Wales vs England Millennium Stadium Sat 13th Aug 2.30pm Sky Sports 3

theboss80

Wales Team

James Hook; George North; Jamie Roberts, Gavin Henson; Shane Williams; Rhys Priestland, Mike Phillips;

Paul James, Lloyd Burns, Craig Mitchell, Luke Charteris, Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Lydiate, Sam Warburton, Toby Faletau

Replacements: Huw Bennett, Ryan Bevington, Josh Turnbull, Justin Tipuric, Tavis Knoyle, Scott Williams, Aled Brew


England Team

Ben Foden (Northampton)
Chris Ashton (Northampton)
Mike Tindall (Gloucester, capt)
Shontayne Hape (London Irish)
Mark Cueto (Sale)
Toby Flood (Leicester)
Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens)
Alex Corbisiero (London Irish),
Steve Thompson (Wasps),
Dan Cole (Leicester);
Louis Deacon (Leicester),
Courtney Lawes (Northampton);
Tom Wood (Northampton),
Hendre Fourie (Sale),
Nick Easter (Harlequins).

Replacements: Lee Mears (Bath), Matt Stevens (Saracens), Tom Palmer (Stade Francais), James Haskell (Ricoh Black Rams), Danny Care (Harlequins), Charlie Hodgson (Saracens), Matt Banahan (Bath)

theboss80

Gatland has stated that this is a must win game heading into the competition in a few weeks.

PhatPiggins

Starting teams look evenly matched but the English bench is light years ahead of the Welsh one

CatFromHue

It'll be interesting to see how Henson gets on, as usual! He needs a big game if he wants to go to the world cup....or the Ospreys. You can see why Gatland is so interested in keeping him involved as that's a potentially very good back line if he can get back to where he once was. A centre partnership of Davies and Roberts, while being very honest and physically very strong, is not that dangerous.

Judgement Day

I fancy England for this but it's a damn shame that Ben Youngs is out injured. Hopefully he will be fit by the start of the RWC proper. I wonder if Gavin Henson will show up at last - he really is drinking at the last chance saloon these days.:D

ScrubsfanChris

Was hoping BBC Wales would pick this up, will have to stay away from here until the BBC three highlights

PhatPiggins

CatFromHue wrote: »

It'll be interesting to see how Henson gets on, as usual! He needs a big game if he wants to go to the world cup....or the Ospreys. You can see why Gatland is so interested in keeping him involved as that's a potentially very good back line if he can get back to where he once was. A centre partnership of Davies and Roberts, while being very honest and physically very strong, is not that dangerous.

You know what I'm begining to think Roberts is a bit over rated. He looked magnificant beside BOD (few don't) but he's shown nothing but bosh and dead end alley running in the last 2 seasons. I've seen him play 13 before and its not pretty.

CatFromHue

Pretty much yeah. That's why Gatland is giving Henson so much leeway. He has the potential to offer something that none of his other centres offers. He could also help to bring the best out of either Roberts or Davies.

PhatPiggins

CatFromHue wrote: »

Pretty much yeah. That's why Gatland is giving Henson so much leeway. He has the potential to offer something that none of his other centres offers. He could also help to bring the best out of either Roberts or Davies.

Problem I see is Davies and Roberts are 12's and thats Henson's best position as well. Henson (on form) and Hook would be my centre pairing. I think Davies has a lot of potential though.

theboss80

Ashton out of game with ankle injury at training.

http://www.espnscrum.com/england/rugby/story/146164.html?CMP=OTC-RSS


Banahan in , Armitage on bench

theboss80

Live text commentary here

http://www.wru.co.uk/live

sock puppet

Great tackle on Banahan from Roberts. Probably aided by Banahan ambling into contact though.

brutal game so far. Rolland not giving either of them an inch at the breakdown, and neither team has realised they've got to clean it up.

Henson doing well though

Foden is turning into the complete Full Back.

Henson bust, and off.

Rolland is such a pro

theboss80

Henson injured?

ktulu123

England are just dire to watch!

Might be the most narrow gameplan I've ever seen

Warburton is simply excellent at the breakdown. The rest of the team getting whistled out of it, and Warburton is getting it right every time.

Pitch in ribbons

England are blunter than a rusted spoon.

How they don't score there is criminal, great defence from Wales once the ball went to ground at the corner flag though.

Gracelessly Tom

theboss80 wrote: »

Henson injured?

Could be wrong, but it looked to me like an English knee went into his head. Looked deliberate but might have just been the angle I saw it from.

Stev_o

At least the England tactics are postive. Barnes is going on about taking 3 but lets be honest England don't care this is a training game from them and you can see the big thing they are trying to find out is what their attack is like. Clearly they can't play a wide game with the midfield they have out there. Funny thing is if Wilko was out there they'd be knocking the points over with the amount of possession they have. Think Tuilagi would make a difference for a start.

I can't believe they haven't tried to get the ball out to Foden/Cueto at all though.

They're sucking Wales into the middle, and then not exploiting it. It's brainless!

Taco Corp

Sky praising Dan Cole in the scrum, but he seems to be driving in at an angle and not straight at all. Should he have been penalised?

Stev_o

Deleted User wrote: »

I can't believe they haven't tried to get the ball out to Foden/Cueto at all though.

They're sucking Wales into the middle, and then not exploiting it. It's brainless!

