Team vs Scotland

[Mellsblue]

10 v 6 down at halftime after dominating possession and territory. No cutting edge.
Remember the bad ol’ days when Scotland kept beating us.

Well said, Thomas.

[Oakboy]

Why the feck was Ford brought on and Youngs given 80!! LCD an idiot, our wings pants and not bringing Nowell on until 81mins on the clock.

Great stuff Eddie

It's a simple fact that we were winning when Smith was taken off. Opinion comes in then because at that stage we looked in charge. Management snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, IMO. Of course, I just hate Jones so his constant run of balls-ups must just be down to my prejudice!!!! When is his incompetence going to be recognised?

[Big D]

TBF, ref may have bottled the last 2 decisions - but we should never have been in the position that either mattered - that much is 100% LCD's fault.

He bottled 3 decisions I think there. One of the scrums Schoeman should probably have won a pen too.

Shit ref, not as bad as Adamson right enough, he's a homer so you should be grand v Wales.

[Mellsblue]

Ford came on because Smith barely featured despite having lots of ball.

Youngs played 80 mins because Randall isn't an international scrum half and Eddie didn't want someone that can't kick at 9 when we were in an arm wrestle in poor conditions.

How do you reconcile “Don't think Smith has been poor” with “Ford came on because Smith barely featured”?

[FKAS]

Putting LCD's dick move aside, Eddie Jones lost us that game.

We were completely in control thanks to Smith and the forwards, so why the fuck take one of our best players off and leave Youngs on the pitch?!

I stopped watching at the penalty try as I knew we'd lose from there.

On the day Smith wasn't one of our best players though. More of the control came from Youngs which is why stayed on.

The change at 10 didn't have any baring on the try.

[Big D]

At the risk of agreeing with jngf, it's clear England need to find a way to use Simmonds better or find someone else. The Scots were ready for him and got a couple of turnovers from his charges.

What I don't get is Gleeson is an ex rugby league player where they basically have their second rows run beside centres. That style of attack is custom made for Simmonds.

[FKAS]

Ford came on because Smith barely featured despite having lots of ball.

Youngs played 80 mins because Randall isn't an international scrum half and Eddie didn't want someone that can't kick at 9 when we were in an arm wrestle in poor conditions.

How do you reconcile “Don't think Smith has been poor” with “Ford came on because Smith barely featured”?

Smith didn't bring his creative tricks to the party. He didn't make many errors and generally played percentages. With that much possession in the first half we created too little though. It was an average performance, not bad but he needs to be more prominent for me to talk him up as good.

[fivepointer]

Pointless and grossly unfair to blame individuals for losing that game.
The failure was collective as everyone made their share of mistakes and no one stood up and delivered a high class, consistently effective performance.
We didnt make the most of our control in the 1st half and played the last 20 odd minutes very poorly.
We played some decent stuff at times, moving the ball nicely yet didnt create line breaks or try scoring opportunities with the possession.
Get points while on top is essential if you want to win close games. We didnt.

[Mellsblue]

Ford came on because Smith barely featured despite having lots of ball.

Youngs played 80 mins because Randall isn't an international scrum half and Eddie didn't want someone that can't kick at 9 when we were in an arm wrestle in poor conditions.

How do you reconcile “Don't think Smith has been poor” with “Ford came on because Smith barely featured”?

Smith didn't bring his creative tricks to the party. He didn't make many errors and generally played percentages. With that much possession in the first half we created too little though. It was an average performance, not bad but he needs to be more prominent for me to talk him up as good.

If a 10 is deemed to barely feature when you have as much possession as England did I’d say he was poor. Least of our problems, mind, and he is our future.

[Puja]

Why the feck was Ford brought on and Youngs given 80!! LCD an idiot, our wings pants and not bringing Nowell on until 81mins on the clock.

Great stuff Eddie

Ford came on because Smith barely featured despite having lots of ball.

Youngs played 80 mins because Randall isn't an international scrum half and Eddie didn't want someone that can't kick at 9 when we were in an arm wrestle in poor conditions.

Ordinarily, I'd give you that, but Youngs's kicking was atrocious today. There were only 2 box kicks that were contestable in the whole match - the rest were massively overcooked. He was continually passing behind and above players, even off basic lineout ball. His presence at the base was soporific, exemplified by him getting caught by Price. I'm not convinced by Randall as an international 9 either, but given how poor a game Youngs was having, how much worse could he really have been?

Puja

[Mellsblue]

Pointless and grossly unfair to blame individuals for losing that game.
The failure was collective as everyone made their share of mistakes and no one stood up and delivered a high class, consistently effective performance.
We didnt make the most of our control in the 1st half and played the last 20 odd minutes very poorly.
We played some decent stuff at times, moving the ball nicely yet didnt create line breaks or try scoring opportunities with the possession.
Get points while on top is essential if you want to win close games. We didnt.

Spot on.

[Mellsblue]

Why the feck was Ford brought on and Youngs given 80!! LCD an idiot, our wings pants and not bringing Nowell on until 81mins on the clock.

Great stuff Eddie

Ford came on because Smith barely featured despite having lots of ball.

Youngs played 80 mins because Randall isn't an international scrum half and Eddie didn't want someone that can't kick at 9 when we were in an arm wrestle in poor conditions.

Ordinarily, I'd give you that, but Youngs's kicking was atrocious today. There were only 2 box kicks that were contestable in the whole match - the rest were massively overcooked. He was continually passing behind and above players, even off basic lineout ball. His presence at the base was soporific, exemplified by him getting caught by Price. I'm not convinced by Randall as an international 9 either, but given how poor a game Youngs was having, how much worse could he really have been?

