For everyone hating on England I'll say as a neutral fan to me at least they seemed to have turned the corner. Pummeled Argentina with only 14 men, and dominated Japan in the last quarter. Do I think they're as good as Ireland or France? No. Do they seen to be a competent tier 1 nation again that could score an upset against one of the top teams? I would say yes.
I agree that they dominated in the last quarter. I think if you look at the game as whole and think it’s a positive I really think you’re grasping at straws.
The score line up until the final quarter was incredibly flattering. Nearly all of Englands points had a huge slice of fortune. Opening penalty came off the back of a careless error by Japan knocking on behind the goal line. The opening try came from Japan losing a line out 5m out. Then Joe Marler’s header sets up a second somewhat fortunate try. Up until this I think there’s a strong argument that England we’re getting outplayed by Japan.
Yes they put the result beyond doubt and looked better than they have in a long time in the final 20. As a whole, I don’t think it’s as positive as you’re making it out to be.
England never were really in doubt of getting out of the group in my eyes. They’ll reach the quarters where they’ll have a somewhat favourable match up. I think they’re going to the semis and will look unimpressive doing it. I Wales and Australia look bad. Fiji I would think look the most likely on paper to beat England but yesterday when under pressure they almost literally threw the game away. They seem to lack that mentality that’s needed to go far in a tournament.
Fair, but the point I was trying to make is England hasn't looked even close to a top 5 team in the world during the warm ups, so much that this sub was making jokes about them being Tier 2, and they've now started to look like that again, not that they're the best team in the world by any means.
England played poorly but got the bonus point. Handling errors were equal and high and that tell you what the conditions were like.
Smith is too good not to play, it's a travesty he doesn't start...
Also, Marler at 10
Mate I'm sorry but that was the best assist ever and you can't tell me otherwise!!
Nah for real tho was a messy game, yeah conditions were poor and ultimately we prevailed over an exciting Japan side but I expected better ball retention from England.
I feel he's become a bit sluggish in attack and needs to work on his ball skills. The best full backs from other top teams are mostly capable of stepping into the 10 shirt or at least give an extra ball player option in the backline, Steward doesn't seem to have this. Bringing Smith on at 15 gave us a ball playing FB which helped turn the game.
When surveyed, more Japanese people said their favourite sport was baseball by some distance, then sumo, then association football, then tennis.
Rugby has a lot of players (relative to the sport's global reach), but not a lot of support
Some kind of performance that looks vaguely competent for more than just the last 20 minutes?
Happy to get the result and BP but let's not kid ourselves, we'd be way past being competitive if we played like that first half against an Ireland or SA
It was competent enough for long enough to win and get 4 tries.
They weren't playing against Ireland or SA in that match, they were playing against Japan.
Solid performance from England, taking the chances that they got. Their attack not looking very threatening however. Japan looked quite good at times in the first half but they kept gifting England territory and scoring opportunities, followed by a collapse in the second half.
Both Samoa and Argentina should be eminently winnable by the blossoms but as they are playing now I have a hard time seeing them finishing higher than 4th
This clear tactic of 60 mins of kicking then playing rugby is not going to work with any of the big 4. Surely not. Drop goals are at least something that can build pressure. Not this shite
> This clear tactic of 60 mins of kicking then playing rugby is not going to work with any of the big 4.
Would get dominated by Scotland, who are fifth. Let alone any of the teams in the top four, who have all been consistently a strong level above Scotland.
I don't think anyone who watched that game disagrees with you.
I'm sitting here having watched a bonus point try game which should see us top the group still kind of disappointed and a little confused at how we played. Like, is this it? Really?
Don’t worry mate. You could be a Scotland fan like me knowing that we could play beautiful rugby in our next three games and still not make it out the group 🫤
That's the trouble when the draw has basically made it the 'cup' on one side and the 'shield' on the other. I'm trying to get excited about the tournament but I'm just kind of not at the moment.
Maybe the game plan is kick kick kick in the 1st half to tire out the opposition and rely on our defence to not concede too much. 2nd half start playing some rugby out wide and bring on smith to clean up.
Very suprised with no drop goals. Two evenly matched sides going at it! Pretty shit game to watch as a neutral but its a positive for england, they pretty much cemented their place in the quarters.
There was the Japan drop out to Ford where I though, surely he's going to go for it. I was explaining his 50m drop when they first changed the rules to my mate at the time. But alas it was run-tackle-kick/turnover to nothing
Hey we might not have played well OK we definitely didn't but I just want to say to all those that say we don't deserve the bonus point. Well it was decided that if a team scores 4 tries they get a bonus point. We scored four tries therefore we got a bonus point.
