6N 2025, Wales v England
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@Catogrande think Martin Johnson mentioned that after the game that England wouldn't have learned anything about themselves.
It was pathetically easy for the men in white.
I can take getting stuffed against a top class NZ or Bok side but England hadn't shown anything during the tournament to think Wales would get blown away so easily. For them to just roll over seemingly without any fight was an awful watch.
It seemed like a home match for them given the rousing renditions of Swing Low, that shows the apathy and financial restraints many Welsh supporters find themselves in these days I guess.
The WRU will be happy that it sold out and they made a few million I guess. -
@Catogrande said in 6N 2025, Wales v England:
@Bones said in 6N 2025, Wales v England:
Brilliant win England, thank you from the bottom of my All Black heart. Long live the Steve.
You can get fucked.
Maaaate. Came within a nun's snin of winning the 6N. With another 2.5 years at the helm, Borthwick will be dominating come the RWC.
Superb.
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I was genuinely worried going into this match as I felt Wales were dragging themselves off rock bottom and England hadn’t shown much apart from a bit of grit. Was the Italy game a one off or a turning point? There had been talk of a senior player rebellion, wishing to play a bit more rugby. Let’s hope. But bloody hell mate, your lot were woeful. I’ll watch the game again because I thought there was a period in the third quarter where either Wales got some traction or England stagnated, but for that period, the scoreline could have been much worse.
Probably the last thing you want right now is an Englishman feeling sorry for you, but I feel there is genuine sympathy this side of the Severn for the Welsh fans. Just what the fuck is going on?
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@Catogrande there are systematic problems with the Welsh game from the top down which can't be fixed overnight. We have too many sides for the current finances to stretch to, we were offered 3 sides in an Anglo Welsh league a while ago and turned the offer down. Whether England wanted or needed the Welsh sides is another matter but for sponsorship, TV rights and supporters it would've been a huge boost.
But anything like this would mean the WRU losing any semblance of control which they can't/won't do. They first turned down 5 clubs into the then Allied Dunbar League in 1995 and we've been playing catch-up ever since.
Narrow minded navel gazing by idiots in blazers who couldn't run a bath never mind a £100 million business.All this is still no excuse for the inept display yesterday. I don't know if the occasion got to the players more than it had before.
Even players like Jac Morgan who had been pretty imperious in every game even in defeat was off colour - I don't think I've ever seen him falling off tackles like yesterday. He's played against these players before & arguably better ones and not looked like that.
I was going to watch the game back today but I've not got enough wine left in the house to drown my sorrows again. 🙄😁 -
I was there.
And so were the English. Thousands of the bastards. In good voice and fine fettle.
We won the anthems. We rarely lose that one, and never at home. But the English won the singing and cheering during the match. Comfortably. And they had much to sing and cheer about.
And England won the match. Comfortably.
I was there, unfortunately not in the Max Boyce song of yore sense.
I was there to witness a beating.
Going in to the match we all knew deep down that this was going to be an England victory. The bookies had Wales 80-1 to win!
But no one - including the English - expected the gulf to be so wide.
In fairness Wales and Nic Berry did all they could to give England every opportunity to score. England gladly obliged.
There's been lots of talk that the Wales players didn't try hard enough, they gave up.
I'd say the opposite. They tried too hard. Forcing passes, kicking too long, coming up in defence out of alignment.
Tactically we were so naive.
14-0 down we should have taken our three opportunities at goal instead of going for the catch and drive at the line out. The second penalty Anscombe kicked the ball dead and that's when I would have subbed him and given Jarrod Evans a real chance to affect the outcome.
Tomos Williams and Anscombe have been disappointing this campaign, unable to bring their Premiership form to bear.
We could easily have been 14-9 down at one stage despite England's dominance, putting pressure on the scoreboard, and showing Berry and England that infringements between the half-way and the 22 would be punished.
And even when we did score, we went to sleep and the game was over by half-time.
Coming away with no points at the start of the second half really hurt us. We showed we could compete but couldn't convert. There was no guile.
What next?
I think we have a group of very talented players who need direction and belief.
Sherratt is not the answer.
Possibly the group responsible for the Wales U20 victory over England U20 on Friday night should be in the frame.
We have talent coming through. They need to be picked and played at club level and international level.
But after the final whistle this image was taken and it typifies what rugby is all about
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Don’t know what to make of that, can’t remember ever feeling relaxed watching a wales england game. Feeling sorry for the team I like to beat the most is a weird one. England were so much more powerful, so much quicker it was men be boys at times. But at quite a few times in this tournament wales have looked like boys, physically, smarts etc. anyone still arguing for Morgan to play 7 for the Lions instead of either of the Curry brothers is wilfully blind.
England got away with a stupid bench, which was exposed when Chessum and Freeman were injured. They certainly tried to play more rugby, offloading is so much easier when you’re two metres past the gain line but hey, at least they were doing it.
As for England now, well we’re stuck with Borthwick and the coaching team which aren’t good enough, we have some proper players and our scrum and power around the park has improved a lot but I just don’t have faith in the coaching to bring the best out of them.
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Please accept this virtual bottle
I did re-watch it and there was that first part of the second half, about 17 minutes where we went back to kicking too much and your boys ran everything back to us 70/30 possession during that phase of the game but no score, then Mitchell got that kick and chase try and we got our mojo back.
I don't like to be a curmudgeon when we've just had a fantastic win but bloody hell, we've seen that the kick fest is not the way forward and have also shown that we can play a running game, so why revert?
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@Catogrande said in 6N 2025, Wales v England:
we've seen that the kick fest is not the way forward and have also shown that we can play a running game, so why revert?
Imagine a world though, where you follow up the 2027 RWC win with Foster coming in as head coach. A decade of domination in the making.
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@pooler-fan & @MiketheSnow , funny you should mention the singing in the crowd. I said to my wife while watching I miss the Welsh singing and doesn't seem right to me hearing 'swing low' coming out so loud at a Welsh home game. I imagine a few ghosts at Cardiff Arms Park next door would of been shaking their heads!
How even I as kiwi in NZ miss the days of the Welsh crowds at the Arms!!
Anyway I will still be supporting Wales as my second team, so stuff em! -
From a mate
Deb and me were there for the previous lowest point in Welsh rugby - the Debacle in Nantes in 2007. Yesterday’s nadir was more surreal.
Picture the scene. Having left the ground early we are on the train back to Aberdare, with one AirPod each, watching on my phone, as England rack up more points, and all hopes of Welsh British Lions evaporate.
The only consolation is that we have a £1 bet at 80-1 for England to score 5 or more tries in each half. But with 78 minutes gone England need to score 2 more tries. Impossible? No. Pollock scores and England hurry the conversion so the game kicks off again with about 20 seconds left. I nudge Deb and say “Deb, England need to score from this kick-off for us to win £80.” A few moments later Double-Barrelingham-Smith scores England’s 10th try and the near empty carriage erupts with me screaming with joy.
The guard comes up to us and says “What’s happened? Are Wales back in the game?”
An unenthused Deb replies “No.”
