France Vs England

[againstthehead]

Phew what a first half, England leading by 6 points.

The intensity is lights years ahead of what we've seen earlier in the day. Okay, there have been a few mistakes, but the competition at the breakdown and big hits have been superb. Perhaps France can get some space in the 2nd half, but having no specialised place kicker is causing them to struggle.

An england win would throw the championship wide open, c'mon England!!

PS, some more legendary calls from Brian Moore!

[ColinS]

I'm enjoying this match a lot.

Come on England!

[ColinS]

The commentating is brilliant

Great kick from Parra.

13-10 to the England!

Mark Regan off

[ColinS]

Wilko puts in a smashing kick!

[ColinS]

I love replying to myself.

France 13 - England 24

At least I got one of my predictions right...

[againstthehead]

Cracking game, great atmosphere and top-notch intensity. Thought the French would have offered more in attack but the England scrum changed the game.

This blows the championship wide open. I expect Ireland to just about beat Wales, and England to beat Scotland. What a final weekend!

[ColinS]

If that happens then does england win the 6N?
Or does points difference come into play?

[againstthehead]

we still have 2 rounds to go. If wales win both games, they have the title. If teams are tied on points to goes down to points difference.

Current table:

Wales 3 3 0 0 103 42 6
2 Ireland 3 2 0 1 71 50 4
3 France 3 2 0 1 66 51 4
4 England 3 2 0 1 66 58 4
5 Italy 3 0 0 3 38 86 0
6 Scotland 3 0 0 3 34 91 0


Wales look good on top but have 2 huge games to come. I reckon they could lose to ireland and beat france. England to beat scotland and ireland but lose out to wales on points difference.
off to place a fiver on it...

[darkside lightside]

france were absolutely shocking, indisciplined, error-strewn, unimaginative. just goes to show how much of an inferiority complex ireland have when we turn up in paris. england hardly had to work for most of their points. i thought it wasn't a great game, certainly nowhere near the incisiveness of finishing of the other 2 matches

[againstthehead]

'i thought it wasn't a great game, certainly nowhere near the incisiveness of finishing of the other 2 matches'

I think that's because this game was actually competitive! The intensity of the game of on another level altogether. Scotland and Italy just were not at the races at all. France played at a 100 miles an hour but in fairness to England they defended superbly. The scrum changed the game. France conceded countless penalties at scrum team, giving England excelent field position. In addition, England kept the scoreboard ticking over very well indeed.
Overall, I was very impressed by England - they won the war up front and consequently took the game. They looked very good in the 1st halves of both their previous games. A team on the up.

[darkside lightside]

'i thought it wasn't a great game, certainly nowhere near the incisiveness of finishing of the other 2 matches'

I think that's because this game was actually competitive! The intensity of the game of on another level altogether. Scotland and Italy just were not at the races at all. France played at a 100 miles an hour but in fairness to England they defended superbly. The scrum changed the game. France conceded countless penalties at scrum team, giving England excelent field position. In addition, England kept the scoreboard ticking over very well indeed.
Overall, I was very impressed by England - they won the war up front and consequently took the game. They looked very good in the 1st halves of both their previous games. A team on the up.

i'm not sure about that - i didn't think it was a great game because the quality wasn't really there!! the error count was pretty high and france just seemed to assume that if they went from side to side england would eventually crumble. to be fair to england their defence was excellent all match. but when france's gameplan wasn't working, it was a bit like EOS, they..well.. just kept trying the same thing.. france certainly didn't play smart and deserved to be beaten

it ended up being a bit like a GP match - and all England had to do to win was i) tackle, ii) avoid making daft mistakes and iii) wait (for france to give them penalty shots, or scrums, or even tries). I don't remember them making a single line break, or in fact executing any kind of backs move.

[againstthehead]

Yeah, I take your point - France did'nt really try to mix things up. Apart from a couple of up and unders, it was a case of throwing the ball wide. But that was partly a function of Englands dominence up front. England contested the set piece and slowed ball at the breakdown. In the Ireland game, the breakdown was like a kiddy's picnic - how many turnovers were there? Pathetic. Both England and France were hugely aggressive on the floor, which inevitably leads to more errors and penalties but makes the game competitive. In addition, the defensive lines of england were excellent - cover at all times. Scotland were attrocious - like a hot knife through butter at times.

[darkside lightside]

RHH i agree - i look at the england side on paper, and don't see much that really scares me. although I said the same about them before they played wales and they really should have won comfortably because wales were so poor against them. so there's no doubt they're capable of grinding out a victory against us if we don't box clever.

i must say that after 10 or 15 mins when it was clear that france weren't going to easily break the english defence down, certainly not from deep, and england were starting to establish dominance in the tight - i would have got traille and heymans to start digging the ball into the corners, or at least into england's half - get the fat bar stewards running around, tire them out - because it was even more clear that england weren't going to run a try in from 30 metres, never mind from their own half.. also i would have been piling up and unders on top of balshaw, who is a complete liability!!

france weren't willing to do it - and they lost. but ROG is more than capable of that kind of game..

[againstthehead]

I think a lot of people are getting carried away with Ireland's performance. A poor Scotish side dominated almost the entire 1st half at croke park. If they had had anyone remotely potent in attack we would have been trailing at half time.
The intensity of the game was non-existant and is no marker for anything. England played in a hostile environment against an aggressive, talented, albeit 1 dimensional French side.
To date, Ireland have proved nothing is this Championship. Wins against italy and scotland were a prerequisite. We did better than expected in France, albeit after they had replaced half their side. i fully expect us to beat wales by a couple of points at home, leaving a crunch game at twickers to go. Potentially, we may grab a triple crown, but no doubt wales or france will pip us on points difference!

[darkside lightside]

I'm certainly not getting carried away - it was a fairly efficient performance, following two poor ones. however i wouldn't say scotland dominated the first half - they certainly had more possession, but very rarely threatened to do anything with it. and the main reason was our lineout - if we had won our lineouts i reckon we could have been much more convincing.

but on the other hand i wouldn't get too carried away by england's performance. they were prepared for france to try to attack from deep, and had prepared their defence accordingly, and did a damn good job of making their tackles - i still think they would have struggled if france had tried to build pressure on them by playing a more territorial game, i certainly don't reckon they were capable of breaking the game.. think of where their points came from, dropped ball in the tackle from a low percentage french pass, in their own half, and a gimme from a scrum which came from a terrible knock-on under the french posts.