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thought the last days games summed the whole tournament up. we (england) were leaderless and an utter shambles in the forwards with support play once again none existent. the only crumb of comfort was that for the first time since the wales game there was a bit of enterprise in the back division. this is comfortably the worst england team (not individuals but team thanks to AR) for 20 years and the priority is to change the coach.

irelands forwards were again strong and have been all tournament. we are still waiting for the undoubted attacking talent in the backs to surface and i thought that they would murder englands back line today but with ball in hand they were a bit disappointing. irelands real strength is in the forwards but they are still not performing to their potential so should be more from them.

wales have shown an alarming ability to self destruct on and off the field this season and a strong individual in the coaching dept needs to get a grip of the whole situation and get them back to their strength of last year. todays game was there for the taking but again they just couldnt nail it down. although will peel get his place back? thought phillips was outstanding.

scotland have progressed massively and defensively are excellent with hadden taking an enormous amount of credit. still not great in attack but im sure that will come now they have built the basis of their defense. well done to them and good to see them back as a force.

same to italy - much improved and thought they didnt deserve to lose today but are no longer a soft touch. more clinical decision making (let them down again today) and more wins on the horizon for them. berbizier seems to have tapped into the italian mindset.

the french - well done for winning the championship but the most schizophrenic french side i think i have ever seen. no great performances from them this year but some rubbish. still they havent played well and beat the rest of europes best.

europes best? distinctly average in terms of quality. a few glimpses today but overall a very poor standard of rugby this year.

and the officiating. all teams have benefitted and suffered from the worst refereeing i have ever seen at international level. there has been a shocking standard that needs to be addressed so that teams dont have (very legitamite) complaints about refereeing.

no the SH teams will be laughing all the way to the WC final i would imagine.

at this rate new zealand could field their 2nd string and beat most of the 6 nations teams

with the refereeing (in all the games) i couldnt understand whne they were saying let go over and over to the teams trying to slow the ball down. say it once then penalties. if that doesnt work then yellows. often there would be 3 or 4 warnings as players tried to slow it down - this is one area that is reffed better by the SH lot.

Like in any sport, there are always questionable calls made by officials. Mr Goode should stop blaming the 'Irish Luck' for their win over the weekend, and rather questions why Enland lost. Maybe its because they had 'Goode Luck'?

If a referee is not bias, and no one can say the ref in the Eng v Ire game was bias, then any mistakes have to be chalked up to fate. A good team will win a game even if the ref makes a few errors. (Lord alone knows, the players make enough; I think we can forgive the ref a couple per game).

England played better than they have done of late, but Ireland were clearly the better side. Crying about it won;t make England a better side. Sacking the coaching staff would be the way to do that. There players are almost all worthy of their places; it's how they are playing in those shirts that's the worry.

ps with all the changes made, why did Cohen keep his place? Varndell could have been recalled from Oz; Simpson Daniel would perhaps have done a better job. Suffice to say few players, even at the level I play, could have made more howlers than he has this tournemant.

"all teams have benefitted and suffered from the worst refereeing i have ever seen at international level"

note the "all teams bit" - this was my original view on the refereeing - it was not directed at yesterdays game in particular before this turns into blaming the defeat on the officials. there are plenty of other threads on that.

although if anyone is going to try and tell me the officials for the england - ireland game were of a particular high standard then i am willing to listen to that argument.

did anyone else feel the man of the match decision was slightly biased?

Quoted message from PUSB1987

Not just biased, but wrong.

Any number of Ireland players played better than Goode.

white or o'connell for me

both have been outstanding

hu do u think is the player of the championship i believe Mike Blair of Scotland is it and im english no scotish

Quoted message from flankerboy

yeah o'connell had a good 6 nations. I know he was touted as a possible captain for the lions tour last year but drico got the nod. I think the game is up for o kelly and big john hayes. Hayes was totally out classed in the scrum yesterday. I am an Irish fan living in England and expect some bias in the match commentry, but Brian Moore takes the biscuit. He is torturous to listen to and his knowledge of the rules sometimes is a bit shaky. i know woody can be partisan too but he isn't commenting all through the match!I think moore will be the first person to have a stroke live on air if he keeps on ranting like that.

The english performance, is merely "a symptom of a greater malaise". The conservative power brokers,behind the scenes at Twickenham need to find the Courage to be Creative, and choose a Coach and management team who will pick a Balanced team It needs a healthy combination of guile, strength, and intelligence.
Ben Cohen epitomises everything that is wrong with english rugby. He is clueless.
The players are there, Tait, JSD, (Perry was outstanding for the A's on fri. evening), Barkley, Lund, Voice etc. If only Wilkinson could heal his pysche.
The players and the fans deserve better. Let's see if wises Choices are made soon? Don't blame AR he's just being himself, (a myopic, introverted, lump, like his team) blame those who selected him,