bothhands says...

The Boks have been called 1 dimensional, but at least they know their dimension. England looked lost with ball in hand, didnt know what to do with it. The possession numbers are hugely stacked for England ..... but they dont play smart rugby. And WTF did Robshaw kick at goal for with less than 2 mins on the clock? Losing by 1 is better than losing by 4? Bizarre decision ...... underlines the fact that England could not invent a try.

Posted 05:58 25th November 2012

Ramage says...

@jaystarr I couldn't agree more. Obnoxious is too kind a word. I couldnt believe what I was hearing and wondered how you saffas would take that interview. He was appalling. However I believe you have gone too far with your comments about Owens. He wasn't good but biased is over the top something unfortunately many saffas are using too often. Passports are really irrelevant. perhaps Fiji only got beaten by England because Glen Jackson the NZ referee used to play in the same team as many of the English players. Be careful what you wish for as they might reinstate Bryce. If all British refs are banned from doing these games we might have to get Bryce back to look after yout Boks lol.

This game was a borefest and there are a number of comments made by others that I will quote as they sum up the game..

mfblions bizarre try, bizarre refereeing, bizarre decision making by both teams.

Voice I believe Meyer is a one trick pony.

Carpelone gutted with the boks attitude to try to control instead of finishing games off.

Trader2 geez that was so exciting I fell asleep and missed the haka in Cardiif. (Sorry about that it was a good one.) ....... as melkdave said overall England have shown they are a top team when I read that I almost choked on my cornflakes. Enough said.

TV addict how many f-ing terrible decisions can one team make? How many try scoring opportunities can one team mess up like a bunch of amateurs? Do these players know how to pass, or draw a defender or run a line?

ArmchairGeneral @melk uhh mate we lost. ......take it on the chin. We lost. ..... Well done Boks. Wins a win. As for me I will forget this game fast.

Surely Melkdave you are taking the piss when you say England were unlucky. They had no idea how to construct a try. At the end they needed four and chose three dahhh! Are they really a top team? Truly? They were masters of their own defeat and not unlucky

Posted 02:40 25th November 2012

Zandberg says...

Whilst his attacking flair may not be what it once was, we have to admit that Kirchner (apart from the one knock-on in his 22) was pretty solid defensively at fullback, both under the high ball and in the tackle. As for Jannie and the scrums, sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don't. I only saw the abbreviated bbc3 replay. The poor guy is totally knackered anyway, reportedly has played over 2000 minutes this year: all 19 Sharks Super 15 games, 3 final Currie Cup games (which were test match intensity) and 12 Test matches. I hope they rest him until April or May, otherwise he'll be crocked in 2013...

Posted 00:46 25th November 2012

rugby_phile says...

To all my English friends, I am astounded that nobody has yet stated the obvious yet. You will not score tries in any quantity until your runners learn to commit the potential tackler before pasing, if they can actually offload during the tackle so much better. But at least commit them instead of allowing them to drift to the next player in the line until you run out of space. Watch the game and you will see exactly what I mean.

Shovelling it along the line wily nilly and hoping for a gap just doesn't happen against top teams. A real shame really because you have some very good players and it should be second nature to them at this level.

here is to next week, and hope you give us a game, I for one don't think its going to be easy for the ABs, comfortable at a pinch.

Posted 00:23 25th November 2012

Artherfish says...

Sorry to see the amount of negative banter being thrown around instead of any actual analysis of the game. Point one, we lost, again! Dam it! Put that to one side and I feel it was a great improvement on last week. But and it's a big but, we still all the underlying weeknesses we have shown in all our recent performances. I don,t see a lack of skill or even base talent in our young team but we lake brains and a true leader and an on field thinker. Individually one on one we front up well. I thought the pack showed great individual performances but we don't combine well. We are a young inexperienced side who are learning but so are the boks and they have learnt more faster. Sorry to pour cold water on the boks but they are far from the real deal too so should be a target team to beat. It's not throw in the towel time for SL but he has some coaching work to do a soon or doubt will start to creep into this side and then we will struggle to make the transition from nearly can to really can. Next week it's the All Blacks and they are the real deal. It's actually a great chance for us as we have nothing really to loose as they are way better than us on paper. Lets hope for some David and Goliath type action.

Posted 23:51 24th November 2012

Waz4before says...

You can't beat winning and the Boks can fly home and plan for 2013 with the confidence that brings. For England, we will limp in to the 6 nations with only Wales having a worse record and seem to have a leadership problem on and off the pitch (captain & coach) - this question over whether to kick a penalty or not is never a black and white decision nor can it/should it be preordained before the match as Sir Clive "judge me on my Lions record" Woodward suggested. England look confused on this point so much so that Robshaw made th dumbest decision by any captain in 2012, one that should cost him the captency, by kicking for points with minutes left.

But worse was the "Woodward style we must kick for points" decision in the first half, The Ref has awarded several penalties, England's scrum is dominant, Ownes calls out th Bok front Rower and threatens a yellow card, another penalty .. Correct decision then is to tak a scrum, force the penalty and make Owens act on his yellow card threat - Boks down to 14 then take the points then. Of course non of that may have transpired but the correct decision would have been to try, as it was Flood missed the penalty kick and the pressure was released from the Boks.

3 minutes in to the second half the Boks won the game by tuning down 3 kickable points and getting 7 - take note Sir Clive Woodward, that's how you win games (remember how your teams blew 3 grand slams before winning one?), take note Lancaster and Engand, it's north kicking to touch that was your problem against Australia, it was the subsequent failure to prosecute th advantage that was wrong.

So England need to focus on leadership befor next week; but it wasn't all black yesterday - the forwards were good yesterday and dominant for many aspects of the game, that forward display last week would (probably) have tuned defeat in to victory but losing can become a habit!

Posted 23:49 24th November 2012

rugby_lord says...

When is the WC draw?

Posted 22:55 24th November 2012

Startledwombat says...

I've just caught up with all the match reports and comments over the sunday tea and toast. From my breakfast table it appears that when wales lost the series in australia that was put down to a lack of composure, nous and game sense at the international level, but when england lose the november tests it's bad luck.

Posted 22:12 24th November 2012

Trinats2 says...

I stand corrected, there was a try in this game, albeit a very lucky and bizarre try.

I thought the ref let the Saffas away with heaps at the breakdown, was I watching a different game, or am I just not a one eyed Saffa !!!

Posted 22:07 24th November 2012

TVaddict says...

@malaprade

lol, your desperate battling on here for respect is rather sad, but at least you did get some facts right. Well done for that. Me naming you Neanderthal is a bit outdated though I try to match the description to the level of intelligence of the person. Perhaps you do read sometimes. Well I guess all I can just ask you to do is look at the match and the refereeing with some neutrality.

As for your life history that's very interesting, congrats on the degree and all that. Although I don't think having a degree effects how effective you are at seeing the obvious, and I am loathed to give personal information away online, you'll be happy to know I have a Masters degree from a top ranked English university. Not that that is at all relevant here. Plus I too am of a very mixed background with roots from across Europe, I guess under current irb rules there would be three countries for me to choose from. Well while it was lovely meeting you and exchanging life stories, want to stick to rugby for the rest of the comments?

Posted 21:07 24th November 2012