England - the build-up and winning the World Cup at a canter

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Smith in the back field worked nicely against Ireland. We could interchange him and Steward on defensive duty but keep both in the backfield to receive kicks. Ford dropping in it one or the other has chased a kick up field.

I'd like to see if given a go as the attack does need an injection of something and the AB tactic isn't a bad one. Ruck speed and security needs a big upgrade though as that is the main element killing our attack.

Unreal defensive showing

Shame

Man. We should have picked Sa
Lade for the long kicks.

Should have taken the scrum

No 7&1/2 wrote:Man. We should have picked Sa
Lade for the long kicks.

Give the next one to Steward. He's got similar range, accuracy is a bit 50/50 though.

Keep discipline for the next 10 minute or so and we've got this!

Haha!

Own goal by Argentina there

Unnecessarily loose from Daly, just keep calm and play the percentages.

Ford for MOM

I mean to be brutal England lost the bind there and drove up....once you have the ref.

This is the match right here. Score a try and we've got it!

Knock it over George!

Best performance from an English 10 for years

The thing is, I don't actually think are all that fatigued because of the red card, we haven't actually had to do all that much!

it's official - garbaage time. Couldn't be more shocked.

Argentina are playing like we have for the last 2 years

No 7&1/2 wrote:I mean to be brutal England lost the bind there and drove up....once you have the ref.

Disguised it well enough. Maybe Cole has given him some lessons. The Puma player was clearly up first and most obviously.

I suspect sir thought the red was overly harsh and has been a touch sympathetic at times.

Held up - defence is so much better today

By the way, have you noticed any time they show Farrell he is not smiling? Hmmm.

It's actually kind of unbelievable how bad Argentina have been, even there that should have been an easy score and they picked the only option that gets them held up.

Their decision making has gone completely, their heads seem to have been lost.

Defensively they've been bloody superb, fronted up so well in adversity. Couldn't be prouder of them. All I wanted was some grit and passion and we have seen that. It isn't perfect, but good lads, really well done!

Heaf wrote:Held up - defence is so much better today

I think it was young George Martin underneath the ball carrier there with a couple of assists on top. Hopefully that gives him a confidence boost.

This is the type of defence Kevin Sinfield loves and what I was expecting a while ago. Great to see that it might be finally settling in.

Montoya may be a better player than Creevy now, but he's not as good a Captain.

Scrum pen and 3 points please

I meant pen the other way !

Argentina just can't do anything right - thankfully

formerly known as Sam wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:I mean to be brutal England lost the bind there and drove up....once you have the ref.

Disguised it well enough. Maybe Cole has given him some lessons. The Puma player was clearly up first and most obviously.

I suspect sir thought the red was overly harsh and has been a touch sympathetic at times.

Well red was completely correct. So suspect that it's just well hidden! Stuart ain't having the same luck.

Oh dear Pumas, imagine if we'd have had 15 men on the pitch!

OK I think we're safe now

Motm?

This is actually a d1cking now! Borthwick is an evil mastermind, we aren't sh1t, we are just trying to ambush you mothers....

Really pleased by this. Just proves that not aiming to play is the right one. Argentina as one of the most in form teams who have clearly not panicked. Play this same way is the way forward. People are obsessed with tries but as long as the ref is giving you incorrect decisions you can win by big margins.

Cumbrian wrote:This is actually a d1cking now!  Borthwick is an evil mastermind, we aren't sh1t, we are just trying to ambush you mothers....

Four years of merde, and the real smelly merde from 2023, is not washed away in one game against a team who looks lost.

It reminds me of some of our matches against France in the 90s or 00s, just mercilessly cut them to death with a thousand paper-cuts.

Tries are overrated anyway

doctor_grey wrote:

Cumbrian wrote:This is actually a d1cking now!  Borthwick is an evil mastermind, we aren't sh1t, we are just trying to ambush you mothers....

Four years of merde, and the real smelly merde from 2023, is not washed away in one game against a team who looks lost.

Tongue was firmly in cheek...

If Argentina play like this against Samoa they could be in trouble

Just proves again were on the right course. What a performance. Argentina were amazing and we dominated them.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Really pleased by this. Just proves that not aiming to play is the right one. Argentina as one of the most in form teams who have clearly not panicked. Play this same way is the way forward. People are obsessed with tries but as long as the ref is giving you incorrect decisions you can win by big margins.

