International Rugby

[PaulWinch again]

3 defeats from 3.

[PaulWinch again]

I think half the problem with England is we’ve been a team in transition for about 4 years. We are never taking that step beyond transition.

[paul_e]

I think the biggest problem with England is that we have become too structured and as a result there's very little deviation from the plan. Steward did well today because he's a great option if all you want from him is catch and counter but you lose any invention or subtlety.

Randall in particular has struggled and we become incredibly predictable when he's on because he's had all the stuff he does well for his club coached out of his play so he just passes to a crash forward at first receiver over and over again.

I'm interested to see if the A team have the same limitations tomorrow.

[Gareth]

Do England have a defence coach? 

And the line outs…perhaps a job for Austin McPhee? Though that has always been a bug bear of mine going back to when Steve Thompsons throwing in was the weakest link of the successful team :-)

Do any of the 9’s want to be 1st choice? Surely they aren’t all as average as they have played

[paul_e]

Do England have a defence coach? 

And the line outs…perhaps a job for Austin McPhee? Though that has always been a bug bear of mine going back to when Steve Thompsons throwing in was the weakest link of the successful team :-)

Do any of the 9’s want to be 1st choice? Surely they aren’t all as average as they have played

Alex Mitchell is the best 9 in the country by miles and it's no great shock that we've struggled without him.

Something I saw a couple of days ago that was interesting suggested that Borthwick puts too much emphasis on fitness work during the build-up which leaves us a bit gassed in games. I'm not sure I agree but clearly we are fucking shit in the 2nd half of games and he seems lost for ideas to fix it.

The problem with the defence is the simplest part, we're trying to play a blitz but we're just not very good at it which means there are weak shoulders and once teams get through we don't have the numbers to scramble. Changing us to a drift defence would halve the points we concede immediately but Borthwick is being really stubborn over making it work.

[Gareth]

Do England have a defence coach? 

And the line outs…perhaps a job for Austin McPhee? Though that has always been a bug bear of mine going back to when Steve Thompsons throwing in was the weakest link of the successful team :-)

Do any of the 9’s want to be 1st choice? Surely they aren’t all as average as they have played

Alex Mitchell is the best 9 in the country by miles and it's no great shock that we've struggled without him.

Something I saw a couple of days ago that was interesting suggested that Borthwick puts too much emphasis on fitness work during the build-up which leaves us a bit gassed in games. I'm not sure I agree but clearly we are fucking shit in the 2nd half of games and he seems lost for ideas to fix it.

The problem with the defence is the simplest part, we're trying to play a blitz but we're just not very good at it which means there are weak shoulders and once teams get through we don't have the numbers to scramble. Changing us to a drift defence would halve the points we concede immediately but Borthwick is being really stubborn over making it work.

That’s good, certainly nothing came from 9 in this game

Not good enough to do we’ll score more than them against good teams

[UK Redsox]

Something I saw a couple of days ago that was interesting suggested that Borthwick puts too much emphasis on fitness work during the build-up which leaves us a bit gassed in games. I'm not sure I agree but clearly we are fucking shit in the 2nd half of games and he seems lost for ideas to fix it.

Borthwick is Marcelo Bielsa

The England tackling was woeful at times

[paul_e]

The missed tackles are largely because of our ridiculously high line speed. If everyone hit like Lawes/Underhill then we could maybe get away with it but without that level of proficiency you're just leaving gaps and top sides will take advantage.

[PaulWinch again]

I get the impression England don’t really know what they want to be. I get the back room turmoil plays its part, but feels very muddled.

[paul_e]

I get the impression England don’t really know what they want to be. I get the back room turmoil plays its part, but feels very muddled.

I agree Borthwick seems to be trying to turn us into South Africa but doesn't know how to achieve it and doesn't seem to realise it doesn't suit the players we have. To play this way you need to make dominant tackles where you're pushing the carrier back 2-3 metres from the point of contact so you can take the momentum out of the attack and generate turnover opportunities. If you aren't getting those but you're still trying to blitz you run a very risk of committing too many to the breakdown (and the space around it) and having to leave gaps that are too big to defend.

Once you have those gaps you become very vulnerable to offloads and quick ball from the breakdown. Given almost every team at this level now runs at 40-50% of breakdowns taking less than 3 seconds the number of opportunities to take advantage is huge.

[paul_e]

Didn't see much point posting yesterday given the clear difference in class, the performance and result summed up Borthwick perfectly though, he's fine when he has the physical advantage (4 tries from lineout mauls is very telling) but as soon as the 'answer' is anything beyond physical dominance he's been out of his depth.

He'll hold on to his job because the RFU don't want to admit they got it wrong but I've seen nothing to suggest we are closing the gap on France and Ireland so the 6N will, I suspect, be another playoff with Scotland for 3rd place.

[Jon Crofts]

Henry Slade looked absolutely lost.

[PaulWinch again]

Anthony Watson forced to retire - when fit he was a brilliant player.

[paul_e]

Anthony Watson forced to retire - when fit he was a brilliant player.

Massive shame, he still had some very good performances in a career he should be proud of but without the injuries I reckon he'd have been one of the best wingers ever.

[PaulWinch again]

Quite an interesting England side.