Team for Scotland

[Scrumhead]

What a steaming pile of turd. I think I give up.

[Galfon]

What a line-out f-up, under the circumstances
but a tale of 2 Fin(n)s..

[canta_brian]

VdM really didn’t do Russell any favours there

[FKAS]

Well that was pretty ugly but another win.

[Galfon]

Win Gruesome

[Oakboy]

What a contradiction of terms. A win but our worst performance this 6N?

[Danno]

Never getting those 2 hours back

[p/d]

What a steaming pile of turd. I think I give up.

Sadly it is hard to see what we are trying to do. If plan A isn’t working we just keep plugging at it.

At the moment we look like a side best suited to a game that breaks up

[Captainhaircut]

Borthwick got when we lost but played pretty well and now he gets shit when we win playing badly. I guess he just has to win every single game playing brilliantly…

[jngf]

Strange game. Just looking at Scotland Richie was everywhere for them but Darge completely anonymous - no way Lions class for me. Scot’s perennial problem is lightweight 4,5,6,7,8.

Felt this was one match too many for T Curry ( though he was a demon defender in first half) B Curry & Itoje the pick of our forwards for me. What on earth is the point of delaying bringing Ted Hill until the refs almost about to blow?

Finally regarding CCS - I think he’s wasted as a flanker at this level, he’s certainly not the most mobile but he’s very explosive (more so than T Willis imo) and I’m increasingly convinced he should be developed as another England no.8 option!

Wilkinsonesque defensive performance from Finn Smith - absolutely first class!

[Scrumhead]

Well that was pretty ugly but another win.

Yes. Not often you’re embarrassed to win.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Borthwick got when we lost but played pretty well and now he gets shit when we win playing badly. I guess he just has to win every single game playing brilliantly…

I dunno, maybe actually progressing the team might be useful!

He’s as much an international head coach as my Nan is, and she’s been dead ten years! And even then he’s light years ahead of Wigglesworth!

[Great Bloke]

Mitchell was poor today. Randall is out his depth at this level but he lifted the tempo well.

Pleased that VDM is 30years old in June, suspect we’ll be able to tackle him in about 10 years time.

Horrible win, but a win!

[Insouciant]

Genuinely odd match. Our attack was crisper in the first half... in the two occurrences where tried to use it. But for a speculative offload attempt would could have nailed 2 tries from 2 attacks. Attack fell off in the second half, we didn't look like we'd hold the ball beyond 5 phases due to a drop or more likely the Scottish backrow. Ritchie was all over us like white on rice.

The defence on the other hand was very poor early on - especially out wide as per the last game. I often think it's worth learning from mistakes but I appreciate that's a fairly novel concept. Scotland got so much ground out their left wing in that first half, they cut us to ribbons - it was some of the best rugby to watch in the game. On the flip side, we tightened up the second half and the substitutes (on average) raised our performance by tightening the defence. This was enough to win so the sacrifice of our attack was worth it.

Credit to Smith for kicking the goals. He had a bad week last week re kicking off the tee but made up for it this time for sure.

Also general credit to the team for winning ugly. We weren't necessarily the better team but we put ourselves in a position to win and we did. It doesn't feel anything like as enjoyable as last week and actually the last 5 minutes or so were really uncomfortable.

Feel for Scotland, but you have to kick the goals. Having said that - was our first try actually grounded? I probably missed a replay but from what I saw it wasn't clear @ all.

[Scrumhead]

@Puja - I hope I speak for everyone when I say please don’t do a MBM on this one. No one should be subjected to a rewatch of that abomination.

[fivepointer]

Seldom can a win feel much like a defeat.

Make no mistake we were 2nd best for most of that game, only played fleetingly and had to thank the kicking gods to carry us home.

Our defence at times was laughably bad - i lost count of the number of missed tackles in the 1st half - while our attack was laboured and erratic. Thankfully our set piece went well and we made our kicks.

A pretty terrible performance.

[Epaminondas Pules]

It’s a currently typical win and that means this absolute shower of shit coaching setup remains in place! It’s kind of the worst possible result.

[francoisfou]

Serious Bilge may be happy with that but he Shouldn’t Be.

[Adam_P]

Finally regarding CCS - I think he’s wasted as a flanker at this level, he’s certainly not the most mobile but he’s very explosive (more so than T Willis imo) and I’m increasingly convinced he should be developed as another England no.8 option!

I've said from his first England cap, CCS is an 8 all day long. Don't know why we insist on playing him on the flank.

[fivepointer]

Go over to ESPN and check the stats. https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/matchstats ... gue=180659

Scots will be shaking their heads in disbelief that they lost that game.

[FKAS]

Well I think the Borthwick tactics sort of worked, possibly not how he hoped they would. The attack lost shape really quickly and what the hell happened to the ruck guru we used to have? Our ball presentation and clear out work was dog shit.

The positive news is that Wigglesworth is rumoured to be leaving post 6N, downside is it's back to Leicester

[FKAS]

Go over to ESPN and check the stats. https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/matchstats ... gue=180659

Scots will be shaking their heads in disbelief that they lost that game.

Scotland conceded 18 turnovers. That's a shocker of a statistic.

[Insouciant]

The amount of missed tackles is unsurprisingly high. Some England players missing as many as 5 tackles. Keeping it positive - best defensive performance was B. Curry made 13 tackles, no misses. Credit it where it's due, we needed that. Freeman with 10 and no misses - he was one of the brighter sparks today generally from memory. There's some fairly mixed reading in there too with double figure tackle counts and 3 plus misses. (Of course the numbers don't appreciate the context of the miss.)

A real positive was the set piece - all 16 lineouts won, with only 1 lost scrum.

[Danno]

Gave away 2 lineout pens on Sco ball and one on ours when Baxter was done for obstruction, so that's not accurate :/

The defensive stats are pretty shocking, Al-Abd needs to start earning his salary

[Banquo]

Winning matters, so that’s good.

But our wide defence ffs and missed tackles and persistently kicking badly and when on the front foot shouts of lack of confidence tbh. Slade was poor again imo, and Sleightholme was lucky to get to just after half time sadly. Soft pens too.

Still, hung in there and Itoje and Chessum had good games bar daft pens as above