RugbyRebels

Minute 58

Faz kicks the 3

Time for another interlude, of say 4-5 hours, and then hopefully I'll actually finish one of these on this tour.

Digby wrote:Time for another interlude, of say 4-5 hours, and then hopefully I'll actually finish one of these on this tour.

For a moment there I thought you were talking about another scrum.

Raggs wrote:

Digby wrote:Time for another interlude, of say 4-5 hours, and then hopefully I'll actually finish one of these on this tour.

For a moment there I thought you were talking about another scrum.

It feels like it at times

Minute 59

Pollard hits the restart deep, Daly returns the kick up to the 10m line

Green 5 wins the lineout ball, SA try to maul but only come under pressure, Faf takes ball off the back and passes to WLR who's centrefield about 5m in the SA half, WLR moves it many metres wide to Green 11 who has May ahead of him with maybe 15m of space either side of him and thus is able to make easy ground back into the England half, Cips and Farrell get him down, they might have done so a little sooner but Cips especially was having a crack at the ball, Faf gathers at the base

Minute 60

SA run a few phases, Green 19 is tackled releases and regathers and goes again which is a nice play, but he then makes an offload to Green 17 which is spilled, really none of those balls out of the tackle are working today.

England gather the lose ball and Youngs makes a box kick clear, anyone watching this as a 1st game will likely not bother to watch a 2nd

May gets to the ball first, taps it back, and both Faf and Maro are diving at the ball, Faf happens to be a little closer to the ball and a little shorter so gets there first and Maro is pinged for diving on a player on the floor. And then SA are pinged for Faf being offisde, just before he gathers the ball touches Brits on the floor, that's close

Minute 61

England lose the lineout, nothing in the jump/height of Itoje and Vermuelen, Itoje though is aiming to catch the ball and Green 8 is content to just get a hand on the ball to try and knock it back which wins the lineout, ball goes back to Faf but he's got no space down the shortside with George closing him down, Faf gets a bad kick away which May gathers

England players running back aren't as hard working as the Saffer players coming up in the line so there are no holes for May to run at, May gets tackled down and it's quick ball, Youngs tries a snipe down the shortside but is grappled by Green 7 who eventually gets him down, I've no idea why Green 7 is allowed to get so involved for me he's blatantly offside and frankly stops Youngs making the quick/positive play he's found but for Green 7

At the ruck we're slowed with no acting 9 until Launch and Robshaw sort out Robshaw sending the ball back to Marler, Youngs still isn't back up with play but Maro does play the ball quickly and this is an area we are getting an improvement under Jones. Youngs is back in play and sends a pass left/open

Minute 62

Cips takes the pass and tips it inside to George, Cips is flat, but there isn't anything on either side really. England continue to run one out plays, mostly going sideways bar Itoje getting hit back until Farrell hits what's probably a drop goal attempt but it's so far away maybe he was just kicking the ball away in drop goal style

Pollard clears off the park beyond the 10m line in SA's half

Minute 63

England win the lineout and maul a little before Youngs makes a box kick to just outside the SA 22, Green 11 takes the catch, SA run another phase to get Faf into position on his left peg and we're back to a lineout beyond the 10m line

Minute 64

England get to the ball at the front of the lineout but it's not won cleanly, luckily the rebound goes to George, from the ruck Youngs is under a lot of pressure and just gets a pass away to Marler, another ruck and Youngs without much surprise sends a box kick away. It's not a great kick but Green 11 clean misses the ball and the bounce takes it to George, George might be the current rebound king in rugby but I'd posit he'd not lead the rebound charts in the NBA

Curry picks up from the base, and could pass to Williams, or Williams could latch onto Curry, as they ponder SA arrive and just drive Curry backwards, waiting still isn't the key to a good attack. Robshaw runs a nice out to in line which makes some metres, it's often a good line to carry and he finds Faf doing it which helps, England go one out again to Launch

