This is it for me. Spot on. One of the things I have always hated about Union and I've been playing for 34 years. There is nothing in it for the catcher. He has up to 15 guys running at him ..some with no intention of catching the ball (eg. Bryan Habana). He either knocks it on under the pressure (and there is massive pressure) or takes it and gets smashed..or if you're like Folau, who is probably the best in the world at it, you may occasionally break through. The kicker gets all the glory.but why? OK, England do it well and Australia don't, so there is some skill involved no doubt, but to constantly kick and wait for the other team to make a mistake just seems so negative to me. Unfortunately it does win you games.
Note: Before anyone slings back in anger, I agree that kicking is an important part of the game ... just don't agree with it being your number 1 tactic. All that hard work to break through a line of 15 big men as opposed to going over them and then charging at some poor defenseless guy - it just doesn't do it for me. Yes, Australia does it. All teams do it. But when it's your number one plan and you can win a game from that plan then I feel something is wrong with the world of rugby.
Yes, call it sour grapes if you want.
England won on their defense. Fair enough. Their defense was absolutely outstanding. But in the other half of the game - attack - they had nothing. Australia was definitely better..they just couldn't score. Even with all Australia's handling errors they were still the better attacking side and tried to play positive running rugby. So the better defensive side beat the better attacking side. So, I agree wholeheartedly Seb. England were far from brilliant (apart from their defense and that superior kicking game). Unfortunately Australia were worse. But I would be bored shitless if I were an England fan.
Unfortunately for Australia the rules of rugby don't seem to favor the team attacking with the ball in hand sometimes. Having said that, NZ would still manage to win and Australia simply couldn't. They just kept doing the same thing over and over. No creativity or imagination. The English reserve hooker (with his little kick-ahead) had more creativity than the entire Australian side.
One thing I learnt from the game - always get the first punch in .because if you throw the second one you will get penalized. I just hate that rule. I know very few people who would stay suitably calm in the situation not to want a modicom of revenge or to stick up for his mates. But Moore was still a knob to do that as captain. Astounding though that two previous penalties in the same play get overturned for Moore's indiscretion. I was actually surprised Robshaw wasn't put on report for his neck-roll in the first game. I have seen worse get penalized in Super rugby.
I'll probably read this tomorrow and wonder what the heck I was talking about.