Sio - poor
Moore - average
Holmes - average
Arnold - v poor
Simmons - one stupid lineout penalty. Tick. Then injured.
Fardy - poor
Hooper - good
Pocock - good
Phipps - great
Foley - good
Horne - average. Injured
Kerevi - good
Kuridrani - good
DHP - great
Folau - great maybe, that pass for England's first try was rubbish
My comments from another forum:
England played to their strengths, and executed more often than not. We played to our strengths, and didn't. Goal kicking was also disappointing from Foley - he makes those kicks, we're only 5 down with a quarter to go.
I know the 6N was a while ago now, but the core disciplines England possess were in evidence from their time together: Basic, direct rugby, which has had a bit of polish put on it by Eddie in terms of ambition. Box kicks go up and are chased hard, they get points in the zone, and then make the opposition chase the game. When they get a bit of space, pass the fucking ball; don't just kick it every time.
And it looks like he's worked on their fitness, too. Haskell was fucking everywhere. It was like there were three blokes out there wearing red headgear. He or Itoje should have got MOTM I reckon. Some very important tackles by the former, and some good aggression by the latter.
The scrum wasn't at all physically dominant by England, but Cole was very smart in letting Sio think he was going to hit him head on. First couple of scrums he let Sio over extend, then they won a penalty by completely changing direction as a unit. So good to watch as a prop, even though my lot were on the wrong end of it.
Still, England's backs can't defend well against pace or width, and I don't reckon the Pommy guy (Burrell?) would have brought Foley down for that try, though we'll never know because Arnold is a knob. Poor debut from him.
Dane Haylett-Petty had a pretty good debut I thought. Did his work, ran hard on the wing, and contested ball in the air from kickoff. Kerevi did well too I reckon, showing that he's got a decent pair of hands and a bit of acceleration.
Forwards need to look at their discipline. Just some schoolboy shit at lineout time from Simmons (again) and then a couple of stupid ones from Pocock and Fardy as well.
I am still amazed that Poite didn't card one of the Pommy replacement props for that ruck within 2m of their line after Folau broke out and offloaded to Phipps. In the subsequent play they were all over it, and denying us a tryscoring opportunity. Have no problem with Sio's card as that is Poite's style at scrum time, and no-one can gainsay it.
Think Arnold needs to go for Horwill. Simmons might be injured anyway, so Skelton probably comes onto the bench with Mumm and Horwill starting.
Given the style we played, it didn't lack a big bopper at 8 because the forwards weren't doing the damage. Pocock got 2 or 3 turnovers to stop the Pommy momentum, and Hoopah was scoring tries. Fardy was in it for the niggle.
The worrying bit is we didn't secure ruck ball consistently, and when we had England on the back foot they just fanned out and didn't bother. That bit was VERY Eddie Jones, but also a smart move in terms of conceding penalties. Need some inside ball from Foley rather than drift-and-pass because Eddie will be expecting that next time.