Bad news for Scotland if this is the case
We threw away a bonus point to England. But still got 5 pts to 1.
France threw away a game, big difference. It's all in our hands
I reckon I will
But give me a FB who plays FB playing FB instead.
FSmith from here on in at 10
France bringing on a load of young lads in the second half really threw them off. Thought Araudou struggled
England got benefit out of a hard first game, a soft opener didn’t do France any favours. Never like playing a chastened France, but at least it’s in Dublin
France always have a flaky streak, not as much as years ago.
But with all their talent and great teams they've never won a World Cup. Not winning the World Cup at home in 2023 will hang over them for a while.
Thankfully we won't catch them right after this.
Who have they next? Scotland?
I mean, sod the World Cup, their record in the 6N is pathetic.
The won 5 6N between 2000 and 2010 (usually beating us out for it grrr), and have won a grand total of ONE since.
Great game for the neutral. Delighted with the result. If we win tomorrow we go top with 9 or 10 points, and essentially not much has changed in terms of our objectives - win every game = 6N + GS.
Thought Itoje was anonymous, Martin was much busier. Mitchell went well, as did Sleightholme (aside from not fielding the kick before France scored). Fin Smith at 10 was very impressive. My MOTM was Earl.
No try bonus and a French loss, I'll take that every day of the week
Edit: ah yeah England though, still a good result
Galthie has seriously underperformed given the resources he has, they should kick him out. Always playing the "building" or "project" card but never delivers. They put big scores on crap teams but it ultimately means nothing.
Still think England are very limited and I'd fancy Ireland to be comfortable again against them if they were to play again next week. England were cut open several times only for the French to drop the ball. A reprieve for Borthwick but I think he is reliant on the good coaching Mitchell and F.Smith get at Northampton.
Every home side has won so far, hopefully Ireland can break that pattern.
Bookies have ireland at 1.4, France at 2.5, England way out on 8. Sure if France beat us on a low score England could win the competition??
They could but they also haven't beaten Scotland in 5 years etc etc.
Just watched the game there as I was out earlier in the afternoon. I too was surprised that Italy didn't attempt that final penalty to deny Wales the LBP. At worst, Wales would be kicking back from a 22 drop out or trying to run in a try from behind their own try line in the rain. Wales didn't threaten a try all game other than from 5m lineouts. The risk was very low.
They wouldn't have got a 22 dropout as time was up, but they could have run it back if they kept it live.
To be fair, Italy were down to 13 so I do see the logic somewhat. But I still kinda think it was a mistake
France with be easy meat for Ireland
Forgot they were down to 13 at that stage, may be not the worst call so. It seemed close in enough that other than hitting the post it was likely to go dead. Seemed like a freeish shot to deny Wales the LBP to me.
I mean, I agree. He should have been told to give it a shot, but to make sure he wellied it either way.
Anyway, suspect it won't matter. I simply can not see Wales winning a game.
I agree freeish but they'd already missed three kicks, their first choice kicker was off the pitch, the kick was near touch and if whoever kicked it didn't welly it and it didn't go dead (or it hit the upright) , Wales would be in prime position to run the ball up the pitch and probably would have.
I think it's easy as a viewer to say "Ah they should have gone for it" but bare in mind, this is a team that struggled to get any wins over the last 20 years - 15 wins in 125 games before today. If they'd have gone for it and somehow drawn the game, it'd have been devastating.
I think itojes influence on game had been curtailed somewhat by the new directives around protecting the 9.
That was one of his strengths to this point.
Danty and Fikou are massive losses, the French backs were so lateral. Fancy out chances.
that England number 11 will be very relieved they got the late try - he should have won that ball in the lead up to the last French try.
In some ways he has, but I don't think yesterday is on him, it's on the players. For one of the try scoring chances in the first half not to be converted was unusual, three of them not to be converted is crazy. They should have been out of sight by half time if the players caught the ball
After watching the spirit and effort England put into that game yesterday I am very glad we got them out of the way last week, you wouldn't recognise them from the shambles that Eddie Jones left them in.
Two questions - do you think England have played their "final" and will not play as well for the rest of the tournament or will they improve? And will France go out with a wimper or tear into the next few games? Also, surely France can't be that bad again?
England mostly always had the talent and ability to beat anyone who let them. I think France very much 'let' England win that yesterday in a way we didn't. Scotland, playing at full tilt could do England or an Italian team on a good day. I don't think we can say England have arrived back, yet. France will be France, any team could turn up in Dublin. Untouchables or an easily controlled and beatable one.
It looks like Borthwick hit on his best 10 by chance. So if he sticks with Finn Smith, they could well improve over the tournament. To be fair to England, they put in the same spirited performance against us. Never gave up and got the reward when we switched off.
But. France were a shambles. Had they scored even half their cast iron chances in the first half, I'm not sure England would have stayed with them to the extent they did. It's very hard to know, but Dupont had the worst performance I've ever seen from him, slow passes, inaccurate kicking (in fact there were so many poor over the top dinks, I lost count) and often slow to the breakdown.
Was it missing Ntamack? Jalibert is no slouch and he's been there before, so I'm unsure if that was the cause. Being flakey and playing poorly away from home used to be a feature of France, but that's not been the case for some time. England's blitz defence seemed to rattle them, but it's not as though it's the first time they've faced that. Just inexplicable.
I'm not sure. Three or four unusual handling errors that normally wouldn't happen in the first half and the game is done by half time.
I really don't like it, you saw it with Prendergast last week who was under real time pressure on his secons conversion which he missed. I understand the point it reduces time wasting, maybe the solution to that is to just stop the match clock for conversions.
I think Prendergast had 4 seconds left for his run up. Clock was at zero before the ball came back to ground.
It's just too tight imo. I wonder was any research done to see just how long it takes or did they just pull 30 seconds off because they were looking to speed things up?
And (correct me if I'm wrong) but the opposition have to be behind the try line, so it's dependant on them as well.
