England vs New Zealand

[Stom]

England need to STFU. Just heard the ref say, "No, I've stopped the clock because I'm annoyed with the way you're talking."

Puja

I'm afraid that I would make one big decision for England right now...drop Pollock. He's just been screaming and shouting and moaning and has made generally poor decisions. He cannot be doing this. Not good enough, and he needs to be told that it's not good by being dropped, imo.

Such a talent, but it is clearly obvious that he's 20 years old and barely into double digits of adult rugby starts. This is vital experience for him and he will learn.

Puja

He should, and he has been good, mainly, but the screaming, shouting, and moaning has been poor.

[Stom]

I'm afraid that I would make one big decision for England right now...drop Pollock. He's just been screaming and shouting and moaning and has made generally poor decisions. He cannot be doing this. Not good enough, and he needs to be told that it's not good by being dropped, imo.

Such a talent, but it is clearly obvious that he's 20 years old and barely into double digits of adult rugby starts. This is vital experience for him and he will learn.

Puja

He should, and he has been good, mainly, but the screaming, shouting, and moaning has been poor.

And then he's the right man in the right place to sort that out.

Good job.

[Lizard]

Well done England. Better team on the day.

[twitchy]

Hooray.

[Which Tyler]

NB: England have now equalled their longest run with the Raeburn Shield.

It may be imaginary, but it's more important to me that the Hilary Shield, that's for sure.

[Which Tyler]

Hooray Henry.

FTFY

[Puja]

Example right there. Absolute labrador puppy, throwing himself around, pressuring breakdowns and being first to the loose ball. He'll make mistakes as he gains experience about when and how to make his impacts felt and when he's best to reserve himself.

As another example, possibly lucky the TMO didn't check that blocking line he ran, cause I'm fairly certain he was ahead of Roebuck when contact was made, and it would've been the world's stupidest and most pointless penalty had it been picked up.

Puja

[Stom]

Example right there. Absolute labrador puppy, throwing himself around, pressuring breakdowns and being first to the loose ball. He'll make mistakes as he gains experience about when and how to make his impacts felt and when he's best to reserve himself.

As another example, possibly lucky the TMO didn't check that blocking line he ran, cause I'm fairly certain he was ahead of Roebuck when contact was made, and it would've been the world's stupidest and most pointless penalty had it been picked up.

Puja

Making mistakes is one thing, but the screaming, shouting, and moaning is something else. BUT, he seemed to listen to the ref with that, as his communication was a lot better after the warning. The best players are the ones who don't need to be told multiple times.

[Puja]

Shame that Earl kicked that out at the end - I think it was a 4-on-1 if he just shipped it on. Would've been unfair to NZ, but would've been hilarious to put 40 points on them.

Puja

[Puja]

Example right there. Absolute labrador puppy, throwing himself around, pressuring breakdowns and being first to the loose ball. He'll make mistakes as he gains experience about when and how to make his impacts felt and when he's best to reserve himself.

As another example, possibly lucky the TMO didn't check that blocking line he ran, cause I'm fairly certain he was ahead of Roebuck when contact was made, and it would've been the world's stupidest and most pointless penalty had it been picked up.

Puja

Making mistakes is one thing, but the screaming, shouting, and moaning is something else. BUT, he seemed to listen to the ref with that, as his communication was a lot better after the warning. The best players are the ones who don't need to be told multiple times.

[Which Tyler]

The Hask is not a good example of someone who "don't need to be told multiple times"

[Puja]

The Hask is not a good example of someone who "don't need to be told multiple times"

[Puja]

NB: England have now equalled their longest run with the Raeburn Shield.

It may be imaginary, but it's more important to me that the Hilary Shield, that's for sure.

Long may we reign!

Puja

[Mr Mwenda]

Wow, that was excellent. This group is beginning to make me believe they'll come good. All the players I was moaning about in the first half sorted it out. Fair enough. Dingwall's try a highlight. Love a first phase move and also loved the fact they waited until the All Blacks had started to disregard Fraser. Smart.

[Stom]

Also, a word on Steward. He came out of the blocks to prove me wrong and had an excellent first 10. But then he fell off, and before his sub wasn’t being effective anymore.

A strange one.

But I thought Marcus was good. Not great, but he was very involved in our attacking play.

[fivepointer]

Enjoyed that. A fine win that showed this team taking another step forward.

[Captainhaircut]

Get in boys.

