All Blacks v England. Oh sh**.

[Banquo]

Agree about Owens' terrible reffing performance - the All Blacks were allowed to pass the ball forwards the whole game. A shocker.

[Beasties]

Nige does like to keep the game flowing but the forward passes were a bit of an ongoing joke all game.

[Mellsblue]

Agree about Owens' terrible reffing performance - the All Blacks were allowed to pass the ball forwards the whole game. A shocker.

Haha. Very good.

[Mellsblue]

The grapes have turned sour!

Hehe.

[Spy]

Smashed. Utterly outplayed. Well done England.

[Mellsblue]

Smashed. Utterly outplayed. Well done England.

Good man. A year of building up to revenge....see you 7/11/20. It’ll be a cracker.

[Silvercloud]

Ah well. Nice to let someone else have a go for a change.

I really Hope England don’t win the whole thing though - it would be unbearable. I’d prefer Wales (unlikely) but even the Boks would be better than England.

Mind you, bit of a damp squib if the 100th All Blacks v Springboks test is a bloody bronze final.

Tell me about it! I've already had the daughter's in-laws round whanging on about it! If I was a believer, I just might have to ask all you Kiwis to pray for me!

[Mikey Brown]

And that should have been at least a penalty to Slade, if not a penalty try and a yellow. You know the one I'm talking about. Fuck that shit.

Haha. Jesus Christ. You really have outdone yourself there.

[Digby]

And that should have been at least a penalty to Slade, if not a penalty try and a yellow. You know the one I'm talking about. Fuck that shit.

Haha. Jesus Christ. You really have outdone yourself there.

Is the tackle from Slade that put yet another Kiwi carrier into touch? If so that's a quality rant

[richy678]

Why do you keep running into touch? I cannot understand it.

Owens let the English backline play offside all night to the point where they might as well have been running around behind the All Blacks goalposts with the reserves. It put the All Blacks attack under pressure, naturally, and forced them towards the touchline, where the English defence could easily just shove them into touch. And with Itoje playing the way he did, they had no worries about retaining ball there.

Farrell also played the ref with his blatant dive from Whitelock's retaliation. Why this wasn't penalised, I'd say is anyone's guess, but we all know that Farrell is protected.



And that should have been at least a penalty to Slade, if not a penalty try and a yellow. You know the one I'm talking about. Fuck that shit.

Oh Please.

The New Zealand rugby team have had the ear of refs for 50 odd years. You guys would just trot something out about playing to the ref. We had to suck up McCaw being offside at the base and countless years of lazy runners ambling back onside between the half backs. Lets not even go there about being allowed to forward pass.

[Puja]

And that should have been at least a penalty to Slade, if not a penalty try and a yellow. You know the one I'm talking about. Fuck that shit.

Us pushing the offside line, I will give you, but this is utterly bizarre. The first contact was by Slade's outstretched arm - how on earth could that possibly have been a penalty, let alone a yellow? And as for penalty try, do you not think the fact that he was already being tackled low by another Englishman might have had an influence on the discussion that a try would definitely have been scored without Slade's input?

I appreciate the urge to nitpick the ref after losing a game that hurt - gods knows I've had enough experience across the last 16 years - but you can't genuinely say Nige cost you that game, especially when he gave you two final last warnings for yellow cards and only gave a penalty for a deliberate open hand strike to the head. He was iffy all around, as Nige often is, and both sides could reasonably complain that he screwed them - the truth is that he balanced out and didn't change the result.

Puja

[canta_brian]

Partly agree Puja.
Nige always lets the tackle area be a free for all. Some refs would have blown England off the park today. However, that didn’t effect the result. What did was NZ refusing to adjust and put more bodies into the rucks and fight fire with fire.

Just a penalty for open hand strike however is bull. Honestly that was some football worthy fake injury rot from Farrell. Oh, a hand lightly pushed me, I’ll fake an injury until the tele ref notices and looks in slowmo to see if it looks like a penalty.

England smashed us today. That is what counts.

[richy678]

And that should have been at least a penalty to Slade, if not a penalty try and a yellow. You know the one I'm talking about. Fuck that shit.

Us pushing the offside line, I will give you, but this is utterly bizarre. The first contact was by Slade's outstretched arm - how on earth could that possibly have been a penalty, let alone a yellow? And as for penalty try, do you not think the fact that he was already being tackled low by another Englishman might have had an influence on the discussion that a try would definitely have been scored without Slade's input?

I appreciate the urge to nitpick the ref after losing a game that hurt - gods knows I've had enough experience across the last 16 years - but you can't genuinely say Nige cost you that game, especially when he gave you two final last warnings for yellow cards and only gave a penalty for a deliberate open hand strike to the head. He was iffy all around, as Nige often is, and both sides could reasonably complain that he screwed them - the truth is that he balanced out and didn't change the result.

Puja

Tru Say, Tru Say.

Slade attempted to wrap his arm. Clearly.

You would be better off pointing out Faz's dropped shoulder in the 2nd quarter after he was injured - You might want to look at citing that one.

