.....North dominates South. Slowly the lessons are being learned. The game was won with a brilliant rush defence and huge hits by Tuilagi and Itoje, and hunting over those tackles, Underwood and Curry. In WC games the team with the better defence usually wins.
Hansen made significant selection errors. Primarily Ben Smith should have been at 15 and Barrett at 10. Not only did Moanga look like Jantjies trying to deal with the push defence, he missed the crucial tackle on Watson that got England in position for the first try.
Barrett in the Stephanie role was a flop....but I was amazed when May couldn't round him with so much space. Habana would have been gone.
Once the rush defence was established the ABs were struggling, much as in recent Bok games....but England never relented.
Not sure the ball in the ruck actually went forward....it was secured behind the receivers leg, so even if he was in front did the ball go forward? Or was it dislodged forward by Jaws?
As for the obstruction, another big call. Curry ran into the gap between two AB defenders who bit and moved to tackle him. He made contact, but did he cause contact. The outside AB player in particular changed his line.
This was more than a win, it was a dismantling of the AB model....individually they had some good performances.