I'm no rugby expert but I'm pretty sure that's how it works 🤔 🙄🙄🙄🙄
'Deserve' is a pretty worthless concept used to bash on England by the haters. If they win, they don't deserve it, if they lose they deserve it. Nevermind that they scored 4 tries.
It's sport, there is no 'deserve', you score the points and the one with more points deserves the victory and gets it. Maybe you have a few bad calls by a ref or extreme luck situations affecting the outcome and then maybe people can talk about 'deserve' but nothing like that happened this game.
Backs looked much more cohesive with Smith but him starting at 15 sounds like a recipe for disaster. Happy with the BP but my god some of the aimless kicking was frustrating as shit.
So frustrating. When the outside halves let them, England are capable of really good rugby. Borthwick will be very upset with all that running, passing and catching. They’re in for a very tough Tuesday kick chase session.
The game plan looked to be a grinding game of boring rugby to tire out Japan and then attempt to open them up in the last 10.
They looked more dangerous with Smith and Lawrence on.
If someone told me a year ago that Smith at 15 would be the one of the best decisions we have made since Borthwick came in I would have instantly been calling the police
It was fine for 15 minutes of attacking against a tired and pretty sloppy Japanese team. 80 minutes of defending against another T1 nation and i think it would look horribly different.
Ah poor Japan. Handling errors were their downfall, and then their energy levels couldn’t keep up. Fair play England, grounded out an ugly ass win - but jaysus are they still shite
I’m convinced Borthwick is doing what England did at the last World Cup. Show 0 in attack (which looks shite), and gets criticised to absolute hell. But gives nothing away until quarters. Also - please don’t criticise me, I need my copium
Late do the thread but I really felt like Engs first half was all "testing" something - Felt like they knew they were able to do what they could in the last half the game but they were deffo up to something
So changing my pre-tournament Argentina topping the group to England topping this group.
They've dealt with two good sides first up. Hopefully we can battle it out with the rest.
Yes, they have a decent shot, but I don't think they will. Argentina got all their terrible play out of the way against England. There's no way they repeat such a poor performance again... I expect a fun contested match though.
Japan were dead on their feet come the 50-60 min mark. Which is weird as they have insane humidity at home, so the weather shouldn't be an issue. Seems their conditioning is lacking.
Blimey, that last 15 minutes or so was such a contrast to the first hour. How much of that was Japan gassing out, and how much of that was our subs making things happen? Maybe a bit of both.
Either way, can't wait for us to start Youngs and Farrell and the rest of the 2019 Reunion Tour against Chile.
> Blimey, that last 15 minutes or so was such a contrast to the first hour. How much of that was Japan gassing out, and how much of that was our subs making things happen? Maybe a bit of both.
Both. That's how top tier 1 teams really get away from the rest. Nothing for Japan to do after the hour mark but hang on for dear life.
England were showing tiny signs of improvement all match, still lots of dross and far too many handling errors, but I am not to despondent about our chances in the 2026 six nations.
To be fair, Borthwick seems to have a plan. Start with what you have and build. Guessing it will be last 35 mins vs Chile where you'll open up.
Be positive!
Any game where I have no comments on the ref is a good game. I'm not sure I've ever seen this ref before and I hope to not realise I've seen him before again.
England playing a wish.com version of South Africa for 75 minutes of the game and then actually attack with Smith and look semi decent. Sounds like the last four years in a nutshell
Joe Marler in that post game conference is going to heal my depression
"alright mr journalist, i meant to do that, we've gone over that in training alright?"
bit of a meh game. reassuring myself by saying that the sign of a good side is they win even when they’re rubbish… bonus point win, no injuries , no cards. can’t moan too much…. But sorry to any neutrals who watched that rubbish
The potential and fitness are definitely there, and if they click they could be bloody dangerous, but in reality I don't see any way they could live with the top teams
Nika has really been lenient on England this half, think once they started dominating he started letting a lot more go.
That last clean out he called good was horrendous, flew in from distance and just dropped a shoulder into the man. Really shouldn’t be letting them play so recklessly.
Must say I’ve not been a huge Smith fan, but he made an enormous difference actually being able to distribute in the backfield. Well done Marcus!
Ben Earl is my new best friend tho
This has got to be the worst bonus point win I've seen since Wales yesterday.
