6N squad - starting team

[Big D]

Not mentally strong enough to be as clinical as needed. More than enough ball scuppered by key errors.

Way too many missed tackles too.

[switchskier]

Don't know how I feel about that one. Didn't feel like an 11 point loss, but thems the breaks and on balance the French deserved it. They're still winning games despite not quite hitting their straps this championship yet.

[Mikey Brown]

Well that was something.

A few key mistakes and an early patch of chasing the game like we were 50 points down. I’m fairly happy with a narrow loss away from home to a much improved France, but letting the LBP get away stings.

We had the opportunities to win that but France would equally say they let us back in. Sort of gutted, but despite the bad bits that was a real fight.

Jones was fantastic. He’s so great to watch. Gutted for Watson.

[Jocky]

Gave ourselves a bit of a mountain to climb - a bit like the NZ game, which you can't do against any side nevermind the top ones. I thought we were going to do it, but that muck up in the line out killed our momentum. Great game though - it felt like in the first half that the game had been playing a lot longer than it had probably due to so much going on.

[morepork]

At least you won't die wondering and actually tried to play. I thought you had them but for a few mistakes at the wrong times.

I hope you have your best scientific minds working on a vaccine for the Chip Kick virus, which is rapidly mutating and becoming a blight on the attacking game.

[Mikey Brown]

Overall pretty positive but needed to add that little patch of 4 or 5 insane offloads in a row (and similar moments of sheer, blind panic) really need to stop. That’s the amateur stuff you don’t really see from top teams, even free flowing ones like France.

We can only challenge the top teams by being adventurous and really going for it in attack, but there are times like that where the risk/reward ratio is 100:1. Plus it gives all the Russell/rugby haters far too much ammo. Some of his kicking to pin France back was absolutely fantastic though.

[BaldiePete]

For the Gilchrist red card, I initially thought it was Fagerson they were looking at and was yelling at the TV that was not a red when my wife pointed out it was Gilchrist who was getting carded. Whoops, yeah fair enough that’s a red. For the Haouas card (as clear a red as you’ll see, he nutted White straight to the head) I thought the ref was trying desperately hard not to give a red card before he was talked into it by the other officials.

Jones was superb but it looked like he was injured when he went off. Does this mean the return of Harris for the Ireland match? That will really fuck up our attack if he’s brought back.

[Donny osmond]

as a "Russell hater" from a year or two ago, I'm loving the way he is playing right now. Don't care about the mistakes when the rest of his game is so good.

Not to derail the thread, I do feel that the way he is playing now kinda underlines exactly why I was so frustrated with him up until recently. However I can't be arsed getting into it, so please no one @ me.

[Jocky]

Haouas loves playing against us. Can't believe the ref was originally talking about yellow - seriously dangerous diving in like that.

[Big D]

Afraid to say, it's a disgrace White wasn't given a HIA.

[BaldiePete]

Afraid to say, it's a disgrace White wasn't given a HIA.

Agreed. It should be compulsory after a hit to the head like that. It shouldn’t be up to the team doctor to say the player needs an HIA, the ref has to tell him to leave the field to get checked.

[Puja]

Afraid to say, it's a disgrace White wasn't given a HIA.

Agreed. It should be compulsory after a hit to the head like that. It shouldn’t be up to the team doctor to say the player needs an HIA, the ref has to tell him to leave the field to get checked.

Bang on - the whole point of an HIA is that it isn't possible to tell if someone's concussed by giving them a quick once-over on the pitch.

Puja

[Cameo]

Don't know how I feel about that one. Didn't feel like an 11 point loss, but thems the breaks and on balance the French deserved it. They're still winning games despite not quite hitting their straps this championship yet.

That kind of matches how I feel. It's a good thing that we really pushed them and it felt like a proper test match away in France, especially given we made a number of errors at key moments (thinking particularly of Turner not straight lineout just after their red and Turner's knock on five metres out, but there were obviously others like Russell's intercept, Fagerson's drop over the line, Brown's overthrow though those were either in trying to play our game or in the middle of the pitch).

On the other hand, France looked like they could go forward at will and, once they got to our 5 it was only a matter of time before they scored. We, on the other hand, struggled once we were close to the line. Difference in power I suppose. France's turnover game is so dangerous too, we missed a few too many clearouts. We felt quite close to a few more turnovers but couldn't quite pull it off.

Also, our maul looked pretty good but never quite fired when we were within 5.

Ref was decent I thought. Quite a few marginal decisions I disagreed with and he allowed the game to slow a bit too much for injuries etc., but generally good. That might change on a rewatch mind.

[Cameo]

Afraid to say, it's a disgrace White wasn't given a HIA.

Agreed. It should be compulsory after a hit to the head like that. It shouldn’t be up to the team doctor to say the player needs an HIA, the ref has to tell him to leave the field to get checked.

Bang on - the whole point of an HIA is that it isn't possible to tell if someone's concussed by giving them a quick once-over on the pitch.

Puja

There was one in the Wales game too for a Welsh tackler. It really should be hard.

[stevedog1980]

Haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere but what are the thoughts about the number of penalties kicked for touch when easy points are on offer?

[Cameo]

Haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere but what are the thoughts about the number of penalties kicked for touch when easy points are on offer?

