RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1)

[Bones]

@Catogrande I assume they're ignoring the bench then? Sorry Eddie..."finishers".

[Bovidae]

@Victor-Meldrew said in RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1):

Read something yesterday which talked of "the inexperienced Anton Lienart-Brown"....

He's got 40-ish caps and been in tha ABs for 3 years FFS.

Take out Smith and Beauden has more caps than the rest of the backline including ALB, combined. Players accumulate test caps very quickly nowadays.

[canefan]

@Bones said in RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1):

@Catogrande I assume they're ignoring the bench then? Sorry Eddie..."finishers".

That's our underrated little secret. Best bench in the tourney

[Catogrande]

@Bones Safe to assume that. No story otherwise 😱

[rotated]

Eddie really does have a disposition and confidence that gives you pause supporting the opposition.

Almost had me worried the ABs might be in trouble this week until about the 6:55 mark.

[sparky]

Eddie can spout off as much as he likes. The All Blacks will be make their statement on Saturday evening.

[Bones]

@rotated Prepare well, focus on own strengths, play well for each other.

Bang! Just like that Mitch zooms England to favourites.

[sparky]

@Richie8-7 said in RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1):

We get Nigel Owens. Great news...I can live with him not being card happy, even though it saved Ireland several times.

On balance, this is good news. The English are familar with Nigel Owens but so are the All Blacks. We gave away too many penalties on Saturday, the ABs will have to look at the tape and see how they can manage Owens' interpretations better.

Two gains though. With Owens you get more patrolling of the offisde line than some refs, England were in front of the back foot at almost every ruck with Garces before the Aussie had the ball out last week. Also, Nigel is as experienced as they come, so no chance of him freezing on the big occasion.

[voodoo]

@rotated Agree, I thought he came across pretty well, and I'm far from his biggest fan. He actually considered the qns, which is my biggest gripe, the flippant pre-prepared fob-off answer

[junior]

@sparky said in RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1):

@Richie8-7 said in RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1):

We get Nigel Owens. Great news...I can live with him not being card happy, even though it saved Ireland several times.

On balance, this is good news. The English are familar with Nigel Owens but so are the All Blacks. We gave away too many penalties on Saturday, the ABs will have to look at the tape and see how they can manage Owens' interpretations better.

Two gains though. With Owens you get more patrolling of the offisde line than some refs, England were in front of the back foot at almost every ruck with Garces before the Aussie had the ball out last week. Also, Nigel is as experienced as they come, so no chance of him freezing on the big occasion.

The other positive of having Nige as our ref is that he's less likely to let the English chirping affect his decision-making, at least in their favour (see his telling off of Murray on the weekend).

[Bones]

Was the combined "dream team" posted? Manu Vunipola was a surprise.

Stuff

[Catogrande]

@Bones said in RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1):

Was the combined "dream team" posted? Manu Vunipola was a surprise.

Stuff

I almost clicked on the link until I saw

"highly respected British rugby writer Stuart Barnes"

[canefan]

@Bones it remains to be seen if he is correct. I suspect the ABs have quietly undergone a revolution in terms of how they play the game, and these so called experts like Barnes and O'Sullivan have not yet fully cottoned on. Our boys are the only ones who can get in the way of an AB win. A lack of physicality or handling will allow England to feed off our mistakes. But I'm quietly confident that we will win comfortably and that we will run England off the park

[Bones]

@Catogrande only the arrogant English could select someone who's never even featured in international rugby in a combined team.

[Billy Webb]

@Bones said in RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1):

Was the combined "dream team" posted? Manu Vunipola was a surprise.

Stuff

Hmmm... so the AB front-row,midfield and wings suck compared to England.
And Hansen is playing B.Barrett out of position.

This can't end well.

[Bones]

@Billy-Webb to be fair only half the wings, for some reason I can't stand May but his form is pretty irresistible and he's fairly similar to Bridge.

Plus, someone's got to be responsible for letting such an average Irish team score so many points.

[canefan]

@Billy-Webb

I suspect Eddie understands what game we are playing....

[Catogrande]

@Bones said in RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1):

@Catogrande only the arrogant English could select someone who's never even featured in international rugby in a combined team.

Look. I'm not going to click on it so you will just have to tell me who that is.

[Bones]

@Catogrande said in RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1):

@Bones said in RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1):

@Catogrande only the arrogant English could select someone who's never even featured in international rugby in a combined team.

Look. I'm not going to click on it so you will just have to tell me who that is.

Sigh. Manu Vunipola...

[Catogrande]

@Bones See, now I thought you were being serious and that Barnes had sprung a REAL left field one.

Edit: Which would not altogether surprise me.