Well played to the England rugby team.

Written off by everyone, including myself, they put in an excellent performance and very nearly sent the much heralded South Africa team out of the tournament.

Some of the players I thought should be dropped, like Owen Farrell, were superb. England was on top for sixty minutes and the panicked faces on the SA bench told a story of a team that thought it was heading home.

Ultimately, the quality of the Boks substitutes is what turned a nine point deficit into a one point win. Congrats to South Africa for making the final and they are a good team. Also congrats to Borthwick and the England boys for putting in a game like that.

Top | Newest First | Oldest First

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

It was a very entertaining match . . never easy to stick to maintain discipline and carry through strategies in rainy conditions. Even OF was admirable, despite his whingeing.

England over-achieved in the campaign and what Steve Borthwick managed to salvage from the wreckage of Eddie Jones' end phase is pretty impressive.

Given the challenges facing English professional RU right now, this was good stuff 👍

KiwiBird · 36-40, F

England should be proud of it's efforts.

TheSirfurryanimalWales · 61-69, M

They knocked SA completely off their game but a bit more enterprise might have seen a different result.

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@TheSirfurryanimalWales That is the problem we don't have any creativity. You saw that especially when we were a point down.

AdaXI · 41-45, T

@TheSirfurryanimalWales @Burnley123 Yeah sure we don't have a creative squad we rely on teams making mistakes and kicking for points but I think we did well with what we had and just like France in the quarter finals we got worn down by RSA and we were making a lot of mistakes by the end. I also think RSA had a stronger bench so their changes made more impact.

But we made a game of it though, nobody on the planet would have predicted we could of run South Africa as close as we did.
乂º◡º乂

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@AdaXI Exactly

GeistInTheMachine · 31-35, M

Why do the English seem to have a penchant for losing to countries I dislike even more.

France, now South Africa.

Tsk.

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@GeistInTheMachine Maybe your opinion will motivate us to try harder.

GeistInTheMachine · 31-35, M

@Burnley123 Well, you guys do like to take your marching orders from Americans. 🙃

At least, the ones of you in Government

This comment is hidden. Show Comment

Ceinwyn · 26-30, F

A close result was a compliment to us. We should have have got this far with this squad

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@Ceinwyn If we hadn't sacked Eddie, we'd have lost in the group stage

Ceinwyn · 26-30, F

@Burnley123 True

OliRos · 18-21, F

South Africa destroyed the England scrum in the final 15 minutes. Sinkler was out of his depth, destroyed.

They had an easy passage to the semi and lost to the first serious side they met.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that they were heroic.

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@OliRos Everyone here knows that it is not a strong England team. I myself have called out the draw for being ridiculous and one sided. This has been especially harsh on Ireland and France, for obvious reasons.

England did beat Argentina and Fiji who are both decent. Argentina knocked out Wakes and Fiji knocked out Australia. Both the latter were seen as a similar level to England coming in.

Of course, SA, NZ, France and Ireland are a level above anyone else. Nobody has said otherwise.

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@OliRos At the start of the tournament it was widely predicted that England would struggle to move out of their group. They were seeded together with Argentina and Japan because of their performances at the last WC and their rankings over a longer period of time. Ireland's form, which made their group seem particularly tough, was more recent. You can only play what is put in front of you and England passed most of the tests with merit (particularly against Argentina where they played nearly the whole game with 14 men).

Add a comment...