What about Itoje and Smith having an argument about whether to take the points or not? Doesn’t seem like a big deal as an isolated incident but when everything else is going wrong. Just feels like a shambles.
ICC is almost as corrupt as FIFA, India are heavily favourited by them. I like T20 when matches are lower scoring, 160-180 pitches and 190-200 requiring extraordinary batting. When pitches are prepared as roads it is just boring to watch, yes both teams have the same opportunity to hit big but the pressure is always on the chasing team. It requires much less skill to slog sixes especially when the boundaries are brought in and edges and misshits are going for six, a total farce.
And both us and New Zealand chose to go second and take on that pressure even through a high scoring match was predictable.
The logic to bat 2nd in night matches under lights is because dew can be a massive factor batting last, making it difficult for the fielding team.
To be fair, we didn't bowl well against India. If Brook takes the catch and Archer bowls a bit more sensibly in the last over, we are maybe looking at 220-230 and we win that match. It was probably a 225-230 par pitch. Chasing is usually more advantageous as you know the RR you require so I'd have done the same against India, however when it's so flat you need 12 an over from the start, a couple of wickets or bad overs immediately puts you on the backfoot
The final round 🌹Steve Borthwick has named his match day squad to face France this Saturday.@O2 | #WearTheRose— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) March 10, 2026
A 33 year old Daly playing at full back again against the French speeders should be interesting. Then again you could rinse and repeat if it was Steward also.
England head coach Steve Borthwick has denied that Bill Sweeney's conditional vote of confidence has increased the pressure on his position and promised to fight for his future - The Telegraph
So the ECB are now gagging the players, keeping the two perpetrators of the Ashes crime in their roles and refusing to release any of the details from their internal review publicly. Gould needs to go, completely unfit for purpose.
They playing with fire. The press will keep digging and they might well find stuff that causes a lot of chaos,
Best Wngland have played all 6 Nations but sometimes the decision making drives me mad! We had a penalty advantage but carried on playing through the phrases and then it gets called for time and we concede a try! Just bloody kick it away and take the penalty! I just don’t get what goes through there head. Having said that, it felt the ref called time on the penalty advantage way early.
Typical of Borthwick England. Thats now South Africa 2023, France 2024, Australia 2024 and now today. I’m sure there’s one I’ve missed as well. The worst thing about these valiant defeats in English sport is not even the pain in losing in such close fashion, it’s the fact that they are enough to paper over the cracks and ensure nothing changes. Just like when England lost at the Oval to India in the summer, this will convince them to carry on as normal and ignore the disastrous campaign it has been. The only positive I suppose is that the home nations are completely insufferable and it’s always nice to see their hearts get broken.
Got to be honest that's why I don't watch/ like rugby, how can a match be decided by such a crappy penalty. Tries should be worth more points.
The ref was god awful in that game and yet again, so many brainless individual errors on our part. Of course it was an improved showing but I can't really take much from it given the pressure was completely off. Despite how crap the ref was, it was still a complete bottle job on our part at the end. Shocking decision making from Pollock.
What makes the refereeing even worse was the fact that I think the TMO told the ref it wasn’t a high tackle for the pen as it was in a easier position to kick and gave it for the Itjoe deliberate knock on. If the ref hadn’t given the high tackle pen I’m not sure Itjoe would have risked doing something so stupid as think he just lost focus as he knew they had a pen. I dunno, not seen a replay of the high tackle anywhere.
Yeah it's infuriating. TMO guy definitely told him to review it. That ref has a trail of poor performances behind him in recent years. Absolutely abysmal today.
Thats the issue for Pollock, he was shushing the crowd after Freeman scored and then when he stole the ball at the other end made himself look like a clown trying to offload a pass that was never on and it lead to them keeping the ball. He needs to really learn from this!
Im not even sure why he gave a penalty try, sure it was a pen but how many times does collapsing a maul mean a penalty try? You see this sort of thing time and again. He has big history of screwing over England and tonight wasn’t any different.
He's obviously young so I'll give him a pass and I like his mentality, but you can't make errors at this level as damning he makes at the end. What's Van Poortvliet doing with that box kick at the end too? That was one of the most brain dead decisions I've seen on a rugby pitch in a while. It feels like there's a huge disparity between ability and IQ with this team at times. Yeah, and as per in rugby, the post-match conversation is giving the official an easy ride. Rugby's obsession with respect culture lets officials get away with murder at times. There should be serious post-match discussions being had in the media. Maybe there have been, but not any that I can see.
Here’s the supposed high tackle! What a ridiculous call! pic.twitter.com/vQ4HiVLyjf— TBH just Lorem (@CurrentJams) March 14, 2026
Time for borthwick to go. But wigglesworth has to go minimum as a sacrificial lamb. I'm not having him in this setup.
Yeah I screamed at the TV when VP kicked the ball away. I mean just steady the ship, give it to the forwards and stick it up the jumper. I know it’s a risk but you have to trust your forwards to keep it tight and go through the phrases. Kicking back to France with what 2 mins to go is always a massive risk.
It is weird because we have offered so many gifts to the opposition in all of our losses. We’ve been dreadful but it is all down to our own errors. Usually when you have a campaign like this you feel the opponents look much better but we’ve looked a match for anyone in certain moments.