[richy678]

Partly agree Puja.
Nige always lets the tackle area be a free for all. Some refs would have blown England off the park today. However, that didn’t effect the result. What did was NZ refusing to adjust and put more bodies into the rucks and fight fire with fire.

Just a penalty for open hand strike however is bull. Honestly that was some football worthy fake injury rot from Farrell. Oh, a hand lightly pushed me, I’ll fake an injury until the tele ref notices and looks in slowmo to see if it looks like a penalty.

England smashed us today. That is what counts.

I don't think refs would have blown us off the pitch. Nige caught Rettalick coming in from the side - we weren't doing that.

Never, ever saw an All Blacks team not able to score like that. Only chance you got was the line out fuck up. Never at the races. Which is why in the UK we are finding it such an event.

I will echo my countrymen that because of history and the excellence of your team's ability - we didn't feel comfortable until the 78th minute.

[paddy no 11]

England got away with plenty and yes farrell took a dive but whitelock has been rubbing fellas noses in it for years no harm to see him get some of his own today.

Ye missed franks ability to cheat successfully today and laumape to bring some physicality in hindsight beauden at 10 and smith at 15 was a better option, still forwards were smashed and not sure ye had any answers there in selection terms?

[morepork]

That was an old fashioned good hard jobbing.

[Mellsblue]

That was an old fashioned good hard jobbing.

Feck the minute by minute breakdown. This is the in-depth analysis I’m looking for.

[zer0]

Ye missed franks ability to cheat successfully today and laumape to bring some physicality in hindsight beauden at 10 and smith at 15 was a better option, still forwards were smashed and not sure ye had any answers there in selection terms?

They certainly failed to do their jobs, but there's also plenty of alternative selections in the forwards. Some were overlooked for one reason or another (Owen Franks, Karl Tu'inukuafe, Dalton Papali'i). Others are uncapped big lumps of human ripe for physical confrontations (Akira Ioane, Andrew Makalio, Pari Pari Parkinson).

In retrospect, Papali'i would've been far and away the most useful of those absent. Honestly would've been in the squad from the start ahead of Jacobson for mine, but also could've been brought in to replace Todd. But that's all academic now.

[WaspInWales]

Bad luck guys - it's a testament to how great a side that you are that I only stopped being terrified that you'd snatch it from us when there were 2 minutes to go. We had to work ridiculously hard for that and you pushed us all the way.

Puja

Aye, same.

Even when the clock was in the red I thought we may still lose.

NZ were not at their clinical best, but England deserve a lot of credit for that imo.

It was the best I've seen us play for a number of years.

[Spy]

There were some selections that didn't work out, but the way this game panned out I don't think realistic alternative options would have made any difference. England played so well, and we were so poor, that we would get beaten regardless imo. Might have gone differently on another day, but we were hammered.

It's just so unusual to see a NZ team so comprehensively beaten. Even when we lose, we normally have periods of the game when we are on top. Not last night. Seemed like we were shut down and beaten up all game.

Fuck it. It's not 2011. I'm managing to be a bit philosophical about this loss.

[J Dory]

Let's just take the moral victory and move on.

[Beasties]

Bad luck guys - it's a testament to how great a side that you are that I only stopped being terrified that you'd snatch it from us when there were 2 minutes to go. We had to work ridiculously hard for that and you pushed us all the way.

Puja

Aye, same.

Even when the clock was in the red I thought we may still lose.

NZ were not at their clinical best, but England deserve a lot of credit for that imo.

It was the best I've seen us play for a number of years.

+2
That was an absolutely fabulous performance from Eng, we were all shitting ourselves until about 2 mins left, there's a reason for that. It's sad that the NZ Nation will prob feel like throwing themselves off the nearest cliff as a response. Eng made you look ordinary but you really aren't. Take comfort from that fact whilst reflecting, Eng were just the better team on the day. On another day NZ win.

As shocked as you lot are, so are we.

[canta_brian]

I just watched it again. Trying to see if there was anything that might have changed it.

There is only one that I can see. When Retallick broke away through the middle of the field, had he passed a bit earlier and linked up with the backs who were bombing through we might have been back.

On the other hand....

If Farrell could catch we would have shipped another couple of tries in the first half
The 2nd English try that was ruled out. Perfectly correct decision, but blimey, they don't get spotted or called often. I certainly didn't notice it live on Saturday.

I said on Saturday that another ref might have blown England off the park. I will stand by that. With Owens the offside line is always a bit of a grey area, as is the point the tackle is over and the ball must be released. England flooded rucks, took liberties with crawling a few yards and hung on for dear life. I have only one question. Why the feck didn't we? Did Read even try and point out any of this to Owens? If he did why didn't we adjust and put numbers in. Who's masterplan was it to say the best way to counter getting monstered at the ruck was to fling miracle ball passes at players heads when they were already under pressure.

What a shit show.

[Cameo]

NZ also butchered their first three attempts at mauls. Having picked Barret for that power game, those mistakes helped stop them really going for it.

[Puja]

NZ also butchered their first three attempts at mauls. Having picked Barret for that power game, those mistakes helped stop them really going for it.

I would say more neutralised than butchered. Mind, I don't know who looks at this England team and decides that the way to attack them is through the maul.

Puja