Comments on: Autumn Internationals 2017: Rate the Match England v Australia

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 18:23:00 +0000

Who would you have instead?

By: Dazza (Dazzle)

Dazza (Dazzle) — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 16:33:06 +0000

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.

By: Blub

Blub — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 15:51:56 +0000

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.

By: Mr B

Mr B — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 11:54:31 +0000

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.

By: Liono

Liono — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 09:03:30 +0000

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).

By: Jacob Jeffery

Jacob Jeffery — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 08:22:58 +0000

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.

By: Leon

Leon — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 08:07:47 +0000

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

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 00:24:25 +0000

Drop Robshaw.

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 19 Nov 2017 13:52:33 +0000

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?

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 19 Nov 2017 13:17:24 +0000

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.

By: Rodney Lowe

Rodney Lowe — Sun, 19 Nov 2017 10:15:49 +0000

IRB ruddy spell check!

By: Rodney Lowe

Rodney Lowe — Sun, 19 Nov 2017 10:14:49 +0000

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.