Friday, 9 March 2007

How we will beat the French !!!!!!!!!!!


Firstly, and maybe bizarely to some of you, I do think we can beat the French on Sunday! But to do it, we need to be very focused and play at an intensity that we have not seen for a good few years.
Our front five must be aggressive in the set piece, precise, accurate but aggressive, so that our scrum is solid, and our line out provides the crucial flow of ball.
If they do that job, it will enable our back row to use the pace they now have. I think Rees could be crucial, inexperienced as he is, he has enough pace to enable him to dominate the arrival at each and every tackle situation. That would allow Easter and Worsely to concentrate on winning the ball, and here Worsley has to stand up and deliver on the fifty caps that he has accumulated.
As an eight we need to challenge every breakdown, physically, mentally, hit every player hard, hit any player we can late, and stamp on any available limbs without being seen, and whilst being subtle!! We need to create an edge to every second of the game, and remain in control at the same time.
We need to make every second uncomfortable for the French, we need to hurt them as often as possible, and we need to keep them under intense pressure for thewhole game, not 79 minutes, not 75 minutes, it has to be for the whole game.
Ellis will have to show his maturity in pressurising Yachvili, hounding him, without descending into a red mist and just punching him! This is where we need to have an icy control in our heads, and yet a boiling rage in our bodies.
Ellis also needs to take pressure off young Flood, take on board as much of the tactical kicking as he can, and ensure that with some tactical running he attracts the interest of the French backrow so that they can not just focus in on Flood.
Catt will certainly provide the vision and distribution at number 12, and if he can deliver the right passes at the right times, the running skills and pace of our back three can definitely cause the French real problems.
Our tactical kicking and chase need to be perfect, and preferably down the channels as this will not allow the French any counter-attack opportunities.
In attack we need to play a relatively fast paced game, to use Rees to his full advantage. We need to deliver our running forwards, Easter and Worlsey into space by running them off 12 and 13 as well as just 10.
Exploit Dominici, and put runners off the shoulders of Flood as I think Skrela is not only slow on his feet, but not the bravest!! I think we can manufacture holes around Skrela, especially if we encourage Betsen to fly at Flood. The down side is that Flood will be pretty uncomfortable on Monday, but then again who really cares!!
Play with pace, take the risks, run at both wings hard, tie them up in the tackle and the run wide again from the next phase ( and whilst doing that give the wings a good kicking whilst they are in there!!!)
So passion with brains, steel and poise and the first hits and contact on our terms and we might even rouse the crowd into support!!
Ever the optimist!!!!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Also think you guys can beat the french and found the following lines inspiring :

As an eight we need to challenge every breakdown, physically, mentally, hit every player hard, hit any player we can late, and stamp on any available limbs without being seen, and whilst being subtle!! We need to create an edge to every second of the game, and remain in control at the same time.
We need to make every second uncomfortable for the French, we need to hurt them as often as possible, and we need to keep them under intense pressure for thewhole game, not 79 minutes, not 75 minutes, it has to be for the whole game.


Every england player in my humble opinion is playing for his job. That should be inspiration enough.

MikeP said...

Will

You are right to be optimistic.We were undone by passion against Ireland who were stirred by the history of the occasion and put in an awesome performance.England now have to lift themselves to that level against the French at Twickenham.I am hoping for more passion,speed an aggression from the forwards.Better kicking from hand from Flood/Ellis and especially Catt.More incisive and faster running from the backs onto more intellegent passes and an overall sense of pride in performance from the whole team.I will be watching from your excellent facilities at Twickenham Will,and will put down England to win by 25 to 9 in the sweep.

chris said...

I thought the comments about the pack were spot on, now who says this in the England changing room and reminds everyone constantly?
I'd like to see Ellis haranguing the pack a more, kicking a few backsides if they are loitering on the friges.

chris said...

Have you seen the backs for the Tigers versus Glos game
Tigers
15 Sam Vesty
14 Tom Varndell
13 Dan Hipkiss
12 Daryl Gibson
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Ian Humphreys

Glos
15 Willie Walker
14 James Bailey
13 Anthony Allen
12 James Simpson-Daniel
11 Iain Balshaw
10 Ryan Lamb

Could be a mouthwatering contest.