Minute 65

Youngs suddenly goes wider than one out finding Cips, I don't know if Cips called for the ball but if he did I'd guess he didn't call for it to be head high and behind him, Cips turns and grabs the ball and drops it off to May, whether there was anything on for Cips had the pass been better I don't know, but May has a wall of green, we manage not to lose the ball. We run a couple more one out phases, come very close to being turned over, and then Brown gets an ugly pass from the base to Faz who sends a grubber out down into SA's 22

And that's it again for a number of hours, I was going to finish last night but did other stuff instead, and then I was going to do it this morning but got distracted talking about a coach facing a ban for hitting a ref, and the Folau ban

Minute 66

SA win their lineout but the tap down is rather at Faf's feet, he can't play so runs and makes a 2-3m gain to recover the bad ball he got, rare decent play, Vermuelen waits a long time to run a pick play, maybe he's expecting England to lack discipline and give away a pen going offside, but England wait, eventually Vermuelen plays and gets driven back by Itoje, but Faf is back in position at halfback and makes the first box kick of the game to clear the ball off the pitch

Minute 67

England win the lineout, maul a bit but go nowhere, Farrell carries up, he just doesn't have the oomph to make it work but at least the presentation is decent . England run a one out play, then another one out pass to Curry and he tips the ball on to Launch, the issue now is we've played into an area where they simply have more forwards. I don't know how that communication should work in the England side should work, it didn't here, Vermuelen gets over the ball and effects the turnover. SA run the ball out of their 22

Minute 68

Faf is slow at the base, and then tries to pass without taking any steps back and gets scragged by Robshaw. Faf is saved by the ref, but should remember those steps back are no bad thing when you don't have cover of really fast ball, the ref really must dislike Robshaw with the call. Pollard kicks out up to, or nearly up to our 22

SA win their lineout and maul, Launch gets onto the ball and forces a scrum turnover

Digby wrote:Minute 67

England win the lineout, maul a bit but go nowhere, Farrell carries up, he just doesn't have the oomph to make it work but at least the presentation is decent . England run a one out play, then another one out pass to Curry and he tips the ball on to Launch, the issue now is we've played into an area where they simply have more forwards. I don't know how that communication should work in the England side should work, it didn't here, Vermuelen gets over the ball and effects the turnover. SA run the ball out of their 22

Using a 2 man pod, then popping it out one once the defence has bitten works well for meters, not so well for support, who'd have thought...

Minute 69

It's a scrum, to great surprise nowt happens (and the clock was even stopped for a while)

Minute 70

More farce, no scrum completion and it's a penalty to England. Sometimes the game is good enough to hide how pathetic the scrum can be, this is not one of those games. Maybe we fine the players the % of their match fee which relates to them dicking about failing to get the ball back into play

Minute 71

Does George dummy the throw, do SA lift even before the dummy? At this point I don't care it's taken minutes to get the ball back into play.

Faced with having the ball Youngs kicks it away, Green 14 can't take the catch, he is caught ever so slightly by Brown before landing, but it's minimal

England get the ball to Cips who spots space wide and deep and kicks through, it's the comedy moment of the game with Farrell refusing to chase and turning away in disgust, May scores in the corner

Minute 72

Nowt happens

Minute 73

Faz kicks the 2

SA restarts much shorter, Itoje takes the catch and sets off on a rumble

Minute 74

Youngs kicks the ball away, this surprises Vermuelen as he isn't back and the ball finds grass. SA recover the ball and set about trying to play, it ends with them getting all the way back up to the edge of the 22 only for Robshaw to force a breakdown pen

Minute 75

Farrell kicks the pen, a perfect day kicking at goal (if one ignores the horrible drop goal attempt)

Minute 76

SA restart shorter still, so short is's a scrum to England on halfway

Minute 77

Freekick to SA at the scrum, and they're off a running, Slade breaks onto a pass with SA forcing the play, it's a try if only Slade doesn't round out his day with a handling error