By kath
June 23 2012

England will be disappointed that they could not pull off the win but a draw is fantastic, when you think of last week's performance.    The players will have learnt a lot from this tour and will be looking forward to a re-match at Twickenham in November.   Again my MOM Danny Care and well deserved.   He looked really sharp today and I do hope he will feature in the Autumn Internationals

South Africa v England

Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium - Port Elizabeth

 Saturday 23rd June 2012 - 3rd Test

Match Report / Points

England from the kick off started quite well, within three minutes they had a penalty in front of the posts, which Toby Flood slotted over.  However South African Spies steals a lineout and Habana chasing down a box kick. He's held up unfairly and that gives Morne Steyn a penalty chance to come back 3-3.  What a different match to last week, England are more aware of the crucial first 10mins and this week they are living with the Boks.  I don't feel the same intensity as last week from South Africa,

England are really playing well and after 11mins score the first try of the match from a Palmer charge down to a Steyn kick and Care tap kicks then shimmies his way through to the line,  Excellent play from Danny Care Toby Flood misses the conversion 3-8.

Danny Care - Archive Empics Pic

Flood has an injury and is replaced by Owen Farrell.  South Africa as you would expect come back at England strongly and they get another penalty due to Palmer slowing the ball down after a tackle, Steyn makes to mistakes and slots the ball over the posts. 6-8 after 16 minutes.

South Africa are now waking up and piling on the pressure, England again giving penalties, Steve Walsh warning England no more otherwise it will be yellow cards next.  27minutes 9-8.  England are giving far too many penalties away, they seem to have lost their heads at the moment.  Owen Farrell now gone off with a blood injury, Brad Barritt comes on.  

Once again a bit of aerial ping pong, England lose that contest as Goode puts it out and South Africa come charging back at them in the England 22.  35 minutes and Owen Farrell back on Barritt off.   Although England are losing by one point at the moment, they have proved much better opponents this week.  South Africa piling on the pressure, 8/9th phase of play England holding their line, excellent defence by England, ball knocked on by the Boks and Goode kicks the ball down field - hearts all a flutter England run after the ball but the  Boks a a kick the ball out to take the pressure of them.

A much better performance from England, shame they could not have produced this game last week.   C'est la vie

Half Time South Africa 9 - 8 England

Off we go again.......  The Boks kick off, again a bit of aerial ping pong and South Africa on the charge again.  England will insist on kicking  the ball away -WHY!!   High kick put up from Farrell, Aplon collects but what a HIT from Ashton get in!!  As a result penalty to England 25m out, Farrell to take penalty and he gets it Yesssss................ 9-11 45 minutes.   

South Africa putting on the pressure again 49 mins England give yet another penalty ( come on guys this has to stop),  Steyn amazingly misses the penalty.  9-11 score 50minutes

England Captain slowing the ball down and Steve Walsh does not hesitate to send him to the bin for 10 mins.  He was warned, how stupid, England must learn to keep their discipline under pressure.

England can win this but they really have to keep their heads to do it.    South Africa knocked on 54mins, England re-group and scrum down.   The scrum not working and re-set again.  England away, Ben Foden darting through the middle of the field, he looked like he was going to kick but made good ground off loaded to Goode who just could not take it.   

Ben Foden - Empic Archive Pic

Up and down the field we go ---  60 mins  utter madness on the England line, pass from  Pienaar and South Africa go over for the try by  Pietersen....................oh England !!  Steyn to convert and he misses again 14-11

England continue to give penalties, well we know what they have to work on don't we  DISCIPLINE, I remember saying this of another England team many years ago on the build to the RWC 2003.  I am sure Lancaster will drum this in from now on.

To play and win at this level it is so important to defend well, take the opportunities and don't give penalties, oh and have a good kicker.

68mins 6 phase England moving up the field, Steve Walsh getting in the way!!!  10th phase now England trying hard to break through, 15th phase in the 22.  Advantage to England, they get the put in to the scrum.  Good scrum from England, England piling on the pressure 5meters to the line - Steve Walsh pulls the game back for Advantage to England.   England take the points  14 -14.

73 mins - more aerial ping pong Foden calls for the mark, he kicks and slices the ball, South Africa on the charge again, Steyn went for Drop Goal and misses it.   England need to keep cool heads now, 

South Africa moving down the  field trying to set up another drop goal for Steyn waiting in the pocket, as the forwards power on. They take too long setting it, and give away a penalty! England will  get the ball down the field.  England look tired  11th  phase, the hooter sounds 14dth phase, wave after wave from England, just outside the  Boks 22. 19th phase Farrell tries to go for a drop goal but makes a horrible mess of it.

