NZ vs England - round 2

[Banquo]

Charlie Morgan picking out this moment in his review of the series:



53m in, England are 17-13 up, and Telea rushes up and blocks Smith's pass - given as a knock-on in the tackle by the ref and not reviewed by the TMO, but looked very, very *marginal* on the one replay that we got. Crying shame the ball didn't get through, cause that looks like a try for IFW every day of the week and 24-13 is a very, very different feeling (or playing against a 14 man NZ if Telea gets called up for the slap down).

That period in the second half where we dominated but only scored 3 points was where the game was lost.

Puja

I thought it was waved through a bit too.

[Scrumhead]

No one is talking about Cadan Murley anymore that’s for sure. Some were disappointed Roebuck didn’t get another look as he had a very promising cameo too. It’s a good thing.

Freeman’s form maybe slightly below IFW at the moment but has longer term credit too. I’d love to see if he can be more of a full time 13 for Saints but seemed like they’d found their balance with him on the wing and Odendaal at centre.

Well that does tend to happen when a player is injured for most of the season. As I see it, Selightholme’s run of fitness and form coincided with Murley being absent. If Murley is back to fitness next season, I’d back him to score 10+ tries and put himself right back in contention. Also, without wanting to jinx him, Sleightholme is very injury prone which has been his main obstacle in the past.

As @Banquo said, having several very good wingers with little to choose between them is a nice problem to have.

I also agree with Freeman and Roebuck offering something different to IFW, Sleightholme and Murley. The former two are considerably bigger and better aerially, the other three are more elusive and hard to put down. It makes sense to have that variety to allow us to mix up our approach.

[Scrumhead]

Charlie Morgan picking out this moment in his review of the series:



53m in, England are 17-13 up, and Telea rushes up and blocks Smith's pass - given as a knock-on in the tackle by the ref and not reviewed by the TMO, but looked very, very *marginal* on the one replay that we got. Crying shame the ball didn't get through, cause that looks like a try for IFW every day of the week and 24-13 is a very, very different feeling (or playing against a 14 man NZ if Telea gets called up for the slap down).

That period in the second half where we dominated but only scored 3 points was where the game was lost.

Puja

I thought it was waved through a bit too.

As did I. There are a few incidents I’m looking forward to being dissected in Puja’s MBM.

Overall, the TMO seemed very absent in both tests. Sometimes that was to our benefit, but there was quite a bit I’d have expected more time to be spent reviewing.

[Banquo]

Charlie Morgan picking out this moment in his review of the series:



53m in, England are 17-13 up, and Telea rushes up and blocks Smith's pass - given as a knock-on in the tackle by the ref and not reviewed by the TMO, but looked very, very *marginal* on the one replay that we got. Crying shame the ball didn't get through, cause that looks like a try for IFW every day of the week and 24-13 is a very, very different feeling (or playing against a 14 man NZ if Telea gets called up for the slap down).

That period in the second half where we dominated but only scored 3 points was where the game was lost.

Puja

I thought it was waved through a bit too.

As did I. There are a few incidents I’m looking forward to being dissected in Puja’s MBM.

Overall, the TMO seemed very absent in both tests. Sometimes that was to our benefit, but there was quite a bit I’d have expected more time to be spent reviewing.

…were there different protocols/guidelines? I wonder

[Mikey Brown]

No one is talking about Cadan Murley anymore that’s for sure. Some were disappointed Roebuck didn’t get another look as he had a very promising cameo too. It’s a good thing.

Freeman’s form maybe slightly below IFW at the moment but has longer term credit too. I’d love to see if he can be more of a full time 13 for Saints but seemed like they’d found their balance with him on the wing and Odendaal at centre.

Well that does tend to happen when a player is injured for most of the season. As I see it, Selightholme’s run of fitness and form coincided with Murley being absent. If Murley is back to fitness next season, I’d back him to score 10+ tries and put himself right back in contention. Also, without wanting to jinx him, Sleightholme is very injury prone which has been his main obstacle in the past.

As @Banquo said, having several very good wingers with little to choose between them is a nice problem to have.

I also agree with Freeman and Roebuck offering something different to IFW, Sleightholme and Murley. The former two are considerably bigger and better aerially, the other three are more elusive and hard to put down. It makes sense to have that variety to allow us to mix up our approach.

Yeah that wasn’t meant to be a criticism of Murley, it’s just interesting he started getting injured at the point we were still clinging to May, Daly, Watson, but now we have 4 others having jumped ahead.

It’s been a Simpson-Daniel esque injury run for him, and the argument for keeping the incumbents will mean he’s got to come back even better.

[Captainhaircut]

Charlie Morgan picking out this moment in his review of the series:



53m in, England are 17-13 up, and Telea rushes up and blocks Smith's pass - given as a knock-on in the tackle by the ref and not reviewed by the TMO, but looked very, very *marginal* on the one replay that we got. Crying shame the ball didn't get through, cause that looks like a try for IFW every day of the week and 24-13 is a very, very different feeling (or playing against a 14 man NZ if Telea gets called up for the slap down).

That period in the second half where we dominated but only scored 3 points was where the game was lost.

Puja

I thought it was waved through a bit too.

Couldn’t possibly be the preconceived bias of a the ref towards the “all blacks” being bulletproof that I talked about during the game. Got ridiculed. Incredibly difficult to win over there because refs believe the hype and the aura and therefore let them get away with murder. Breakdown was an utter farce also.

[FKAS]

Charlie Morgan picking out this moment in his review of the series:



53m in, England are 17-13 up, and Telea rushes up and blocks Smith's pass - given as a knock-on in the tackle by the ref and not reviewed by the TMO, but looked very, very *marginal* on the one replay that we got. Crying shame the ball didn't get through, cause that looks like a try for IFW every day of the week and 24-13 is a very, very different feeling (or playing against a 14 man NZ if Telea gets called up for the slap down).

That period in the second half where we dominated but only scored 3 points was where the game was lost.

Puja

I thought it was waved through a bit too.

Couldn’t possibly be the preconceived bias of a the ref towards the “all blacks” being bulletproof that I talked about during the game. Got ridiculed. Incredibly difficult to win over there because refs believe the hype and the aura and therefore let them get away with murder. Breakdown was an utter farce also.

I was irritated at that call for a minute until I remembered that Slade had done something similar in the first test and also gotten away with it.