England

[JonnyD]

Is it just me or has this been a very long half?
Sure it’s been about twenty mins of reset scrums so far

[Shugs]

I’m still watching it - just. It’s incredibly dull. And this is not a good Wales team.

[Bloke in North Dorset]

Fussy refereeing as well.

Randall and Smith adding some spark   

[Neils]

Fussy refereeing as well.

Randall and Smith adding some spark

Fussy refereeing cause by inadequate players. Boring beyond belief.

[Rossm]

Fussy refereeing as well.

Randall and Smith adding some spark

Stop start. Way too much whistle.

[mike909]

England making a poor and badly resourced Wales team look quite coherent.

Ref is poor and has given England all the breakdowns - including some really poor ones. Nowell off the pace, incoherent ball in hand - relying on Smith's "moments" and offside is a joke.

I have not the first idea what jones' "new England" is supposed to be. France would have murdered us.

[Bloke in North Dorset]

It’s hard to see England scoring against Ireland or France, and they certainly aren’t going to keep them out.

[Shugs]

Crikey, Wales have got three tries. To be honest England have been abysmal. What’s the game plan. What do our centres contribute etc etc etc etc.

[mike909]

Crikey, Wales have got three tries. To be honest England have been abysmal. What’s the game plan. What do our centres contribute etc etc etc etc.

+1

[Andywasp50]

Rank from England, hanging on when they should have put an average Welsh side away before half time.

Ref was abysmal for both sides, particularly at the breakdown.

[Shugs]

Agree Andy. In fact I thought both Dickson and Adamson were poor today. England are going backwards under Jones. The guys a myth. He can’t/ doesn’t want to find a way to get his backs involved. Malins, Nowell, Daly, Steward did nothing - had no ball. Slade executed one good kick. Randall is not a test player and nor is Ewels. But worse than all of that it was just incredibly dull.

[Wombles]

I will be honest and say that England did not look like losing today. Wales (and all nations) always lift their games against us, but Wales -despite missing some key players- are at the start of a decline due to their grass roots and regional problems.

What frustrates me hugely is that with all the resources and playing ability we have, we are led by a coach who overcomplicates, micromanages and confuses himself which only leads to confusing others. The hand break in England’s development is Eddie Jones. Wales we’re trying to bring England down to their level and it worked to a certain extent. I am hoping the next two rounds against higher quality teams in Ireland and France will lift our game, however I haves feeling we have seen our last victory in this six nations.

[mike909]

Looking back and having read a lot of comments elsewhere re the game - it does appear that many fans seem to think this was some sort of indicator of England going well.....

Whilst only having the official stats made available by England, what is v clear is that England have been a) blunt, ball in hand, not making clean breaks or offloading (we were at 50% of Wales yesterday) and b) not nailing our set piece

Whilst by no means a Billy or Mako fan, what they did (when fit...) provide to England was metres, offloads and defenders beaten. Positives that have been in shorter supply when England don't have such players. And that seems to mean the backline is not ever playing off front foot ball.

Again, part of that success was utilising the back three - and again, the selections yesterday were not anything like Watson, May and even Daly in terms of go forwards. In selecting Nowell, Malins and Steward, we really have little to fear in terms of pace and with Lawes, Dombrandt and Curry - we have no offloaders, just players that run into contact.

That we've picked a 13 at 12 again, just shows that we've not really planned for when Farrell (for all his issues) isn't fit, and our backline, too often looked like they'd met in the car park.

So - we'd be there with the better teams with a) sorting the set piece - surely easy enough? b) picking a backrow with a plan other than "lets run straight into contact" c) Look to someone to play 12......d) play pace in the back three.

This sort of performance was exactly what was expected with trying to play "hybrid" players, confusing players with roles and shirt numbers and thinking there is some sort of master plan if you are not going to compete at breakdown and do the basics.

[hopwood]

Looking back and having read a lot of comments elsewhere re the game - it does appear that many fans seem to think this was some sort of indicator of England going well.....

Whilst only having the official stats made available by England, what is v clear is that England have been a) blunt, ball in hand, not making clean breaks or offloading (we were at 50% of Wales yesterday) and b) not nailing our set piece

Whilst by no means a Billy or Mako fan, what they did (when fit...) provide to England was metres, offloads and defenders beaten. Positives that have been in shorter supply when England don't have such players. And that seems to mean the backline is not ever playing off front foot ball.

Again, part of that success was utilising the back three - and again, the selections yesterday were not anything like Watson, May and even Daly in terms of go forwards. In selecting Nowell, Malins and Steward, we really have little to fear in terms of pace and with Lawes, Dombrandt and Curry - we have no offloaders, just players that run into contact.

That we've picked a 13 at 12 again, just shows that we've not really planned for when Farrell (for all his issues) isn't fit, and our backline, too often looked like they'd met in the car park.

So - we'd be there with the better teams with a) sorting the set piece - surely easy enough? b) picking a backrow with a plan other than "lets run straight into contact" c) Look to someone to play 12......d) play pace in the back three.

This sort of performance was exactly what was expected with trying to play "hybrid" players, confusing players with roles and shirt numbers and thinking there is some sort of master plan if you are not going to compete at breakdown and do the basics.

I think that's a good assessment of the situation.
Agree with you entirely.

I also reckon Eddie doesn't encourage off-loads in training much. Or indeed anything even slightly risky.

[backdoc]

i was at the game with a group of 6 chaps, and next to me were a group of Wales supporters.

We spent more time talking about rugby than we did watching what was mostly a borefest. Almost all the excitement was provided by Wales.

My tickets [hospitality] were £180;

We had lunch in a pub near Marble Arch, and picked up a cab to take us to the ground near the Old Dear Park [!]. After the game our prebooked cabs took 2.5 hours to get to the Tesco car park and I arrived home at 10.30.

Twelve hours in total from home- home.

I won't be going again  The product does not deserve the expenditure.

Maybe when Andy Farrell and Sean Edwards become England coaches.