he will kick for goal as its all about him

[TheTigerKing]

Jones obviously has a pretty damn good record, so criticising is harsh. But, his style is too rigid that when things go against England, they have no confidence to play what is in front of them.

They got the wrong side of the ref, Scotlands confidence rose and England never, ever got in the game.

But the rare occasions we had some possession, we kicked. It was pre programmed. Kick at every opportunity. When knowing we had no momentum, the players should have played what was in front of them, got the backs some ball, gained some confidence and gone from there. Instead we kicked, kicked and kicked. Never got any rhythm and were totally flattered by the score.

[westwinds31]

I sometimes wonder if anyone actually watches any rugby other than the 6 Nations ! Some bizarre comments. I don’t know any side in the history of the game that had a Plan B, it’s an over used and out dated statement that has no actual substance. Have you ever played in a game where you’ve changed tactics and it’s worked ? No, thought not. Neither have any pro rugby players. What I have seen, speaking just for England, is games, pretty much all in the 5/6 Nations where no matter what you do, nothing is going to work. Errors upon errors, penalties, knock ons....it happens. In England’s case not very often thankfully. The harder you try, the worse it gets. England win that game, nobody mentions Saracens lack of game time. Sadly, they’re on a hiding to nothing next week, unless it’s a 50 point drubbing.

[Big Dai]

I sometimes wonder if anyone actually watches any rugby other than the 6 Nations ! Some bizarre comments. I don’t know any side in the history of the game that had a Plan B, it’s an over used and out dated statement that has no actual substance. Have you ever played in a game where you’ve changed tactics and it’s worked ? No, thought not. Neither have any pro rugby players. What I have seen, speaking just for England, is games, pretty much all in the 5/6 Nations where no matter what you do, nothing is going to work. Errors upon errors, penalties, knock ons....it happens. In England’s case not very often thankfully. The harder you try, the worse it gets. England win that game, nobody mentions Saracens lack of game time. Sadly, they’re on a hiding to nothing next week, unless it’s a 50 point drubbing.

Well.... Actually, maybe.....but being one of the earnest gentlemen with a number less than 4 on his shirt I'm probably too thick to notice.

After a game of one out carry, smack into a brick wall and either ruck or a scrum for the knock on, our 10 puts in a dink over the advancing defence and we score.

Was that plan B or was it plan A that the super intelligent backs weren't telling us thick grass inspectors about because they knew all along it would work?

[Offside]

Itoje tried hard but he say slower than his normal match fit self. Several times on the ref mic he was told by the ref to leave the ball as he was second man in. Last year he was first man and turned the ball over. Marginal and may have been the refs interpretation but that was the source of some of the penalties from him and others. Next game Italy. Ford and Youngs play then a win is discounted as being again Italy and Farrell gets selected for the next tough game!

[Cardiff Tig]

England didn't lose because of Farrell. They lost because the whole team was poor. The pack was out played from the start. EJ clearly picked the wrong team, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. There weren't many on here saying Itoje shouldn't be starting before the game. And you can't plan for things like May giving away 50 m by dropping the ball.

Scotland need to learn to convert more of their chances into points if they are going to win consistently when it matters though. My money is on France this year, unless Ireland have sorted out their issues over the winter...

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

EJ obviously thought he could use yesterday & the Italy game to bring the players (especially those from the Cheats) up to speed, probably would of worked if Italy were first up.
Having a team that's difficult to beat is all well & good if you get into the lead, but England got nowhere near the Scotland line in the 2nd half, the final score was extremely flattering.
Doubt much will change for next week though.

As an aside thought YBY had a good game, arguably the best England player.

[BengalTiger]

Young's being subbed summed up the EJ approach, it is all pre-programmed, EJ is mentally rigid and the team is tactical rigid as a result, if the coach cannot adapt to circumstances how can the team do so?
Young's was not the problem and his replacement was not the solution!

[Robespierre]

Farrell must shoulder much of the blame for that poor performance. He seemed ineffectual as captain and so the team had no sense of direction. Eddie must bite the bullet and axe him and select a 10/12/13 that will take the game to the opposition, ie Ford with Lawrence and Slade (who had the misfortune of being expected to perform outside their static captain) But we all know that Jones hasn’t the balls to do what’s necessary.

[mol2]

Bizzarre - pick the core of your team from players who have played no meaningful games apart from the Autumn internationals in the past year because of lockdown.

Billy Vunipola might as well not have played - not sure his being carded made any difference - he was so slow.
Itoje was off the pace for him and George likewise.

Compound it by playing a kicking game with an off form May and no Underhill. Picking a steady-eddie like Wilson wasn't going to give the back row any pace either.

For me Jones looks like a coach who has run out of ideas. Achieved success by building his team around a Sarries core. With that core broken up and those retained looking like a group of recently retired players meeting up for a friendly suggests Jones time has come to an end and the time has come for fresh ideas.

[Scott1]

EJ obviously thought he could use yesterday & the Italy game to bring the players (especially those from the Cheats) up to speed, probably would of worked if Italy were first up.
Having a team that's difficult to beat is all well & good if you get into the lead, but England got nowhere near the Scotland line in the 2nd half, the final score was extremely flattering.
Doubt much will change for next week though.

As an aside thought YBY had a good game, arguably the best England player.

Exactly as I said yesterday! He had the arrogance to use Scotland as a “get up to speed game” and it backfired spectacularly!

[kk20gb30]

Credit to Scotland, but too many off days collectively for England.

[Crofty]

It is worth remembering, for a crumb of longer term comfort, that the wheels fell off spectacularly at about this point in the last World Cup cycle. That did lead to a few of the older names that had been fixtures (Hartley and Robshaw being the prime examples) not being seen again.

[fortysix]

Jones has stated SB will be the next coach, but after yesterday its pretty bl**dy obvious both Ford and Youngs, if not Genge, will be made redundant by our Eddie. Why the hell he didnt take Farrell off yesterday, heaven knows. He was abysmal.

[JP14]

Farrell is not a good captain, end of.