Old Hob wrote:Only saw the highlights but Armitage should be publicly humiliated for his stupid "give NZ 3 points" tackle. Ball not going to hand, wrong decisions on and off the field. Youngs taken off too early - his darting pace against 14 may have made a difference. Tindall past it.
kingol22 wrote:
I agree it needs a citing but what about hartleys similar challenge?
Yeah, that wasn't his finest moment, but not in the same league as the NZ Hooker. Mealamu picked moody up by the back of the collar and then butted him to the back of the head, Hartley went in with the shoulder to a person on the floor (McCaw?). I think that what Hartley did was more in his nature than what Mealamu did, however the butt was far worse.
agree the butt was worse but can see hartley getting a bigger ban if cited seeing as it was against mccaw who in the eyes of the officials can do no wrong.
Very worried about th England Midfild with Hape and Tindall.
Tindall especially was woeful and does not bring anything to the party...Johnson needs to do to him as he has to Borthwick.
I think th real issue for Enlgand is we lack real world class players. Players like Croft, Foden and Youngs have potential but they need to adapt their games for intrnational rugby, especially Croft, he has everything and he and the coaches need to exploit it.
Personally I expect Johnson to keep the same team, but would like to see Attwood starting over Palmer..
You've highlighted the biggest problem there with England coaches, i.e. their persistance with players that are clearly past their best or were never really good enough in the first place but were ex RL. So we've had Paul, Farrell, Volcano (Robinson and Ashton are the exceptions) plus Vickery, Borthwick and now Tindall who should have been dropped well before they were.
If you watch Tindall he often comes out of the line too early (probably due to his lack of pace) and often leaves a gap as a result. The first AB try was a classic example of this, watch it again on the highlights in a bit and watch some previous matches he's played in, you'll see what I mean.
Yes years ago when he was a bit younger and quicker he was international standard and is still a good club player, but everything is just that bit quicker in a game like yesterday and he isn't. I fear however that it will be another year lost before Johnno realise this as he does seem somewhat slow off the mark (I cite Borthwick as an example).
Nowadays referees decide matches, players by how much.
jgriffin wrote:And whinger Henry says it's accidental and he's the cleanest player in the world? Cynical foul committed on English language with use of 'accidental'? Can Henry be cited for semantic offences?
First off I misread "semantic" and wondered what you were on about!
Answer, no - he's a colonial, they do not speak proper English like what we does.
Having just looked at that incident on you tube - that was a very bad deliberate head butt and deserves 6 weeks, at least.
Hartley's incident was dealt with by the ref and was about right - an upper arm is nothing versus a head butt in the back of the head.
Inspite of Hartley being a reckless prat with some bad form in the past, i find Tigerama's comment that it was more in his character than Mealamu's odd. Given that Mealamu was jointly responsible for the wrost incidicent on an international rugby field ever to go unpunished when he deliberatly and in my view with premedition set out to disable Brian O'Driscol for life. That incident should have been a double sending off and a 6 month ban and as he got nothing then, I hope they through the book at the malicious violent coward for this one!
