What were the main talking points from the England v South Africa match? Which players performed well, and which didn’t? Does anything need to change ahead of next week’s fixture?
Give the match a rating out of 10, and let us know what you thought in the comments.
Loading ...
A good solid satisfactory performance especially as first game since June.Very pleased to see players are not that happy with it.The goal must be a points gap v Oz of least 20 pts
A solid 8. The scoreline alone elevated it from 7. Poor opening and closing 20 mins so lots to work on.
Don’t know if it was me but one of the TJs seemed to have it in for Eng and missed one of the most obvious knock ons I’ve ever seen.
Still very happy with the win.
Don’t know about “having it in” but the application of the forward pass laws was fairly liberal as well!!
I cannot understand how professional officials with all the video assistance in the world can rule the pass leading to a bok try was not forward.A scandalous decision.It didn’t affect the outcome but that does not excuse a dreadfully incompetent decision
That was bad but the one where JP passed from a quick throw was almost American football!
First half was pretty dire from an English point of view. SA did exactly what was expected , big carriers ,forward power but no cutting edge. Surprised that we struggled so badly for the first twenty five. One positive was the effectiveness of the two man tackle. Worth persevering with.
EJ must have read the riot act at ht as we were far more incisive for the next twenty five.
We beat the ‘boks and ended the ten year wait so too many complaints would be churlish.
Daly, Lawes,launchbury and Youngs did well. All worth another go though(,Daly apart) they are hardly novices ,as attested to by CL winning his fiftieth cap so congratulations to him.
Well done EJ for allaying our fears following the injury debacle and inspiring another victory.
Trust Garces to not understand what “forwards” means…
Honestly disappointed there aren’t a bucket load of French military jokes flying around :(
10 year drought ended (with a neat 16 point margin no less), unbeaten run continues and some nice tries scored as well, 8/10. Kinda worried about the chronic inability to come out of the blocks at pace though, we seem perennially slow for the first 15 minutes of pretty much every game. 1st test against Aus showed us that more fluent attacking sides will make us pay for it. I’d like to think the lackadaisical finish was due to the game being won a long time ago.
May back with a beauty. Team selection showed intent in the backs to move them around and that was the best one i’ve seen since Johnny’s try against the All Backs all those moons ago!
An absolute peach!
Good job the SA’s haven’t complained of Novovirus, Surf & Turf illness from Chicago or any other ailment!
Beaten fair and square!
What no one has mentioned is the fact the team was 50% different to Down Under! EJ has a second team to back up his first. Two players to every position that can be played and hardly make a difference to overrall play and performance!
Its what the ABs have and it looks like England under EJ have it too.
Daly was a revelation too. What earthly riches EJ is blessed with!
I would argue it is Eddie who has unearthed the riches.They were there all the time.Stu with his micro management style surpressed.Eddie released!And that is the essential difference between the 2 regimes.
Agree solid effort. Glad to see that the new ethos is bang on track ( even though SA were predictable ). Blimey , how many times have we seen Youngs come round the corner and slip through for Leicester. SA obviously didn’t do their homework. After great patience Daly had a good showing, Mako, Launchbury immense. Jones man management is first class.
I believe that Pieter-Stephanie bloke playing openside is usually a lock? Might go some way to explaining how he bought Youngs’s filthy dummy twice.
Yes he is normally a lock. And given he’s 6’7 and about 19 stone, he doesn’t change direction quickly!
With Eztebeth going off I think he had moved to lock at that point though (7 is blindside for Boks …. the diminutive Alberts was the openside).
Not so much didn’t do their homework as PSTD playing out of position and poor defensive communication. The size of some of those gaps he went through were criminal as there was no post at the breakdown
Frustrating though isn’t it that it had to be a foreign coach to do it? Obviously chuffed with how it’s going but why couldn’t an English coach, SL, manage it with the same group of players or could the next one have but we were too scared to appoint one?
Not worried about it being under an Aussie WHATSOEVER!
It would be nice were it not but as in football our coaching/managerial level is sub standard!
It’s also ‘one in the eye’ to ex-pat whingers on here. So the more Aussie staff the better. I’d welcome a few Kiwis too if EJ wanted a conflab with them aswell in the coaching box/team!
EJ will FEEL as english as english is when he coaches our boys and sees them win. We should certainly not go into a nationalistic corral/huddle that excluded ‘foreign’ ideas, personnel and coaching.
Embrace it and England will thrive!
I think it also proves in true inimical Ali G style that (all things being tongue-in-cheek especially with a national requirement to laugh at oneself) “We is not racists”.
Other nations might be paranoid about a non-native coach but England couldn’t care less.
I’m certainly not fussed. EJ for a knighthood!
AlexD NZ worked out long ago you can only produce a world class team with world class coaches so the latter are the greater priority-hence Henry and Hansom learnt their job i Wales.9 out of 20 coaches at last rwc were Kiwis-end of.Rfu haven’t begun to understand that.
Surely they have now. EJ i mean!
Couldn’t care less Stu. Eddie’s the best in the world.
It’s nothing to do with being an Aussie, it’s that he’s travelled all over the world and coached at the highest level and been successful in multiple environments.
SL wasn’t much more than an academy level coach when he got the job, with another 15 years experience he may be ready.
SL also had the mentality of running it like a school, EJ does whatever he can to get the best out of each individual.
England were good, but SA were pants. Anything other than an easy Eng win would have been a disappointment.
Why didn’t SA compete at the lineout, with 3 locks in the pack? It was training ground stuff for England.
SA had no game plan beyond ‘be big’ and had no cohesion in the backs.
England hustled well, good kicking from hand, good ball retention and the odd bit of magic/luck to score the tries.
I agree 100%, this was an easy win, there was not expectations for SA to win from the start seeing they are on an unusual losing streak. SA is playing their worst rugby in years, the real challenge will be against Australia starting to look on form.
*no expectations *in form
Matt
Its has alot to do with being an Aussie. They have a greater desire to win (arguably that desire has found its way northward of late to rub off on the english)
As i posted earlier about ‘rentapoms’ at Sydney Grammar School or Shaws as its also known.
The kids there (a secondary) were brought up to be ‘obsessive’ about winning. Another level and another mindset.
The same doesn’t exist here except perhaps at Millfield school in Somerset where Robshaw happened to go and one of the Vunipolas (not sure which one)
So a missive to the RFU: please keep EJ over here under contract for as long as possible until such a time as we have regained all that was lost under Woodward because the RFU wouldn’t play ball and give Woodward what he wanted after his World Cup victory (more control essentially!)
Fair point, the attitude and confidence helps us. My main point is he’s got 10-15 years + more top level coaching experience than any English coach.
The AB coaches go out and see the world, learn from other rugby cultures and hone their skills before being trusted with the national team.
RFU should be encouraging/sponsoring something similar. Assuming he’s hear for 3 more years only I don’t think we are 25% of the way to developing a successor.
But for now, after many years of getting it wrong, RFU got this one spot on.
I gave the match a 7, but still a 10 for EJ!