: Sun Nov 01, 2009 11:01 pm  

BrisbaneRhino wrote:

McGuire played like a lost puppy again. He's a confidence player and it really shows against Aus IMO - he looks to be one of the most overawed players out there. He needs to show far more composure at international level. To be frank I think he suffers from the same problem as most of our halfbacks - we play a far, far too unstructured game, and it really shows when we face better teams.

To be fair though, the right side defence for England was an absolute shambles for an entire half. You can blame McGuire, Smith and Briscoe, but watch all the Aussie tries - not a single English forward on the right side of the field. If anybody - and I mean anybody - tried to defend 3 against 5 on the left against Lockyer, Slater and Inglis they will be put through the cleaners. England have to learn that the sliding defence is absolutely hopeless against a team which like Australia has big fast outside backs and can move the ball quickly.

Yep, we got carried away trying to batter the Aussie forwards in the middle and forgot about helping out the backs in defence, sometimes leaving half the field for 3 players to defend.

: Mon Nov 02, 2009 12:54 am  

Brisbane, top post lad, exactly my thoughts on the issue. The Aussies move the ball right to left so quickly and smoothly that even 5 on 5 is hard to defend against. The Lockyer try was so well executed it was almost robotic. Every pass was just where the receiver wanted it.

: Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:44 am  

The really sad thing is that nothing the Aussies did for a try was the result of anything other than having evasive quick runners on the end of well-timed passes where everyone had an idea of what was going to happen and where they needed to be. Whereas when England pass the ball wide its generally excrutiatingly slow and everything is telegraphed.

: Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:48 am  

BrisbaneRhino wrote:

The really sad thing is that nothing the Aussies did for a try was the result of anything other than having evasive quick runners on the end of well-timed passes where everyone had an idea of what was going to happen and where they needed to be. Whereas when England pass the ball wide its generally excrutiatingly slow and everything is telegraphed.

Watching the game again, McGuire's passing game was sooooo slow it was just awful with no sharpness at all.

: Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:43 am  

The Eclipse wrote:

Watching the game again, McGuire's passing game was sooooo slow it was just awful with no sharpness at all.

Its not just the distribution though is it, we had no set plays no dummy runners and no shape in attack, we looked like a team who had never played together before and Australia looked like they had actually done a bit of training and knew what they were doing, its been the same for quite a few years now.

: Mon Nov 02, 2009 8:23 am  

SaintsFan wrote:

and my vicarious pleasure at seeing a Leeds player get it in the neck for a change. (But I have to confess I'm getting bored with that now; the novelty is wearing off)

Bet you're not getting bored. Bet you spend the rest of the week on here talking cobblers.

F*** off to the VirtuaL terrace with all the other small town provinvial losers whose only pleasure is frothing over individual performances from our international side. One year we will dissapoint all those pratts and win. They won't know what to do with themselves.

: Mon Nov 02, 2009 8:25 am  

SaintsFan wrote:

It's perfectly appropriate and personally, I'm enjoying it after our lot got stick last year.

But aside from my vicarious enjoyment, the truth of the matter is that he stood out as having a very poor game - all the way through.

Still doesn't make up for three GF twa**ings in a row though does it.

Ar4eh0le.

: Mon Nov 02, 2009 10:16 am  

5 star thread

Leeds fans trying to defend their players for their embarassing display at the weekend.

If thats the best Lee Smith can do, im glad hes going to union.

Did peacock play?

McGuire LOL

If we had started with Westwood instead of Peacock, Eastmond instead of mcGuire and a cardboard cut out instead of Lee Smith, we would have beat the aussies.

: Mon Nov 02, 2009 10:17 am  

Eric_Cartman_is_a_saint wrote:

If thats the best Lee Smith can do, im glad hes going to union.

After the last three Grand Finals I'll bet you are.

[Bullseye]

: Mon Nov 02, 2009 10:25 am  

BrisbaneRhino wrote:

Whereas when England pass the ball wide its generally excrutiatingly slow and everything is telegraphed.

Spot on and down to the lack of structure you mentioned earlier. At times it's too obvious what's going to happen and there's a lack of runners and options. That's all too easy to defend against.