PREEST says...

Being a Kiwi and neutral viewer, it was awesome to watch our boy Sean Maitland score on debut. He won't be the finisher he was for the Crusaders however, as he doesn't have the quality players inside him going over the gain line regularly and breaching first line defenses.

Spirited effort by the Scots. Their Attack is bad because their ruck ball is too slow, their runners onto the ball are too flat, they never shift the ball wide, they are two one dimensional and easy to shut down.

On defense they sat back and let England run at them, giving England easy metres and momentum. They need to move up as a unit and shut down the runners. England did this superbly. See how fast they were up on the Scottish attack? Resulted in a few charge downs and constant turn over ball. You can't let attacking teams run freely and wait for them to hit the line before you tackle. You need to meet them. The Scots opted to not commit numbers to the rucks so they should not allow England to run so freely when they have numbers defending.

Posted 06:01 03rd February 2013

Waz4before says...

11 try's in the first two games is a great start, hope It continues in Rome; I think the final scores in both games reflect the games played although Ireland's near collapse is somewhat masked, Wales again unlucky? Now reading PRs somewhat lukewarm assessment of England (and somewhat glowing assessment on Ireland) I searched the local Aussie media and here's some of their quotes on England:

"England thrash scots", "England produced a four-try performance full of energy, aggression and ambition to get their Six Nations campaign underway with an impressive and highly entertaining 38-18 win", "Owen Farrell offered the latest reminder of his class with a superb showing. His metronomic boot is a priceless asset for England but he is an equally impressive playmaker"," The pressure was on England to back up their mauling of the All Blacks with another impressive showing and they did just that","Terrific England passing","England produced a similar display of intensity, energy and running" ... So slightly more glowing than PR and their trolls might have you believe!

But on reflection, a junior england side with very little experience produced a very good display to follow the kiwi win and suggest bevy leaned lessons from th two previous defeats. Still very much a work in progress but clearly Lancaster is making good progress and having built a strong defensive capability the attack is now also progressing. Scotland I thought were "as expected" but I'm liking Johnson more and more so I hope he gets a longer stint than just the 6Ns. The games next week will be crucial, Scotland's chance to avoid desperate straights and a Wooden Spoon by beating Italy, and England will face their toughest test yet in Dublin - can wait :-)

Posted 02:57 03rd February 2013

BMakka8 says...

Damn iPad spell check. That comment should have read parling and strettle!

Posted 00:00 03rd February 2013

Spartacus says...

England were NOT strong. They were efficient and disciplined. Scotland made the usual mistakes and did not take their chances. Alain Rolland, and I am a big fan, made for a poor game by ruining the scrum and made a few other silly decisions (none of which would have altered the result but spoiled the game). Boring.

Posted 23:51 02nd February 2013

hellovanite says...

heart_of_oak says... great post, enjoyed reading it and felt my head nodding back n forth as I did!

Posted 23:33 02nd February 2013

boksmashoffice says...

Watched the match. Was a boring match compared to Wales v Ireland. The real test for Eng will be next week. Scotland are the weakest team in the 6 nations imo. If the Irish can get parity in the scrum and forward play then I can see their better back line winning the match. Looking forward to watching match at Aviva.

Posted 23:10 02nd February 2013

atg77 says...

Scotland's back three are lethal... an utter waste having an out centre who can't pass. Drop Lamont from the Squad and either shift Hogg to the midfeild or draft in Grove or Dunbar. Scott didn't show much and Jackson was dissapointing... yet again kicking away the ball on the attack in the opposition's half. Beatie was out standing and Laidlaw controlled the game well. Need the aforementioned changes, then things might start to go our way.

Posted 22:42 02nd February 2013

astrospange says...

Eng squandered a load of chances in the Scots 22. It was an excellent performance and there is huge room for improvement. What was missing was MT coming back in, on an angle to break the straight line defence in the 22. Mikey Brown didn't come off his wing so was left with the dregs thrown out at the end of the line. There may be better players. Corbs was missed but the scrum was solid. The lack of experience in the 2nd row was evident and they will get better. As I said earlier it was good performance with loads of room for improvement.

Posted 22:25 02nd February 2013

new_j4a says...

@trelawney I assumed tbh was "this bank is honest" and that's why we so seldom see it?

Posted 21:44 02nd February 2013

TVaddict says...

Great game, so relieved with the performance 'and' the result. Comments on the players:

-Marler had a great game and really made up for his last performance.

-Apart from a few stray lineouts I thought Youngs was solid. Did anyone see what he did to get our try disallowed?

-Cole was solid at scrum time and his usual nuisance at the breakdown.

-Launchbury keeps getting better and better and has one foot on the plane to Australia this summer. Parling was solid too.

-I was really impressed with Lawes's impact when he came on, he's hitting some real form lately. I still want to see the Lawes+Launchbury combo at some point.

-Wood and Robshaw are such workaholics. The moment that epitomised them was when I saw Wood literally jumping to his feet immediately after making a tackle at the 75 minute mark to make another tackle, only spending about a second on the floor. Now that is stamina and commitment!

-Morgan was deadly carrying the ball, I hope his injury wasn't serious. Haskell did some decent work on the floor when he came on but lacks that ability to beat the first tackler.

-Youngs really impressed me. Less crabbing and more passing, exactly what we wanted from him! Care was good when he came on too.

-Farrell showed real maturity today, some great passes and such consistent kicking. He seemed to really thrive with a distributor at 12.

-Brown was his usual feisty self, such a fun player to watch.

-Twelvetrees had an amazing debut. The line he ran to get his try was deceptively brilliant.

-I was disappointed with Barritt in attack but he was still world class in defence.

-Ashton impressed me with his clinical finishing and solid tackling.

-Goode disappointed me. He was passing too early, missed some tackles, and counter attacked when he shouldn't have.

-Strettle was poor, shouldn't have been in the team. Flood was innocuous when he came on too.

Posted 21:26 02nd February 2013