How did the final match of the Autumn Internationals unfold? What did you think of the game?
Which players stood out, which underperformed, and what were the key talking points?
Give the match a rating out of 10 and then share your views in the comments below.
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First 20 was very poor and we could have gone under but totally dominant in 2nd half got them in a stranglehold and a fine performance.
14 straight wins and 4 on the bounce v Oz is pretty damn good.Well done Eddie,coaches and players.Huge next defining moment likely to be away to Irish end of 6N
Let´s not get ahead of ourselves. The French look as if they are improving and the Welsh in Cardiff always like to give us a bloody nose. Encouraging that we are developing strength in almost every position but as soon as the players start thinking more than one game at a time we will get beat.
Disagree.
The turnaround and the achievement of the England is STUNNING and needs celebrating as such in a muted manner.
France and Wales pride themselves (particularly the latter) every year at just this most seasonal of times on the next Le Crunch/Grudge Match, often to their detriment as Clive Woodward has stated in print. Their (Wales and France’s) focus and attention, which should perhaps be more evenly attributed against other teams is overly concentrated against a single FOE resulting perhaps in inconsistency!
Andy
Agree, are more objective & balanced than AlexD’s subjective jingoism. May be a maturity thing?
However, England’s home game v France likely to favour the former.
Wales away? The Welsh have been so inconsistent that I wouldn’t be surprised @ away win in Cardiff. Certainly on the cards IMO, esp with the ordinary Howley in charge.
Scotland @ home. Ditto. Although Cotter’s got them playing better, they just lack that bit of collective power up front for me.
Italy? Well they did beat the saffas I suppose, but… nah!
So is it likely down to Ireland to upset England’s apple cart? Probably.
Depends on whether Ireland have a full house & start @ 100 mph as v NZ I reckon. England have the depth, but will find the Irish ‘D’ a tough to crack & their attack hard to contain… IF Ireland get enough ball.
So, the breakdown & possession likely to be pivotal. Whoever wins here, wins all?
We’ll see.
Don P
My comment to which you replied was a remark (well attested to by Clive Woodward) on rugby parochialism and myopia in the northern hemisphere – particularly that among the home nations.
Nothing jingoistic! Where did that come from?
You must learn to breath and stay calm on here Don before spouting off – regardless of whether things are going your way on the rugby pitch)
Keep the remarks fact-based or at least in the case of mine backed (or plagiarised – call it what you wish) by professional punditry.
The cheap shots don’t cast you or your country in a good light (said on here by others – i won’t mention names)
Remember balance, reason and objectivity and if that fails – breath or count to 10.
People dont need to provide refernces to go with their posts it’s an opinion not a phd thesis. As it happens i fully agree with Don’s assessment of Englands chances in the 6n there are some tricky games and if we dont perform we could slip up easily but if we do perform we should get to play a very very difficult Irish side for the grandslam where we will either need to put in that elusive complete performance, get lucky or go home with a bloody nose
Leon
As a mere mortal i would beg to disagree.
Nobody on here is a professional rugby player in the premiership or a club/international coach though you wouldn’t know it sometimes with the absolute certainty with which things are said on here!
Sometimes a little more objectivity, balance and CALM is required in and among postings!
Facts, data and professional anecdotes from the PROS to back our own ‘blindingly novel and accurate rugby eureka moments’ is very much the order of the day (irony in there somewhere)!
Ireland you’re right, however, will be Le crunch or the CRAIC!
With the irish in me i think i know it anyway!
Most of what any of us say, think and scribble on here is NOT new or cutting edge. It’s been said by tens of thousands in fact. We needn’t take ourselves too seriously need we?
Can you please provide some references to back up your statement that people aren’t allowed to post ‘Opinions’
Also a bit ironic that you say “We needn’t take ourselves too seriously need we?” yet want every post to be written like an essay. Have you considered not taking everything so seriously yourself?
Wow. Just wow. What an achievement. Just hope Gatland doesnt ruin the the few Eng players he picks.
Great win!
Requires more peolpe to say so as part of an unbiased litmus test on here to distinguish the anglophobes from the anglophiles and the truly ambivalent/objective !
14 wins on the trot (including 4 against a good Aussie side) is no MEAN FEAT!
A three tick-in-the box questionnaire would be fascinating vis a vis attitudes towards England.
Yes 14 wins in a row is a fantastic achievement but lets avoid getting ahead of ourselves. There is still lots of room for improvement in this team and we are yet to see enough consistency or a complete performance yet. We are still vulnerable against top teams but have started to show a steely edge determination and the desire to constantly improve that will be key if they want to achieve the stated goal of no1 in the world and RWC2019 champs
Fantastic comeback – could so easily have folded after the first 20 minutes (last year they would have) so a great performance by the players and coaches. Well done and makes for an exciting 6N with Ireland, Scotland and France all improving this year.
Great game!!! Could so easily have fallen apart but the experienced heads pulled it out of the bag and produced a fantastic display.
What we have to remember is this was not even our full strength team out there. There are a lot of players to come back in who can make a real difference to the squad. Itoje, Haskell, Watson, Nowell, Billy V, Clifford. All of these guys will have to work hard to get back in but are all capable of lifting the team again and achieving even more.
Well done to all the coaches and players involved.
I don’t believe we should fear anyone, we have strength in depth, played well and won, played ugly and won, rode our luck and won, gone to Paris and won, played Australia three times and won.
There is no reason why we cannot go to Cardiff and Dublin and win especially with not all of our first choice team playing recently.
Eddie Jones hasn’t changed the personnel much but the turnaround has been phenomenal and I haven’t felt this confident about an England side since 2003.
