Rugby Union World Cup 2019

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

After the Lord Mayor's show performance.

They played v the All Blacks as though they had nowt to lose. Jones was right - there was no pressure on England. Today it's reversed. They might have started believing a bit of the usual hype that accompanies any England team progressing through a competition. I'm not so sure about this ref, though. French rugby refs and Spanish football refs, there's something of the night about them!

 

[Bluemoonie92]

Ref hasn't helped but we have been shocking, South Africa doing what we all knew they would.

 

[Wretched Vengeance]

This is the biggest thing I don’t get about Union; why keep trudging and trudging into the same packed defence no more than three metres away from where you last trudged in, close to the line, when there are a stream of players called backs waiting for the ball to come out?

The backs may as well sit down with their legs’ crossed and wait until the forwards bore everyone to death and make a mistake or live in the hope they might eventually trudge over the line.

PLAY SOME RUGBY! AND GET THE BALL OUT TO WHERE THE SPACES ARE!

All forms of football (association, both codes of rugby, Aussie rules, Gaelic, gridiron...) are all about exploiting space, not just just try and force your way through eight squashed in defenders from three metres out.

Jiffy said when he went back to Union that he forgot that you could get cold playing rugby, and I can see why he said it.

When England eventually went wide, they went from being a metre out, to being about 15 metres out. That SA defence just smothered England wherever they went.

 

[homerdog]

Ref is a bit of a worry

It's like watching us in Europe, these continental refs can't wait to penalise us! He did the same when we played Australia in the QF.

Having said that, we are obviously very nervous, leading to lots of unforced errors.

 

[DenisLawBackHeel74]

We’ve shit our pants here. Hopefully they can get past the nerves in H2. I think SA have executed their gameplay very well by contrast.

 

[Wretched Vengeance]

Fantastic first 40 minutes by SA, but England have just got all the basics wrong, very wrong.

 

[the plasterer]

Need early try in 2nd half as can see England giving away more pens for south Africa to just keep kicking 3 points

 

[come-on-barney]

Just shows the refs are bad in all sports

 

[Deleted member 77198]

When England eventually went wide, they went from being a metre out, to being about 15 metres out. That SA defence just smothered England wherever they went.

But you can’t just do it once after giving most of the defenders a rest while they all stand around and let eight men defend a five metre space.

That’s where you have to play with variation to the space and field position in a lateral sense. Draw in defenders to one area and then move the ball, you have do this a few times and that opens up holes in the defensive line. After you’ve drawn in three players to the open side, then go back to the blind side to draw in two, then play a shift and try and create an overlap of a spare man on one of the sides to the ruck...

That’s the top and bottom of what rugby is all about. It’s not about tackling technique, it’s not about individual or even team skill, it’s about exploiting space.

Rugby League understands this far and away better than Union does.

If you do all this and still can’t get over the line, then fair fuck’s to the defence! But far too often in Union the defence is not really tested and shifted enough.

 

[jay_mcfc]

The ref is a ****.

Half time analysis.