RWC - how the poms beat us..
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@taniwharugby this is bang on. Especially in context. Hansen selected a team designed to exploit turnovers and half chances in transition. That’s why Beaudy was at fullback.
And personnel issues also drove the tactics. Retallick’s shoulder and lack of a loosie (Or even hooker) who could consistently bend the gainline in tight probably drove a plan designed to minimize the need to establish forward dominance before going wide. Especially because against SA, England, recent Irish teams and France (sometimes) you’ve developed forward dominance by stretching your attack, penetrating out wide and forcing the opposing pack to work harder than your pack.
And this worked pretty damn well at RWC 2019.
I had the dubious pleasure of flying 10,000 Kms to see it work magnificently against the boks. You belted Ireland on the back of it.
Having said all that, I wonder how England would have coped if the ABs had shifted tactics to kicking deep, defend like mongrels and slam SBW/Goodhue down Ford’s channel all day long, with the odd inside ball to a steaming winger thrown in to keep it interesting? Pull dogroll, get Cane in early and make the breakdowns a real shitfight.
But you can’t blame the ABs for dancing with them that brung em - trusting themselves to execute a plan which had worked well in the past.
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@mariner4life said in RWC - how the poms beat us..:
@WillieTheWaiter say what you want about Eddie, but he's a fucking clever coach.
He certainly is, but the All Blacks is a massive blind spot for him. Four years of planning not to win the competition, but to merely beat a contender.
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@antipodean that is some very tough marking.
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@Smuts said in RWC - how the poms beat us..:
@antipodean that is some very tough marking.
But pretty much true. Eddie virtually admitted as much during an evening audience with him. From the word go he was targeting NZ in RWC 2019. It was the same in 2003 and both times it worked but maybe came a game too early.
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@Catogrande It isn’t wrong exactly, so far as it goes.
But wat was the alternative?
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@Smuts said in RWC - how the poms beat us..:
@Catogrande It isn’t wrong exactly, so far as it goes.
But wat was the alternative?
I’m not sure about alternatives which probably explains my coaching career peaking with the St Leonards Primary School tag rugby squad.
What I think it does show though is that Eddie has a blind spot or maybe obsession re the ABs. During the audience thing mentioned above he actually said and this was in respect of not only his England tenure but also Aus and the Brumbies, “we cannot compete with the natural athleticism of the New Zealander’s”.
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@mariner4life said in RWC - how the poms beat us..:
I'm sort a foot in both camps. If you can manipulate the defense with out just smashing it up a bit first, you do that.
I hate it as a rugby saying because it basically is held to mean "smash it up before you let the blouses have the ball" which is total bullshit.
Coz you shouldn't let the blouses gave the ball at all?
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@Catogrande said in RWC - how the poms beat us..:
@Smuts said in RWC - how the poms beat us..:
@antipodean that is some very tough marking.
But pretty much true. Eddie virtually admitted as much during an evening audience with him. From the word go he was targeting NZ in RWC 2019. It was the same in 2003 and both times it worked but maybe came a game too early.
Jones wasn't out coached in the final; England were just outplayed.
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@hydro11 said in RWC - how the poms beat us..:
@Catogrande said in RWC - how the poms beat us..:
@Smuts said in RWC - how the poms beat us..:
@antipodean that is some very tough marking.
But pretty much true. Eddie virtually admitted as much during an evening audience with him. From the word go he was targeting NZ in RWC 2019. It was the same in 2003 and both times it worked but maybe came a game too early.
Jones wasn't out coached in the final; England were just outplayed.
Kyle Sinkler getting injured and going off in the firat five minutes s and Dan Cole having to pkay 75 minutes plus was unfortunate for them.
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@Catogrande said in RWC - how the poms beat us..:
@Smuts said in RWC - how the poms beat us..:
@antipodean that is some very tough marking.
But pretty much true. Eddie virtually admitted as much during an evening audience with him. From the word go he was targeting NZ in RWC 2019. It was the same in 2003 and both times it worked but maybe came a game too early.
I think the opening line of the vid summed it up well - he’s the master of the upset.
I wonder if he thought to himself (secretly) that he could afford to do that because England would have enough talent to beat whoever made it to the final from the other side of the draw without giving them as much focus as the All Blacks (certainly a year out I thought that might be his approach just looking at the way draw was likely to pan out)