RWC15 England vs Fiji

[FLIP]

The officials handled the game pretty well considering how nervous everyone must have been.

They missed a yellow card offence by Youngs before Browns first try and let Woods off with a penalty for supplexing a player by the neck onto their shoulder, which should have been a red. Well is not the word for it.

[fourthirtythree]

People in this country really need to get over this ABE thing.
Barnes who wasn't a neutral was far more balanced in his comments than Toland, the alledged neutral.
It was cringe worthy. If I met Barnes I'd be tempted to apologise.
England were using this game as a training stint for a more high tempo game.
They moved the ball too soon and too often.
They didn't use their forward power until the last 15 mins.
The officials handled the game pretty well considering how nervous everyone must have been.
England can beat Wales and Australia but not playing a high tempo game for 80 mins.
Tonight they did not earn the right to move the ball as much as they did.
Against Wales and Australia they'll need to get that balance right.
C'mon England.
At the end of the day we want England to survive long enough to meet us and then we can be the ones to do them.

I can't speak for anyone else but I had no problem with Barnes. Colonel Toland however....

For a supposedly weak game by England they got a 4 try bonus. Result. Not sure Fiji will be as strong throughout, so real result.

[johng]

Wales are like so funked and stuff.

Australia play Fiji in 5 days. They will get a 5 pointer. Perfectly poised to take advantage of Fiji's naivety and tiredness. Wales play Engerland next week and then Fiji 4or5 days later.

Australia will then play England to see who is first and second.

[hugonaut]

People in this country really need to get over this ABE thing.
Barnes who wasn't a neutral was far more balanced in his comments than Toland, the alledged neutral.
It was cringe worthy. If I met Barnes I'd be tempted to apologise.
England were using this game as a training stint for a more high tempo game.
They moved the ball too soon and too often.
They didn't use their forward power until the last 15 mins.
The officials handled the game pretty well considering how nervous everyone must have been.
England can beat Wales and Australia but not playing a high tempo game for 80 mins.
Tonight they did not earn the right to move the ball as much as they did.
Against Wales and Australia they'll need to get that balance right.
C'mon England.
At the end of the day we want England to survive long enough to meet us and then we can be the ones to do them.

I thought it was a very interesting game. England didn't play that well for quite a while, but came out of it with four tries. I thought that Fiji were better than the result, and am delighted that they're not in our group. I didn't see much [or any] disparity in terms of strength between the sides, and would have given the Fijians the edge in explosive power for much of the first hour. Their set pieces were much better than I expected too. I expect them to give Wales a really hard-fought game.

From the English side of things, you could view the substitutions two ways: either Lancaster timed them extremely well, with heavyweights Billy Vunipola, Launchbury and Sam Burgess all making a strong impact when they came on to the pitch [as well as a positive showing from Owen Farrell], or else his starting selection was miscalculated, i.e. flawed.

Barritt and Morgan didn't give much during their time on the pitch, and Parling was ordinary enough. It will be difficult for those lads to justify their starting positions for the Welsh game.

[Dexter]

What about Jonny May jumping into tackles? I don't think there's any specific law against it but is it not normally penalised?

[simonokeeffe]

What about Jonny May jumping into tackles? I don't think there's any specific law against it but is it not normally penalised?

he did jump into it but the penalty would have been reversed for the tip

England will be fine as long as all their games are against teams with no kicker, no tighthead, and Nikola Matawalu at scrumhalf

Big question is will both teams choke/feel the pressure of the occassion like that again, England maybe but think Fiji will relax a bit

Australia will be rubbing their hands, Pocock & Hooper will destroy England at the breakdown

England lucky to nab the bonus point too which could well be important in this group

[domhnallj]

What about Jonny May jumping into tackles? I don't think there's any specific law against it but is it not normally penalised?

he did jump into it but the penalty would have been reversed for the tip

England will be fine as long as all their games are against teams with no kicker, no tighthead, and Nikola Matawalu at scrumhalf

Big question is will both teams choke/feel the pressure of the occassion like that again, England maybe but think Fiji will relax a bit

Australia will be rubbing their hands, Pocock & Hooper will destroy England at the breakdown

England lucky to nab the bonus point too which could well be important in this group

Can see Wales targeting the breakdown too.

[simonokeeffe]

What about Jonny May jumping into tackles? I don't think there's any specific law against it but is it not normally penalised?

he did jump into it but the penalty would have been reversed for the tip

England will be fine as long as all their games are against teams with no kicker, no tighthead, and Nikola Matawalu at scrumhalf

Big question is will both teams choke/feel the pressure of the occassion like that again, England maybe but think Fiji will relax a bit

Australia will be rubbing their hands, Pocock & Hooper will destroy England at the breakdown

England lucky to nab the bonus point too which could well be important in this group

Can see Wales targeting the breakdown too.

yes but dont think they can to the same extent as they dont have the personnel, Warburton will have a giant red X on him, Jenkins only other player they have thats stood out to me as being good on the deck

a more effective tool might be making England think they are going to compete and force England to commit too many men; against us they did that well by flooding some breakdowns and completely ignoring others

[LeRouxIsPHat]

What about Jonny May jumping into tackles? I don't think there's any specific law against it but is it not normally penalised?

