RWC 2019 SF1: New Zealand v England

[Teh Other Dave]

Fairly tangential to the match, but I have two questions: who let Phil Kearns within 3 nautical miles of any broadcasting equipment in the first instance? Who keeps letting him near it?

 

[ACR]

Well that was all rather predictable wasn't it? Can't feel too bad about that one, England are a strong side. The AB's played truly awful and the Poms turned up.

Where do you begin? Mo'unga was completely ineffective, didn't get himself in the game at all. Made a major mistake missing his first tackle of the game. BB's kicking was awful. Neither of them made any beneficial kicks until about the 70th minute when BB just hoofed it up the middle of the park. It was the worst I've ever seen ALB play, taking the wrong option multiple times, throwing forward passes. The wingers didn't have anything to attack with.

The forward pack were average, they didn't play with anything close to the same intensity or precision as last week. The line out got beaten, beaten soundly in a couple of mauls, scrums were fine. Picking Scott Barrett at 6 was a pure mistake, let's be real. They didn't handle Itoje or Underhill at all (two massive players). Retallick just didn't have the miles in the legs I think.

To be honest, I genuinely think Owens gave England the large rub of the green, outside of two woefully missed forward passes. 11-6 was the count. The two disallowed tries were just correct, so that's simple. However, he gave perhaps one penalty for offside the whole game, where the England 9 false started at the back of the ruck and the AB's on the line put their hands on the ground. If he was so eagle eyed for that, where were any offside calls in the middle of the park? He made a couple of seriously line calls swinging momentum.

He failed to sort out the lineouts, their first few throws may as well have been to their 9. Prime example is where he called the lineout "inside the 22", so why then is the England lock clearly winning the ball OUTSIDE the 22? They kick it straight out and he just makes up his own rules from there. I won't mention some of the rucks because I'm sure I'd miss some of our blatant infringements as well.

Anyway, refs do make a major impact on the game so that's just my opinion (vent), don't take the ref assessment as excuse.

England were the far better side on the night and I genuinely can't complain or begrudge them in any way (I still don't like Farrell). Itoje is a monster, Underhill is a monster. Before this game I thought their whole side was just 'good' across the board. They have real world topping talent in that pack though. Best team of the tournament so far and a clear favourite for the final.

Those sportsbet odds of $3+ were always ridiculous.

 

[boyo]

I hope that the new Wallaby coaching team take note of this performance of how to beat the NZRT.

 

[boyo]

I wanted the Darkness to beat the Poms (A.B.E.), but I enjoyed the headless chicken act by the NZRT.

 

[Red Rose]

Interesting ACR that you think Owens favoured England today. All of us English are spewing with him as I reckon he and the TMO did an excellent job of keeping the ABs in the match. The disallowed try for Youngs was way harsh as the ball never left the England hand. So many NZ forward passes allowed and of course when they infringed in the red zone there was no yellow card which should have happened.

What no one can dispute though is that we smashed them off the park today and the scoreline totally flattered them.

 

[ACR]

Interesting ACR that you think Owens favoured England today. All of us English are spewing with him as I reckon he and the TMO did an excellent job of keeping the ABs in the match. The disallowed try for Youngs was way harsh as the ball never left the England hand. So many NZ forward passes allowed and of course when they infringed in the red zone there was no yellow card which should have happened.

What no one can dispute though is that we smashed them off the park today and the scoreline totally flattered them.

I'd think you'd have to be a casual fan to think Owens didn't favour England, honestly.

Let's go through it. The TMO decisions, the obstruction was as clear as day, simple. The "drop in the maul", the guy in the back of the maul flat out dropped the ball onto the player in front of him, when they were trying to shuffle it back. These were simple correct decisions really. Unlucky for England, but correct.

More importantly, Owens didn't call any offsides in the middle of the park at all. Rush defence for 80 minutes and no offsides? That's interesting. Then he was an absolute pedant all of a sudden when the AB's were on their line.