What impressed me most was how Engalnd grew into the game. Started very jittery and were under the kosh in the first 20 they started to gain a bit more parity in the 2nd 20 and were slightly foretunate to be so close of the score board at half time. It the first 20 of 2nd half there was an ebb and flow to the game but England finished their chances better but by the final 20 the aussies couldnt get out of their own 22 and England were completely dominant.
Reminiscent of 1st test down under?
Oz all over England & England all over the place like Santa Claus @ Xmas, in the 1st 1/2. Ragged on back foot. Players pulled out of place.
England upped tempo & got possession in 2nd.
Ironically stats were pretty even over all. Even the pen count had only 2 in it. WR must have had a word with piper, although he couldn’t resist the yellow could he?
As in aforementioned test in Oz, the result flattered England IMO.
And look @ the tries denied Oz in the 1st 1/2. Had to score 4/5? for 2 to count. If Piper had asked the appropriate ?, i.e., ‘Any reason NOT to award…’?, then it could have been a v different story.
Also in the 2nd 1/2, again reminiscent of the down under game, things ran England’s way (& even the jaundiced Jones of the ST opined luck ran for England). Such as the lucky bounce for JJ, the knocked on Yarde ‘try’ & then the intercept by JJ. England did nothing to create these (& I’m also looking ahead to the Lions here. Called forethought AlexD. Heard of it?).
On the other hand, as Stephen Moore conceded, ‘… you don’t get lucky 14 times’, so England had to be thereabouts to win it.
Don P
Fairly balanced comments Don. Congrats
On the “had to score 4 or 5 to be awarded two” point:
The two that never were weren’t of the ‘iffy or would have been given on another day variety’.
They were both clearly held up. Cameras had all the angles (as they generally do nowadays and on this occasion i have heard little controversy surrounding it) and the ref was on the spot.
Where you would have grounds for complaint was the Yarde try where you are right there was a knock on with the left hand i think prior to touch down with the right.
Tries have to have clear downward pressure and grounding nowadays and neither of them had it in a month of Sundays. The Aussie players didn’t even look convinced which rather gave it away and we definitely don’t want rugger players emulating the footy players through simulation (not diving in this case…obviously…but pretending to score and whooping it up in the event to influence the ref)
The try and points difference however said it all. You definitelty don’t get lucky 14 games in a row as you say.
Whilst i also agree the tries scored by England (the Yarde try apart which i would ague was sublime) were not out of the top drawer – so what? They have time on their hands, better players returning to full fitness, an attack coach to find with unlimited finances to afford him and at the end of the day a propensity to score the same kind of ‘smash and grab’ tries against anyone (ABs included)
I return to an earlier point in a separate post – International refereeing has evolved and changed. If there is a repeat of “Ireland v ABs second autumn international” the latter will almost cetainly suffer red cards.
For the Yarde try, I might be wrong, but for it to be a knock on does it not have to touch the ground or another player?
Therefore, even if the ball did stop making contact with his left hand, the next touch was his right hand that grounded it?
Am I misunderstanding a rule here or is the debate about whether the ball detached from his left hand irrelevant?
Nope no misunderstanding, you are correct. Yardes hand was in control of the ball at the point it was grounded so any knock on prior to that is irrelevant
Thought so! I couldn’t work out why no commentator or the TMO was pointing this out at the time?
Strange, but clearly no knock on ever happened.
AlexD
It’s no skin off mine, but the ‘held up’ balls were only visible AFTER the act of Oz’s going over the line & likely scoring(?), but I understand that that was NOT what you wanted to see, so you’ll naturally disagree.
I’ll re-look @ Yarde’s try, but my point regarding all of the aforementioned tries was that there was the element of luck in them.
In answer to yr ‘so what?’ ?, it is that England have played mostly inferior teams this yr (Argentina & SA were depleted & now 2nd tier sides respectively, from last WC& as for Fiji, did you see their 2 defenders run into EACH OTHER in attempting to ‘tackle’ Daly England’s 1st try?) & in doing so, it gives a false impression of their having had a ‘gr8 yr’. They’ll need to be better, esp AWAY from home, in the 6N.
And if England bother to pay NZ enough from their £10m war chest to make it worth the AB’s while to turn up @ Twick, they’ll find that they’ll have less time & more pressure to deal with than even Oz applied in the 1st 1/2 hr methinks.
And Hansen’s likely already addressed yr future reds theory.
Funny thing is that when NZ have won in the past without playing well it has always been regarded as the hallmark of a great side. Now I’m not saying that they are great (not yet, but they have the potential to do more), but you have just put this run down to luck and playing tier two or depleted sides. Very gracious of you and possibly missing some rugby analysis.
As to NZ addressing the issue of reds. They normally do. They get away with just what they can and if they get found out they adapt. Always have. I agree with you on that point. Doesn’t make some of what they have done in the past right though.
Great, so it WAS a try then. I heard some commentator questioning its validity!
AlexD
It was Stephen Jones of the ST.
But even you weren’t certain, were you?
Ha, ha.
Does anybody take SJ seriously?
No
Nope mate i wasn’t!
But pretty chipper to have it verified as a try by others.
Showed my honesty, objectivity and fair play however by querying it in the first place….didn’t i?
A tip: Work out where people are coming from and where they’re going with it first…..then you’ll understand someone’s intent (and indeed whether there are any hidden agendas in and amongst the postings – in some more than others!)
Me…as straight as a die!
What you read is what you get!
Abobe the above intended as a reply to Don P.
Apologies for not putting it in the right place!