England v Italy 6 Nations
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English attack pretty toothless. Italy's scrum hard done by the referee during the first half : two dubious penalties against their tighthead prop while it looked like Sinckler was in serious trouble on the other side. These penalties kept Italy under pressure. Penalty try very harsh too. The refereeing of the rucks was one-sided as well. What about that Lawrence's turnover when he had his knee on the ground ?
NZ refereeing is a problem IMO. Ben O'Keefe and Williams are OK but the others are poor. -
@KiwiMurph said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@MajorRage said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
Nice little try that one.
Think Farrell has been bang average and Smith would have been better today.
Should have been Farrell last week, Smith this.
Smith has been awful since he had come on. Grubbered a kick into italian legs leading to 30 metres lost territory and a turnover, 2 missed tackles and a knock on.
Correct. As right as I was about Lawrence (MOTM as I was typing), I was equally as wrong about Smith (who came on as I was typing and was shit).
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@Jailbreak7 said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Bones Replay clearly showed him on his knees not supporting own bodyweight.
I thought that initially but on review I think he'd secured the turnover and had cleared the ball away from the tackled player before he went to his knees.
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So, a win for England and 6 points in the championship now for a very unlikely third place; however, lets not get too far ahead of ourselves - that's two home games done.
A patchy performance and whilst we had Italy under the pump for the first half, I felt this was as much Italy playing poorly as England going great guns. Some positives for sure but a long way off being world beaters.
Where did it go right for England and where did it go wrong? Well a more balanced starting XV was a plus point and having a power centre really made a difference. Willis was pure mongrel at 7 and the front 5 did a very solid job. Something of a shame that we didn't try too much through the backs; IMO this not only makes us that much more predictable to defend against but also uses up the miles on our better forwards. I'd really like to see Genge taking few less carries but lasting longer in the game than him being fucked after 60 minutes. This brings me on to the bench. These guys are no longer subs, they are supposed to be impact players and we have seen for some time now that the level of intensity drops significantly when the bench comes on. Time to look at a few of the "finishers"
and ask the hard questions: Are you still up for it? Have you ever been up for it or are you just a great trainer?Can't really say much about Walker the stand in hooker, but Cole and Mako were just an absence compared to the two starters. Again. Isiekwe was anonymous. Again. If you're going to use Smith, you HAVE to give him more than 10 minutes and you HAVE to switch him for Farrell. Mitchell and Arundell both went well in their cameos though.
So, on to Wales in a fortnight. Selection wise I'd be OK with the same starting XV but we need to look at our front row replacements OR have a game plan where our two starters can last a bit longer. Ditch Isiekwe and have Ribbans as our replacement munter and then we might not have quite the same drop in intensity.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Bones said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@sparky said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Bones Ollie Lawrence has had a decent game
So has Chessum.
Itoje pretty anonymous. Can't work out if he was engine-room mode or just, well, anonymous.
You sure you weren't watching a recording of last week's game? Itoje played well and came up with one or two really big plays.
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@Catogrande said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Victor-Meldrew said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Bones said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@sparky said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Bones Ollie Lawrence has had a decent game
So has Chessum.
Itoje pretty anonymous. Can't work out if he was engine-room mode or just, well, anonymous.
You sure you weren't watching a recording of last week's game? Itoje played well and came up with one or two really big plays.
Nothing wrong with being anonymous if you're in the tight 5 - means you're doing the hard yakka. Thought it was a pretty uncharacteristic game for him though.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Catogrande said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Victor-Meldrew said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Bones said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@sparky said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Bones Ollie Lawrence has had a decent game
So has Chessum.
Itoje pretty anonymous. Can't work out if he was engine-room mode or just, well, anonymous.
You sure you weren't watching a recording of last week's game? Itoje played well and came up with one or two really big plays.
Nothing wrong with being anonymous if you're in the tight 5 - means you're doing the hard yakka. Thought it was a pretty uncharacteristic game for him though.
Aah! I take your point. Not as gobby as before. I did pose the question on here during the Autumn series that Itoje is not the whooping, hollering dickhead for Sarries that he is for England and whether that was an Eddie stratagem. Maybe Borthwick doesn't go for the same mind games?
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@KiwiMurph said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@MajorRage said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
Nice little try that one.
Think Farrell has been bang average and Smith would have been better today.
Should have been Farrell last week, Smith this.
Smith has been awful since he had come on. Grubbered a kick into italian legs leading to 30 metres lost territory and a turnover, 2 missed tackles and a knock on.
He's a wish.com version of Mo'unga.
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@antipodean said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@KiwiMurph said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@MajorRage said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
Nice little try that one.
Think Farrell has been bang average and Smith would have been better today.
Should have been Farrell last week, Smith this.
Smith has been awful since he had come on. Grubbered a kick into italian legs leading to 30 metres lost territory and a turnover, 2 missed tackles and a knock on.
He's a wish.com version of Mo'unga.
god that's just a brutal insult
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@mariner4life said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@antipodean said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@KiwiMurph said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@MajorRage said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
Nice little try that one.
Think Farrell has been bang average and Smith would have been better today.
Should have been Farrell last week, Smith this.
Smith has been awful since he had come on. Grubbered a kick into italian legs leading to 30 metres lost territory and a turnover, 2 missed tackles and a knock on.
He's a wish.com version of Mo'unga.
god that's just a brutal insult
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@Catogrande said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Victor-Meldrew said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Catogrande said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Victor-Meldrew said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Bones said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@sparky said in England v Italy 6 Nations:
@Bones Ollie Lawrence has had a decent game
So has Chessum.
Itoje pretty anonymous. Can't work out if he was engine-room mode or just, well, anonymous.
You sure you weren't watching a recording of last week's game? Itoje played well and came up with one or two really big plays.
Nothing wrong with being anonymous if you're in the tight 5 - means you're doing the hard yakka. Thought it was a pretty uncharacteristic game for him though.
Aah! I take your point. Not as gobby as before. I did pose the question on here during the Autumn series that Itoje is not the whooping, hollering dickhead for Sarries that he is for England and whether that was an Eddie stratagem. Maybe Borthwick doesn't go for the same mind games?
Eddie has openly admitted that he encouraged it. Itoje did buy into it though and it only built on what he was doing anyway.
Let’s hope this is a sign that he’s grown up.