Momentum changers. Penalised Whitelock for impeding a chaser, absolute madlad. Refs have COMPLETELY let this crap go for the last 2 years. Picks one out of about 10 opportunities for that. Penalising Whitelock again for Farrells oscar performance, does that kid have no shame? Says it was "off the ball". Meanwhile, Farrell was standing over the ball trying to get at it well after the whistle.

He attempted to fix the lineouts early, he literally told England to step back in the second one. From then on in he started warning the NZ hooker for moving back to the centre of the lineout? EH?? Just completely stopped policing the lineout after that.

Show me the moment we should have been yellow carded, infringing in the red zone does not equal a yellow card out of nowhere.

Oh, yeah. England definitely smashed us off the park. I'll give you that one. The "rub" marginally went their way IMO also. The two things can be true at once.

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Offcial IRB All Black Player Ratings.

The 23 names to be indelibly etched in at allblacks.com, those dreaded team sheets of World Cup failures we all rubberneck at in mortified horror years later.

1. Joe Moody: 0/10. it started here, and here it was lost. Massive fail.

2. Codie Taylor: 0/10. fucked the lineout and fucked it hard. Where was Coles will echo the refrain for all eternity

3. Nepo Laulala: 0/10. disappearing big fat baby trick

4. Brodie Retallick: 0/10. undercooked and done like a dogs dinner by Super Mario

5. Samuel Whitelock: 0/10. Poor Hansen. Probably paid a cursory glance at Soup rugby this year and thought fuckit, I hate the Ioane's, both of 'em, I'll just biff all the cantabs in the starting XV, they always do us right. His "Rolls Royce pack" responded by casually cocking a communal leg and complacently pissing all over his "legacy"

6. Scott Barrett: minus 6 million/10. WELCOME TO RWC SCAPEGOAT HISTORY, PAL. WE ALWAYS NEED ONE AND THIS YEAR, YOU ARE IT. Who's the idiot that picked this giant baby ahead of steel-hearted Sam Cane? "For a third lineout option" then we go and fuck up all our lineouts hahahaHAHAHA

7. Ardie Savea: 5/10. poor little bugger. Went blind during the tournament. Tried to wear ski goggles. But they fell off. Symptomatic of entire AB campaign. Lug nuts were loose the last 2 years and eventually they fucking fell right the fuck off.

8. Kieran Read: 0/10. vanished. Welcome to 1991.

9. Aaron Smith: 3/10. served a steady diet of shit by a big baby of a forward pack.

10. Richie Mo’unga: 0/10. deer in the headlights. Turns out he had no experience going backwards behind the "Rolls Royce" pack. Who knew.

11. George Bridge: 0/10. without the Cantabs front-foot ball, shown up as slowish and possessing zero game-breaking ability.

12. Anton Lienert-Brown: 4/10. ineffectual but slogged his arse off going backwards

13. Jack Goodhue: 5/10 why was he fucking subbed will be the question for the next 4 years

14. Sevu Reece: 6/10. best AB. solid under high ball but still ran into touch like a mental like everyone else.

15. Beauden Barrett. 0/10. did the talky talky but not the walky walky.

16. Dane Coles: 5/10. too laaaaaate

17. Ofa Tu'ungafasi: 0/10 never trusted to start but "he can play both sides" so he's always there. pretty sweet gig.

18. Angus Ta'avao. 0/10. ffs. we were all suspicious as to how this unwanted soup player suddenly became an accepted AB regular. Now we know. The arrogant, grumpy know-it-all coaches LITERALLY HAD NO FUCKIGN PLAN. If this is the AB level now then Houston, NZ rugby is officially fucked up the arse beyond belief

19. Patrick Tuipulotu. 3/10 "Yeah I should have got him on earlier but who knew the 2 'best locks in the word' would BOTH shit the bed AT THE SAME FUCKEN TIME in a RWC semi?" says Hansen over pints for the rest of his fucken life

20. Sam Cane: 5/10. too laaaaate

21. T J Flapanara. 0/10. who cares

22. Sonny Bill Williams. 1/10 went straight. ineffectively. like everyone else.

23. Jordie Barrett. 0/10 hahahahahaha we ALL saw it was coming for the last 2 years then quiff boy somehow gets his privileged arse picked and goes and chucks away a loose one in a semi hahahhahaha

 

[ACR]

Dan Carter was in the stands DP, you think we should have just handed him the keys for the evening?

