How do you think your team did on tour

Was realy looking forward to this years summer tours. Good chance for a SH scalp for all of us was my thinking before hand. Wales v Aus was hoping for some realy great attacking rugby. England v SA expecting some realy hard games very similar playing styles. Ireland v AB'S wasnt sure but if any of us could have beaten them why not Ireland. Now its all over and the heartache has gone did our teams match up to what we realy thought they would have?. Tbh i was thinking 1 win each for us only just wins 1-5points the drama was there bad ref's bad mistakes so on but are we all realy any closer to the top 3 nations?

To be fair I do think this tour is an improvement. The tally for home nations vs trinations is played 10 won 1 drawn 1 and lost 8. It doesn't sound great, but historically we would typically expect to lose all 10 - so it is a step in the right direction. It's also an improvement that most of the games were competitive. Only two of the defeats involved the home nations team getting hammered - the other 6 were all close games and could easily have gone the other way. That again is an improvement and in my mind suggests a narrowing of the divide. There is still work to do before we can even claim parity, but the tour gives me more not less confidence especially when you think that England and Wales in particular are putting out young teams and should get better.

Being English, I think our team will come back with a bit of a feeling of 'what might have been'. By all accounts we should have closed out the final match, and the first game was very competetive. Only the first half of the second test saw us being out-classed and over-powered by the Boks, and even then the fight-back was encouraging.

The biggest positive is we learnt a lot about a number of players, including about which ones don't cut it at the highest level (Botha).

Of the others, Wales will feel somewhat similar - they got very close to Australia, but just couldn't close out any of the Tests. Scotland will obviously come home feeling more than content in their performances - beating Aus in typically Scottish weather and then doing enough to beat the PI teams amounts to a very successful tour.

Ireland? Well, the less said the better.

Hi and welcome great location by the way.

My main feeling with Wales is frustration. Frustration that they were not up to speed in the first half of the first test , only the Ospreys players had had any recent game time Wales pick one Osprey player to start.

Frustrated that we never got to grips with SH officiating in the professional era it was up to the players and coaching team to adapt which I think we did as the series wore on but at too slow a learning curve.

Frustrated that we never had one stand out performer to take a game by the scruff of the neck and win it like Genia , honourable mentions for Halfpenny throughout (Wales have a world class kicker in him now)and for Cuthbert in the first test but no one had that stroke of genius the Aussies managed to find.

The last two games were too tight and tense to be entertaining though they were riveting because of that the officiating hardly allowed for great attacking rugby and it was a penalty shoot out lottery really because of this.

So far to go to get so near basically . Talk of victories in the Autumn is positive but the Aussies will have played the best in the World several times by then so I expect them to have moved on too

Finally Graham Henry said rugby is played with the top two inches and that the Australians were the best in the world at using the grey matter and I think he is still right.

ponty,

I think Halfpenny was fantastic all series and clearly our man of the tour but like you said no one really grabbed game by scruff of neck and there were a lot of experienced players in that group.

We missed Roberts and him and Davies just work so well together

Hard to say if Roberts had been there if we would have won the series but with such fine margins you do wonder if he would have made the difference .The Aussies were on their third/fourth? choice outside half with Barnes who certyainly stepped up in spades so I wouldn't want to make anything of the injury card overall ..

Not saying we would have won if he had been there but he just gives us the direction I think we missed in all tests.

Why on earth we didn't use North or Cuthbert more down those channels in his absence is beyond me.

Then again a lot of things that happened puzzled me.

The more I think about it, the more gutted I am. Really good chance to get some wins in SA.

Wales should be gutted too. Last two were there for the taking.

Ireland should be pleased they got nil in the 3rd test. (Although should've taken the 2nd!)

Cheers for the welcome:) . Totaly agree with the Halfpenny commets deff the stand out for us. The second test reminds me so much of the second lions test in SA when O'Gara didnt kick to touch but thought the third would have gone our way. Dont think our nations should be to down hearted tho i know Ireland must feel down but that was a freak result imo. England suprised me if im honnest they did alot better than i thought fronted up well. Wales just didnt seem to get started realy cant put my finger on what they were doing (ok some nice try's were scored but some were just plain luck. again imo). I blame Scotland tho for beating the Aussise's and peeing them off lmao

Welcome mogg!

For England, I'm fairly pleased with the summer tour, we've learnt a lot of things. Who will not make it as an international and which young players could be the future of England.

My only concern is that in the first two tests we lacked physicality but that was soon solved in the 3rd test. Lancaster seems to be learning quickly and implementing solutions and trying new combinations far earlier than Johnson ever would have.

I would have liked it if England had come away with a win but there are many positives to come out of this tour and hopefully England will be more competetive in the Autumn Internationals.

Scotland B+
Not their fault they had to sit a lesser exam, but it does affect the grade.

England C+
Competed well. Would have hoped to win one test, but will be reasonably happy with two close losses and a draw.

Wales C-
Would have expected to win at least one test, and hoped to sneak the series. 3 narrow losses will have hurt, but really they should blame only themselves.

Ireland F
Performed well in the second test, but all credit gained for that narrow defeat is immediately lost for the capitulation in the 3rd.

LondonTiger wrote:Scotland B+
Not their fault they had to sit a lesser exam, but it does affect the grade.

England C+
Competed well. Would have hoped to win one test, but will be reasonably happy with two close losses and a draw.

Wales C-
Would have expected to win at least one test, and hoped to sneak the series. 3 narrow losses will have hurt, but really they should blame only themselves.

Ireland F
Performed well in the second test, but all credit gained for that narrow defeat is immediately lost for the capitulation in the 3rd.

I think C- is too kind. This tour has been a good reality check on our ability, mentality, strategy and preparation. Hopefully lessons have been learned as I still think this is a really good Welsh team with lots of potential.