RWC 2015: Pool A discussion

You kick more in union because possession is less important. In league, you are given a set amount of possession and you can only get more by a goal line drop out or by a penalty. In union possession is always contestable so it is worth sacrificing some of it to get territory. Some of the kicking from both England and Wales in this game was very poor - not enough contestable kicks.

 

I'd have had Nowell there. Our wingers looked pretty tired at the end imo - and while our back 3 is phenomenal atm - May and Watson did a lot of work today with the sheer amount of kicking

 

Yeah but we're talking Northern Hemisphere rugby here....the All Blacks/ rugby in NZ is an exception that we can afford to keep ball in hand. Heck I'm even more use to it being a Canes fan. We live on no territory at all, not so bad this year however.

More just a general rule of thumb, you want to play in their half, not your own.

 

I think Burgess kicked twice. His first kick was in the first half and was okay under pressure but the second kick was a bit unnecessary.

If Farrell plays like that against us next week, you will probably lose. Folau just does not drop kicks - kicking to Folau is just a pointless waste of time. Same with Adam Ashley-Cooper, to a lesser extent. If Quade Cooper plays (which he shouldn't) he will defend at fullback and you want to bomb the shit out of him. When we played South Africa earlier in the year, they kicked to Folau all night. He caught all of them.

 

Agree with all your points. As I say Folau will rip England a new hole. He's the demise of their style of rugby. Very key figure to getting the win for Aus over them. AAC is a solid, well balanced player that does what you ask of him. Highly rate him.

 

The loss of Williams will hurt Wales. The loss of Amos is meaningless he was a muppet all night. The loss of the centre will also hurt but North to centre will probably be on the cards I guess at this point.

But yes came online to say - GET FUCKEN IN THERE WALES! I thought they would make it out of this pool. Still not guaranteed to do so. But this is a good step.

That was a game of the ages. Good enough to be a world cup final. I don't understand people who say they didn't like that match. It was classic rugby straight out of the 1980s - territory leading to penalties.

Those hit ups from Roberts were sweet to watch. And watching Burgess just man up and swallow them and not yield a fucking inch will be a lasting memory for me from the world cup.

Look the only real thing I want to contribute to the thread is this story and then a couple of follow up points.

I tuned in to watch the stanley cup final a few years ago on ESPN. The Detroit Red wings were up against someone, probably Boston.
Boston didn't dump and chase on one play and just did a lazy flip in past the blue line. It shouldn't have mattered but Detroit took the puck and skated up the other end and a got a shot on net. That didn't result in a goal. But it was a small shift in momentum. 5 minutes later Detroit scored. The final score was 3-2 in the game and the analysts blamed that lazy flip in as starting it all. You make a mental error at the top level and 5 minutes later the other team will score and then not look back.
Where am I going with this.

England were on attack 5 metres inside Welsh territory. The league convert Burgess gets the ball and instead of hitting it up he takes it upon himself to do an aimless kick and give away possession. 3 minutes later Wales get a penalty and they establish momentum and never look back. Little moments are big moments. Be brilliant in the basics. That kick was unacceptable. He has no business kicking. He should be an impact player only and not trusted to play 80 minutes until he gets more game time under his belt.

Other small moments.

Wales number 6 is it Dan Lydiate - was the difference up front. Massive tackling performance. Number 6s are real rugby men. They are in the team for one reason and that is to tackle. Some of the hits the number 6 put in were huge and made England lose metres.

Vunipola going off the field. Possibly my man of the match despite coming from the losing team. He was everywhere. Very intelligent performance and played like a big man should play. When he went off I knew that was it for England.

Ford coming on to the field. Aimless kicks that led to another Wales penalty. He had no game plan. Farrell needed to stay at 10 for the duration. I do have time for Ford as a 10, but Farrell was the general running the show and you don't sub him with the score line like that. Good game by Owen one or two mistakes not withstanding.

The Kick for the corner, I could go either way on it. The kick would have been on a tough angle.

Dan Biggar - Wales' man of the match. Clutch kicking and looked like a world class number 10. Massive step up in quality over what Priestland would have done out there.

Wooohooo.

 

I actually said "Oh fuck off!" to the TV at that point. Such a shit decision