Could you imagine? Someone who could tackle at 10, kick goals, kick drop goals, kick tactically, kick contestable kick-offs, kick Read up the arse. Good lookin' lad too.

 

[Spruce Moose]

Fairly tangential to the match, but I have two questions: who let Phil Kearns within 3 nautical miles of any broadcasting equipment in the first instance? Who keeps letting him near it?

The one advantage of living in an non rugby nation is getting the neutral broadcast from World Rugby, breathe of fresh air for every match. Sean Maloney did a cracking job again today leading the commentary team.

 

[Spruce Moose]

Me personally, no. Attacking rugby is much more fun to watch. There has been rumblings of things such as hawk-eye or other technological ways of addressing offside. I don't see it happening anytime soon though.

How about assistant refs standing on the offside line and communicating it to ref on field? Don't really see it being that difficult to police, just think WR (World Rugby) have decided to ignore it to ensure a free flowing game.

Saw a forward pass in the dying minutes from an ABs player with Poite running in line with the ball and he said nothing or Owens ignored him. Reckon the ball went 2-3m forward.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Well the English played bloody well, can be no doubt they thoroughly deserved the win and by the gap they won by. I not into how badly we played , but very very impressed with how well English went. It's not often well to be honest I have nevr seen Whitelock and Retallic so outplayed, and the English loosies just followed up and never allowed us into game. Funnily enough I don't feel too bad as I genuinely think it was just a case of being outplayed by a better team, and so they should be congratulated. I quite sure the sun will come up again in the morning and I will be looking forward to the Bok/Welsh game.
Will take a VERY good performance to beat the English next week!

For me England vs South Africa final will be a cracker as two very physical and strong defensive sides

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Never earned the right to go wide. But they did anyway.​

At 7-13 after 55 mins or whatever it was, you just know the 2015 vintage would have gone "blue heads" and ran the motherfuckers down. 25 mins left for them to run in 20 points was almost expected ffs.

This edition just a rudderless, coachless, feeble panic. For all 80 mins. Right from Eng's wee flying V to challenge their precious haka. Crumbled.

​

Yes but this was not England 2015 vintage - hard to see many sides break down England’s defence on what they put out there for this game.

 

[ACR]

How about assistant refs standing on the offside line and communicating it to ref on field? Don't really see it being that difficult to police, just think WR (World Rugby) have decided to ignore it to ensure a free flowing game.

Saw a forward pass in the dying minutes from an ABs player with Poite running in line with the ball and he said nothing or Owens ignored him. Reckon the ball went 2-3m forward.

It was MILES forward. It's just poor standards all round. Touchline refs let these things go all the time.

I think Owens had to have seen it as well, he seems to have a tendency to let a losing team have some freebies late in the game.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Quick skim through the results suggest this was NZ's lowest total since 28 Aug 1999!!

And to think nZ only scored off England line out throw error and otherwise could have been a nil result for ABs - not to mention the 2 England disallowed tries

 

[Spruce Moose]

I think Owens had to have seen it as well, he seems to have a tendency to let a losing team have some freebies late in the game.

Yeah could be the case, saw TJ Perenara dive onto ruck off his feet, obvious penalty. Then him and Owens just looked at each other and think Owens said something but it was play on.

 

[ACR]

Yeah could be the case, saw TJ Perenara dive onto ruck off his feet, obvious penalty. Then him and Owens just looked at each other and think Owens said something but it was play on.

Ok, but.. AND this is the LAST thing I will mention about the refs. He let an absolute shocker go earlier in the match when we were attacking with good territory. Lost possession shortly after. Two England players completely off their feet, our side of the ruck, nothing at all. It was mind boggling.

