Comments on: Best of the weekend: New Zealand knock England off their perch http://www.therugbyblog.com/best-of-the-weekend-new-zealand-knock-england-off-their-perch Rugby Union opinion and discussion, for the fans, by the fans. Sun, 10 Apr 2016 15:49:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1 By: Don Phttp://www.therugbyblog.com/best-of-the-weekend-new-zealand-knock-england-off-their-perch#comment-378280 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 15:57:42 +0000 http://www.therugbyblog.com/?p=38072#comment-378280 Jones, who else, of the S Times recently opined that the BB’s were on the wane. Well I guess that they must have ‘un-waned’ themselves then. Jones scuttled of to reminisce about 1995 leaving Steve Bale to, er, bail him out; no doubt.

Was it mainly a case of missed tackles, or were the try scorers ‘eels’, slithering out of or through defences? The 1st BB defender let Max Clarke come INSIDE him (cardinal sin), but the ‘fool’ back was cut up fair & square.

After the opening 1/4, the NZ juniors came to terms with England & the latter’s forward pass ‘try’ apart, seemed fairly comfortable.

Bale related that is was, mostly, a case of the ‘England bludgeon’ v the ‘NZ rapier’. He reckoned England’s ‘giants’ had ascendency @ scrum. But both sides seemed to hold their own scrum ball pretty well I thought & interestingly, the NZ pack actually outweighed England’s. Besides, the scrum is mainly a means to end, rather just an end in itself. Cut up front & @ back I say.

How England let the Kiwi score the try when 2 defenders had hold of him & seemingly 1/2 their team around him, baffles me still. An ‘eel’ again? Anyway, these moments can shift a game’s axis & for me this 1 surely, at that time, did. Had the Kiwi been held, it would surely have put the pressure back on the BB’s… but who knows?

What concerned me most about NZ was that they didn’t put enough guys into the breakdown consistently enough. It handed England unnecessary & quick ball & therefore the initiative. You can win games with relatively less primary possession, but not with too little 2ndary possession as well. Needs addressing for me.

Also I got the he be, gee bees when the BB’s, just like their AB seniors, ran the ball out of ‘D’, IN THEIR OWN 22, before booting it down town. Why muck around in their red zone? If it had gone pear shaped, it could have been deep guacamole time!

Oh & the OZ ref, of all people, sent a fellow SH’er to the bin for a LEGAL tackle (!), but England didn’t/couldn’t take advantage & so that, in the end, was that.

As for these guys’ futures & whether ‘we’ll be hearing more of them over the years’, we’ll have to see. I tend to think that players of the here & now, or they’re not. The future can be a fickle mistress.

]]> By: Don Phttp://www.therugbyblog.com/best-of-the-weekend-new-zealand-knock-england-off-their-perch#comment-378279 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 14:50:44 +0000 http://www.therugbyblog.com/?p=38072#comment-378279 Not too many takers here, but regds Speight, hasn’t WR brought in something called ‘intent’ now?

Bit dumb, sure & prevention HAS to be the emphasis, however De Jongh made a bit of a meal of it & he was obstructing from off side as far as I could tell.

My point is that if he hadn’t been there in the 1st place, he c/wouldn’t have been ‘tackled’, so he must be partially culpable too.

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