OT - Rugby World Cup

[Growltigger]

Great match - the Australians played fast and hard rugby and played against our weak spots. The Aussie try was beautiful, and showed our tactical error at placing 5'8'' Jason Robinson against their 6' plus backs

My personal view was that the Aussies were playing with 16 men in extra time, including that damn referee!!

My take on "that" penalty decision is as follows:

1 the England forwards were far too strong for the Aussie pack (bringing on their 3rd and 4th choice props) and it looked to me that the stronger pack were being penalised when the Aussies were raising up and breaking the scrum. This is a schoolboy error and England should have been awarded free kicks/penalties

2 Martin Johnson had been badgering the ref to penalise the Aussie number 3, who in particular, was breaking up the scrum

3 the ref took umbrage at this (rightly so in my opinion, players should not "influence" the ref) and at the next break in the scrum, awared the penalty to England, although it was the Aussie number 1 who broke it.

4 Elton Flatley proves he is the class act he is by equalising.

5 England play to their strengths (to quote Gregan, if you have the best fly-half, you use him), played for position, powered forward and got the ball to Jonny who did what he does best, and have practised countless times.

6 In summary, poor referreeing still led to the result.

Australia deserved their chances for playing hard against us, that being said, I am pleased to the Aussie media are now silenced as we scored the same number of tries as Australia, and they kicked as much as we did. Poetic justice (especially following that voodoo doll incident!!) that Mr Wilkinson delivers the coup de grace.

Great match. Great for World Rugby, great for everybody