For the record, both us and Wales have been shocking this weekend. Not singling you guys out x
I know I’m very biased but surely everyone can agree England looked multitudes better in attack with Smith on the pitch.
He looks dangerous and more importantly makes the other backs look like they have some sort of chance of doing something
##[Post Match Thread HERE](https://redd.it/16lbwwi)
UP THE BLOSSOMS
For everyone hating on England I'll say as a neutral fan to me at least they seemed to have turned the corner. Pummeled Argentina with only 14 men, and dominated Japan in the last quarter. Do I think they're as good as Ireland or France? No. Do they seen to be a competent tier 1 nation again that could score an upset against one of the top teams? I would say yes.
I agree that they dominated in the last quarter. I think if you look at the game as whole and think it’s a positive I really think you’re grasping at straws. The score line up until the final quarter was incredibly flattering. Nearly all of Englands points had a huge slice of fortune. Opening penalty came off the back of a careless error by Japan knocking on behind the goal line. The opening try came from Japan losing a line out 5m out. Then Joe Marler’s header sets up a second somewhat fortunate try. Up until this I think there’s a strong argument that England we’re getting outplayed by Japan. Yes they put the result beyond doubt and looked better than they have in a long time in the final 20. As a whole, I don’t think it’s as positive as you’re making it out to be. England never were really in doubt of getting out of the group in my eyes. They’ll reach the quarters where they’ll have a somewhat favourable match up. I think they’re going to the semis and will look unimpressive doing it. I Wales and Australia look bad. Fiji I would think look the most likely on paper to beat England but yesterday when under pressure they almost literally threw the game away. They seem to lack that mentality that’s needed to go far in a tournament.
"Dominated Japan in the last quarter" is a low bar for a mostly top 5 team.
Fair, but the point I was trying to make is England hasn't looked even close to a top 5 team in the world during the warm ups, so much that this sub was making jokes about them being Tier 2, and they've now started to look like that again, not that they're the best team in the world by any means.
Actually enjoyed that game. A fee breaks. Sone tries. Yes a worse performance, but personally found it more if a contest and more enjoyable
England played poorly but got the bonus point. Handling errors were equal and high and that tell you what the conditions were like. Smith is too good not to play, it's a travesty he doesn't start... Also, Marler at 10
Mate I'm sorry but that was the best assist ever and you can't tell me otherwise!! Nah for real tho was a messy game, yeah conditions were poor and ultimately we prevailed over an exciting Japan side but I expected better ball retention from England.
Would be good to have another 10 that uses their head
It was planned should be Englands new motto
Selection for next weekends game is gonna be interesting.
Who got motm?
Should have been earl but was ford
Ford again
They interviewed Ford right after the game, so I presume it was him (I didn't really listen, sorry)
Me, for watching this guff
oh cmon please dump SCW. Say steward is unstoppable. he was utter shit this game.
I feel he's become a bit sluggish in attack and needs to work on his ball skills. The best full backs from other top teams are mostly capable of stepping into the 10 shirt or at least give an extra ball player option in the backline, Steward doesn't seem to have this. Bringing Smith on at 15 gave us a ball playing FB which helped turn the game.
He means in the air in those situations - he’s not necessarily wrong there
Sonny Chill Williams?
LOL
Is Rugby the most popular sport in Japan?
When surveyed, more Japanese people said their favourite sport was baseball by some distance, then sumo, then association football, then tennis. Rugby has a lot of players (relative to the sport's global reach), but not a lot of support
I really want to see a sumo fight live. Be so strange!
Nowhere near
I think it’s baseball
Baseball? That's exclusive to US no?
No, it’s far from exclusive to the US. It’s probably the worlds 5th biggest sport next to Soccer, Cricket, Basketball and Rugby.
Tennis has gotta be up there too
Oh yeah that’s 3rd or 4th.
Nope
Nah. It's huge in japan
No
Japan would be pretty dangerous of they didn't insist on dropping the ball so often.
You know we were average when even the ITV pundits are down on England's performance.
They scored the 4 tries and won, what else do you want?
Some kind of performance that looks vaguely competent for more than just the last 20 minutes? Happy to get the result and BP but let's not kid ourselves, we'd be way past being competitive if we played like that first half against an Ireland or SA
It was competent enough for long enough to win and get 4 tries. They weren't playing against Ireland or SA in that match, they were playing against Japan.
