RugbyRebels

Ireland just lost heavily to Australia after a first half red card.

Tall order but to BP wins against Italy and the Aussies and we could still win the group.

Also in with a shout of being best runner up.

France, SA and Aus have 10 pts and NZ will likely join them later (they play Scotland)
Aus have a 68 pt advantage over us. So we'll have to get two 5 pt wins and rack up a lot of pts to make top spot.
Best runner up is a stretch too as Ireland are still in the hunt, as are Argentina, and one of SA and NZ have every chance of making a top 4 spot with a losing BP.
An awful lot has to go our way to get into a semi final.
First things first. We have to produce a performance tonight and claim 5 pts..

Yeah - I was trying to be optimistic.

Looking pretty poor at the moment TBH

Noses in front..(1st half v. Ita)
No Hill, Willis, Vunipola, Redpath or Sleightholme ?
<edit>
MV suffered concussion.
Bates: "There are a lot of changes (10),but we’ve picked a team that we know can be really competitive, I want to see the players put in a performance that they are proud of and for everyone to contribute"
Good for team spirit and player freshness perhaps, so long as they're confident of a win whatever the mix.

Front 5 are doing well. I think we've got some quality on the wings but the half backs have been poor and Dingwall is having a game to forget.

Tbf to Dingwall he is out of position.

Who gave the halftime team talk? The sleep coach?

What. A. Kick.

That turnover was a bulls**t call.

Mellsblue wrote:Who gave the halftime team talk? The sleep coach?

Honestly. This is embarrassing. So, so sloppy.

Bloody hell. Poor.

7-16 down after leading 7-3.
There can't be much pride gushing forth at this stage - still time for heroics though.

Who are the coaches this year? They're doing a phenomenal job of making a sow's ear out of a silk purse.

Puja

The breakdown is a lot like watching Eng in last years 6N or a great deal of Lancaster’s reign.

Puja wrote:Who are the coaches this year? They're doing a phenomenal job of making a sow's ear out of a silk purse.
Puja

'England U20s are led by head coach Steve Bates, who is assisted by Mark Hopley (forwards), James Scaysbrook (defence) and Richard Whiffin (attack) who join for the season as part of the coach development programme agreement with Premiership Rugby.'
(from englandrugby.com)

Whereas the attack is akin to the worst moments of Andy Robinson's reign. We get the ball back a lot, but give the defence 5 minutes and a cup of tea to rearrange, and then carry a one-off runner into a solid defensive line, before resetting again.

Puja

Is there a citing system in place? There was a blatant trip by our 23 (I think).

Eng sneak into a 1 point lead 24-23.
Meanwhile Sco have 26 on the board v. AB's..
..correction, make that 33.

Incredibly poor performance.

We were actually OK against Ireland but killed ourselves with awful discipline. Tonight, we’ve been awful all game.

FT: Eng 24 - 23 Ita
Pretty meaningless unless they transform their performance next time out.( vs. Oz, Wed.)

That was a pretty poor effort. A few of the forwards can take some credit but overall we made far too many mistakes, lacked cohesion, took wrong options and displayed almost zero creativity in attack.
We are now playing for 5th place. Even that might prove beyond this team unless they pull themselves together.

The pack looked competitive and should go well v. Oz.
Willis/Capstick were up for it.
A bit like the seniors though, any decent ball and the backs will get ripped (liberal forward passes not withstanding).
Frost, the 19 yr old rampaging Brumbie giraffe also showed startling pace.

Indeed. Given how poor we were at the breakdown, McReight (who has looked excellent BTW) and the other Aussie forwards will destroy us if we don’t see a massive change.

Was wilkinson injured?
Him and Hardwick would've been better picks than Vunipola at 10.