Sunday, November 30, 2008

England fail to put the wheels back on the hand cart

From England v NZ 2008
England where going to need all the luck in the world to pull of a shock recovery after two heavy defeats - and to break my jinx of them failing to win on every occasion I've had the privilege to watch them live! Maybe I'm using all the luck up getting tickets - I'd not expected to be at the final match of the Autumn - but thanks to SUN, I not only had a ticket but a free lunch, and drinks to drown the sorrows of a third defeat to the southern hemisphere.
As some had predicted the game started as a kicking match - everything possible kicked from hand - by both sides. Leading to a lack of any flare or entertaining play from either side. Then the ref intervened, and the yellow cards for England started flowing. By the end of the match England would have played half the match with a man missing! Yet again England went in at half time in touch with the opposition, and but for a tap tackle would have taken the lead shortly after the break. But partially due to the yellow cards they quickly lost control in the second half as the All Black disappear in to the distance - but unfortunately not enough for the 30 point defeat I put in the sweep - it would have been consolation for the final nail in the coffin England hand managed to turn the chariot into!

So the conclusions from the three matches are:
  • South Africa are currently the strongest side in the world - they are world champions after all.
  • England need to learn to play to the interpretation of rules the ref is playing to, to avoid giving away more points than they can score themselves.
  • England need to strengthen their defence - in both the Australia and All Blacks matches England had plenty of opportunities to score - but put themselves under too much pressure and relieved the pressure on the opposition by not being able to hold them whenever they cross England 22 - both Australia and New Zealand scored far to easily - and the Boks played as if England U16 where defending the goal line!

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