Puja

Ground hog day.

[Danno]

Youngs did 2 good things; the break and getting the ball out of the maul for the try. Bar that, he was staggeringly bad, passing to static runners constantly, taking extra seconds at every ruck, should have been done for a 'use it' call, got burgled by Ali Price, box kicking poor.

How any attack is meant to operate around that standard of play from 9 is beyond me.

[Danno]

Ah.
Great minds?

[jngf]

For me Dombrandt to start at 8 next test, Ludlum deserves to keep his place so if going on form and contribution it’s a call between starting Curry or Simmonds for the 3rd back row starting spot imo

[WaspInWales]

Putting LCD's dick move aside, Eddie Jones lost us that game.

We were completely in control thanks to Smith and the forwards, so why the fuck take one of our best players off and leave Youngs on the pitch?!

I stopped watching at the penalty try as I knew we'd lose from there.

On the day Smith wasn't one of our best players though. More of the control came from Youngs which is why stayed on.

The change at 10 didn't have any baring on the try.

Youngs was poor. Very slow when presented with quick ball and his passing was as much of a lottery as ever.

Had Jones brought Randall on and kept Smith on when we were on top and if LCD's dad had settled for a crafty wank 29 years ago, we would have won.

[Mellsblue]

Putting LCD's dick move aside, Eddie Jones lost us that game.

We were completely in control thanks to Smith and the forwards, so why the fuck take one of our best players off and leave Youngs on the pitch?!

I stopped watching at the penalty try as I knew we'd lose from there.

On the day Smith wasn't one of our best players though. More of the control came from Youngs which is why stayed on.

The change at 10 didn't have any baring on the try.

Youngs was poor. Very slow when presented with quick ball and his passing was as much of a lottery as ever.

Had Jones brought Randall on and kept Smith on when we were on top and if LCD's dad had settled for a crafty wank 29 years ago, we would have won.

I’d like to alter my nominations for RR’s rugby TV coverage line up.

[Which Tyler]

Putting LCD's dick move aside, Eddie Jones lost us that game.

We were completely in control thanks to Smith and the forwards, so why the fuck take one of our best players off and leave Youngs on the pitch?!

I stopped watching at the penalty try as I knew we'd lose from there.

Trouble with that is "putting LCD's dick move aside" then we're 7 points up and favourites to win

[Mellsblue]

[WaspInWales]

I'm convinced Eddie Jones is doing his best to make it more difficult to win games at the same time as coming off as a complete twat.

The talk when the squad was announced included references to learning lessons and picking on form and he then selects a not-fit captain who then gets injured.

This followed on from the stunningly ill-thought out, misogynistic comments aimed at Raducanu about keeping grounded...followed up by comments about England players 'changing their lives'. The man is a complete twat.

With Farrell out of the picture and Ford drafted in, I was genuinely optimistic about our chances. Still had Ireland or France as favourites though.

It did cross my mind that Eddie may try putting Smith or Ford at 12, but common sense prevailed.

[Mellsblue]

If a cross field kick can be the difference between a team winning and losing, can we discuss Smith missing a wide open Slade with what should’ve been a regulation cross field kick.

[Stom]

All in all, I’ll take a glass half full approach.

I thought we had some nice shape on attack at times. While our first phase was consistently poor, we made good yardage off multi phase ball. Smith, Slade, Daly and Malins combined nicely at points. But we really could have done with May…

We lost the game due to a ridiculous decision by LCD. So we almost won despite not being at our best.

Negatives were our wide defense, which was awful. But, hey, our wingers were a full back and a center. And they had Daly inside them…

Our lack of penetration off first phase ball was poor. Yes, we were down on carriers, but still. I thought Simmonds was meant to be good at tight carries?

We’ve gone from 4 incredible locks to 1. And even he isn’t hitting his heights. Which is costing us, especially when one of our locks is Ewels.

Youngs was just awful. One phase in particular stands out, where we had quick ball in the middle of the park and he kicked it away straight to Hogg, who pinned us back and led to a penalty. Off our quick ball, ffs.

[Stom]

If a cross field kick can be the difference between a team winning and losing, can we discuss Smith missing a wide open Slade with what should’ve been a regulation cross field kick.

We can. He’s far from the finished article. He did make a few mistakes that seemed to come from nerves. And as he’s come good in some pretty high profile games for Quins, maybe it’s the world class mentoring he’s been getting

[Scrumhead]

I'm convinced Eddie Jones is doing his best to make it more difficult to win games at the same time as coming off as a complete twat.

The talk when the squad was announced included references to learning lessons and picking on form and he then selects a not-fit captain who then gets injured.

This followed on from the stunningly ill-thought out, misogynistic comments aimed at Raducanu about keeping grounded...followed up by comments about England players 'changing their lives'. The man is a complete twat.

With Farrell out of the picture and Ford drafted in, I was genuinely optimistic about our chances. Still had Ireland or France as favourites though.

It did cross my mind that Eddie may try putting Smith or Ford at 12, but common sense prevailed.

Are you Oakboy in disguise?

[Scrumhead]

If a cross field kick can be the difference between a team winning and losing, can we discuss Smith missing a wide open Slade with what should’ve been a regulation cross field kick.

Oh come on. You’re making out it was a gimme which it wasn’t. It was within about a foot of being on the money. Hardly a howler.