Flats and Banners warming up


c'mon England

probably just tackle bags like Shonny was last time out in edinburgh

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COME ON YOU BATH
!!!!!!!
BATH, BATH, WHEREVER WE MAY BE WE ARE THE BOYS FROM THE WEST COUNTRY , AND WE'LL BEAT YOU ALL WHOEVER YOU MAY BE , BEAT YOU ALL FOR THE WEST COUNTRY !

As you say - there just in case someone pulls up in warm up.

Mixed feelings - it's a much better England selection, but boy oh boy do we need a coaching change if England are really to progress and stand a proper chance against the SH teams. What result might trigger that change?!!

She asked Tins how he was going to tackle Basteraud, 'same way as any other prop' he said with a big grin.

Our back 3 look very good if they get the ball
hope i'm wrong but Care's pass could be the weakness

wahay

Foden definitely isn't the weakness

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Be interesting to see how France react to that try - the wrong French team could end up throwing it away if they get rattled. I hope we see a match well played and won by either side than France just losing it.

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Simon (I got a Scottish International!) Taylor - my adopted player 20010/11
(Thanks for the pictures Patrick!)

i hope we see a ref who lets them play

Not so far LOTW - Brian Moore doesn't seem impressed calling him Mr Picky!

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Simon (I got a Scottish International!) Taylor - my adopted player 20010/11
(Thanks for the pictures Patrick!)

He saying the ref hasn't a clue about reffing the scrum and it certainly looks that way

ref seems to be picking up england minor transgressions , but missing french major ones ! oh well !

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COME ON YOU BATH
!!!!!!!
BATH, BATH, WHEREVER WE MAY BE WE ARE THE BOYS FROM THE WEST COUNTRY , AND WE'LL BEAT YOU ALL WHOEVER YOU MAY BE , BEAT YOU ALL FOR THE WEST COUNTRY !

mind you he's a kiwi probably dont realise a scrum is part of the game !

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COME ON YOU BATH
!!!!!!!
BATH, BATH, WHEREVER WE MAY BE WE ARE THE BOYS FROM THE WEST COUNTRY , AND WE'LL BEAT YOU ALL WHOEVER YOU MAY BE , BEAT YOU ALL FOR THE WEST COUNTRY !

Payne is getting crucified by the french prop, and the scrum is skewing, and poor Cole can't (understandably) cope with the pressure. Pansy Payne is the problem, not Cole.

French prop doesn't appear to be binding and is getting away with it.

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Cole off Davey on!

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Flutey is still a liability if Wilko comes on I hope its not Flood that comes off.

Very prescient Block2u!

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Simon (I got a Scottish International!) Taylor - my adopted player 20010/11
(Thanks for the pictures Patrick!)

Better but still not good. And France were very unambitious. But the substitution of Tins lost England the game?

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Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis has left The Rec
Lest we forget... that try

well played guys

needed a Dayglo on the pitch to bend Lawrence's ear

Yes the loss of Tins was crucial, ref was ducking awful.

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England will not win more until Care stops running and gunning how many times did the outside players get man and ball.

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Davey put in a really solid second half, really pleased for him. And our soon to be Bath boy was rather good too.
I may be a tad biased but I think Banners would have done well too against that France side.

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Quote:

NattyCap
I may be a tad biased ....

you are but isn't that how it's supposed to be

on a slightly lighter note Jerry clearly feels the cold

inverdale ,rafa and dayglo in open neck shirts and jerry in a muffler and overcoat



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 20/03/2010 21:44 by LOTW.

Funny how Davey out of position at loosehead was far better than Pansy Payne.

Sad to see Jonno acting as a football manager at the end.

Probably the worst possible result for England long term - their best performance by a distance, and something for the coaches to say they're making progress.

And the ref didn't make a difference.

Quote:

Dorset Boy
Payne is getting crucified by the french prop, and the scrum is skewing, and poor Cole can't (understandably) cope with the pressure. Pansy Payne is the problem, not Cole.

You really are a sad case, aren't you?

Why B-b? Look at the overhead footage that was should and explain why I'm wrong.

Really disappointed in the way they (the pundits and commentators) focused on the Ashton kick. The real failing was not getting him involved earlier in the tournament and giving him a chance to understand the step up to international level.

If they (the aforementioned numbskulls) had a modicum of intellect they could have provoked an interesting debate rather than trying to pin the blame on the newby.

Completely agree with you Hux, Care's crabbing sideways seemed to be even worse than usual tonight.

England were the better team but the penalties at the scrum killed us. Huge missed opportunity and just a tad gutting. Back 3 were excellent. As was Tindall, and Flood should have started every game. Pack still has big problems.

I didn't think there was a ref worse than Kraplan but I guess I was wrong. This is the guy who admitted to Vickery after the 1st Lions Test that he'd reffed the scrum wrong. Actually I particularly liked his call of 'penalty advantage over' after 1 phase, on the French try line. Oh well. Moore's whinging though, even though most of the time in principle he was right to, was embarrassing. Especially watching him trying to argue about Foden's quickly taken throw being backwards, and then being proved wrong.

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Aaron Jarvis - My adopted player for 2009/10

Johnson seems to interview as if we were great. "We took our chances" - we scored one try early and then nothing for 75 minutes!

