Australia v England - second test

[Oakboy]

Porter was a mile offside at the scrum when he carried right?

On replay looks like it but the principle was right- get a centre over the gainline happy days

Forgot he was on the pitch for large parts of the game.

[Banquo]

Porter was a mile offside at the scrum when he carried right?

On replay looks like it but the principle was right- get a centre over the gainline happy days

Forgot he was on the pitch for large parts of the game.

Yes not very good in d but hardly touched the ball,

[Puja]

Porter was a mile offside at the scrum when he carried right?

On replay looks like it

Porter generally looked like what we all thought - a decent Premiership level trier, but not international quality by any stretch of the imagination. If Marchant isn't injured, then it's utterly risible for him not to be at 13.

Puja

[Banquo]

Porter was a mile offside at the scrum when he carried right?

On replay looks like it

Porter generally looked like what we all thought - a decent Premiership level trier, but not international quality by any stretch of the imagination. If Marchant isn't injured, then it's utterly risible for him not to be at 13.

Puja

Playing outside two other prem triers

On a serious note, having Smith n Faz inside can’t have been easy for him.

[Oakboy]

On replay looks like it but the principle was right- get a centre over the gainline happy days

Forgot he was on the pitch for large parts of the game.

Yes not very good in d but hardly touched the ball,

Yes, not blaming him for not being in the game. In fact, in the first two minutes Smith kicked the ball away twice and Farrell once when an early touch for a debutant OC may have been worth considering.

[francoisfou]

On replay looks like it

Porter generally looked like what we all thought - a decent Premiership level trier, but not international quality by any stretch of the imagination. If Marchant isn't injured, then it's utterly risible for him not to be at 13.

Puja

Playing outside two other prem triers

On a serious note, having Smith n Faz inside can’t have been easy for him.

..and was probably saying what a lot of us were, "if only George Ford were playing", but then again, who was wearing 12?

[francoisfou]

Lawes and Billy were excellent throughout! Thought Chessum did very well! He’s not Itoje, but did a proper job.

Does that mean he kept his mouth shut!

[Epaminondas Pules]

Missed 29 tackles in the game, which is a big issue. And only Billy made more than 50 metres with the ball.

[Mellsblue]

Forgot he was on the pitch for large parts of the game.

Yes not very good in d but hardly touched the ball,

Yes, not blaming him for not being in the game. In fact, in the first two minutes Smith kicked the ball away twice and Farrell once when an early touch for a debutant OC may have been worth considering.

Good point. I was too busy thinking how bad the kicks were but I’d say you’re right.

[badback]

Not bad. Felt like they reverted to bish bosh. They seemed more comfortable with that. And the forwards stepped up.

[chris1850]

We miss Itoje and Curry when they're not on the pitch. Our other options may be good prem players but they're not international class

[Banquo]

Missed 29 tackles in the game, which is a big issue. And only Billy made more than 50 metres with the ball.

yep, missing 20% in the first hour. Either fatigue or ill measured line speed probs

[Scrumhead]

We miss Itoje and Curry when they're not on the pitch. Our other options may be good prem players but they're not international class

I agree on your first sentence, but the second one is complete crap.

Underhill and Ludlam might not be as good as Curry but to suggest they’re ‘not international class’ is total bullshit.

Chessum is light years away from Itoje, but that’s not unexpected given the gulf in experience, but so far he’s looked at home in test rugby.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Chessum is also getting huge experience and growing at a fantastic rate! For where he is at 21 he’s going to be an excellent player if he carries on as he has started. He’s not looking out of place internationally at all. And that’s after 35 first team games, four of which were internationals.

[Epaminondas Pules]

We miss Itoje and Curry when they're not on the pitch. Our other options may be good prem players but they're not international class

Missing your two best players is always going to make a difference.

[p/d]

Harrison and Flats top drawer today

[FKAS]

On replay looks like it but the principle was right- get a centre over the gainline happy days

Forgot he was on the pitch for large parts of the game.

Yes not very good in d but hardly touched the ball,

He was very good in D. Shut down a few potential Aussie breaks and absolutely smashed the Aussie 8 in the first half. Stopped an Aussie drive just short of the line only for them to score the phase after. His two carries say him make decent carries. It was a workman like display but seemed to work in a way. The carry off the scrum (may have been offside) got England out of a tricky situation.

If Marchant is fit I'd have thought he'd be back in at 13 but Porter probably showed he's going to be a useful 22/23 shirt option for England.

[p/d]

I also thought Porter went ok.
Think the Aussie lock Philip was immense

[Banquo]

Forgot he was on the pitch for large parts of the game.

Yes not very good in d but hardly touched the ball,

He was very good in D. Shut down a few potential Aussie breaks and absolutely smashed the Aussie 8 in the first half. Stopped an Aussie drive just short of the line only for them to score the phase after. His two carries say him make decent carries. It was a workman like display but seemed to work in a way. The carry off the scrum (may have been offside) got England out of a tricky situation.

If Marchant is fit I'd have thought he'd be back in at 13 but Porter probably showed he's going to be a useful 22/23 shirt option for England.

he missed 4 (50%) tackles old fruit- hardly 'very good'- and was out of position a heap as well as two turnovers. His carry was good as above. He wasn't helped much by the guys inside.

[Mr Mwenda]

I clearly have lower standards than Bedford. I thought that was exciting. A pretty good response to last week. It would have been nice to finish off some more moves but if the Aussies prefer to concede penalties under pressure then that's their choice.

A few thoughts:
Smith had a poor game but I felt he looked more comfortable after his sin bin and began to make things happen.

The relative silence on Farrell makes me think he played pretty well.

Still too many dumb penalties. It's particularly frustrating as it often seems to follow good work.

Hill was better than I've given him credit for.

Pretty good selection of tactics, rackon. This Aussie team seems to always have 20 minutes when the intensity and cohesion come together. It was weathered. Only just, but it was weathered. It is disconcerting how few answers England seem to have when Aus are in full flow.

Really like JVP.

Arundell learnt a lesson on streetsmarts.

BillyV is glorious when he's in the mood.

Chessum stepped up.

Aussie commentators are hilarious. Makes any Aussie defeat so much better.

[Banquo]

I also thought Porter went ok.
Think the Aussie lock Philip was immense

looked all over the shop to me, but hey.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Forgot he was on the pitch for large parts of the game.

Yes not very good in d but hardly touched the ball,

He was very good in D. Shut down a few potential Aussie breaks and absolutely smashed the Aussie 8 in the first half. Stopped an Aussie drive just short of the line only for them to score the phase after. His two carries say him make decent carries. It was a workman like display but seemed to work in a way. The carry off the scrum (may have been offside) got England out of a tricky situation.

If Marchant is fit I'd have thought he'd be back in at 13 but Porter probably showed he's going to be a useful 22/23 shirt option for England.

He missed four tackles….

[p/d]

.

The relative silence on Farrell makes me think he played pretty well.
.

I think we are all still waiting for him to do another cross field kick to Nowell to pass comment

[Banquo]

.

The relative silence on Farrell makes me think he played pretty well.
.

I think we are all still waiting for him to do another cross field kick to Nowell to pass comment

lol. He was median farrell today; missed a few tackle, terrible missed touch just before half time, one missed penalty. On the upside he didn't give any pens away. Can't really remember much else.

Midfield missed 10 tackles between them, Smith clearly targeted.

[Mikey Brown]

Harrison and Flats top drawer today

Are you joking?