It was incredibly obvious live, so how the officials managed to miss it continuously was astonishing. Given how they went back and checked so much, missing that one entirely was a joke.

When you think that England's first and last trys shouldn't have been allowed, they were very lucky. The more I think about the game, the more I think that England won because of Fiji's mistakes. They didn't put their own stamp on it at all. The starting pack and Ford were anonymous. May and Brown were the only players who I would say played well.

No doubt they'll improve, but I'd agree with Hugonaut about Parling, Morgan, and Barritt being under pressure after their performances. It's a bit ridiculous to have that kind of question mark around a fifth of your team because their replacements aren't really like for like, they'll actually change the style of play somewhat. You could possibly add the halfbacks into that too.

[nelly the elephant]

yes but dont think they can to the same extent as they dont have the personnel, Warburton will have a giant red X on him, Jenkins only other player they have thats stood out to me as being good on the deck

a more effective tool might be making England think they are going to compete and force England to commit too many men; against us they did that well by flooding some breakdowns and completely ignoring others

Tipuric as well, surely??

[simonokeeffe]

yes but dont think they can to the same extent as they dont have the personnel, Warburton will have a giant red X on him, Jenkins only other player they have thats stood out to me as being good on the deck

a more effective tool might be making England think they are going to compete and force England to commit too many men; against us they did that well by flooding some breakdowns and completely ignoring others

Tipuric as well, surely??

Lydiate will start, its Gatland, Tipuric will get 5 minutes at most unless its man the lifeboats time

[Fireworks]

Early in the second half when it was 18 -8 I could see Fiji still in with a shout and England doing nothing to be scared of. What would have been interesting is if the TMO had looked at the first try correctly and disallowed it for the truck and trailer plus the penalty against Fiji for something the ref came up with when all I could see was a perfect steal and the English guy on the ground not releasing. It would have been interesting to see them 8-8 with 20 to go. As it was Fiji were too far behind and England managed to strangle the game.

[jezzer]

People in this country really need to get over this ABE thing.
Barnes who wasn't a neutral was far more balanced in his comments than Toland, the alledged neutral.
It was cringe worthy. If I met Barnes I'd be tempted to apologise.
England were using this game as a training stint for a more high tempo game.
They moved the ball too soon and too often.
They didn't use their forward power until the last 15 mins.
The officials handled the game pretty well considering how nervous everyone must have been.
England can beat Wales and Australia but not playing a high tempo game for 80 mins.
Tonight they did not earn the right to move the ball as much as they did.
Against Wales and Australia they'll need to get that balance right.
C'mon England.
At the end of the day we want England to survive long enough to meet us and then we can be the ones to do them.

I thought it was a very interesting game. England didn't play that well for quite a while, but came out of it with four tries. I thought that Fiji were better than the result, and am delighted that they're not in our group. I didn't see much [or any] disparity in terms of strength between the sides, and would have given the Fijians the edge in explosive power for much of the first hour. Their set pieces were much better than I expected too. I expect them to give Wales a really hard-fought game.

From the English side of things, you could view the substitutions two ways: either Lancaster timed them extremely well, with heavyweights Billy Vunipola, Launchbury and Sam Burgess all making a strong impact when they came on to the pitch [as well as a positive showing from Owen Farrell], or else his starting selection was miscalculated, i.e. flawed.

Barritt and Morgan didn't give much during their time on the pitch, and Parling was ordinary enough. It will be difficult for those lads to justify their starting positions for the Welsh game.

Fiji had enough territory and possession to win that game, but they couldn't help themselves with the Hollywood balls and the blind alleys. For a team that spent the last three months in preparation, their lack of structure was pretty appalling. They're absolute monsters, they have some key players who could theoretically put some shape to their game, but they just dissolved into a bit of a mess. They really should have won it.

England never had control of it, but they were smart enough to do with their possession what Fiji couldn't do with theirs. France and Fiji have both shown that an unstructured game doesn't suit England, but it's a fine line between being unstructured and being a rabble. To get out with a win and no injuries against 15 dumptrucks is a great result for England.

Frickin Matawalu dropping the ball over the line ruined my fantasy result! Seriously, that kid is the South Sea Mike Phillips - cr@p scrummie, great rugby player.

[simonokeeffe]

Matawalu will score 4 tries against Uruguay and do nothing else in the tournament

They just need a workmanlike 9 to get the ball to those backs

[The Doc]

What about Jonny May jumping into tackles? I don't think there's any specific law against it but is it not normally penalised?

I thought so - dangerous play?

[simonokeeffe]

What about Jonny May jumping into tackles? I don't think there's any specific law against it but is it not normally penalised?

I thought so - dangerous play?

it was up there with screaming at a player catching a kick for schoolboy rugby penalties

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I was incredulous at May not being penalised for that but JDV did it against Japan and the ref mentioned it but didn't penalise him. He just said that it contributed to a tip tackle of sorts so let the Japanese player off but didn't do anything against JDV, so maybe the law has been changed?

[nc6000]

What about Jonny May jumping into tackles? I don't think there's any specific law against it but is it not normally penalised?

That's what I was saying while watching the game. He jumped into the tackle which wasn't allowed back when I was playing.