England vs. New Zealand - Match Thread

[Which Tyler]

I think each player gets stick when they make a glaring error; he made three in the first half. Youngs fared much worse in stick terms

And rightly so

[Gloskarlos]

Class from SBW on Twitter, Ross Kemps tweet sums up most of our mornings very well I think, worth a look.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/rugby- ... type=share

[Mr Mwenda]

Round we go.

For my money Ford was good, better than Farrell. Still he did a few bag kicks and only the heroic chasers, luck and nz's lack of composure saved england.

[richy678]

Class from SBW on Twitter, Ross Kemps tweet sums up most of our mornings very well I think, worth a look.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/rugby- ... type=share

Cockney hard man.

[richy678]

Good to see the league guys chipping in:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/50192096

[p/d]

Class from SBW on Twitter,

Yep. Good to see,

[Oakboy]

Has Jones got a better record against NZ than he has against Wales or SA?

Our feet need to stay firmly grounded.

Can we call up injury replacements at this stage?

[normanski]

Congratulations! Some demolition job. Hope we can do the same tomorrow.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Well done, no question who was the better team.

[16th man]

Some random thoughts.

There has to be some praise going Borthwick's way for the pressure we put their line out under, even with the much hyped 4 jumpers vs 2 situation. Looked like we either cracked their codes or just figured out a key weakness in the throw.

Which coupled with possibly the best flanker performance by England players not called Hill and Back exploited the weird Barrett selection to the full.

Throw in a fairly all singing all dancing tight 5 performance and we've not only won the physical battle up front, but we've forced Retallick and Whitelock to actually play like locks and shown that they're merely good at that, whilst our forwards played the much better rugby in the loose too.

If Watson stays fit for a year, then he's got a real call on being the most complete winger in world rugby, pace, feet, defence, total package.

Only bugbears were:

Too many unforced errors when cooler heads might have seen us score a couple more tries at least and the officials forensically looking for reasons to ping us whilst ignoring the AB midfield playing NFL.

[Timbo]

Quote honestly, Itoje, Curry, Underhill, Ford, Manu and Watson allmput in truly world class performances, probably the best any of them have played to date.

Agreed. Mako was superb too I thought.

He really was. He may not look it, but he is some athlete. Mentally as tough as they come too. Can’t believe he basically hadn’t played any rugby for 5 months before last week.

[Danno]

Edit - Wrong thread

[Mellsblue]

They were all superb (ok, maybe not Youngs after the first 30mins) and I love them all.

[Sandydragon]

Huge performance from England and very deserved winners. Soft try aside, there was little to fault in this and a lot to praise, including an epic number of turnovers.

Congratulations.

[Which Tyler]

Amongst all of this, can we please spare a thought for Wayne Barnes - he really deserved to go out on a high with a RWC final

[Mellsblue]

Amongst all of this, can we please spare a thought for Wayne Barnes - he really deserved to go out on a high with a RWC final

This.

[Mikey Brown]

Amongst all of this, can we please spare a thought for Wayne Barnes - he really deserved to go out on a high with a RWC final

That’s a good shout. He did explicitly say he’d have chosen this ahead of him getting the final, but I guess of course he would say that.

[twitchy]

Does any one know where I can download the game in full?

[Stom]

Does any one know where I can download the game in full?

It’ll be on across the Tasman tonight or tomorrow morning

[Mikey Brown]

I should probably clarify Farrell is not “an absolute spastic” and I am slightly prone to exaggeration. He looked totally fucked but I sincerely think he’s one of the bravest, most strong willed players I’ve ever seen. He does have an affect on the team, but purely as a player (and certainly minus his goalkicking) he is regularly one of the least effective guys on the pitch.

He made a bundle of mistakes but often in the act of almost doing something fantastic (quite like Slade tends to be for England, oddly) so they are slightly more forgiveable.

He gets it worse than he should on here perhaps, and I may be the worst offender, as overcompensation for the media hype, granted. Ditto Ford, but the other way round.

I’d say he’d get a 5 as a player today, but I do believe he lifts the team in a way that also lifts his own worth. 7 for Farrell. Ford however was just incredible in everything outside of a few ropey kicks for territory. A 9 for me.

[fivepointer]

Thats fair on Farrell. He has him limitations. He does make errors, miss tackles and perform the basics poorly at times, yet he is undeniably a ferocious competitor who never flinches. I do think he has a galvanising effect on those around him.
All our players today deserve the highest praise. That was a supreme team effort.
The coaches too deserve some appreciation.
Jones got his selection and tactics spot on.
Our set piece functioned well - take a bow Borthwick for the clever movement and timing in our l/o.
Our defence was resolute and unflagging.
All in all, it was just one of the best days i've enjoyed as an England supporter since the 2003 final.

[16th man]

Also saw the benefits of the U20s stepping up and beating the Baby Blacks regularly today. There's no mystique for a lot of the guys we had on the pitch today, as they've got experiences of wins against them recently.

Some of the writing must have been on the wall for the ABs in the Autumn when they needed a 50/50 offside call to beat us with a 3rd / 4th choice tight 5 on the pitch.

[Stom]

I should probably clarify Farrell is not “an absolute spastic” and I am slightly prone to exaggeration. He looked totally fucked but I sincerely think he’s one of the bravest, most strong willed players I’ve ever seen. He does have an affect on the team, but purely as a player (and certainly minus his goalkicking) he is regularly one of the least effective guys on the pitch.

He made a bundle of mistakes but often in the act of almost doing something fantastic (quite like Slade tends to be for England, oddly) so they are slightly more forgiveable.

He gets it worse than he should on here perhaps, and I may be the worst offender, as overcompensation for the media hype, granted. Ditto Ford, but the other way round.

I’d say he’d get a 5 as a player today, but I do believe he lifts the team in a way that also lifts his own worth. 7 for Farrell. Ford however was just incredible in everything outside of a few ropey kicks for territory. A 9 for me.

I don’t know. I thought his decision making in the final 3rd of the game was spot on. Perhaps because Ford took all the playmaking off him. And I therefore thought it was possibly one of his most effective performance at 12.

A solid 7 for me.

[twitchy]

Does any one know where I can download the game in full?

It’ll be on across the Tasman tonight or tomorrow morning

Cheers, i found some dodgy site that I'm downloading at 0.5 kpbs might be downloaded in time for next week.

[Buggaluggs]

Well played England. Its going to be tough coming back down to earth next weekend when we crush your dreams!