Robespierre wrote: ↑Sun Feb 25, 2024 12:22 pm
Tiglon wrote: ↑Sun Feb 25, 2024 11:28 am
Robespierre wrote: ↑Sun Feb 25, 2024 10:38 am
Jeeez, that was an embarrassing and inept England performance. Who was there for on field leadership and to shake up the team at half time when the writing was clearly on the wall? Should George be captain ? I remain convinced that the balance of the back row is completely wrong. Earl, a fine player he is, is not a Test 8 and should be at 7. Mercer should be 8 and maybe Cunningham South at 6? Chessum’s been disappointing and should be replaced by Martin (but when he spilled the ball at a restart, I was on my feet and screaming at the telly !). If I were Borthwick, I’d be making an early appointment at the job centre cos he surely won’t be in charge at the end of the 6N after two more defeats !
If Borthwick gets sacked after this 6N, then English rugby has no one to blame but itself. It's like we want our teams to fail. Never happier than when shouting "sack the boss", as if that is the perpetual solution to something.
He (or, more accurately, his team) won 9 out of the last 10 before yesterday.
Who gives up on a rebuild because it isn't instantly perfect?
Rebuilding is one thing, but on the evidence of the three games so far, there’s precious little to show, and the game plan seems to be non existent - except hoof and hope. I, for one, am fed up with it.
Fair enough. But what are your expectations? Be like Ireland after 12 months?
The kicking thing is a lazy criticism that gets trotted out every time a team loses. We kicked LESS than Scotland, and less than Wales.
We've kicked more penalty goals than anyone else, which suggests we're doing that too much - but that seems to be what most fans want anyway... "take the points".
We have by far the lowest conversion success rate so far - only 2 points for a conversion, but it's fine margins at this level.
We have the second most attacking entries to the 22, just 1 behind Ireland. Isn't that a sign that we're doing something right? Getting into good positions. That's not from hoof and hope.
We've made the second most linebreaks so far, behind Ireland. But we have no attacking shape or ideas? Are you sure?
Our tackle success rate is the second lowest so far - maybe this is the actual problem? Brand new defensive coach and structure, some errors have been made - same as Leinster this season.
Our arrivals at attacking rucks is pretty low, and our ruck speed is too - we have the highest % of rucks over 6 seconds. If the ball is in the ruck for more than 6 seconds, there's really no point trying to attack. Maybe that's more of a problem than how often we kick.
Our scrum win % is down in the 60's.
Elliott Daly has the joint second highest number of linebreaks, and joint third highest number of assists, in the tournament so far - but all I read on here is that he's rubbish and shouldn't be anywhere near the England team.
Underhill has the second most breakdown steals, but he's useless too.
Only 2 England players in the top 27 for ruck clearouts. Further proof that quickly and successfully securing ruck ball is perhaps our biggest issue.
There are plenty of things to work on, but quantity of kicks isn't one of them.
But, yeah, stats are stupid and we kick too much. OK.