What did you think of today’s match between England and Australia at Twickenham?
What were the main talking points? Here is your opportunity to share your views and see what others have to say.
Give the match a rating out of ten and then leave your comments below.
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We obviously got the rub of the green and it could have been a lot closer or even a loss.But the scoreboard is the final adjudicator and we’ll
take it a move on.May is a totally different player since he moved to Tigers .Thought 1/2 backs played well and Lawes and Joe L
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Couldn’t be happier to see Chieka lose. He’s such a butthole.
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Score line flatters us, but we were better than last week and probably deserved to win. Thought launchbury was immense and may looks very sharp. Having seen the Scotland New Zealand game go down to the wire, makes me think if we keep developing by 2019 it is more than possible for us to knock them of there perch.
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It may be splitting hairs, but there are two definitions to ‘deserved’; one is ‘played what was in front of them and took the points when they needed to’, and the other is ‘were noticeably the better team on the day’. England were the former, but not the latter. That was a match that was in the balance right up until 5mins to go, and a half-metre offside ozzy (Moore) from going the other way (momentum-wise at least). Point being, happy as people will rightly be over the win and the margin, this match was incredibly close, and emphasises the element of luck in rugby and sport. To complacently chalk this up as a deserved win in both senses would be dangerous in the extreme (not applying that to you here, Alex, dw) but I don’t expect the squad to be that daft, thankfully! As for NZ, I still reckon England have every chance of beating them, but for me the jury is still out as to whether they have made concrete progress since the 6N. Signs, but nothing concrete.
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I’m not suggesting we get even remotely complacent, because at this level margins are so fine that must aim to constantly improve or else you will fall behind other teams and yes Australia could of beaten us today. Having said that we have played them 5 times now during the jones era and won all 5. So England are doing something right, they have a lot to work on and aren’t aestheticly pleasing to watch. But they are winning games consistently and that is the most important thing by far !
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The kiwis out there supporting Australia by proxy will be pissed off about the disallowed try. Once again it went according to the letter of the law. Initially clearly held up by Robshaw (clear camera footage of hid arm) and no clear shot of a grounding thereafter. M. Tindall said in interview that ‘technically’ the referee was correct.
As stated on here over 6 mths ago ‘free’ and ‘easy to come by’ points that used to be given in the past, along with the benefit of the doubt, no longer are!
Coupled with NH improvement the gap continues to narrow.
That having been said Australia played very well and often were unkucky with the rub of the green but as Brian Moore said “Sports not fair.” Its sport!
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The try wasn’t disallowed for being held up (you can see the grounding on the replay) it was disallowed because Moore blocked Robshaw from making a clean tackle. To those that say but how can it be blocking if he still made the tackle consider how close Robshaw came to holding it up when he had to over shot his run to get round Moore
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After last week i feared the worst and we had to hang in there for long periods. Credit both sides for trying to play decent rugby in less than favourable conditions.
Some poor decisions from Maro and we still need another hefty carrier but a win is a win.
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its ok England fans to congratulate the team on smashing the Aussies, NZ routinely rip teams apart in the final minutes and get applauded for it.
Please don’t pussy foot around because your at risk of being accused as ‘arrogant’.
Does anyone remember England wales 30-3 as being a close game or do they remember the thrashing? Most certainly the latter.
Well played England, you got he rub of the green but deserved the win
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Banastre makes a very sound point there. Often NZ only rack up the points in the last 15min of a game and get lauded for being a team you cannot take your eye of for one minute of the 80min. England have proved here again, when they are on their game plan, you have to live with them to the full 80 as they will not let go. Those two last tried were no fluke and had Care came on earlier who knows!
Overall a solid test match, still areas to improve on for England of course. We did get out of jail a couple of times bur again that has to be down to players as much as a little luck. Robshaw was present to enough to make the ref go to TMO on the line and forget the obstruction by Moore i dont actually think the ball was grounded! It looked like the Oz player actually had his own arm under it blocking as Robshaw had him so wrapped up!
Looking at player selection moving forward for me it leaves EJ with some tough calls….i thought we missed the destructive tackling of Underhill (i feel he may have quashed a few of the Oz line breaks) BUT i also felt Itoje brings a presence we need (albeit not his best game). So who gives way as i would also want Launch and Lawes on the field!!! Thoughts??
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I’m not sure in yesterday’s performance you can leave any of those three out. Lawes was great at 6, and added that physicality, and Launchberry has another standout performance. Does Lawes move to flanker to accommodate Maro?
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Drop Robshaw.
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Who would you have instead?
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I was surprised that Itoje was left on the bench to begin with knowing how much energy he brings to the team.
At the moment I would be tempted to move Lawes to 6 with Underhill and Hughes and Robshaw on the bench, if only for the Samoa game. Whilst Robshaw is still very industrious at 6, with Underhill at 7 I feel a better carrying option at 6 would improve the team.
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Exactly my thoughts too Banastre.
I watched the game in a Belfast hotel surrounded by “green shirted” Aussie fans shouting on “ their team”. Which of course is perfectly acceptable….but to praise an England win…oh no you don’t.
And to see Checka whinging was a delight, almost made not being able to have a beer watching the game ok…
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A few England-haters out there, had it been an Aussie win, would have pounced with their long knives.
I think its true to say there are no AB haters on here….just admirers.
Why is it (and lets call a spade a spade) that there are so many England haters out there (and sometimes on here)?
Its a phenomenon that really does need facing down and naming as well as shaming…..yet we all for the most part put up with it, smile wryly and carry out (whilst holding a cup of tea that says “keep calm and carry in”)
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Woops…”carry on”
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The calls were right. Hooper a mile in front of kicker, Moore in front of ball carrier and in way of tackler. Ball in touch, nothing to show it’s gone out, perhaps best look at last Aussie defending.
Huge effort from both sides, and bear in mind Australia came here in form and having been together for a while.
Cheika us a disgrace. Disrespectful to the game it’s officials and the opposition. And it’s spreading into the team. Hope RIB look at his behaviour today.
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Yes Moore was in front of the ball carrier but robshaw was a good meter offside, I am an Englishman but in all honesty believe that should of been a try.
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Robshaw started offside, but the tackle was then initiated behind the original offside line – so then he’s not offside? That was my understanding of the rule.
What should have happened though is that Aus should have had advantage and therefore the play should have restarted from an Aus penalty as opposed to an English one.
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I would say you are mostly correct Jacob, under law 11.8, the offside line at the ruck is the English back foot and Robshaw appears to have made it past that point by the time he makes the tackle and therefore has complied with the requirements for a retiring player to be back onside as per the aforementioned law (i.e. not even an Australian penalty).
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To be honest, if the ref was to call every offside at a breakdown by the letter of the law then every single breakdown would have been pinged. The fact is that these offsides are often not considered “material” to the game so they are ignored for the sake of “continuity”.
At the breakdown where Hooper was carded, England could have scored as they had space on the right, but the Aussie defender was stood about 5m offside (I kid you not), and just stopped the game.
Likewise, had Hooper not “scored”, and say England had touched down for a 22m restart, no-one would worry about him being offside.
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IRB ruddy spell check!
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Was anyone else pleased with Watson’s performance at 15?
I think the injury to Mike Brown could be a blessing in disguise as I feel the back three looked a bit more dynamic as the Aussies weren’t sure what Watson was going to do rather than the traditional hit the line at speed we come to expect from Brown.
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