alistair

Jaco Peyper has never refereed England well IMO. Yellow card, for sure - but red is ridiculous. He’s trying to pull out of the contact. The Irish player is crouching to pick the ball, so his head is in the wrong place. He’s picking up a ball that should be England’s anyway, as Ireland lost the ball forward! In all of that, Peyper is unable to find a shred of mitigation… Twat.

      It’ll be unbearable in my household as she’s now got bragging rights… again.

      Fair fucks to the BIG though. Best side throughout the tournament, and deserved champions.

      The expectation of players to be ‘perfect’ in every contact is too high a bar, regardless of whether it’s rolling away or wrapping the arms etc. It’s causing anomalies in the results. The French should be fuming.

      6 months later

      Can someone tell Ford that he’s allowed to pass the ball 🥱

        vinnyt77 sadly not. I’m left with Borthwick’s England. Launch it and keep it up the jumper. Just like his mate Jonno

            vinnyt77 why would I be talking about his captaincy? His record as head coach was abysmal both in results and playing style

                alistair Just checking who you were talking about, dude. His coaching was not as inspirational as I hoped it would be, but England won the Six Nations under his stewardship. Hardly a car-crash.

                    vinnyt77 England have admittedly got a bit better this half but still kicking away far too much possession

                        None of what England are doing is gonna keep Farrell, Erasmus etc up at night - but they’re playing with grit. I’ll take that for now….

                        alistair Much better in second half. Ford > Farrell IMO. Though I have a feeling Farrell will be back for Chile / Samoa, score a hatful, and start in the ¼ final.

                          Rare frisson of excitement every time Marcus Smith gets ball in hand

                            alistair This might be where we differ. I’ll take the result every single time. I love watching Smith, when he’s not playing in a team that I want to win.

                                Workmanlike, but efficient. Actually starting to believe I might see England play when I’m in Marseille in a few weeks.