Rugby union?

gpuerrilla said:
Yeah agree with the comments above. These scrums need adjusting but on a crucial moment like that why not TMO it. The soft try was the turning point, fair play to SA overall but I feel they had run out of ideas after the first 60min using all the subs you could tell they were desperate. Considering England were a write off pre tournament cant really grumble. All blacks coming into form when it matters hard to see them losing it now.
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Trouble with TMO and scrum penalties is it would make a turgid part of the game even less of a spectacle as basically every scrum reset would need to be referred to the TMO. The scrum can’t work when it is seen by team not as a way to win/maintain possession but primarily as an opportunity to win penalties. If you made anything apart from dangerous play in the scrum a free kick you’d instantly fix most of the problems. When SA packed down at the end the only thing in their minds was winning a penalty by gaming the scrum rules. (You can’t blame them under the current laws of the game but it is not exactly good to watch)
 
a1ex2001 said:
His back chat was a guaranteed three points to SA the try is an unknown he should keep his mouth shut like everyone else on the pitch as they all know the rules.
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It’s unknown too whether he’s made that call to give the 3 points and stop the chance of the try and the pressure of the defence and potentially a huge momentum swing.

It’s swings and roundabouts but yeh he is a knob
 
Faf is a legend, the way he just teleports all over the field is fantastic, and he can read his team like few can.

Farrell has no place being a captain with his immature antics tbh, it could be argued that his lippy behaviour contributed to England losing. I suspect he knows this though, having seen the look on his face in the post-match interviews.

SA got lucky last night, their performance was terrible and England's was superb. As a Saffer living in England, I'm a but torn on this one but I'll take it.
 
Farrell had better moments than previous games where he done what a fly half should be doing but as above the backchat and off the ball antics nullified that. I would have used the ban before the tournament for both him and Billy as the reason to leave them out of the squad and begin the next look team. Steward done well on his return but many of them faces should not be in the next squad if they want to progress into the next era.
 
Backchat to the ref aside, I thought Farrell played well last night. He was instrumental in the dominance we had over SA, and we actually bullied them for most of the game, no mean feat. The defeat was difficult to take, but we played far above expectations, so we have to take some comfort from that. The scrum needs work, but I'm sure we can sort that out going forward, a young Sheridan type coming through would be good.
 
So where do England go from here with their side? Based on the form we've seen through the World Cup there's a few changes I really want to see, both in the long and short term.

Short term - start getting some of the newer players on the pitch. Arundell needs to be playing, Theo Dan needs to actually be allowed onto the pitch, try some of the other young and upcoming players. Note that this isn't a criticism of Jamie George and others, more an observation that if suddenly George was unavailable - we'd be screwed. There's been zero game time for anyone else! I think Theo Dan looked solid enough in the few bits we have seen over the tournament. I think I've seen that Lawes is planning on stepping back from International Rugby after this, and I suspect players like Marler and Cole can't be far behind.

Building forward to the next World Cup. How long is Farrell going to be the main man? I don't have the same dislike of him as others, he's a bit of a risk at times but so many other players and more knowledgeable people than me back him as a team leader there has to be something in it. Is it time to pick a new long term captain and start building a team around Marcus Smith at 10?
I'm hoping the rules change about non England based players playing for country too. From memory under the current rules we'll lose access to Arundell and Marchant as they're going to play in France? There's gotta be a better way of managing this.
 
Where England go is going to be an interesting one, too many in that squad are the wrong side of 30 and won't be at the next world cup so do we start the clear out now or in the next couple of years. Farrell is 32 so doubtful he'll make it either. Borthwick pretty much got a free pass for this tournament as he came in at the 11th hour and just had to make the best of a poor situation, now we're into a new cycle England need to show some form of progress.

English club rugby is in the toilet so you can't blame players for taking the money and going elsewhere the RFU is going to have to make a call on overseas players being ineligible if we start losing the future of the national team. Problem is if you allow it then we really might get an exodus.
 
As it was 4 years ago, SA figured us out. It just happened a bit later in the game and they adjusted well. The scrum weakness was identified and exploited masterfully. You can’t give away 5 scrum penalties on the bounce and expect not to leak points.

Much as I’m bitterly disappointed, it was the result that was expected. The main reason to be optimistic is that there are a load of new players that have been brought in who have played out of their skins. Really bright future ahead. Hopefully Borthwick will be given a chance to prove himself as the real deal rather than just a place holder.
 
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