« The scrum doctor » Mike Cron au chevet des Wallabies

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Taylor > Aumua

Newell > Tosi

Paddy c

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Cane

Lio-Willie

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Roigard > TJP

Dmac

Clarke

ALB > Havili

AJ Lam

Reiko

Perofeta > Love

The Top 14 doesn't just have a bigger playing population (actually less than England I thought) they have to distribute it over two divisions of teams. Stars often come out of Div2 unlike in England (to my knowledge). Agreed, Englands teams are getting very drilled and a lot of them have turned the corner on how they play rugby. Should only keep England close to the top (ofc that's not good enough for them lol).

I think the catch itself is a hard as but he should have been in that space. That said I think it was ALBs role to be in that space and Rieko wanted to be behind him (by their playbook).

It's that lack of instinct at center, and of a few of it's core skills that I also agreed in general. While I really rate his contribution the way the All Blacks have played it would have been far more beneficial to have a center with different skillsets/strenghts. Do we have one though? Idk. Certainly can't see Lester being it in a few years, hes more of the same.

That other tip he missed from RD in midfield should have been a pass though. A little firmer and it's right on Rieko's chest.

I don't think BB had a page for anyone else to even be on. When you say the try was on, I think in half a dozen different ways and that's what caused his indecision.

I can blame ALB for that one though. Because BB held the ball on his first line (what he had been doing since he came on the field, running straight and hard) he then starts to slide with BB. ALB should have just kept running straight, as I think you're probably right, that's what BB was looking for by holding onto the ball and taking a few more steps there, and the would have gone right to him and who knows what unfolds. Certainly something better than what did happen.

Of course we know BB can't read a pass for sh!t and lobs it right in the middle of two players who have no clue what he's trying to do. I felt live he should have passed straight away to Reiko or run much closer to those two forward defenders (inc the guy sprinting across) and hope someones hitting a gap and pass at the line (line Dmac would). I think he took away the options of that initial intent his two targets had (whatever they were, I can't imagine they were anything more than ALB hit it up, Reiko run it wide around the back) and it became the 'second half' lottery after that. If thats within the first 20 minutes they're on the same page/more structured and it's a score.

15. Furbank

14. Murley

13. Northmore

12. Lawrence

11. Sleighthome

10. Smith (M)

9. Randall

1. Baxter

2. George

3. Stuart

4. Coles

5. Martin

6. Hill

7. Underhill

8. Earl

16. Opoku-Fordjour

17. Dan

18. Davidson

19. Itoji

20. Cunningham-South

21. Van-Poortfleet

22. Smith (F)

23. Roebuck

I really do understand your point of view but I'm absolutely convinced these coaches are not capable of improving England and I believe we have a lot more potential.

If I implied England were brutally efficient against NZ, that's not what I meant. England were terrible against NZ. The only time we got even close to scoring a try was an interception, we snatched and missed 3 drop goals because we had no idea how to penetrate your defence and if it weren't for some uncharacteristic errors then NZ would have put 40+ on the board as you've said. There are some things we did well of course. Some of the collisions were pretty brutal but efficient is not a word that applies to that performance.

Ikitau was back in full training with the Brumbies as the Wallabies played their first pool match - and then was named and played for the Barbarians.

And several injured players still named in the RWC squad never got on the field, or only played one game..

I feel the same way regarding Scott Hansen the All Blacks attack coach. Defence coach? We don't have one after the attack coach left and Scott changed from defence. Imagine that, a defence coach who can also coach the worlds best attacking teams attack?!? At least I think that's how it went down, all local chums from wayback. No Tony Brown. No Joe Schmidt.

I highly contest you're judgement that you where brutally efficient. The All Blacks cut you up like a sieve and could easily have scored 40 or 50 on you in that first test especially. Two especially badly blown tries, but that's been the case all season, so don't let it affect your idea of the result. England were as close and as good as any team the All Blacks have come up against this year. Just that while the blitz was.. well, blitzing, it was not very effective overall. That's not just a All Black level thing either, I've seen the same holes all season.

I think you've just not adapted very well to the focus no longer being on that one aspect. The picture is no longer crystal clear to you (and may not be to them either yet). The other aspect I see, as we have in the past, is a guy (two actually) that could not get a Super Rugby gig has become one of your best players in just a year or so. You really believe you've got a lot of talent over there? Good on you if you believe you do, I guess what I'm saying is you should believe you do, even if you don't, like in regards to this coaching talent. When you've got a player like Underhill not being selected for inferior others, I listen, I understand, like when Foster got elected when we had Razor. I'm not seeing that now and I cant recall you mentioning once who should be there, so just get onboard with your coaches immediately so you don't make the situation worse than it already is. Don't do 2015 all over again!

You have highlighted the absurdity of that idea yourself by placing the JLRO up on that same Top 14 metric.

Even looking introspectively it's foley to think the Top 14 is the best product it can be.

We've already been over this. Obviously you can argue what 'best' means in the context of French viewership, and what you seem to be arguing in favour of, the business's, the broadcasters and sponsors. What they want could vary by the competing networks and sports, viewing hours and days (very different in a country like India for example), slot priority, etc, etc. I was specifically talking about the context above and how that can show French supporters they don't need to be lumped with what they've got, that they shouldn't think it needs to stay the way it is because it must "obviously" be the best way. It's not. It doesn't.