England vs Argentina - Live chat.

[Set piece magic]

Both attacks were shocking. Englands persistance on shovelling was amazing - I almost thought Pat Lamb was their coach and they where the Blues. They certainly had the blues because wilkinson had a shit day witht the boot. Next time try an inside ball to keep the defense honest. Foden not seeing he had 2 - 0 on his right instead of going to his left (1 - 1) was pretty derp, try gone begging.

Anyway, their loss

 

[Bruwheresmycar]

Next time try an inside ball to keep the defense honest.

+1 , I was thinking this the whole game.

 

[ScepticalScotty]

WEll I can safely say if the Wallabies play even close to what they did in Brisbane, we'll slaughter the bastards. England seemed to brely have a clue what to do with a rugby ball - and FFS they were playing a team thats only been introduced to each other a couple of weeks ago, and with only 2 warm ups one against Worcester!! They are not going to win the RWC - too many of thier "myths" like Sheridan, Haskell, Easter have been sussed.

 

[biggsy]

The all blacks just got up against the pumas.

 

[Set piece magic]

If England play like that against us in a semi final we will fuck them by 70 I'm legit, that was horrible. They will get pinged off the park for ruck infringements and when faced with a competent attack that defense is goneski. I'm sure they will improve but based on what we did in Brisbane, and they did there, we would have absolutely annihlated them if we were to play today.

Anyway, I think the competitiveness this year is great, some premium entertainment today. However depending on how the wallabies go tomorrow we are going to see two clear front runners in Aus and NZ at the front. I expect the thumpings this time around will come from those two teams.

 

[Gnostic]

A few here spoke about how pivotal a high percentage kicker would be in the RWC. It certainly proved that way for the Pumas. Very unusual to see Jonny miss a few but I have no doubt he will bounce back and if worse comes to worse they have flood. The Pumas could be in real strife for the rest of the tournament if Contempomi is crocked. Such a great pity Hernandez didn't overcome the knee injury to make the cup he would have made a huge difference in this match. England very very lucky.

Yet again we see a match officiated by Lawrence super scrappy at the breakdown. He attempted to stop the rubbish but way too late IMO. ENgland and Arg. players should have been marched for 10 much earlier in the first half and maybe the game would have then flowed.

Lawes should be cited and wiped for a couple of matches. Regardless of whether his attempt can even be termed a tackleit was reckless and the outcome could have been so much worse than it was.

 

[Swarley]

If England play like that against us in a semi final we will fuck them by 70 I'm legit, that was horrible. They will get pinged off the park for ruck infringements and when faced with a competent attack that defense is goneski. I'm sure they will improve but based on what we did in Brisbane, and they did there, we would have absolutely annihlated them if we were to play today.

Anyway, I think the competitiveness this year is great, some premium entertainment today. However depending on how the wallabies go tomorrow we are going to see two clear front runners in Aus and NZ at the front. I expect the thumpings this time around will come from those two teams.

As much as I agree with your whole paragraph, they'll pick up their act. They lost 33-0 against SA in the pools but made the final and lost 15-6. That'll serve as a wake up call to them, and although I think we'll still win it won't be a destruction.

 

[Thomond78]

And you wondered why I Christened Paddy's Favourite Ref Bryce the Bollockless?

Well, wonder no more, good folk of GAGR, wonder no more.

But, joy! We have him doing the Australia-Ireland game!

Lucky us, eh?

 

[barbarian]

I will not comment on the English performance until I see the Wallabies play tomorrow. I have been burnt before.

 

[cyclopath]

But at least if the Wallabies play like poop, they are in good company so far.

 

[daz]

I wouldn't read too much into it. As much as I pray that the Poms are really shit, the reality is that most teams have an ordinary showing at some stage in the pools.

Remember, in 2007 the Poms barely beat the Yanks then got done by the Saffas by a cricket score to zip, and still made the final. Let's wait a week or two before we write anyone off.

 

[Gnostic]

I don't think England or Scotland played that bad they certainly weren't that far off what I exepcted from them They were out enthused by their opponents who really came to play and surprised them especially Scotland who looked to take Romania for granted IMO. The frogs were totally dominant on the Japanese scrum and breakdown as always seems to happen to them but again the Japs showed a good lineout (again as seems traditional with them), yet with that forward dominance they were unable to really put the Japanese away.

Add to that all the minnow sides have shown one big thing in common, commitment and agression in defence which has been enough to rattl all the top sides so far, even the ABs to a certain degree.

 

[Athilnaur]

I'd generally agree Gnostic but The Poms were guilty of a criminal amount of lateral play. At least we woke up at half time in Bled1, with about 25 of it being rubbish, Poms were still tossing the game away at 66mins. And two pretty bloody low incidents to reaffirm their reps. Having said that Lawes may have been cheap, but I thought he played pretty well. Someone to watch.

 

[ScepticalScotty]

There is s difference this time though Daz - this was the first choice England team, against a team way short of the class of 2007 by Argentinian standards. Who had very little time together, and 2 very poor warm-up games. And who suffered crucial injuries before the RWC and during the first half of this game.

To be frank - I thought the poms were piss poor, and not what I expected at all. I think if we play at the level we displayed in the 3N, we will beat them by a reasonable margin.

Of course, we might be rubbish against Italy (similar style to Argentina) tomorrow. Who knows?

 

[proton]

Got that wrong

 

[Toby Lerone]

As an England fan, thoroughly disappointed with what should have been a better all-round performance from the team.

Felt the front row did their job in the scrums very well, got 3 penalties compared to just 1 for them, and generally looked comfortable throughout. Perhaps if there were more scrums in this match, we would have been able to set a greater platform to attack from.

Courtney Lawes - expect a citing, sometimes he needs to think; could be an exceptional player but needs to reign in the aggression and needless acts of foul play.

Penalties - too many penalties in the first half: if we'd have lost, everyone would have blamed Bryce for that. That's ridiculous, if you give a referee as many chances to penalise you as England did, there were obviously going to be a shedload of them. (Quite surprised actually to see the penalty count was 15-12 conceded by Argentina, England were not penalised after the 55th minute either).

Jonny Wilkinson - just about his worst test match ever. Come back next week and get plenty of practise kicking conversions against Georgia.

If we play like that through the whole tournament, never mind Australia thrashing us in the semi-final, France (or NZ) would destroy us in the quarter final.

 

[Scarfman]

Kicking wasn't Jonny's only problem. He was his usual self at 10 - creating nothing and passing the ball at the point of maximum pressure. The most overrated human in rugby ever. With a decent 10, they might have actually used Foden more than twice. It looked to me like the England backs had a few more line breaks in them.

The Argies deserved to lose for not having the balls to go for the lineout and maul option. Imagine you get a penalty on the 45m line - what an opportunity for your fatties to punch it up. What a waste!

However, the battle in the piggies was REAL. I wouldn't be too comfortable about our boys going up against England if they play like that again. We'll get smashed off the ball all day.

 

[Gnostic]

I agree with Scarfie, much has been said about the lateral England attack. It was exactly what I expected with Jonny at 10. He is the best field position 10 in the world, and a great defender but that is where it stops. His running game has always been lateral and his distribution game laboured and slow. If England want to play a game like that they must start Flood. If they want to play a traditional territory based game stick with Wilko. Don't expect Wilko to morph into a running & passing 10.

 

[SuperGrover]

All other things aside, I thought the English scrum looked better as the game wore on. I'm not yet terrified, but I did have flash backs to Marseille

 

[DPK]

Boy oh boy Ben Foden is lethal. I'd only heard stories of how good he was, and most probably we only saw a glimpse of it last night, but he is electric.