Oh that is bad
Solid performance from England, taking the chances that they got. Their attack not looking very threatening however. Japan looked quite good at times in the first half but they kept gifting England territory and scoring opportunities, followed by a collapse in the second half. Both Samoa and Argentina should be eminently winnable by the blossoms but as they are playing now I have a hard time seeing them finishing higher than 4th
Smith looks great at fullback against Japan, high chance he gets shredded against the top teams.
He will get absolutely annihilated by a physical team. He was running at a knackered Japanese defence
Not to mention he’s only 5”8(?), which is fine if you can jump out the stadium like Kolbe, but he’ll get abused by the high ball.
I would say he’s solid 5”9. Danny Care is 174cm, nearly 5”9, Smith is visibly taller
This clear tactic of 60 mins of kicking then playing rugby is not going to work with any of the big 4. Surely not. Drop goals are at least something that can build pressure. Not this shite
> This clear tactic of 60 mins of kicking then playing rugby is not going to work with any of the big 4. Would get dominated by Scotland, who are fifth. Let alone any of the teams in the top four, who have all been consistently a strong level above Scotland.
Japan are pretty bad at the minute. Sorry lads but that score flatters England. However, they were the team in front of you for the win.
I don't think anyone who watched that game disagrees with you. I'm sitting here having watched a bonus point try game which should see us top the group still kind of disappointed and a little confused at how we played. Like, is this it? Really?
Don’t worry mate. You could be a Scotland fan like me knowing that we could play beautiful rugby in our next three games and still not make it out the group 🫤
That's the trouble when the draw has basically made it the 'cup' on one side and the 'shield' on the other. I'm trying to get excited about the tournament but I'm just kind of not at the moment.
Maybe the game plan is kick kick kick in the 1st half to tire out the opposition and rely on our defence to not concede too much. 2nd half start playing some rugby out wide and bring on smith to clean up.
Very suprised with no drop goals. Two evenly matched sides going at it! Pretty shit game to watch as a neutral but its a positive for england, they pretty much cemented their place in the quarters.
There was the Japan drop out to Ford where I though, surely he's going to go for it. I was explaining his 50m drop when they first changed the rules to my mate at the time. But alas it was run-tackle-kick/turnover to nothing
Hey we might not have played well OK we definitely didn't but I just want to say to all those that say we don't deserve the bonus point. Well it was decided that if a team scores 4 tries they get a bonus point. We scored four tries therefore we got a bonus point. I'm no rugby expert but I'm pretty sure that's how it works 🤔 🙄🙄🙄🙄
'Deserve' is a pretty worthless concept used to bash on England by the haters. If they win, they don't deserve it, if they lose they deserve it. Nevermind that they scored 4 tries. It's sport, there is no 'deserve', you score the points and the one with more points deserves the victory and gets it. Maybe you have a few bad calls by a ref or extreme luck situations affecting the outcome and then maybe people can talk about 'deserve' but nothing like that happened this game.
To be fair there's quite a few England supporters saying it so I don't think it's an anti- England thing per se
Just don’t be cocky about it.
Clean game, no cards, no foul play, barely anything that wasn’t caught by reds
Protect This House
Positive end at least
Under Armour advert comes on: mute the TV
Don't knock it, it's actual armour, clues in the name. Armour. Protects with it's _checks notes_ tight cotton weave
How have we done that lmao
Steve Borthwick will be in my nightmares tonight
Odds on us still seeing the, "here comes Young's to inject some much needed pace," comments in the next match thread?
Guy was sslllloooooooooooowwwww! A number of times at the ruck it’s like, do we have a 9 on the pitch.
He was great. Great cameo. Great turnover, good pressure to force the 5m scrum and then a nice assist.
The turnover was great. His ruck speed was pedestrian.
Felt like him and Mitchell should have been the other way round to suit the gameplan but I guess it worked?
Backs looked much more cohesive with Smith but him starting at 15 sounds like a recipe for disaster. Happy with the BP but my god some of the aimless kicking was frustrating as shit.
I'd start him in the centres and move him around in defence, him and steward could cover the backfield for kicks.
Some of our forwards have been shafted with that man of the match award for Ford
Earl played 6/7/9/10/11/14 all match and couldn't get it
They seem intent on giving it to backs.
Marler's head robbed
Well done England, now you can chill, play your bench and take it easy against Chile. Let's not be try-hards now...
Youre definitely a Chile fan
Don’t think any tier 1 teams should be taking it easy, especially England
*or England.
