USA v England, Sat 19/07. 10.05pm Rugbypass & RFU YouTube

[Which Tyler]

Isn't the weather a bit dodgy mid-afternoon at this time of year, around Washington?

Anyway, rather than risking Rugbypass again - which just isn't set up to deal with heavy traffic a full international brings; it'll be on the RFU's official youtube channel as well

[Which Tyler]

Delayed, but with mixed messages on how long for.
Officially 30 minutes, but also reports of "indefinite"
Lots of lightning strikes by the sound of things

[R3dders]

Delayed 30 mins for weather, so yes it appears so...

What a joke.

[Stom]

Delayed 30 minutes...when it's already at 10pm...

Great scheduling this.

[R3dders]

'indefinite' now.

[Puja]

Kickoff now due to be 11.05pm, allegedly.

Puja

[Danno]

Looks like we're on

[R3dders]

Warming up

[R3dders]

Never forward.

[Captainhaircut]

Fuck this, going to bed.

Lightning, American commentators and a dreadful TMO making this unwatchable.

[Danno]

Nice to hear commentators showing the proper respect to Ford

[Puja]

Is that three knock-ons from Dombrandt since the restart? Head in the game, Alex!

Puja

[Stom]

This is utter dross. We're playing down at their level, and it's poor. Need to have a bit more control here.

[Slater582]

This is utter dross. We're playing down at their level, and it's poor. Need to have a bit more control here.

All of the delays probably don't help.

[Puja]

IFW does not look fit at all - understandably so, but he's just a pace too slow in both legs and head. Failing to round a back row in acres of space was not a highlight. Should've been left at home.

Puja

[Stom]

Is this Dombrandt’s last England appearance?

[Stom]

To concede a try against this team...

Awful. Why am I still awake?

[R3dders]

16 turnovers conceded. And that's before you count all the attacking ball ford kicked away.

Ojomoh, Clark, carpenter all good. The rest can fuck off for making me stay up till 1.30 for that.

[Which Tyler]

I went to bed at the second delay, but it's too hot and I can't sleep, so watching now.


Just want to say - I love these commentators, they sound as if watching rugby is actually an enjoyable thing.

They're also happy to acknowledge that the ref has a microphone, and it's good to hear what he's saying - as opposed to our usual lot who are busy wondering why the ref made the call, whilst the ref is trying to tell everyone why the made the call, and refusing to either listen, or let the rest of us hear it.

They even... And I can't believe I'm going to say this about a modern commentator... They even have the ability to not say anything when they've nothing to say!

Oh, and as that's where I'm up to - beautiful hands from MOjo for Northmore's try, but how the hell did we butcher the try after IFW chase down and the knock on by Blue12?

[Which Tyler]

Ok,they're off for lightning, just after a denied try for Dombrandt.
Can one of the bug boys explain what happened there? He's talking about binding onto a ripper, and therefore it's obstruction, but... What does that even mean?

is it that he split out from the maul, but didn't get away from it enough? Which doesn't look right to me - but I fully acknowledge my ignorance of what the big buggers do, though I've generally learned a lot from my decades on here.

[R3dders]

Nobody knows apart from the tmo and the ref. Incomprehensible nonsense.

[fivepointer]

That was a scruffy effort. Far too many handling errors and too much kicking. A few nice tries and some decent individual performances but overall that was disappointing.

[Puja]

Ok,they're off for lightning, just after a denied try for Dombrandt.
Can one of the bug boys explain what happened there? He's talking about binding onto a ripper, and therefore it's obstruction, but... What does that even mean?

is it that he split out from the maul, but didn't get away from it enough? Which doesn't look right to me - but I fully acknowledge my ignorance of what the big buggers do, though I've generally learned a lot from my decades on here.

I think the problem was that we caught the ball, players came in to form the maul and the catcher gave the ball over the top of them to Dombrandt, who then bound on. There was an IRB law clarification a while back on that - the ball can be transferred within a maul by ripping it backwards, but you can't pass it over the top of already bound people (cause teams were doing that and making nigh-undefendable mauls).

16 turnovers conceded. And that's before you count all the attacking ball ford kicked away.

Ojomoh, Clark, carpenter all good. The rest can fuck off for making me stay up till 1.30 for that.

Yeah, horrible scrappy performance, but I suppose to be expected with a heavily rotated side coming in for one game where victory was never in doubt - reminiscent of every A game where players are trying to impress individually while also navigating unfamiliarity with their teammates. I would actually go more restrictive than you in my list of positives - Carpenter and Oghre showed they are worth investing more time in, but everyone else was various degrees of a let-down.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

A bit harsh. I thought both centres were good whenever they were given an opportunity to play.

Obviously the standard of opposition needs to be taken into account, but credit where credit is due … Ojomoh’s physicality in defence was good to see too. Looks like he would fit the gameplan nicely.

I was underwhelmed by Pepper. After a couple of good cameos, I thought he was going to rip it up, but he was pretty anonymous. In fairness, it can be harder to shine as a flanker in these sort of games, but he suffered in comparison to CCS who was very busy a prominent on both sides of the ball.

[Captainhaircut]

A bit harsh. I thought both centres were good whenever they were given an opportunity to play.

Obviously the standard of opposition needs to be taken into account, but credit where credit is due … Ojomoh’s physicality in defence was good to see too. Looks like he would fit the gameplan nicely.

I was underwhelmed by Pepper. After a couple of good cameos, I thought he was going to rip it up, but he was pretty anonymous. In fairness, it can be harder to shine as a flanker in these sort of games, but he suffered in comparison to CCS who was very busy a prominent on both sides of the ball.

It was always going to be hard to shine in that back row- his job was mostly to clear rucks and let the other 2 stay out ready to carry.

I know they are different players but watching Dombrandt after 2 games of Willis is just depressing. The ferocity of the carry, protection of the ball, all round workrate are just night and day.