Jesus. Bitter that his own side won. 

No 7&1/2 wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:I mean to be brutal England lost the bind there and drove up....once you have the ref.

Disguised it well enough. Maybe Cole has given him some lessons. The Puma player was clearly up first and most obviously.

I suspect sir thought the red was overly harsh and has been a touch sympathetic at times.

Well red was completely correct. So suspect that it's just well hidden! Stuart ain't having the same luck.

Red was 50/50.

Stuart got away with the first one or two but once the Pumas replacement loosehead got him sussed it was one way traffic.

Wow, very well done to England. Didn't see it coming after the red, don't suppose many did!

It was a victory built on superb game management, excellent work at the breakdown, a strong rush defence, and the boot of George Ford. Clinical.

Argentina were dreadful, though. Lost count of their basic handling errors, plus their inability to adapt to the referee. Lot of people talking them up this year, but this was a worrying return to Argentina of old.

And, we'll never know, but I wonder if the red was actually a help to England? Would they have played with such focus and intensity had they had 15 on the park? Or was it always in the offing? Whatever, let's hope England can build on it.

Heaf wrote:If Argentina play like this against Samoa they could be in trouble

I'm not sure Samoa can defend around the fringes in the way we did. Argentina maybe should have gone wider and looked to stretch play more but they kept on with their couple of big carries on tight then go wide with momentum but those big carries didn't provide momentum. If they'd gone wide quicker we might not have been able to disrupt their backline the way we did with the forwards having made no ground first.

king_carlos wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:Really pleased by this. Just proves that not aiming to play is the right one. Argentina as one of the most in form teams who have clearly not panicked. Play this same way is the way forward. People are obsessed with tries but as long as the ref is giving you incorrect decisions you can win by big margins.

Jesus. Bitter that his own side won. 

What you on about. Love it.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Motm?

Ford. It simply has to be.

On a different day Lawes or Earl could both have got it though. They were phenomenal after Curry was sent off. A man down in the back row and they led the defence relentlessly.

Manu became a huge part of that defensive push without Curry as well. He was blitzing harder when a man down and did so very well. That was his best England game in a long while.

I thought George, Itoje, Marchant and Steward were also really good to be fair.

No rugby fan I know feels England don't need to develop their attack. Having a strong defence, set-piece and kicking game make that possible though. England were decent in all those facets today despite being a man down. I thought their conditioning looked better than Argentina too.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:I mean to be brutal England lost the bind there and drove up....once you have the ref.

Disguised it well enough. Maybe Cole has given him some lessons. The Puma player was clearly up first and most obviously.

I suspect sir thought the red was overly harsh and has been a touch sympathetic at times.

Well red was completely correct. So suspect that it's just well hidden! Stuart ain't having the same luck.

Red was 50/50.

Stuart got away with the first one or two but once the Pumas replacement loosehead got him sussed it was one way traffic.

Not really. Clear red.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

Heaf wrote:If Argentina play like this against Samoa they could be in trouble

I'm not sure Samoa can defend around the fringes in the way we did. Argentina maybe should have gone wider and looked to stretch play more but they kept on with their couple of big carries on tight then go wide with momentum but those big carries didn't provide momentum. If they'd gone wide quicker we might not have been able to disrupt their backline the way we did with the forwards having made no ground first.

They pushed Ireland close though ...

formerly known as Sam wrote:Stuart got away with the first one or two but once the Pumas replacement loosehead got him sussed it was one way traffic.

I thought the first one was correct. It looked like Sclavi stood up. He's a TH who occasionally covers LH and it looked like it. If a TH stands up then the opposing hooker and LH will likely have to which disguises it more. Whereas at LH he just pops up on his own.

Gallo clearly got under Stuart though. He's a shorter LH and technically strong. As said pregame I think Cole started as a direct matchup against that sort of scrummager. I was sceptical after Coley had limited impact in the Six Nations but to be fair it worked and England looked like they had the edge on their ball and were more comfortable on Argentina's with the starters on.

Argentina played badly because England didn't let them get any momentum. Even the thing with the ref was because the momentum was all with England.

Yup. True. England's true self was shown. We'll take the drop goals now and pens from tries from the ref even if they ain't correct. We always looked dangerous with the ball and proving we can now defend against a team that looked as ambitious as us shows were set again for at least the par score of a semi final.