Stade de France Saturday 19th March

[Puja]

IMG_20220319_205547_1.jpg

Can anyone tell me what Smith did that was brilliant there?
He ran diagonally, jumped in the air, committed 0 defenders, and shipped the ball on to Furbank having stolen his space.

He started with three defenders on his outside and then attracted all three of them, getting to Danty's outside shoulder before putting Furbank through the hole.

Puja

Just watched it back - he gets the ball with 2 Frenchmen and 3 Englishmen outside him; + 1 Frenchman in front of him, and 1 Frenchman and 1 Englishman inside him
2 of the Englishmen are calling for the ball to go wide.

He crabs across, and admittedly keeps 2 of the Frenchmen interested in him; but neither actually commit.

It's no Farrell kicking away a 7 on 2; but it's still an overlap wasted

But if he passes it early, then all of those French defenders just drift with the pass.

Plus, it's hardly wasted considering we made the clean break.

Puja

[Banquo]

seriously.....thats so depressing. Itoje again

[Mellsblue]

78 yards for Genge!

On par for a fullback.

[Puja]

FFS Genge! Stop running at full tilt towards defenders and then stopping to step just before you make contact. 78 metres made, 70 of them at top speed and the last 8 doing a crap Shane Williams impression before getting smashed.

Puja

[Galfon]

Well well..Marchant class all night, brings fruit.

[Banquo]

Great score- wraparound again- great pass and finish

[Banquo]

converted!

[Which Tyler]

Well well..Marchant class all night, brings fruit.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:
Marchant = Jonathan Joseph -5% of defensive reading, but also -5 years of age

[Mellsblue]

The mystery of why Edwards has never been employed with the RFU deepens.

[chris1850]

You have to say the French defence is superb

[FKAS]

Look on the face of the French tighthead during that Piper lecture. "I have no clue what he's saying"

[Beasties]

Did the trick though.

[Banquo]

just cant slow em down. light years ahead with the ball

[Mellsblue]

Great stuff from Marler.

[Mellsblue]

Dysfunctional.

[chris1850]

We're not even trying to slow them down. Just not competing at the ruck at all

[Mellsblue]

[Puja]

Why do we keep trying that front peel shift drive? Ever single time we try it, it ends up with the carrier just being immediately sacked. I don't know what the intended plan is with it, but it doesn't ever seem to work.

Puja

[Mellsblue]

Cos we’re shit.

[Mellsblue]

That scrum put in from France was a complete joke. Ridiculous.

[morepork]

3 and a half minutes for Ford to engineer two converted tries.

Eddie is a fucking mutant.

[Banquo]

meh. coulda been worse, coulda been better

[Puja]

meh. coulda been worse, coulda been better

I'd say that was the worst possible result actually. If we'd got cuffed by 40 points, then change would've been required, either change of coach or change of approach. Alternately, had we looked convincing, then I was willing to be persuaded that there was something to our "plan".

As it is, we were comfortably taken care of, but not so decisively on the scoreboard that anyone has to admit anything is wrong.

Puja

[Mellsblue]

on the scoreboard

Puja

That’s the key because we were decisively second best for 70 mins on the pitch.

[Spiffy]

Poor old England. France were quite sloppy at times and didn't have to play that well to win it.