England v All Blacks

[nimnarb]

Anyone watching? Can we hang on for a famous win?

[nimnarb]

gripping!!!!

[richfool]

Anyone watching? Can we hang on for a famous win?

No not hang on, but earn the win.

[nimnarb]

Yep, brilliant..some of the best tackling and defense I have ever seen from England.............................

[redsturgeon]

I cannot recall a better all round performance by an England rugby team...The All Blacks were never in the game.

John

[monabri]

I wonder if we will be meeting our "neighbours" in the final?

[Rhyd6]

Excellent win for England, only hope Wales manage to do the same tomorrow.

R6

[AsleepInYorkshire]

Well done England

AiY

[Itsallaguess]

Well done England

Well done Leicester too.

Even they scored more than the All-Blacks...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[nimnarb]

Now why cant we have a VAR system in place for football as we saw today. Not only can you hear what the ref is saying, the crowds can clearly see what is going on and so can the viewer, in real time with clear playbacks. Notice how the ref stamped his authority on the game, accepted no nonsense from the players, warned them a few times with no argueing back. See this happening with our lot of sweethearts on the football pitch? No.

[terminal7]

As a Welshman, it pains me to write that England were brilliant and outclassed the ABs. Their tackling was ferocious and in seven decades of watching international rugby, this surely was the best display by an England 15 (or 23 nowadays).

As mentioned by another Fool, the refereeing was exceptional. Nigel Owens (at least Wales has the best referee at the RWC) allowed this game to flow and took no nonsense from the players.

T7

[Itsallaguess]

Farrell knew....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgF8IVPeR48

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[sg31]

Now why cant we have a VAR system in place for football as we saw today. Not only can you hear what the ref is saying, the crowds can clearly see what is going on and so can the viewer, in real time with clear playbacks. Notice how the ref stamped his authority on the game, accepted no nonsense from the players, warned them a few times with no argueing back. See this happening with our lot of sweethearts on the football pitch? No.

When I played rugby there was a rule that if a penalty was given and you didn't fall back 10 yards the ref would award another penalty 10 yards further forward. I'd love to see the same rule in football. Commit an offence, foul given, if you argue or don't move 10 yards from the ball then the ball is moved 10 yards further upfield. Repeat as necessary.

It would stop a lot of arguing and the wall creeping closer to the ball.

[Itsallaguess]

It seems that Steve Hansen, the All-Blacks head coach, doesn't like the media questioning the attitude of his players -

'I'll give you a rugby education outside' - All Blacks coach angered by question..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/rugby-union/50196106

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[vandefrosty]

Well done England. I have never seen the ABs so thoroughly outplayed in the modern era - as a youngster, perhaps Australia in 1978 and France in 1979 had us similarly overwhelmed, but those were both final tests in series that were already won.

Regarding the reporter's question, it was pretty dopey though, wasn't it? It amounts to suggesting the ABs entered the game believing that turning up would be sufficient - in a world cup semifinal, against a savvy coach who's tripped them up in a previous semi with clever strategy to deny ABs their strengths, against a team the ABs have barely played against but which has a variety of weapons with which to attack, in a tournament that would provide departing players and coach the opportunity to exit in the unprecedented glory of three successive wins. The premise of the question was nonsense.

A legitimate question would have been along the lines of "why weren't the team able to regroup and adjust their strategy, and tactics, in response to England's game plan?" - eerily reminiscent of questions that might have been asked after being out-thought by Australia in 2003 especially, and to a lesser extent being undone in 2007.

I think the most telling aspect was that the sharp response came from Hansen, and not from Read at whom the question was directed. I've long worried that he did't quite have enough mongrel for the really decisive on-field moments - despite being an immense player through a distinguished career - and this off-field response kind of fits that pattern.

I also think the implicit threat of violence against a journalist was unwarranted, and am a bit surprised that more hasn't been made of this.

Greg

[simoan]

As a Welshman, it pains me to write that England were brilliant and outclassed the ABs. Their tackling was ferocious and in seven decades of watching international rugby, this surely was the best display by an England 15 (or 23 nowadays).

As mentioned by another Fool, the refereeing was exceptional. Nigel Owens (at least Wales has the best referee at the RWC) allowed this game to flow and took no nonsense from the players.

T7

I agree that Nigel Owens is currently the best international referee and it would be good to have seen him get the final instead of Garces.

Although England played really well last weekend, this has to be tempered by the fact that this is probably the weakest AB team I can remember seeing in the past 20 years. Let's not pretend they are even close to the team captained by McCaw with Carter at fly half that won the last RWC and had dominated international rugby for so long. In the Rugby Championship before the RWC they only won one of their 3 games, and that was by only 4 points against Argentina.

It was a very good performance by England but far from the best ever. My own vote would go for the 15-13 win against the ABs in Wellington in June 2003. An amazing effort given England were down to 13 at one point with Back and Dallaglio both in the bin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGDivBtzfMM

All the best, Si

[Scott0966]

When I played rugby there was a rule that if a penalty was given and you didn't fall back 10 yards the ref would award another penalty 10 yards further forward. I'd love to see the same rule in football. Commit an offence, foul given, if you argue or don't move 10 yards from the ball then the ball is moved 10 yards further upfield. Repeat as necessary.

It would stop a lot of arguing and the wall creeping closer to the ball.[/quote]

It was brought in as a rule in football a few years ago - fairly quickly scrapped

[didds]

It was a very good performance by England but far from the best ever. My own vote would go for the 15-13 win against the ABs in Wellington in June 2003. An amazing effort given England were down to 13 at one point with Back and Dallaglio both in the bin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGDivBtzfMM
All the best, Si

and that 6 man pack (in that 13 man team on the pitch) held out a AB 5m attacking scrum too IIRC. Primpting various people to suggest this proves that dallaglio and Back didnt push anyway!

didds

[flyer61]

Interesting comments about Nigel Owens. My view is that England had done their homework extensively on Owens. you are right 'he likes a flowing game'......He is lenient at people coming in from the side at the breakdown...Once England realised (they had been prepped) that he wasn't pinging they made full use of it. Secondly look at England's line out throws in the second half. They were not contestable because of where they were thrown. Smart Rugby, if the refs not blowing then keep on at it.

Hansen got his tactics wrong. Bringing Barrett in meant a slower loose forward trio. He acknowledged this by subbing him at half time. The damage was done by then. Another point I would make is that the AB supporters were a bit blind to something like this happening. Retalick and Read have both been out injured and Read is 34! When your forwards aren't at their peak and combine a tactical error in your selection then a fine team like England should have unpicked them and they duly did.

Eddies selection of Ford was brilliant given plenty of people are 'Ford' doubters, his kicking game meant the AB's did not get the time and space to counter attack. In fact Eddies homework on the AB's was on the money and therefore they got the deserved win and the final.

The inquest in NZ will probably go on for 20 plus years ....2007 is still raw for many people!

[redsturgeon]

The ABs just reminded us how special that England performance was.

John