- Ford magnificent. Delighted to see him shut those clowns in the media up. My general rule when speaking to someone about rugby is to see what they think about Ford and if they don’t think he’s sensational, I don’t put any stock in any of their opinions.

- ref was dreadful. Christ.

- we limited them to 7 points in the last 62 minutes. And even that was when we had someone incorrectly in the bin. Considering how we finished games last year, we are seriously strong in the stretch now.

- shame Steward went off as he had done some good stuff but Smith was excellent. When do we start to consider him a real viable starting option at 15?

- lineout was a mess. Any folks smarter than me know what happened? Did we just try to go to Itoje too much and he was marked?

[Puja]

- lineout was a mess. Any folks smarter than me know what happened? Did we just try to go to Itoje too much and he was marked?

I will look again properly when I do the m-b-m, but my initial impression was that it was simply terrific play by New Zealand - they had clearly done their prep, read us like an absolute book, and we didn't have the range of moves to get around them. We pulled it together in the second half and managed to outmanouevre them on all-but-one lineout (plus LCD's not straight).

Puja

[francoisfou]

Get in boys.

- lineout was a mess. Any folks smarter than me know what happened? Did we just try to go to Itoje too much and he was marked?

Weren’t there only two regular line out men, Itoje and Coles, and not so complicated for NZ to suss out?

[Captainhaircut]

Nah, Pepper was on and is a very good lineout forward. O

[FKAS]

Also, a word on Steward. He came out of the blocks to prove me wrong and had an excellent first 10. But then he fell off, and before his sub wasn’t being effective anymore.

A strange one.

But I thought Marcus was good. Not great, but he was very involved in our attacking play.

Steward fell off? Can't say I saw that. He was excellent, polar opposite to his first half Vs Australia, felt for him having to come off early as he must have been desperate to show himself in a positive light today. Marcus brought the impetus to the attack that we'd have had him in the bench to bring, he's such an x factor player ball in hand. Positionally questionable and weak in the air to the point where we switched to Ford jumping to contest instead during the second half. If he can sort those areas out he's a great fullback at international level though if he can simply kick to touch instead of trying to pull the stupid step against three NZ defenders in future that would be nice. Really liked what we were trying to do with the two different 15s though, Steward and Roebuck in tandem really took the kicking game away from the ABs early doors though our defence narrowing far too much really hurt us, something we managed to fix in the second half at least.

Disappointed not to see CCS earlier, Coles was easily out worst player. All the physicality of a wet paper bag. Can't blame him for the lineout though, NZ had done their homework and came with three quality lineout options plus two other backrows who are solid options. Marked out two jumpers and just piled the pressure on.

Baxter and Heyes were fantastic, having your second choice props start and hold both the starting and NZ props was a serious flex. The whole pack hunted the kiwis in defence and the intensity only went up over the 80 mins which is ideal.

It's a big result for England and Simply Ballkick. Great to see Ford getting the recognition he deserves, textbook performance from him today.

[FKAS]

England need to STFU. Just heard the ref say, "No, I've stopped the clock because I'm annoyed with the way you're talking."

Puja

Bit late to this one but wasn't that whilst an England player was down and Scott Barrett was talking to the ref? He had shushed a couple of Kiwi appeals and Barrett definitely got a talking to. Now he could have been annoyed at both sides give it was a close game and there was quite a lot of appealing all round.

[Danno]

- lineout was a mess. Any folks smarter than me know what happened? Did we just try to go to Itoje too much and he was marked?

I will look again properly when I do the m-b-m,

Puja

Yessssssssss

[Cameo]

Well played England. They've got that relentless quality about them at the moment. Don't like the box kicks or chips in attacking positions when they look dangerous ball in hand, but also wouldn't like to have to defend them.

New Zealand are a weird team at the moment. Really lacking a top ten, and just lacking in any fluency, but they'll improve.

Not looked back at the discussion around the Taylor card. Seemed a bit bizarre to me. NZ's first penalty, around the halfway line, and a fairly innocuous hand in the ruck, but a yellow. The ref will say it was cynical, but it just wasn't the equivalent to slapping the ball out the 9s hands, he just pushed the boundaries in the tackle illegally. If we are going to use the TMO to yellow all cynical play (starting with attacking players holding defenders in the ruck and trying to con the ref) I'm all for it, but I somehow doubt it.

[Danno]

Yeah that yellow was peculiar. I guess it evened out because I didn't think Earl's was particularly warranted either