Austrlian Barbarians 28 - 28 England - Match Review by PoyntonShark

Not nearly physical enough up front, stopped dead or driven backwards at just about every contact, then out fought on the floor, never 'sucked in' Aussie defenders leaving midfield packed, we didn't pick backs who punch holes, but ones who exploit them, there were no holes. Though I do agree England tried 2 or 3 times to find a hole, then kicked from a lack of any further ideas. Started reasonably, keeping Aus back in their own half, but failed to take real advantage from the pressure created (sound familiar), I beleive we made a major mistake when taking the second penalty offered us. The penalty came as a result of Aus collapsing a scrum, we had them under the cosh, should have taken another scrum, but kicked the goal and relieved the pressure, Aus found their confidence and never looked back..

I have defended Ford on here in the past, but this game highlighted a problem. England's tackling was for the most part very good, but our defence wasn't. We were making some desperate last ditch tackles to save tries, but we hadn't missed tackles which led to this, we were simply in the wrong positions. Twice in first half Banahan decided to come inside and tackle a centre (who was covered) and if Nick Cummings hadn't borrowed Banahan's 'hands of stone' he would have run in two easy tries. Why banahan made those decisions I have no idea, Matthew Tait however didn't miss a tackle all night.

Pre-game saw strapping on Delon Armitage's left hamstring, and he didn't appear to be moving comfortably, in the game he was a waste of a shirt, contributed nothing. Felt sorry for Monye, he looks like a man completely bereft of confidence and also contirubuted nothing. Kind of wish I had not seen the pre-game warm up, as England forwards hit the pads much harder than they hit any rucks and mauls during the game.

For a large portion of the game England were penalised off the park, no idea how accurate most of the decisions were, but with Dickinson ref, and Tripper Walsh running touch, I have my suspicions. David Flatman appeared to attract most of refs attention in the scrum, penalised mostly for not pushing straight ,the occassions I could see what was going on, he only appeared to turn in, after the Aussie tight head had collapsed underneath him. I think Dickinson made up an offence at the end to give Barnes the chance to win the game.

The change in impetus for the forwards when Courteney Lawes came on was marked, insted of being driven back at first contact, Lawes was either breaking that tackle or carrying the tackler with him, this coupled with P. Hodgson's increased urgency behind the pack after replacing Wigglesworth actually made England look dangerous and led directly to two tries. The first coming after Aussie prop binned after 3 (possibly 4) scrums close to their line had collapsed, the next one collapsed too, but Dickinson ignored that, Ward-Smith finally breaching the line from close range, a try which, in all honesty, should have been scored 3 or 4 phases earlier (as should Mears' similar try in first half). With Lawes now attracting defenders England were finally able to create some room out wide, first down their left where unfortunately it was Parling receivng the pass out wide, not a winger, and he was taken down by the full back, but England recycled quickly and spread the ball to the opposite side, giving Banahan a comfortable score. Evidence at least that with a couple of minor readjustments, this side could play an attacking game.

28-all away from home for effectively England 'A' v Australia 'A' isn't really a bad result, but I felt deflated as the game was certainly there to be won, and I felt with a little different attitude up front, we would have won it. It was a relatively entertaining game and cetainly wasn't a "terrible" performance, but few put their hands up for inclusion in a Test side, though it would appear that was never really on offer which may have been a contributing factor. I would hope to see Lawes on the bench for Saturday, his appearance last night was the very definition of impact. Would also like to see P.Hodgson included, he offers something different to the other 9's.