England and Scotland drew 15-all at Murrayfield today in a match that lived up to expectation. Unfortunately, the expectations were extremely low, and the tryless affair was exceedingly dull.
Toby Flood had a chance to win the game in the last play of the game, but his dropped goal sailed wide. It wouldn’t have been a deserved win for England, and the draw is probably the right result.
There wasn’t much talent on show, and not many scoring chances to either side. The scrum was a mess, and the game was error-strewn throughout. Neither side had any cutting edge, and it really was a stalemate.
We’ve had a few issues at The Rugby Blog HQ today, so we’re sorry that we couldn’t bring you live updates, and our live discussion might have livened the game up a little. However, we’ll have all the post-match recriminations, our Player Ratings might see some scores below zero, and there will no doubt be the odd rant by our various contributors.
Earlier this afternoon, Ireland beat Wales and they are now the only side that has any chance of preventing France lifting the trophy. That game was a much more interesting encounter, with both sides looking to run with ball much more often than Scotland or England.
Oh dear god. Is this what we’ve become? Pls help us lord. It us just so pathetic. I will try to contribute more valuable comments tomorrow but for tonight let’s just mourn the passing of this once great nations ability to play this magnificent game. What a shambles…
ToRo think that just 7 years ago we won the world cup. The victorious captain on that day must be tearing his hair out looking at what we’ve become. Oh no, wait a second…
Clueless, lacking any vision, short on ideas, poor handling, weak in contact, unable to beat a man, no confidence, and a crap track suit. When is this clown going to get the sack
Worst of all I can only see the Paris game being even more depressing.
A few good friends, a big screen, lots of beer……….and this game. I have never missed a second watching an England game but the point is there. I will not going to watch the game against France unless 6/7 chances are made. If that does not happen I expect something like 41-9.
Johnson was a great player and leader on the field but the experiment has not worked, and it is plain to virtually everyone that unless there is a big shakeup in coaching, management and selection England rugby will languish amongst the also-rans.
Yesterday so much possession was squandered by aimless kicking, backs lying so deep that defences have plenty of time to organise themselves, turnovers through poor support at the breakdown, and predictable running lines. The rule about the tackler releasing seemed to be known only to the referee and the endless scrummage resets added more yawns to an already excruciatingly boring game. Not binding should be penalised after the first warning.
Instead of going to France the whole team should stay at home and watch a few Super 14 games.
The ref did not help,
he was awful throughout. He didn’t seem to have a clue at the scrum so he let people continue to collaps the dam thing it was a joke, we must have waisted about 15 minutes on scrum resets.
In Ireland against Wales the ref was hard on the breakdown but he was consistent, told the players how it was going to be from the start and the game flowed, this Jonkers lad allowed people to kill the ball at will.
Enlgand should of had at least 2 players in the bin at some point, I think if Scotland defended more they would have been doing the same thing, but they weren’t defending at all.
God knows where England go from here, nothing was good today, so you can’t blame Wilko or Borthwick everbody was crap. I would do a France drop all 15 for next week just to make a point.
Scotland have lower expectations so for them there were some good things to take from a almost there champoinship. They were almost there against Wales and Italy and again today. They seem to lack the class to finish things off, maybe they need to win a couple on the trott in order to get some confidence. However Robinson seems to have a gameplan that he would like to play and with time he might be able to impliment it.
Good things were their backrow, they had a field day with England’s slow laborious backrow, They bgot to breakdowns first and one quick ball, scotland often put 10 phases together, they also turned England over 5 times. Their speed allows them to get round the park and run at backs, they are one of the ebst units in the 6N.
The lineout has been solid all tournement and seems a strong point.
Parks is limited but he knows what he is about and does the 10 job well.
Considering the injuries to Evans, Patterson, Strockash and that Hines and Lawson looked useful off the bench then this Scottish team does seem to developing depth, something they have not had for years.
Scotland are almost there England need to get started.
Am I missing something – has it been legalised in S Africa to take people out in the air? Their refs seem to think so. Agree with the comments on here that Jonker’s control of the scrum was non existent. I’m not a fan of Saffer refs at all and he’s the worst of a bad lot. Again though, a bad ref is not to blame for our non-performance.