England loses a game they should never have lost

Scotland had 38% of the territory and 46% of the possession. How many mauls did England botch near the try line. Scotland were well beaten in general play until the card after which Scotland were quite competitive even when the yellow was over.

 Schoeman made a difference with his bullocking runs, rip of the ball  and powerful scrumming. Van der Merwe with 85 metres, 2 clean breaks, 3 defenders beaten and solid high ball takes  had a great game. And WP Nel handled all that Marler energy like a pro. 

Why England have gone back to George Ford beats me. How many games, including the WC final, has this small chap underperformed in and ultimately lost. His last kick to touch after the penalty was a game loser. There was at least 10 more metres to gain. Instead he was conservative….giving the Scotland the chance to compete and they turned it over. If he kicked it out 10 metres deeper they have to all defend the maul and no Scotland jumping.

Smith looked terrific again, Steward not as clinical as usual, and Curry in his captain’s debut oddly quiet.

But the Poms have a problem at centre with Slade and Daly, essentially the same player….one is enough.

No we certainly shouldn’t have lost that one ! 

Mozart

As per normal you are impossible to understand rugby.  Smith was the flyhalf with George Ford on the bench.   Ford came on at minute 63.    At minute 66 England in the form of  Luke Cowan-Dickie gave away a penalty try - so George Ford is blamed for that?    

The penalty not kicked out nearer to the goal line is another "windmill in the head" myth by you.      

Yap, yap, yap.

Mozart

You made the some bugger-up with evaluation of the Irish - Wales Test  evaluation - which Stav had to correct.   Why does it happen all the tome in all copdes of sport - because your only norm for performance evaluation is prejudice - silly but true.       

This from the Guardian:

REPLACEMENTS: Jamie George (for Cowan-Dickie 77) Lineout stolen n/a; Joe Marler (for Genge 63) Lineout throw didn’t work 4; Will Stuart (for Sinckler 63) Solid 6; Charlie Ewels (for Isiekwe 77) N/A; Alex Dombrandt (for Ludlam 63) On the fringes 5; George Ford (for Smith 63) Poor penalty to touch 4; Jack Nowell (for Marchant 80) n/a

George Ford (for Smith at 63) Poor penalty to touch 4. Exactly what I said independently…eat your crow you tedious old drol ..

Another after the fact imagination drawn up by shit speaker Mozart.  Ford  did find touch and the English retained the ball  - but according to you he should have found touch nearer the tryline - how much nearer - shitspeaker?

Tom Curry's comments are as follows:-

 “Listen, if we’re going to win big games and big moments like that, we’re can’t just rely on one moment in the game. We’ll get round, we’ll have a look, but at the end of the game, it’s a game of 80 minutes, not just one moment. So we need to reflect, and be better ourselves.   

Edie Jones comments:-

I thought George [Ford] could lift the game a little bit, but Marcus played really well, we were really happy with his performance ... but it’s a 23-man game.

"Poor penalty to touch 4" is a shit reason since your favorite Steyn missed penalty line kicks regularly - in 9 matches there were 7 of those - and you never criticized him for that deficiency.    

Y ou are a great one to decide it is a one man game to assign to a specific player the reason for the loss of games.    And the player identified are always not the ones who bugger up royally in the game - but one your prejudice finds a reason to be blamed.    

I didn't get to see the game but saw the highlights. It looked like England never dominated the game or managed to string some  decent phases together. Scotland looked brilliant on attack and made decent line breaks. 

Not sure their backline or backrow is right. Smith is frustratingly talented player, a  bit to cocky for my liking but wonder whether he suffers from not knowing  his backline players like he does for Harlequins where he and Esterhuizen along with Danny Care is doing a fantastic job. 

From the Telegraph:

77min: England lose a crucial lineout 

Execution is a word that was repeatedly used by England in their post-match analysis and this was encapsulated when Will Stuart won a turnover penalty with three minutes to go inside the Scotland half. The penalty was within range of Elliot Daly, but captain Tom Curry decided to go for the corner. 

Rather than give the ball to the left-footed Henry Slade, who has a history of kicking to within five metres, the right-footed Ford made just 15 metres to take the lineout just outside the 22. This gave Scotland the confidence to compete and George’s throw to Charlie Ewels was picked off by Sam Skinner.

So both the Guardian and the Telegraph make the point that Ford’s poor kick took the pressure off Scotland to defend the maul and opened the door for a crucial lineout steal. 

Dave you might ask the question why Cowan Dickie was out on the wing defending the kick, hardly in his area of expertise. But that was the obvious turning point. 

England had one chance to win the game after that….the penalty that should have set up a maul for the win. Blown by Ford’s pathetic kick.

Live and learn Clever you dumb bastard.

Remember when Matfield in 2014 fluffed a ball when a line-out was set up 5 meters out against the and the whole planned driving maul backfired.   No way does it lead to driving mauls  automatically result  in scoring of tries anyway.    In 2015 the Springbok team as a whole malfunctioned and allowed the Japanese to be near enough in points to beat the Springboks - one of the biggest upsets ever at a WC and you blamed only Kriel for the loss.   As a whole you are totally clueless when it comes to performance evaluation of players and your only way is to use your prejudice against certain players to blame .them for any unfavorable outcome and in doing that you have no problem in giving totally fictitious descriptions what actually happened in matches .        

I had the same thought about Smith, although he stood up to the Boks pretty well. Wilkinson was another small chap who actually was pretty solid, although going low, vulnerable to the offload.

Ford’s problem is also on attack though. The Springbok strategy in the WC final was to assign  Dud Toit to charge onto him. Ford basically bottled out. If Dud tried that against a Spencer or a Carter or a Barrett they would have stepped him and exploited the gap. Ford froze.

Ford is a losing cause.

We will have to see if Smith can operate under the rush…but I’m guessing he can. He has a good step and change of pace….beat the tackle once and the tactic tends to implode.

Do shut up Tokkie, your bs is tedious. Obviously having a maul 10 metres out gives you a much better chance of scoring. Stop persisting when you have been proven wrong.