RWC warmup - England v Fiji
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Ach. A well deserved win go Fiji and well played. This Fijian side are no mugs, far from it. Good skills, athleticism as always but now with fitness, discipline and coaching.
England started brightly but when put under possession pressure, went back into the dour, one out runners. So predictable and so easy to defend. Some weird substitutions. Not sure where
Smith was supposed to be playing but it didn’t look like fullback. And subbing Mitchell, wtf for? To have yet another look at Care?As a team were are symmetrical. No shape in attack. No shape in defence.
We are… bereft.
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Feel for you
It’s crazy
You have the personnel
Shit coaching
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@sparky said in RWC warmup - England v Fiji:
Hartley must be one of the least insightful and most inane co-commentators around. When asked to analysed what was wrong with England at one stage, he replied ‘some of those players are my friends.’
That could be an unwittingly accurate insight...
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@antipodean said in RWC warmup - England v Fiji:
@MiketheSnow said in RWC warmup - England v Fiji:
Fuck off Jaco and TMO
Stitch up
Nah. I thought he was offside at first, but the replay had him in line, or not clearly in front.
Needs a third viewing but I thought Smith's foot was in front of the kicker BUT their bodies probably level on balance of probability.
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@Kirwan Doesn't really matter as it goes down in the record books as England v Fiji irrespective of who was fielded by each team. Not Fiji's fault if Engand might not have had their best/preferred lineup against them. Anyway who is to say that the Flying Fijians would not have beaten that mob even with Farrell and Vunipoila etc lined up against them.
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@Higgins said in RWC warmup - England v Fiji:
@Kirwan Doesn't really matter as it goes down in the record books as England v Fiji irrespective of who was fielded by each team. Not Fiji's fault if Engand might not have had their best/preferred lineup against them. Anyway who is to say that the Flying Fijians would not have beaten that mob even with Farrell and Vunipoila etc lined up against them.
That’s not why I’m asking, trying to get a read on how bad England are.
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@Kirwan said in RWC warmup - England v Fiji:
@Higgins said in RWC warmup - England v Fiji:
@Kirwan Doesn't really matter as it goes down in the record books as England v Fiji irrespective of who was fielded by each team. Not Fiji's fault if Engand might not have had their best/preferred lineup against them. Anyway who is to say that the Flying Fijians would not have beaten that mob even with Farrell and Vunipoila etc lined up against them.
That’s not why I’m asking, trying to get a read on how bad England are.
Fairly close to England's top team. England are very poor under Borthwick.
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England have big selection consistency issues. Funny how May Earl Smith and Genge all look pretty good in their roles. Reverting to the likes of Tuilagi Vunipola Daly Marler Youngs etc will not have helped the confidence and combos.
Despite comments above I think England is still weak at 9 too.Well done Fiji. I thought Muntz deserved Mom
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Has the Walrus written his article yet pinning the loss on Fiji's evil strategy of poaching all those Pacific Islanders?
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It was as strong an England side as could be selected from the current squad. You could argue a few individual cases but in truth those would have been close calls either way.
So to answer your wider question, we are very poor. We’ve been stagnating since 2019 and then really regressing since the summer tour to Aus last year. The Autumn Internationals were, overall pretty dire and just got worse week on week. We saw the same over the 6N under Borthwick and we’re seeing the same during these warm up games. We are just getting progressively worse.
We don’t have a golden generation to select from but we do have enough talent to be competitive.
There is something very wrong in the England camp IMO.
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@Nepia said in RWC warmup - England v Fiji:
@Tordah said in RWC warmup - England v Fiji:
Feel a bit sorry for Lawes on his 100th cap, who I think always seemed one of the more likable England players
And effective, without the hype of the screamer.
Lawes is so fucking good
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Reading between the lines, this sounds like a damning indictment of the coaching.
“We’re playing the way we’re training”. Sheesh!
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Thankfully this made the crushing AB loss on the weekend a little more palatable, can't believe how far England have fallen but super pleased for Fiji who always had bucket loads of talent but not quite the forward pack to get the job done.
Massive boost for Fiji going into the RWC, I can only but hope they continue their momentum.
