Rugby - See You In Ten!

[st_swithin]

I let myself in, thank you very much.

[Alexander's Horse]

good - let yourself out again

[st_swithin]

If I knew where else to go, I'd go there.

[Alexander's Horse]

any cliffs near your home?

[st_swithin]

I ain't leading no lemmings to no cliff. This ain't the White Cliffs of Dover, you know.

[finbar]

Originally posted by Tamerlin
Very disappointing... I even regret that the English have interrupted their victory record on such a game.

Still, Tamerlin, there is a bright side. Havak's every fear has been realised - England is a two-man team.

[LDiCesare]

Is that really the best number 10 France have?

Mmm... Given his performance today, one would hope not. He's still young and probably not in the best of shape. His kicking in particular was awful, giving the ball to Balshaw far too often.

The referee was not very consistent and did not applied some parts of the laws, as always

You forgot to say he was a SH ref . I agree he could have whistled once or twice when players dove instead of staying on their feet.
Tamerlin, I disagree about the game being poor. The lineouts and the scrums were very good for the French. It's after the ball left the hands of the 9 that things started to get bad. The scrums in particular were great. On their own scrums, the French would always make some progress, usually with Harinordoquy taking the ball, fixing the English back row before the ball was released to the backs, whereas the English scrum struggled, lost a ball and often delivered it poorly to Healey (or he couldn't get it out right), causing them to attack with very poor balls.

I agree that defense was much stronger than offense, and there were too many knocks on. The French backline in general was quite poor and should work its set pieces a bit.

As for France in the Cup, based on this game, I'm quite confident. France will have more domination against any other team's pack, which should free our back row that was quite invisible this evening. The only team we won't be able to beat is a full strength England. Other teams packs will disintegrate.

[st_swithin]

Maybe France is out of its deppth.

[spartak]

Originally posted by Tamerlin
And BTW... welcome Spartak!

[st_swithin]

That's right - blame it on the guy with one eye!!

[spartak]

Originally posted by finbar
Still, Tamerlin, there is a bright side. Havak's every fear has been realised - England is a two-man team.

Any team is going to miss the best number 10 in the world. The whole point here is not that England were missing two players but that we were missing 12 from our first choice. It is inevitable that the team would stutter and make mistakes. Especially when they were playing for their WC places and Healy wasn't ready for a match of this kind. I can't claim to be a Grayson fan but you do have the remember that Wilkinson's ccepted stand in is injured and will miss the WC.

I really think France should have done better then that given how woeful England were!

[LDiCesare]

France should have been able to do better in order to have a changce in the World Cup, but face it, we don't have the level. The French backline is too weak. The back row also needs to get better, as Grayson didn't suffer much pressure.
And I'm not sure it's Wilko that the English missed most. Overall, the England backs and Grayson's kicking were good, and that's where the danger (and the try) came. A good thrower or jumper in the pack would have made the difference. Not to say the whole first-team pack, for that matter.

[spartak]

To my mind the real killer was the amount of turnover ball and the lack of discipline in tight. Far too many penalties given away and far too many good positions thrown away by losing the ball.

[LDiCesare]

From planet-rugby:

With both sides bedecked in their bizarre new skin-tight kits, the sets of players looked more like cyclists, sprinters or rave dancers than rugby players, and with a whole host having to go off for running repairs on their figure-hugging attire, it seems work still needs to be done by the manufacturers.

It's true those new shirts are ugly, lose the numbers in their back, and generally tear themselves apart for no reason. Ugly stuff. Give me back the old shirts anyday.

[spartak]

I can't say the shirts bothered me. I was more concerned by the performance of the team. I am expecting a serious inprovement next week.