Forum Rugby Club - 2010-11 Season

England are finding it tough at the moment. SA are not the soft touch that Australia were in defence. A penalty apiece, 3-3.

SA look content to concede penalties rather than allow England to run free. One in front of the posts. 6-3.

Mistake in his 22 from the restart by Foden and SA nearly come away with a try by Matfield. TMO says no but they have a 5m scrum.

England under serious pressure at the moment. Croft off injured. Penalty for SA, but missed by Steyne. Still 6-3, but England are up against it at the breakdown and the setpiece.

Penalty on the halfway line but Steyne misses it again. Still 6-3 but SA are dominating all over the field at the moment. England can't get the ball.

SA lineout on 5m and get a penalty. This time Steyne slots it. 6-6.

Half time and England are getting battered all over the field and are lucky to be level. The back three are being starved of the ball, but even when they do get it they are under immense pressure and are making errors. They are not getting a sniff at the moment and the forwards are giving away penalties in volumes.

At this rate it will only be a matter of time before SA start to realise their advantage in points.

England will do well to stay in touch let alone win this one.

England give away another penalty at the contact area and Steyne puts it over to give the Boks an early second half lead. 6-9.

England rediscover their game with quick recycling and spinning the ball wide but SA's defence is tough and they tie them up eventually and keep them out. That will dent their confidence.

SA get a lineout around the 5m line and score a try through their forward power, sucking in England and then spinning out wide for Alberts to cross. 6-14.

Another wave of England attacks is rebuffed by the granite wall of the Boks' defence.

England don't have the answers to SA's physicality and look desperate and panicky.

Try for SA. All over now. 6-21

England get a late breakaway try under the posts by Foden but Tindall misses the quick conversion. All a bit academic now. 11-21.

England have shown that they clearly are still a work in progress. South Africa were far too wiley and too physical up front for England to cope with. There were flashes of the England from the Australia game but they just could not win the ball in key areas or break down the South African defence.

Still they have come out of this series with some positives and a lot of hope that they are travelling in the right direction.

The back three are cutting and dangerous with the ball. Croft, who went off early today, has been dynamic and intelligent. Sheridan and Cole up front are solid and Courteney Lawes is definitely the future for the English back row. Hape has also been excellent in the midfield. He breaks the gainline and offloads intelligently.

England will have learned loads from this but have a lot of work to do to prove that they are more than occasional guests at rugby's top table. SA were utterly dominant today in all the key areas and their experience put England firmly back in their place.

A very good assessment of England's position after today's game by Johnno, I thought. He has tried to temper reaction to England's performances all along and kept it in perspective today too. They're not the best team in the world but they're not the worst team either. The Six Nations will tell us more about their progress with their aim to be the best team in Europe. France and Ireland will have plenty to say about that as well.

Fantastic! Just looked at the score centre and the result is Bath 17:30 Wasps. Another fantastic away victory for the Black and Golds!

......oh. no, wait.....it's kick off at 17:30. B***er!

Full time and the score.......Bath 6-11 Wasps.

Excellent!

Well now my view of the game which was from the top tier in the east stand, and by the way for those that did not venture out yesterday it was absolutely #@*!ing FREEZING down at HQ and it is extremely rare for me to be bothered about the cold weather. Right we took some massive hits early on in the game and Chris Ashton SHOULD have been removed immediately from the field as he was knocked senseless and never recovered from the hit[ his girlfriend text my mate to say he had got to rest for a few days to recover ] The ref had almost ordered him of the field as he himself was not happy with Ashton`s state and they tried to make him recite the months of the year [they even asked him to say them backwards Dec to Jan to which he replied "i don`t f*@cking know them backwards ] but the coaches would not take him of and he did not want to go of either,so we never saw any flashes of brilliance from him after that.Croft then went off with what looked like a serious shoulder injury which occurred under the goal posts,Flood got nailed a few times before being replaced with Danny Care [so two bad omens for the Tigers ]. So other than that we made a lot of silly handling errors which ended chances of tries of which there should of been at least a couple frittered away and not to mention the Boks employment of forward passes and while i feel that i could slag the ref off for a few reasons i find that i must praise him to the hilt for his attitude in the scrum and for penalising the Boks for not putting the ball in straight the first ref to actually do this in a game that i can remember [ other ref`s please take note ] On the whole this was a game for the taking and we should of and could of taken it but it were not to be and in IMHO was squandered.Still the atmosphere was brilliant and i still enjoyed the day.

N.B it was great to find that my ref link purchased from Welford Rd at a eye watering £25 works at HQ, why only the minority use these i never know as you hear all the ref`s decisions and a whole lot more including what goes on in the scrum

My rugby watching at the w/end was cutailed by dreadful toothache since Friday. Apart from work, lying down in a darkened room was pretty much all I could manage!! So thanks for updates. And roll on 11.30 and the dentist's drill!

quote:

Originally posted by Chillkram:
A very good assessment of England's position after today's game by Johnno, I thought. He has tried to temper reaction to England's performances all along and kept it in perspective today too. They're not the best team in the world but they're not the worst team either. The Six Nations will tell us more about their progress with their aim to be the best team in Europe. France and Ireland will have plenty to say about that as well.

Agreed Mark. I thought the really encouraging thing was that even with so little useful possession and being put under a lot of pressure, they still had clear chances and possibly should have got over a couple of times. In the face of such an awesome 'Boks forward display the defence at times was superb too.

Getting clear scoring opportunities when being outplayed up front is usually the preserve of the top sides, who can often leave the field with a result having had little of the ball compared to their opponents.

It will be interesting to see if these encouraging performances can be built on. I thought the 'Boks were terrific especially having been pretty woeful last week.

Joe

Funny, noone has mentioned GRAND SLAM

Well, Venter's off.

Can't say I'm sorry to see him go, by his antics he's done nothing to enhance the good standing of rugby in this Country.

I wonder if all the saffies will follow him back to S A I think it would be safe to say that they will not be in the top four now