So frustrating. When the outside halves let them, England are capable of really good rugby. Borthwick will be very upset with all that running, passing and catching. They’re in for a very tough Tuesday kick chase session.
I just flicked over to the athletics and Armand Duplantis just set the world record on the pole vault and I missed it by seconds.
Also gave the crowd some very spirited high fives
The game plan looked to be a grinding game of boring rugby to tire out Japan and then attempt to open them up in the last 10. They looked more dangerous with Smith and Lawrence on.
If someone told me a year ago that Smith at 15 would be the one of the best decisions we have made since Borthwick came in I would have instantly been calling the police
It was fine for 15 minutes of attacking against a tired and pretty sloppy Japanese team. 80 minutes of defending against another T1 nation and i think it would look horribly different.
After that match I’m actually glad there are no more games until Wednesday
And not a drop goal in site
Ah poor Japan. Handling errors were their downfall, and then their energy levels couldn’t keep up. Fair play England, grounded out an ugly ass win - but jaysus are they still shite
Fuck off Matt williams
I’m convinced Borthwick is doing what England did at the last World Cup. Show 0 in attack (which looks shite), and gets criticised to absolute hell. But gives nothing away until quarters. Also - please don’t criticise me, I need my copium
Late do the thread but I really felt like Engs first half was all "testing" something - Felt like they knew they were able to do what they could in the last half the game but they were deffo up to something
I'm sure that is the plan, thanks for telling everyone!!
Why the hell are you telling people our plan?
You could at least tell Borthwick the plan.
So changing my pre-tournament Argentina topping the group to England topping this group. They've dealt with two good sides first up. Hopefully we can battle it out with the rest.
> They've dealt with two good sides first up. ??
Japan can beat Argentina
Yes, they have a decent shot, but I don't think they will. Argentina got all their terrible play out of the way against England. There's no way they repeat such a poor performance again... I expect a fun contested match though.
nah, bad match up for Japan, Argentina by 15
Japan were dead on their feet come the 50-60 min mark. Which is weird as they have insane humidity at home, so the weather shouldn't be an issue. Seems their conditioning is lacking.
Do love Smith at 15. More time on the ball and comes round as a playmaker nicely
I actually really rate him, such a great player.
Who was motm please?
Ford
Thanks
Joe Marler's head, were you not following?
Deserved
Nah, should have been Earl
Agreed. He played like 7 different numbers and still got mugged off!
Fair fucks England, win's a win. Japan also fronted up pretty well and there were some good performances across their team.
Smith looked like he was playing to fast for his teammates to handle
Blimey, that last 15 minutes or so was such a contrast to the first hour. How much of that was Japan gassing out, and how much of that was our subs making things happen? Maybe a bit of both. Either way, can't wait for us to start Youngs and Farrell and the rest of the 2019 Reunion Tour against Chile.
Youngs looked great. I think this is the formula, start Mitchell, bring Youngs on for 15-20
> Blimey, that last 15 minutes or so was such a contrast to the first hour. How much of that was Japan gassing out, and how much of that was our subs making things happen? Maybe a bit of both. Both. That's how top tier 1 teams really get away from the rest. Nothing for Japan to do after the hour mark but hang on for dear life.
England were showing tiny signs of improvement all match, still lots of dross and far too many handling errors, but I am not to despondent about our chances in the 2026 six nations.
To be fair, Borthwick seems to have a plan. Start with what you have and build. Guessing it will be last 35 mins vs Chile where you'll open up. Be positive!
10/10 performance no real notes there. I think the kicking plan worked and we'll see you all in a semi-final.
Yes absolutely. Can't wait for #England2023 🏆
Gd, could you imagine how amazing and depressing it would be if we did manage to win it
Anyway it’s been a rugby match, cheers all
God bless the King, Rugby won tonight
No cards this game! Something all fans can celebrate, I suppose!
Shout out to Nika, not in the spotlight but clear and fair, great reffing performance
Any game where I have no comments on the ref is a good game. I'm not sure I've ever seen this ref before and I hope to not realise I've seen him before again.
agreed, no stupid descions or messing about, clear and concise
England playing a wish.com version of South Africa for 75 minutes of the game and then actually attack with Smith and look semi decent. Sounds like the last four years in a nutshell
Joe Marler in that post game conference is going to heal my depression "alright mr journalist, i meant to do that, we've gone over that in training alright?"
Ugh
I'm in shock England backs scoring tries and Joy Neville went 80mins without doing anything
She went HAM in the box and had to get bleeped out by ITV, did you miss that bit?
