Anyone see the rugby last night?

[swee'pea99]

A win is a win, and it's always nice to beat the French, but the scrum looked worryingly flakey, and they don't seem to have done much about the lineout since the 6 nations. And they're still getting sin-binned for schoolboy stuff. Still, encouraging signs too - some real handling skills (and brains), evidence of pre-planning and practice paying off, and no lack of spirit. Roll on the World Cup!

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

We weren't playing the French

 

[cd365]

We weren't playing the French

Who did you lose to?

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

We weren't playing the French

To be fair he did refer to "they". So was it your personal team not playing the French?

 

[Accy cyclist]

Who did you lose to?

,,,again!

 

[Dayvo]

The ref was poor: he didn't see/penalise the French tight head (no. 18) for collapsing the scrum and awarded penalties to the French.

England probably only had about half of the team they hope to play in the WC.

Let's see how they perform next weekend in France, and then against Ireland.

 

[Chris_Kn]

For an England team that really wasn't up to strength, things went well enough. Lets see how there game develops
over the next couple of games. We really have to sort out the hooker out as it seems we don't like line outs any
more.

 

[Wafer]

Good backs performance, wish there wasn't the Burgess hype, difficult to assess his performance because of it. Did alright but is he good enough for world cup? I don't know.
Slade very good, Goode had one of his best performances in an England shirt.

Forwards struggled suggesting the picks there are a little easier, most of that pack won't start a world cup match.

They seemed to be using it as a pure training match, kicking for the corner, no sticks. On that basis, backs looked good and sharp, they won, certain picks in the forwards will be clearer.

If Lancaster needed any more reason to drop 36, slade and Burgess gave it.

 

[david k]

dont understand any of this, who were Saints playing again?

 

[Cubist]

Burgess! Still looked a bit bewildered in places, but put in some good hits. Still want to see what Burrel and Barrit can bring. Reckon we'll see in Paris. Kruis blew hot and cold, but Cowan Dickie needs to sharpen considerably...line outs woeful both sides. Don't suppose we will see much of that pack at the weekend. Goode was errr, good.

 

[Chris_Kn]

Saturdays team is interesting,,

M Brown (Harlequins); J Nowell (Exeter), J Joseph (Bath), L Burrell (Northampton), J May (Gloucester); G Ford (Bath), B Youngs (Leicester); J Marler (Harlequins), T Youngs (Leicester), D Cole (Leicester); J Launchbury (Wasps), C Lawes (Northampton); J Haskell (Wasps), Chris Robshaw (capt, Harlequins), Billy Vunipola (Saracens).

Replacements: Jamie George (Saracens), Mako Vunipola (Saracens), David Wilson (Bath), Dave Attwood (Bath), Nick Easter (Harlequins), Danny Care (Harlequins), Danny Cipriani (Sale), Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester).

Chris..

 

[Vidor06]

I was at the Ireland game in Dublin at the weekend. While a wins a win, it wasnt much of a performance. We have tried out 29 different players and Im sure the coach is a lot closer to knowing his squad. Gordon Darcy looked well off the pace and its a pity to see such a legend bumbling along just to get to another World Cup.
Looking forward to see Ireland v England in first week in Sept. Both teams should be pretty close to full strength for that game as it will be the last one before the World Cup begins. Not a big England fan but really hope they do well in the World Cup as it will retain the media interest. Maybe beaten semi finallists, losing to Ireland of course would do.
A mate of mine now lives in Florida and was ranting on Facebook last night about the cost of watching the World Cup. NBC want $199 for the whole thing or 20 odd dollars for the pool games and 30 odd for the knockout games. We are very fortunate that such big tournaments are stil free to air. But for how much longer?

 

[andytheflyer]

Saturdays team is interesting,,

M Brown (Harlequins); J Nowell (Exeter), J Joseph (Bath), L Burrell (Northampton), J May (Gloucester); G Ford (Bath), B Youngs (Leicester); J Marler (Harlequins), T Youngs (Leicester), D Cole (Leicester); J Launchbury (Wasps), C Lawes (Northampton); J Haskell (Wasps), Chris Robshaw (capt, Harlequins), Billy Vunipola (Saracens).

Replacements: Jamie George (Saracens), Mako Vunipola (Saracens), David Wilson (Bath), Dave Attwood (Bath), Nick Easter (Harlequins), Danny Care (Harlequins), Danny Cipriani (Sale), Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester).

Chris..

That looks more like the first team.......