I understand the concept they have. Take out the midfield cover defence then go wide, problem is they are being hit behind the gain line or just getting slow ball which stops wide ball.

Personally in situations like this why not cross kick to Bananaman over Williams or grubber behind the line. Take a leaf out of the League book and go to the air for attack if your passing is rubbish.

Their lineout is a sight to behold though. Going for the tail with impunity is impressive!

Surley

Surley wrote: »

Sky praising Dan Cole in the scrum, but he seems to be driving in at an angle and not straight at all. Should he have been penalised?

most definitely

pappyodaniel

England have all possesion/territory but are clueless in how to turn that into points.
One of two things will most likely happen in the 2nd half.
(a)We'll see a more even game.
(b)England will click and hammer Wales.

Stev_o

Surley wrote: »

Sky praising Dan Cole in the scrum, but he seems to be driving in at an angle and not straight at all. Should he have been penalised?

Deleted User wrote: »

most definitely

Scrum is such a pointless thing to officiate these days because neither side is scrummaging legally. Hell Roland basically said whoever was going forward got the advantage who ever was going backwards was going to be penalised.

Stev_o

Stev_o wrote: »

I understand the concept they have. Take out the midfield cover defence then go wide, problem is they are being hit behind the gain line or just getting slow ball which stops wide ball.

Personally in situations like this why not cross kick to Bananaman over Williams or grubber behind the line. Take a leaf out of the League book and go to the air for attack if your passing is rubbish.

Their lineout is a sight to behold though. Going for the tail with impunity is impressive!

The body punching is going well for them, in fact they're nailing it. But there's been constant mistakes and bad decisions when they do try to get the ball wide. It seems they're uncomfortable with the "risk" of moving the ball, and that they're panicking when it gets to that stage after several phases.

The lineout is awesome, Lawes Lawes Lawes Lawes Lawes.

Stev_o

Deleted User wrote: »

The body punching is going well for them, in fact they're nailing it. But there's been constant mistakes and bad decisions when they do try to get the ball wide. It seems they're uncomfortable with the "risk" of moving the ball, and that they're panicking when it gets to that stage after several phases.

The lineout is awesome, Lawes Lawes Lawes Lawes Lawes.

Their midfield just doesn't have the passing skillset. Still Tindall is playing one of his best games for England in a long while.

Taco Corp

Deleted User wrote: »

most definitely

That's what I thought. Funny how Sky don't agree

Spudmonkey

Was that a bit harsh on Roberts?

Spudmonkey

Spudmonkey wrote: »

Was that a bit harsh on Roberts?

Team yellow. Was always coming

irishbucsfan

So one-dimensional. It works against Wales but when they come up against a decent pack they'll have nothing.

sock puppet

I wonder how Rolland will interpretate this scrum

Stev_o

sock puppet wrote: »

I wonder how Rolland will interpretate this scrum

If you go forward you get the penalty.

Wales defence has been absolutely spot on though. Really dealing with England's attack very well.

molloyjh

This really is terrible stuff from England! 64% of play in the Welsh 22 in the second half against 14 men and not a single point from play.

Stev_o

Hook steps himself over the line. The benefit of having game changers like Hook and Williams really makes the difference at international level. England's tackling has been ruuuuuuuuubish.

Spudmonkey

Great step.

Wales show England how its done, move the game from one point to another quickly, and find the gaps.
It's not rocket science

Stev_o

Deleted User wrote: »

Wales show England how its done, move the game from one point to another quickly, and find the gaps.
It's not rocket science

It helps to have people who run into space and weak shoulders rather then straight into someone.

ironingbored

So simple. Quick ruck ball = tries.

molloyjh

Ramiro Salty Barrel wrote: »

Wales show England how its done, move the game from one point to another quickly, and find the gaps.
It's not rocket science

What's worse is that England have been far more cynical at the breakdown when Wales have been going forward. And they haven't even been successful at that!

molloyjh

Stev_o wrote: »

It helps to have people who run into space and weak shoulders rather then straight into someone.

Not at all. Sure isn't rugby all about brawn rather than brains!? Who needs a step when you can run straight?

spurskiely

Big call from Ref there ????????????

Similar situation to the Ire v Scot game, poor game, apt result, not much learned from either side about how to actually play rugby.

Wales will be happy with their defence, and both teams will be crazily annoyed by their indiscipline.

pappyodaniel

Well done Wales 19-9. FT

molloyjh

Ramiro Salty Barrel wrote: »

Similar situation to the Ire v Scot game, poor game, apt result, not much learned from either side about how to actually play rugby.

Wales will be happy with their defence, and both teams will be crazily annoyed by their indiscipline.

Yeah but I don't think we took the Scottish game all that seriously, evident by the selections. I don't think you can say the same for those teams today.

molloyjh

molloyjh wrote: »

Yeah but I don't think we took the Scottish game all that seriously, evident by the selections. I don't think you can say the same for those teams today.

lot of names missing from England surely?

molloyjh

Ramiro Salty Barrel wrote: »

molloyjh wrote: »

Yeah but I don't think we took the Scottish game all that seriously, evident by the selections. I don't think you can say the same for those teams today.

lot of names missing from England surely?

Yeah but there were still enough non-fringe players there. The majority of our team last week was either fringe players or previously injured players.