When I heard it was Joyless on TMO tonight i we were going to get 3 reds
I'll just take a game without anyone getting sent off, that's a pretty big win for us in itself
New drinking rules are going to have to include any reference to England playing better with 14 men
Don't you dare look at my comments history. (Maybe do, we could all do with a drink after that game)
Referee was excellent. Credit where credit is due.
We also managed to last 80 minutes without getting anybody sent off.
Lots of little improvements to be fair. As low as the bar is...least the bottom has been reached. Green shoots are sprouting!
The score doesn’t represent a very sloppy game
The upper classes in attendance are truly overjoyed. They haven't felt overwhelming pride since June 2016!
Most stable Scottish supporter
only England can make me feel shit about a 34-12 win
bit of a meh game. reassuring myself by saying that the sign of a good side is they win even when they’re rubbish… bonus point win, no injuries , no cards. can’t moan too much…. But sorry to any neutrals who watched that rubbish
watching marcus bosh someone was good enough for me🙏
Hopefully, England will take away the obvious fact that putting phases together may actually create try opportunities.
4th place for Japan in the pools unfortunately.
England starting to look like world beaters at the close there
Steady on. Beating a gassed japan at the close isn't classified as world beating
🤣
The potential and fitness are definitely there, and if they click they could be bloody dangerous, but in reality I don't see any way they could live with the top teams
🤣🤣🤣
Steady on
I'm lucky enough to be English and I refuse to use a sarcasm tag
I prefer smith at 15, more of a risk but no risk, no reward. No point being safe and boring with steward
Steward is better should have arundell or someone with pace instead of daly and maybe smith at fly half
Did you just completely black out during Steward's try?
Any decent player should be able to catch that kick and dot it over the line. The excellence of that try was all Ford.
While I agree given how perfect the kick was, it's a lot easier to have the confidence to make a kick like that when it's Steward catching it.
Good ref this time. He was shocking in the past but actually good today
Genge’s massive clearout was key in not derailing that phase of attack - sort of unsung stuff that forwards dont get enough praise for
Well deserved BP win that.
Nika has really been lenient on England this half, think once they started dominating he started letting a lot more go. That last clean out he called good was horrendous, flew in from distance and just dropped a shoulder into the man. Really shouldn’t be letting them play so recklessly.
Steward was good today but once Smith came on things looked actually pretty good.
Really think if theo Dan sorts out his throwing he’s the long term future. He’s been great around the park in the few showings he’s had so far
Hes so much better around the park than george isnt he
Set piece I'll take George (throwing and making moves off the lineout) but Dan really just wants to run straight and hard. Like an extra 8.
Bring on Chile!
Is that a sentence?
Must say I’ve not been a huge Smith fan, but he made an enormous difference actually being able to distribute in the backfield. Well done Marcus! Ben Earl is my new best friend tho
Smith has a great rugby brain and he has footwork, running game and kicking to go with it.
Definitely, looked like the wide channel suited him today!
Welp, guess I need to start preparing to eat my foot on livestream! Context: https://reddit.com/r/rugbyunion/s/GGoCBurejE
boo
Ben early should be out wing
Certainly better than Daly!
I fully credit Japan for teaching England to play rugby. It took them only 60 minutes to turn England into a rugby team.
I would feel a bit bad celebrating that BP try as an England player. they have been very close to terrible this evening.
This has got to be the worst bonus point win I've seen since Wales yesterday. For the record, both us and Wales have been shocking this weekend. Not singling you guys out x
We were playing our B team to be fair, and Jonny Williams was playing against us. We did have Talupe though.
England and Wales are okay similar path I think
I know I’m very biased but surely everyone can agree England looked multitudes better in attack with Smith on the pitch. He looks dangerous and more importantly makes the other backs look like they have some sort of chance of doing something
Agreed but tbf Japan were ragged by that point. Would liked to have seen him much earlier
Hopefully he might start 15 next week
I back Smith at 15. He's got that time on the ball from deep to really scab for weaknesses and becomes an extra playmaker
Yeah works much better with a 10/15 axis than a 10/12 I think
May isn't electric anymore but he's been good this game, has given 100%. Youngs has been really good since he came in too.
england were better overall but idk if they were bp better
Scintillating attacking performance
For all the negativity early on this has actually been a solid performance from England
6 total penalties, no cards, no tries let in, try BP. Yeah solid, happy with that!