I'm all for it personally. Keeps the pressure on and on another day we finish more chances.

It is too easy simply to add up the 'points turned down' and compare it to the points we got from tries. Even if you don't score, you keep the pressure on rather than being pinned back in your own half. A kickable penalty turned down and put into touch also led to their red card in this game.

Not saying you should never kick for goal, but a lot of the time I think it lets the defence off too easy - and that's assuming you don't miss the kick.

[Cameo]

One other point, in a game against such a physical defence it would be great to have Darcy Graham. Steyn did okay, but when the defence is dealing with DHVDM pretty well, Graham's buzz popping up all over the place might have made a difference.

Just needed to make them miss a few more tackles, like they did to us.

[Cameo]

Jones was superb but it looked like he was injured when he went off. Does this mean the return of Harris for the Ireland match? That will really fuck up our attack if he’s brought back.

I saw him grab his leg after competing for a high ball late on. Fingers crossed it was just cramp. Would be so depressing to lose him.

On Gilchrist's red, the Guardian is putting it down as just bad luck (tall man - mistakes inevitable) but I think that it was just a clear red. He put in a good hit off the first kickoff but I actually looked at the replay and thought you are only a few inches off connecting with his chin. Sure enough, next kickoff Fagerson gets to the ball carrier slightly quicker, he comes down a smidge and there's head contact. Tackling that high is just too risky - it's not really just bad luck when it goes wrong.

[Mikey Brown]

I assumed Jones was going off when he went down initially. Was surprised to see him carry on. I hope it wasn't a mistake. I'm glad for the break week in that sense as I imagine there will be quite a few sore bodies.

Totally agree on that take on Gilchrist's red. He should have considered himself lucky after going in at chest/neck height on the first one, even though it was a great hit, and all it took was Fagerson to knock Jelonch slightly out of place for the second one to go wrong. Assuming he gets a ban and Jonny Gray comes in. That was the best I've seen him play in a while, but I do wonder if he's just better as a sub?

We're a in a bit of an odd position with Watson now. I would guess Townsend will stick with him to start, barring anything drastic in the next 2 weeks.

Does he stick with 6:2, perhaps with Skinner, Crosbie, Dempsey? Sort of worked out okay today but that was an odd one. I saw Harris had a kid at the weekend so was maybe only unavailable for that reason? But he did play for Gloucester.

[Cameo]

Dunno on the 6:2. Probably helped us today - except to the extent it meant we felt we had to hold off bringing Kinghorn on in case someone got injured. But I always feel you have got lucky if it doesn't come back to bite you.

Ireland have a similar relentless physicality to France though so can see an argument for it (plus we may want it vs SA in the World Cup so no harm getting used to it).

Maybe also depends on what we have available as backs subs. Harris feels like pure injury cover, whereas I would like to see a it of impact.

[Big D]

Jones was superb but it looked like he was injured when he went off. Does this mean the return of Harris for the Ireland match? That will really fuck up our attack if he’s brought back.

I saw him grab his leg after competing for a high ball late on. Fingers crossed it was just cramp. Would be so depressing to lose him.

On Gilchrist's red, the Guardian is putting it down as just bad luck (tall man - mistakes inevitable) but I think that it was just a clear red. He put in a good hit off the first kickoff but I actually looked at the replay and thought you are only a few inches off connecting with his chin. Sure enough, next kickoff Fagerson gets to the ball carrier slightly quicker, he comes down a smidge and there's head contact. Tackling that high is just too risky - it's not really just bad luck when it goes wrong.

I think both can be true to an extent with the caveat it is 100% avoidable due to Gilchrists actions. I think the 2nd man in simply has to go low. There are too many variables for the 2nd man going high such as tackled player dropping ever so slightly, nowhere really to wrap the arm due to tackler 1 being in the way etc.

Fagerson was flirting with the tackles from KOs being high too. But as 1st man in he had more margin for error.

[francoisfou]

Happy with that win, and a bit relieved too, as it could quickly have turned the other way. Gaël Fickou was good, as was Huw Jones. That tw@t Haous is a liability and shouldn’t ever play for France again. Dupont and Ntamack weren’t at their best and will hopefully raise their game at Twickenham. All the best for your game against Ireland. Get the upper hand physically and you could be in with a chance.

[Cameo]

Happy with that win, and a bit relieved too, as it could quickly have turned the other way. Gaël Fickou was good, as was Huw Jones. That tw@t Haous is a liability and shouldn’t ever play for France again. Dupont and Ntamack weren’t at their best and will hopefully raise their game at Twickenham. All the best for your game against Ireland. Get the upper hand physically and you could be in with a chance.

Agree in Ntamack (though I have thought that for a while), but I thought Dupont was great. His kicking game is ridiculous but he also got at least one turnover, defends like a beast, and is very hard to disrupt on the ball.

[francoisfou]

We’ve come to unreasonably expect Dupont to regularly hit the heights, as he was in Dublin. His trademark sniping runs are sadly fewer and farther between as he’s probably better shackled by the opposition. He’ll come good at Twickenham!

[Mikey Brown]

Just watched the highlights back, seeing Taofifinua holding onto Jonny Gray from the previous phase exactly where Fickou then runs to score his try is painful. I know it's meaningless and happens dozens of times in a game, but I still can't believe we came away from that with nothing.