6 Nations apathy

[Guinness&Nuts]

I'll try and keep this short, how did Eng through that game away. Eng were in control with 20 mins to go then the Coach decides to make multiple changes and take the best two players off in Care and big Billy! On top of that the guy takes Nowell (who did struggle) off and moved an inside centre (by trade) to the wing, and guess what the winning French score came down that channel.

Eng's forwards were dominent in the second half, but lets be honest the French were blowing befor half time.

Once May went off, Eng's back three were the slowest I have seen. No cutting edge or pace. Don't get me started on A Goode ...........

[Darc Tiger]

Youngs was great when he came on, a lot of people will point to the one line out he missed but unless you know the call that was made I think it would be unfair to criticize that.

Lawes is the line out caller and guess what exactly the same thing happened last time Youngs came on for Hartley in an England shirt. Coincidence?

5 yard attacking line out, 24-16 lead, catch and drive and the game is over.....and we overthrow it.
I understand that is tough to hear as every Tigers fan rightly admires what Tom has done, but it is the harsh reality of International rugby that it's often about those key moments.

Still a lot of speculation about that though. Lawes looked to have got hands on it, but didnt quite grab it.

[Old Hob]

Young side; went they went behind after 30 seconds there was too much "trying too hard"/ almost panic.

Sadly, within 5 metres of the opposition line and a crucial score needed both Chutes and OTY miss their mark more often than not.
Seen it , sworn at it, grimaced at my neighbours in the Crumbie at it...

[drc_007]

I thought the ball went through Lawes hands.

[Darc Tiger]

Haven't seen Billy play that badly in a long while (ever?). Its really frustrating that England are unable to capitalise on the performances the pack is starting to consistently produce.

[drc_007]

I was just looking at the match stats.

Goode didn't make a single successful tackle and missed one. How can someone play for nearly 3/4 of a match and not make a single tackle?

At just over 80% England's tackle success rate is well below what is expected.

[MurphysLaw]

Agree with comments about the Beeb commentary. Butler is annoying; and Moore had to get his dig in about Tom Youngs not hooking, even though he had a great strike with his first scrum.

Also thought that Nigel Owens had a good game.
Not so sure about the TMO though - the incident when Wood was involved in a flare up. He was asked to look at the slightly late tackle on the French 10, but completely failed to look at the next minutes when Wood was clearly having a bit of afters and pinning him down.
Now where have we seen that tactic used before?

Further thought - why is Cole never substituted these days? Nice to know he is needed, but is he being over-used? I would hate to see him join our injury list.

[Big Dai]

..............one other thing. Your 10 is cramping up and you leave him on the pitch when they bring on a speedster?

[tigerburnie]

in the cold light of day, there's something to work on, glimpses of skill. But one good tap penalty that leads to a try didn't make up for a lot of mediocre stuff. Fazlet made a couple of good kicks from hand and one break that no one was expecting, so no one went with him. There's a lot of players not good enough to win a world cup in the side, we didn't think that in the last two WC's. Tackling was often weak or just plain missing.Farrell snr is not up to the job and for large parts of the game the forwards weren't up to much either. Players hitting the deck and facing the wrong way.

[h's dad]

I felt a lot of frustration through the game at various errors and failures but the one thing that completely throws me is that once the last minute try was through in the corner nobody seemed bothered about keeping him there and leaving a tricky conversion, instead England seemed to almost usher Fickou under the posts.

[Ze Stade Fan]

I'd like to take a bit of your time to gloat for a minute or two !

We won ! My word, we won ! Quite unexpected to be fair. I'm still wondering how we managed that last try. Plisson is said to have said "let's have a final attack after the scrum". Such thing never work against England and it worked yesterday... So a brief review of Stade Français' ex and present players...

Talking about Plisson he was bright and lucky the first thirty minutes and kinda fell apart the rest of the game. Got involved in the scrums and didn't see many balls.

Papé : this I call a proper lock : knows his dark arts and how to tackle.

The front row : caused a total four penalties against Ingerland, which is a brilliant work rate, especially when you're confronted to Cole and Marler. I love when Rabah Slimani gets in and provokes a penalty at the first scrum.

Burban : too bad he is injured I would like to see more of him

Flanquart : the tall boy was below par, too bad. Had some brilliant tackles though.

Bastareaud should never have left Paris, low work rate.

Szarzewski : why did he left my club for the den of iniquity i.e: Racing Métro ? Runs faster for France than for them, anyway.

Well I am too emotional to make a proper review of the match, all I need to add is that a friend of mine gave me a last minute invitation to the stadium (one hour before kick-off) and boy, I enjoyed it!

[Bill W (2)]

Good gloat ZSF

[retsilnai]

Well I like the 6N.

Why is it that when 60 mins on the clock come by, the obligatory replacements must be made. Danny Care was in total control at the time along with Billy Vunipola. OK Ben Morgan did great but we lost the impetus when DC went off and that was it. If they had stayed on for another 10 I believe we would of won the match.

Couldn't agree more !!!
Why, oh why, oh why do we persist in kicking and giving opposition the ball to run back at us !!
Why, when Owen Farrell cramped up, did we keep him on???
Why do we appear to be building a team around Farrell and Twelvetrees, two of the slowest (of foot and wit) in the team??
I'll get my coat.
Ian.

[sapajo]

Why, when Owen Farrell cramped up, did we keep him on???
Why do we appear to be building a team around Farrell and Twelvetrees, two of the slowest (of foot and wit) in the team??
I'll get my coat.
Ian.

Fazz stayed on because he is not subject to substitution as we have seen when Toby was brought off the bench twice to play 12. As for him and Twelvetrees being the England building blocks the former is down to Fazz Snr and the latter because he flatters to deceive.

[Bristol Tiger]

Agree with most of the sentiments on the page. Disappointing England performance and too many mistakes in the first 40 minutes to beat the French away.

Danny Care played well and couldn't understand why he was substituted (you don't know how hard it is for me to admit that!! Mind you, his box kicking still sucks.) I also thought Farrell had one of his better games.

Don't understand why we had Goode on the bench. Can't (didn't) perform well under the high ball; let a man run around him with only 5m to the touch line; as already stated, didn't tackle ... once! Poor. Wasn't impressed with Tom Wood - too many mistakes; and while Robshaw's work rate was high, didn't see much of him inter-linking with the backs or winning turnovers. Would love to have a true 7 and have Robshaw at 6 ... but still.

Oh well, next week Scotland.