England Protecting a Lead

Why did the english scrum half start trying to wind the clock down with 73 minutes of the game left and England 3-0 up. I thought it was a poor tactic in all honesty.

Can't remember where the field position was then, but they did that the whole time in their 22.

Englands Bench players were appalling.

Youngs, Stevens and to a degree Lawes let their team mates down.

Geordie - those comments should be on the Bench Power/Shower thread - you've almost quoted me word for word there.

Haha it was a bit ridiculous wasnt it.

OK theres an element of once a defence is set you may as well take your time. Their is no law the ref can use to speed it up, other than at somepoint warn them he may call the ruck inconclusive and go to a scrum. Theres been a law trial recently where theyve looked at a 5 second limit at rucks or blow up.

By hanging around the attack has time to reorganise based on how the defense is linesd up, and hope to tempt the defending side into frustration and attacking the ruck, taking a defender out the line.
It doesnt help that defences now tend to quickly disengage and spread if they dont have a clear opportunity to win the ball. The real rucking contest hardly ever takes place now.

The way England were under the kosh early on you can also undertand their desire to take the tempo out the game and try and annoy Wales a bit.

I didnt see many Welshmen complaining when they did it in 2008, albeit much later in the game.

RubyGuby wrote:Why did the english scrum half start trying to wind the clock down with 73 minutes of the game left and England 3-0 up. I thought it was a poor tactic in all honesty.

It was bloody stupid and we seem to keep doing it- attack when behind or drawn but defend a lead no matter what. I think if at all possible you should always strive to add to a lead. It only takes one mistake to lose as the Lawes ripping incident demonstrates. A second of poor ball presentation and you lose...

RubyGuby wrote:Why did the english scrum half start trying to wind the clock down with 73 minutes of the game left and England 3-0 up. I thought it was a poor tactic in all honesty.

England didn't get the first score until the 23rd minute, so it couldn't have been with 73 minutes of the game left, but if he was dragging players into the tail of the ruck whilst inside his 22 it would have been to create more distance and make certain of not having the kick charged down like Wales later failed to prevent.

The thing is John he didn't create more distance and gave away the softest 3 points of the day - It was schoolboy stuff that impressed no one. You need to work on those charge downs a bit more and the try will follow

Perfection

It wasn't him that gave the penalty away though, it was Botha going off his feet.

Well unfortunately our charge down expert (with the tournament's 2nd highest try total behind Bowe) looks like he has lost his place.

I think the stalling thing John just slowed everything down and it just seemed as if it was waiting to happen. I like my side to just get it clear from there with the boot to touch - there was plenty of time - I find it a bit infuriating. Scotland did it against England and u could see what was going to happen. Teams need to be decisive in that area.