France v England

[Mr Mwenda]

Horse piss. Great try.

[16th man]

Worrying reminder of last year's game

[Stom]

Thinking about the England defence in the lead-up to this game, I was thinking how dangerous Fickou could be. Well, there we are.

[Stom]

Smith at sea there - great passing.

Not a lot he could do there, tbf, but he needed to make a decision. That's what you get when someone's out of position: he's not used to making those decisions.

[16th man]

How the hell have they missed Unai charging into the side of that maul?

[Mr Mwenda]

Penaud with the most gallic facial expression of the year there.

[Mr Mwenda]

Buggered on the transitions and the bounces aren't going England's way this week.

[16th man]

Itoje on the ball, cleared from the side in open sight, let go.

[Danno]

Buggered on the transitions and the bounces aren't going England's way this week.

We're coughing up possession like it's a Scotland match, which doesn't help

[16th man]

Just getting withered by the size, power and speed here.

[Galfon]

13 - 3 fair reflection of dominance and flair.
Eng not backed up last week yet - pen. count clocking up now which will nobbl'em (again..)

[16th man]

George needs to get into the ref here. That offside is given from when he;s picked it back up having fumbled it back, not from the actual ruck.

[Galfon]

Patience perfect.

[16th man]

Excellent to isolate Lawrence on their weak midfield fence.

[Puja]

Needed to score there. Much better feel at 16-10.

Slade's having a good game. His grubber to the corner to set up the position and lovely play at the line. I'm willing to eat my words on him so far.

Puja

[fivepointer]

Good time to score. we needed that.

Losing our shape far too easily, making too many errors and missing waaaayy too many tackles.

6 pts isnt insurmountable but we need to be a lot better.

[Stom]

The fact we're within a try despite our forwards being outdone is good work.

We're coughing up possession too much, other than that we're not awful. We're in this and we're actually doing well. But France get the ball around our defence way too easily. We're scrambling well, though, I feel.

[Stom]

Needed to score there. Much better feel at 16-10.

Slade's having a good game. His grubber to the corner to set up the position and lovely play at the line. I'm willing to eat my words on him so far.

Puja

Yeah, agreed on that.

[Banquo]

Not looking after possession well enough, almost like we are surprised by the physicality of the enormous French pack….

[16th man]

Some massive homer decisions in that half, and we've not been great, so it's nice to be on the right side of a game where the team on top hasn't scored the points for a change.

[Puja]

13 - 3 fair reflection of dominance and flair.
Eng not backed up last week yet - pen. count clocking up now which will nobbl'em (again..)

Some of the pens were shocking calls though. Le Garrec clearly fumbles the ball at the back of the ruck, when Martin was called for offside - ball was out long before the pass actually went.

Puja

[Mellsblue]

Slade is lazy as **** for the France try.

[Puja]

Good time to score. we needed that.

Losing our shape far too easily, making too many errors and missing waaaayy too many tackles.

6 pts isnt insurmountable but we need to be a lot better.

This is the big thing. Lots of simple one-on-one tackles being missed, which is putting massive stress on our defence.

Puja

[16th man]

13 - 3 fair reflection of dominance and flair.
Eng not backed up last week yet - pen. count clocking up now which will nobbl'em (again..)

Some of the pens were shocking calls though. Le Garrec clearly fumbles the ball at the back of the ruck, when Martin was called for offside - ball was out long before the pass actually went.

Puja

Mixed bag from Gerdner. Feels like we got away easy from a couple of scrums, but that offside, plus a clear side clear out and Atonio nuking a maul on their 5m line from the side could have it 13 all, if not us ahead.

[16th man]

Massive credit to Earl for not forcing the pass off the floor.