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no scrum no win

Marc Lievremont

[uk.reuters.com]

Will someone please get the Producer who instructs that Sonia whatshername on to another sport so we don't have to put up with her prancing about asking silly negative questions which would patronise an 8 year old mini? As for her 'running up to Tindall and asking him how he felt after he had been taken off' - Yikes! No wonder Johnson and Borthwick appear so wooden, they probably want to strangle her. I assume that she is coached in what to do and what to say - no sane woman would ask those questions herself. Thank you BBC Sport.

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Nick Abendanon - another outstanding homegrown talent.
Very proud to be his adoptive supporter for 2010/11:

Not the right result for us to move forward from, but it did show we have the right material if we can sor the coaching.

Most points already made, but for me key points were:

- Flood should have started from match one
- Foden and Ashton were real live wires and should have been properly blooded earlier. we'd have massacred the Italians and been ready to take all chances v the French
- Tins made a difference
- Flutey was a waste of space. How he lasted so long in this match is beyond me
- Cole showed his lack of experience to handle the situation in the scrum - not surprising given his age but doesn't this prove we should be using other proven props, whilst we bring him on?
- Payne - what can I say
- Care - too much crabbing for sure
- Wilco's clearly lost it when playing for England - when he came on he started kicking the ball away when the French were playing pick and drive to run the clock down. we needed to play with ball in hand to win - OK he got a long distant penalty but after that nowhere near their red zone

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The scrum needed experience and Dan Cole just hasn't had the chance to gain that kind of experience yet. Flats and Davey would have been far better than Payne and Cole.

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I have just read the player ratings in the rugby paper.

If you haven't read it feel free to play along. Match the description to the player:

Held his own in the scrum and was best performer in England's front row. Rating 7/10

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i saw that as well but couldn't bring myself to post

to my mind he played his usual game

The Cole and Ashton errors were just players playing at a level they haven't before. Both looked good to me, just inexperienced. What it does show is that selection just to win the next match is ultimately fruitless as this match could have been won if the new guys had had te chance before now.

I was still not impressed with England though. The front 5 didn't offer enough power across the gainline and the backrow were on the whole too slow to support the linebreaks. Also the backline for all of their penetration didn't use any of it after the first 5 minutes.

I know it was better but there is still an alarming amount of dead wood in that team and it is not being identified early enough to give the inform players time to gel together ready for the world cup.

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I don't think I had twigged that Davey could play on both sides of the scrum. Is he comfortable at loosehead - or does it not matter now we have to play 2 complete front rows in the Premiership?

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Simon (I got a Scottish International!) Taylor - my adopted player 20010/11
(Thanks for the pictures Patrick!)

all very similar to the game against Ireland last year - when we also lost by a very small margin, and were supposed to believe that it represented progress.

Taken in isolation, it's easy to argue that England have the core of a good team. But England always have the core of a good team - that's the natural outcome of having more professional rugby players than any other country in the world.

Everything that Johnson has done in his 2 years to date suggests that he'll now go and make some ridiculous selections for the summer tour, and that we'll get absolutely hammered down under.

30 - 24
10 or so left

Wineman
Think your criticism of Wilko (and he is no holy cow for me) is grossly unfair. He had been well coached and talked at/brain washed again immediately before coming on into what was expected of him, so acting on instructions!

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Nick Abendanon - another outstanding homegrown talent.
Very proud to be his adoptive supporter for 2010/11:

Quote:

LOTW
30 - 24
10 or so left

wrong thread

wondered where that one went

Payne was the problem and Hartley and him were split apart by Mas. That meant all the french shove fell on Cole who collapsed not surprisingly. No Pansy payne MUST go and we need a loose head who can really scrummage. Anyone spring to mind?

Hartley was also found wanting and his early throwing in and scrummaging was very poor. No Mears would have been much better with Flats alongside him.

Annie,

Guess we'll never know why Wilco was kicking away the ball with so little time left. It was pretty clearly the wrong thing to do as you cant score if you haven't got the ball & the French were clearly happy to run the clock down when they got the ball back.

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yet another failing by Johnson - Wilko should have dropped into inside centre and left Flood to carry on running the game through to the end. Why pick Flood as your first choice 10; acknowledge that Wilko is off the pace; and yet still pander to his reputation when you bring him on as a sub?

I thought the refereeing was poor - Bryce Lawrence appeared to be selective when deciding which laws to enforce. Tim Payne was a significant weakness in the England front row, but I fail to see how he was penalised at a scrum inside the France 22 when the French pack was driving well before the ball was put in.

On a second occasion, also inside the France 22, the commentary team highlighted 3 French players entering an England maul from the side, trying to drive it into touch. The referee was stood on the correct side to see all 3 infringements, and chose not to act.

I can only hope his performance is reviewed, and these discrepancies are highlighted to him.

As annoying as that was, I'm not sure it had a serious effect on the result. I think Tindall was withdrawn too soon, and Foden and Ashton got their starts way too late in the tournament.

Ashton made an error in judgement, but I believe he acquitted himself well on his international debut - especially against France, in Paris. I think a back line of Ashton, Banahan and Foden could be very exciting, if they're given the chance to get a little more experience.

For now, I'm just looking forward to my next trip to the Rec, having been suffering withdrawal symptoms...

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England performance improves inspite of MJ and crew

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