Full Time: South Africa 14- England 14 Draw

Comnment: England will be disappointed that they could not pull off the win but a draw is fantastic, when you think of last week's performance.    The players will have learnt a lot from this tour and will be looking forward to a re-match at Twickenham in November.   Again my MOM Danny Care and well deserved.   He looked really sharp today and I do hope he will feature in the Autumn Internationals

SOUTH AFRICA: 15-Gio Aplon, 14-JP Pietersen, 13-Jean de Villiers (captain), 12-Wynand Olivier, 11-Bryan Habana, 10-Morne Steyn, 9-Francois Hougaard, 8-Pierre Spies, 7-Jacques Potgieter, 6-Marcell Coetzee, 5-Juandre Kruger, 4-Eben Etzebeth, 3-Jannie du Plessis, 2-Bismarck du Plessis, 1-Tendai Mtawarira - Replacements: 16-Adriaan Strauss, 17-Werner Kruger, 18-Flip van der Merwe, 19-Ryan Kankowski, 20-Ruan Pienaar, 21-Elton Jantjies, 22-Bjorn Basson

ENGLAND: 15-Alex Goode, 14-Chris Ashton, 13-Jonathan Joseph, 12-Manusamoa Tuilagi, 11-Ben Foden, 10-Toby Flood, 9-Danny Care, 8-Thomas Waldrom, 7-James Haskell, 6-Tom Johnson, 5-Geoff Parling, 4-Tom Palmer, 3-Dan Cole, 2-Dylan Hartley (captain), 1-Alex Corbisiero - Replacements: 16-Lee Mears, 17-Joe Marler, 18-Mouritz Botha, 19-Phil Dowson, 20-Lee Dickson, 21-Owen Farrell, 22-Brad Barritt.

England 14 - 14 South Africa - A Draw!

Discussion started by Unofficial England Rugby Union , 23/06/2012 18:11

Unofficial England Rugby Union
23/06/2012 18:11

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Rarua
25/06/2012 17:53

Northern hemisphere sides are hamstrung by their clubs who buy foreigners to fill gaps in their teams.

Southern hemisphere clubs develop from within.

England's fly half ranks are not good. How many Englishmen are filling the 10 jersey in the premiership?

There are gaps elsewhere too.

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Slater582
25/06/2012 22:44

Satisfied with the draw. Will learn more from the AI & 6N.

Quote:

Rarua
England's fly half ranks are not good. How many Englishmen are filling the 10 jersey in the premiership?

Toby Flood (Leicester)
Charlie Hodgson (Saracens)
Stephen Myler/ Ryan Lamb (Northampton)
Shane Geraghty (London Irish)
Freddie Burns (Gloucester)
Danny Cipriani (Sale)
Andy Goode (Worcester)


Rory Clegg (22, Harlequins), Owen Farrell (20, Saracens), Tom Heathcote (20, Bath) & George Ford (19, Leicester) are second choice iirc.

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TightOldPomfretian
26/06/2012 09:31

Can agree with the satisfied comment above. The squad has developed as a unit , they are playing with pride , passion and for each other. The forwards stood their ground against a physical side but they do need to develop some dynamism at the ruck to get teams like SA on the back foot.

We also need to develop some vision in the backs, too much hard won ball was kicked away over the three games, much of the time aimlessly and achieved little but to give SA chances to attack again. It is no use having pace on the wings if you don't use it other for kick and chase. In the dying minutes of Saturdays game the forwards had sucked in SA leaving an overlap and acres of space on the right , we of course went left.

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Hardlymyfaultisit
26/06/2012 19:32

Quote:

Rarua
Northern hemisphere sides are hamstrung by their clubs who buy foreigners to fill gaps in their teams.
Southern hemisphere clubs develop from within[u].[/u]

England's fly half ranks are not good. How many Englishmen are filling the 10 jersey in the premiership?

There are gaps elsewhere too.

Fair to say too that SH clubs (NZ in particular) develop from the PI ers ............... ouch!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:06:26:21:39:16 by Hardlymyfaultisit.