I'm done now.

To finish off though, I must say, this loss is so much easier to take than the old ones years ago. We simply got smacked by a better team last night. That is some solace, of sorts.

 

[Ulrich]

Dan Carter was in the stands DP, you think we should have just handed him the keys for the evening?

Could you imagine? Someone who could tackle at 10, kick goals, kick drop goals, kick tactically, kick contestable kick-offs, kick Read up the arse. Good lookin' lad too.

You're being somewhat harsh without recognising the English at all.

They were magnificent and I'd be very, very surprised if they did not win the cup.

The All Blacks lost the forward battle this time, and decisively so. From ruck to scrum to lineout to collisions. They lost everything.

No way you can put much blame on the backline. The fact NZ somewhat held in there is a miracle in itself.

Reminds me of the 20-18 win for NZ in 2015. SA were pegged in their own half the whole time, just the scoreboard said we were somehow in it, but in reality we were about 20 points adrift.

England could easily have won by 10 points more and could have nilled NZ.

They played amazingly well, unfortunately, as I was rooting the AB to reach the final so the Boks can, hopefully, get the 100th match between AB and Bok to be in a RWC final.

Now, sadly, it could be in a 3rd/4th place playoff game.

That would be a disaster, because it would ultimately relegate SH rugby to the mercy of the north once and for all. The Boks better make the final and they better put up a decent fist of it at the very least.

 

[ACR]

You're being somewhat harsh without recognising the English at all.

They were magnificent and I'd be very, very surprised if they did not win the cup.

The All Blacks lost the forward battle this time, and decisively so. From ruck to scrum to lineout to collisions. They lost everything.

No way you can put much blame on the backline. The fact NZ somewhat held in there is a miracle in itself.

Reminds me of the 20-18 win for NZ in 2015. SA were pegged in their own half the whole time, just the scoreboard said we were somehow in it, but in reality we were about 20 points adrift.

England could easily have won by 10 points more and could have nilled NZ.

They played amazingly well, unfortunately, as I was rooting the AB to reach the final so the Boks can, hopefully, get the 100th match between AB and Bok to be in a RWC final.

Now, sadly, it could be in a 3rd/4th place playoff game.

That would be a disaster, because it would ultimately relegate SH rugby to the mercy of the north once and for all. The Boks better make the final and they better put up a decent fist of it at the very least.

I have already recognised the English in other posts.

I also don't think I'm being too harsh at all. Mo'unga and Barrett's kicking was WOEFUL. Incontestable kicks, short distance clearances. And it all started before we got on the back foot. Mo'ungas first kick, we were on attack 25m out and he tried a grubber to find touch in the 22, it didn't make it. The very next kick was Barrett's first attempt, he put a high kick up that was 10 metres too far, free mark in the 22. Two possessions in a row, early in the game, it was just the start of the rot.

Or was it even earlier than that? When Mo'unga missed his tackle and the English went 30 metres off the back of it. Scoring a few phases later.

Mo'unga was missing for large swathes of the game, not at first receiver far too often. The back line was in disarray for most of the game. England was quick up on defence but NZ has countered these defences many times.

There were no short kicks executed, I don't recall any high kicks retained, can't remember any strong territorial kicks. THAT is what a 10 can do on the back foot.

 

[Dan54]

Fairly tangential to the match, but I have two questions: who let Phil Kearns within 3 nautical miles of any broadcasting equipment in the first instance? Who keeps letting him near it?

Yep I thought for someone who was supposedy trying to stand for CEO of Aussie rugby to say at end of game, "we can't decide who we hate most out of these 2 teams" was a little strange, though to be honest neither of Horan or Gregan said hey don't say us, so maybe......................

 

[Dan54]

The other thing I thought from the game, Mitchell had a bloody good defence system, generally the ABs create a hell of a lot by going wide very quickly and turning ball in field, I though English defence countered it by coming up quick from inside and putting them over the sideline!