Comments on: RWC 2019: Day 6 Update

By: WSNE

WSNE — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 07:00:55 +0000

That’s fantastic. I really like it. He is best player.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 15:58:05 +0000

It was a gentle poke at Stroudos rather than a serious comment Don.
I haven’t had a chance to watch the match properly, watched it on my phone at a conference but would agree that handling needs to be sharpened up. Not sure we really know where this England team are yet. On the brighter side historically we have often struggled in the supposedly easier matches so two comfortable wins will do for now.

By: Don P

Don P — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 15:38:46 +0000

Yes. The Yanks couldn’t knock the skin off a rice pud. Mind you, I wouldn’t say that to their fr row. However, their scrum & particarly maul defence, were practically non existstant! Their ‘attack’ hardly better. Booting almost everything back to England, apart from some R1 bursts after 1/2 time. Their pin ball antics at the end aside, which somehow resulted in that try, they looked incapable of scoring. Find it a bit depleting watching basic rugby being butchered like this. Mind you, I suppose Tonga were similar in NZ recently.

By: Don P

Don P — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 15:17:02 +0000

Really R? SCW, Dallaglio & Jones also focused on England’s being good & gr8 players that they are, they only dropped it & knocked it due to the humidity. Thing is, like Parliment were with Geoffrey Cox, are a few punters unconvinced?

By: Don P

Don P — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 15:02:12 +0000

Ok.

By: stroudos

stroudos — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 13:54:24 +0000

Aha! Touché! Well played sir. 🙂

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 13:48:31 +0000

Maybe focusing on England being good rather than the USA been poor would be appropriate;)

By: Leon

Leon — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 13:41:49 +0000

Not really
They have played about as well as expected against the minnows of the pool but I can’t see them having enough to spring an upset against SA/NZ. Their backrow looks good but their composure under pressure and they could have shipped a hat full of points against Canada if they knew how to catch the final pass

By: Leon

Leon — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 13:34:44 +0000

I would agree that Uruguay exceeded expectations and their composure in defence in particular when faced with an overlap was outstanding but even with the quality of their performance you can’t help but feel if Fiji had A) been at the races or B) been able to convert kicks i’ve seen 10 year olds able to knock over they would have won

By: stroudos

stroudos — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 12:52:22 +0000

You’re right of course, however: according to posts above, Fiji were “masters of their own demise” and “architects of their own downfall”.

In any case, my comment was less about having a pop at the wise sages on this esteemed blog, but about the general sentiment across various media and among friends and colleagues, where the focus seems to be solely on the poor Fiji performance, which I think does a disservice to how well Uruguay played.

By: stroudos

stroudos — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 12:41:50 +0000

Well, I have never claimed to have a bloody clue what I’m talking about….

Still, a bit surprised by the degree of dominance England had over USA. The win was a foregone conclusion, but I expected a bit more resistance from the USA team.

By: Leon

Leon — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 11:29:02 +0000

I too went conservative England by 16 but didn’t count on the USA set piece being so dire