Anonymous said...

Much as I would like to see England win I just don’t see it. . To come off the pitch having played with pride and passion and knowing that we played well I think is what I will settle for.

However think of what will happen if we win. Will it mean all is well with the state of our game again? Will we drop the winning captain to bring back Farrell so that he can continue with his Union education (even though playing against Wales is going to be his best chance to shine as a center)? Or do we finally give up on the Farrell experiment? Are we really saying that Cory, stalwart that he is, should play at 2nd row over all the specialist 2nd rows in the country? Won’t it also say that it is OK to play your internationals in league games during the championship because everything will work out right in the end just look what happened when we lost our captain, fly half and inside center!

Much as my heart want us to win, my head says no-way. If we lose and the result is a fundamental change in the structure then maybe its not such a bad thing.

Anonymous said...

Will,

you are a LEGEND !!!!

Will Carling said...

Thanks for the last comment, embarrassed as I am by it, and much as I want to deny it......... I can't!!!!!
Anyway, seriously, interesting views, and yes I think if I am brutally honest I would settle for watching an England team play with passion and honour the shirt and it's history.
I just hope that if we hit the field with that attitude and intensity then maybe we can unsettle a French side that keeps getting changed around by that mad look alike professor!!!

Anonymous said...

Will,
This has nothing to do with what’s happening now. It is a question I have always wanted a straight answer too and now that time may have healed the scar its right that somebody should open it up.

1991 England v Australia World Cup Final.

To quote Max Boyce, I was there. We lost a game we should have won, and I am not talking about being robbed by Campo’s deliberate knock on, we lost because after playing good old fashioned forward dominated rugby for the whole tournament we totally changed tack and tried to run the ball (remember that wonderful song?) What made you change your mind about the tactics and not play to our strengths? Did all the Auzzie talk about England being boring really get to you and the rest of the team? Why when everybody could see that the backs had just about forgotten what it was like to run and pass did we persist?

Does it still keep you awake at night?

Will Carling said...

Dear Fat n Balding!!

Years of therapy ripped up by your simple question!!
The fact was, and most people forget this, that we were beaten that summer 40-15 by the Aussies in Sydney playing our usual game.
So when we got to the final, we had two days debating how best to play them take them on and try to out think them.
I know it looked like we changed due to the media / Aussies, but we had years of crap from the media and it never made any difference (there are only about three of them who have the slightest idea what they are watching!! The others wouldn't have a clue even if they could see and weren't pissed as usual!!)
So honestly it had nothing to do with that.
Also when you look at the game, we made enough chances to win, we just were not precise enough with those chances. They made fewer chances, but took one of them!
I also think if we are honest there was still an aura around Southern Hemisphere sides in our minds, we lost to NZ in the opening match, when we should have beaten them.
I only played NZ three times in my ten years, and two of those were World Cups - crazy! I played Aussie 5 times, and again 2 were World Cups and SA 4 times.
It was only when England started playing them regularly in Clive's time that the pschological barrier was well and truly broken.
Not an excuse just the truth.
So no I do not lie awake at night, because I think we played nearly as well as we could, and you can not ask for more than that.
Sorry if we let you down.

Anonymous said...

Will,
No don’t get me wrong you did not let me down. (I still consider it 100 quid well spent!) You may have let yourselves down by not playing to your full potential but that is not for me to say.

Really who am I to criticize, you lot did what I and thousands of others only dream about.

At least you played with pride, it just seemed that you didn’t have the courage of conviction to play to your strengths and back yourselves. If you had actually done some running with the ball (apart from when you recorded that fabulous song – do you know where I can get a copy? I seem to have mislaid mine) you might have pulled it off.

However what you did do was confuse and bemuse me. I like thousands of others truly believed that the pack at that time could have used the Aussie pack for toilet paper. We had years of playing up the jumper rugby and had people who would scare the shit out of you just by breathing on you it was just so strange to see us trying to play an expansive game when we were masters of the opposite.

Anyway thanks for the straight answer.

Unknown said...

Will, you really are a leg end. Either that or Mystic Meg. How did you know what the script was? Have you discovered time travel?