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PoyntonShark
27/06/2012 00:56

Agreed TightOldPomfretian. Satisfied is the maximum from the trip. At the outset I stated on here that I wasn't interested in results so much as manner of performance. Some areas of that have been pleasing, particulalrly the apparent spirit with which this group plays. Couple of disappointments largely around discipline, an old problem creeping back, and defensive lapses,though these lapses were of an individual nature mostly not a failing of defensive system.
I think we made some improvements in attacking areas i.e we did attack with ball in hand on occasion. I would like to see us further advanced in this area, but not too alarmed yet. There are still large proportions of our attack that look ponderous, simply shifting ball to
Manu and expecting him to run through walls (he might occasionally, but not really a game winning plan). Or aimless kicks, an issue that was not wholly removed with the exclusion of Farrell, though he was/is the worst offender. What makes our lack of dynamism worse, for me, is that on the few occasions where we do put pace on the ball and good lines on our running, we actually look quite good at it.

AI's should be interesting, and whilst, for me, the emphasis should still be on performance rather than results, we should be looking to getting a more wins than losses at home, despite a tough schedule.

Unhappiness, where's when I was young
And we didn't give a damn
'Cause we were raised
To see life as a fun and take it if we can

Reply Quote Report

Rarua
09/07/2012 08:21

Quote:

Hardlymyfaultisit

Quote:

Rarua
Northern hemisphere sides are hamstrung by their clubs who buy foreigners to fill gaps in their teams.
Southern hemisphere clubs develop from within[u].[/u]

England's fly half ranks are not good. How many Englishmen are filling the 10 jersey in the premiership?

There are gaps elsewhere too.

Fair to say too that SH clubs (NZ in particular) develop from the PI ers ............... ouch!

So where should we send the Maori players? Or the Samoan who has a Kiwi parent? Should all NZers qualify for Tonga, Fiji or Samoa and be preferentially picked for one of those and only if rejected get to play for All Blacks?

Reply Quote Report

Hardlymyfaultisit
11/07/2012 18:50

Quote:

Rarua

Quote:

Hardlymyfaultisit

Quote:

Rarua
Northern hemisphere sides are hamstrung by their clubs who buy foreigners to fill gaps in their teams.
Southern hemisphere clubs develop from within[u].[/u]

England's fly half ranks are not good. How many Englishmen are filling the 10 jersey in the premiership?

There are gaps elsewhere too.

Fair to say too that SH clubs (NZ in particular) develop from the PI ers ............... ouch!

So where should we send the Maori players? Or the Samoan who has a Kiwi parent? Should all NZers qualify for Tonga, Fiji or Samoa and be preferentially picked for one of those and only if rejected get to play for All Blacks?

Personally I dont give a flying stuff where you send anyone, only saying its a bit rich for some SH loon to crib about who plays in a domestic league 12000 miles from where he lives and leaps onto a bandwagon of Fijians, Samoans, Tongans etc representing New Zealand ...... have a word with yourself eh!

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Horowhenua
14/07/2012 06:27

Hard to argue with facts

[www.3news.co.nz]

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Hardlymyfaultisit
14/07/2012 20:08

Quote:

Horowhenua
Hard to argue with facts
[www.3news.co.nz]

Depends who is claiming what is a fact ......... and within that piece of shoddy journalism, there are a few flaws!

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to the South Sea Island Invitation XV this autumn!

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Horowhenua
15/07/2012 01:47

Im not really looking forward to it, these autumn grand slam conquering tours have become a bit predictable in recent times.

I am looking forward to the New Zealand maori team touring though. Hopefully they will play England and beat them again in there own back yard. I would enjoy that immensely being part maori myself.

This is the the kind of Rugby England can only dream of playing

[">www.youtube.com]

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Hardlymyfaultisit
15/07/2012 13:20

Quote:

Horowhenua
Im not really looking forward to it, these autumn grand slam conquering tours have become a bit predictable in recent times.
I am looking forward to the New Zealand maori team touring though. Hopefully they will play England and beat them again in there own back yard. I would enjoy that immensely being part maori myself.

This is the the kind of Rugby England can only dream of playing

[">www.youtube.com]

Ah ........... no surprise return post then!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:07:15:13:21:54 by Hardlymyfaultisit.

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ballsout
18/07/2012 11:46

England 2nds threw that game away a few years ago, we leaked a couple of ridiculously soft tries due to Dowson and Strettle's ineptitude.

Quote:

I am looking forward to the New Zealand maori team touring though. Hopefully they will play England and beat them again in there own back yard.

England's second team beat the Maori team last time they played each other in our own backyard

[">www.youtube.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:07:18:11:46:57 by ballsout.

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