England

[wycombewasp]

Is no one going to comet on England's rubbish performance   

[Neils]

Boffelli my boy scored 25 of the 30 points.

[jamestaylor002]

As the topic has opened, I'll comment.

Didn't watch the game but saw the result, which made me very happy. That's how disconnected I feel.

[Neils]

Is the title missing an F.

[AndyL]

Watched it. Apart from that one moment of magic from Van poortvliet it was a pretty horrid affair.

[Shugs]

More depressing tactics from Jones. Quoted as saying England were bringing the power game. The likes of Vunipola, Tuilagi, Cockanasinga, Nowell trundling into contact achieving the sum total of nothing. Couple that with more kicking from Youngs and the compulsory lock in the back row. No attacking craft at all. Loads of indiscipline and lots of silly screaming. As usual a media frenzy around Tuilagi and he did squat. Salt in the wounds Willis gets 4 minutes. Was actually pleased Argentina won.

[Wombles]

My reaction is that I am not surprised that I am not surprised.

Eddie Jones has long overstayed his time with us, he has access to  some of the greatest times with players and the best facilities. Yet time and time again since 2019 he provides dross.

He put a team on the field that looked limited and they played a very limited game plan. Worst of all they looked like 15 individuals rather than a coherent team. Not being able to string a few phases together, passes to no-one and completely bereft of shape.

Frankly when your hear Jones stating -again- that we are not playing everything we can do because he wants to surprise others at the World Cup, then you know we are in trouble. New Zealand do not do that, they do their best every time and then they try new things and layer it on. Surprises at the World Cup mean that we will not know if it works or not, and if it does not it’s too late.

Eddie Jones and ourselves need to go into every test giving everything to win by using everything at our disposal. Treating every test, tournament, World Cup and series with equal importance is THE only way, not saving it for a World Cup.

Please Eddie go now. I would rather lose with a head coach who really gets it and a team desperate to win everything than continue with a coach who has managed to create a disconnect between the team and the fans and creates performances like that.

[wycombewasp]

+1

[WonkyWasp]

Plus 1

[mike909]

More depressing tactics from Jones. Quoted as saying England were bringing the power game. The likes of Vunipola, Tuilagi, Cockanasinga, Nowell trundling into contact achieving the sum total of nothing. Couple that with more kicking from Youngs and the compulsory lock in the back row. No attacking craft at all. Loads of indiscipline and lots of silly screaming. As usual a media frenzy around Tuilagi and he did squat. Salt in the wounds Willis gets 4 minutes. Was actually pleased Argentina won.

Shugs - when I saw the selection not only was it seemingly the most fragile backline - it seemed to have no pace or innovation. Ditto a SR at 6. I'm please too. Two years of playing like twats in the 6Ns and pissing on good players like Ollie Lawrence amongst many suggests this England has few prospects. Can always win a game via a power pack - but glad that a focused Argentina won to highlight what many have been suggesting for some time...

As the BBC man on the spot noted:

Argentina shocked an 80,000-strong Twickenham crowd with an audacious and deserved victory

Audacious isn't exactly a term I'd use for England...

[Bloke in North Dorset]

I put the game on while I was doing some ironing and it was about half way through the first half. Jeez, the ironing was more exciting.

I stuck with it but was just about to give up when Argentina lit up the game with an excellent try, proving that rugby could be played in those conditions. So I stuck with it and then we had the interminable replays over Argentina's second try. For Pete's Sake, its a friendly not the World Cup final, making a sodding decision.

As we'd arranged to meet some friends in the pub I had to leave after that. The pub's only 2 minutes away and when we got there the bar was full of people watching the game, so we sat elsewhere. This is not a rugby area so they were mostly sports fans who were watching because they wanted the shared experience of an England win and an exciting game.

There was not one collective cheer or even groan during the rest of the game. When I went to the bar most people weren't engaged with the TV. They weren't interested in the nuances of kick tennis of of big men running in to contact, they wanted to watch exciting rugby and they weren't getting it. It won't register in Twickenham, but they are not selling the game to a new audience and its hard for people like me who've championed the game in non Rugby areas to get people interested.

My friend is Welsh and he said he'd been watching the game and that he'd never seen Twickenham so flat.

I'm volunteering next week and won't be missing the game.

[WonkyWasp]

Wheelchair League International was much more fun. 

[Wombles]

I cannot recall a previous head coach that has alienated and dissociated so many people from their team. Lancaster may have made a huge mistake at the 2015 World Cup, however he really got us all involved and invested in our national side. I know he ballsed up the tactics for the World Cup, but I wonder whether we should of let him make amends rather than this!

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Completely forgot there was rugby.

Doesn't sound like I missed much.

[jamestaylor002]

I cannot recall a previous head coach that has alienated and dissociated so many people from their team. Lancaster may have made a huge mistake at the 2015 World Cup, however he really got us all involved and invested in our national side. I know he ballsed up the tactics for the World Cup, but I wonder whether we should of let him make amends rather than this!

You're right, especially how SL appears to have done very well at Leinster and will become Racing 92's DOR next season on a 4 year deal.

It makes me wonder (now I'm thinking of it) whether some decisions were taken out of SL's hands - just look at how Sam Burgess was drafted into an England rugby union World Cup squad (a WC at home as well) within a few months of playing rugby union. Surely that was down to some RFU internal pressure to get him in?