England v Australia

try

ffs try get on with it

very tight, not sure

This isn't rocket-science ffs. Touches the line before it leaves his hand.

Shall we play the game please?

Good decision.

Only a quarter of an inch from not being a try though.

that has to be one of the tightest ever!!!!!

Wait for the nonsense about control. You can ground the ball with any part of your arm. Clearly down when under his forearm.

I thought he used his other hand to help him along when tackled

Hands up who can remember the last time an England team ran, and scored, tap penalties??

thought they would give that.could not possibly see if that had hit the line.biased twats.

Scotland 3-14 SA HT

SA just physically dominant.

I can see what you mean Vis, but real time, he's still got momentum. Would be a harsh one for me.

close on my Aus/Eng

I like to see as much as I can when it suits my book Dunc 

Mind you that Aussie try should never have been allowed

I personally didn't see it hit the line but am glad to see the attacker get the benefit of the doubt.

What was the question asked?

Aussies should take this easily all over the ruperts.

Just a yes or no job I think

Cameras are too low to see the exact position of the line on one angle, but yes it's generally preferable for the attacking team to get the benefit and without a video ref that would have been given regardless.

Italy 10-23 NZ

Better Italian performance than last week then....

Italy 10-30 NZ

10 mins left

Scotland 10-21 SA

Surprised Marler is still on, especially as you seem to be able to have a revolving door of prop substitutions, unless Rolland is reffing.

Love those chipkicks - wish more teams used them

looking rather ominous for Aussie an win here.Eng limited as usual

the hands and ball skills of the aussies are lovely to watch.

Well if Australia win, can they win by 9+ please?

predictable stuff fro Eng

Italy 10-42 NZ

NZ cap backers chuffed with the late burst from the Kiwis.

Italy 10-42 NZ FT

Bit surprised Poite hasn't found a yellow card yet.

Got to look at that pretty closely.

Looks like it's just slipped out of his grasp.

Someone tell Stuart Barnes the rules. You can ground it with your forearm.

same old Eng

Why did that take so many replies?

why are  eng not going for 3s when there is over 20 mins to play?  Crazxy

It's incredible after all these years that the people in the commentary booth still haven't read the laws.

Lions captaincy slipping from Robshaw's grasp with these decisions to turn down three.

South Sea Islanders to the rescue for England!

have to agree cant take 3 with 20m t go- bad bad sign of a team

I think the idea was to keep the pressure on and drag a yellow out of Poite.

Surprised both teams have kept 15 on the pitch so far.

3s win games like these.  The higher the level the more important taking your 3s is.

just realised NZ covered late on which is nice

ffs, owens u r right beside it!

Bugger, wanted that to go over. Inches short.

feck me that is well short

what are the touchies looking at?

waste of ****g time

welsh ref tries to stitch us up even when hes not reffing,any ref,any 50-50 goes against england in every match,disgraceful.

Great D.  Gotta take your points!

a frustrating Eng same thing every year

could be tied now if eng had kicked points

Scotland 10-21 South Africa  FT

yes,but they got 5 instead of 3 in the 1st half

Eng would love another 3 right now. They have blown this by going big far too early.

Going to have to hope France win again in order to keep the northern hemisphere off zero.

I think Fra can do a job on Arg tonight RM.  I'm still just not that sure about this Pumas team + weather won't be an issue

Eng get nervous when they get near a try chance!

Ireland last week, Wales both games, England here. NH teams go from ruck to ruck and have very little variation.

Argentina crafted their win last week with some beautiful midfield offloads and watching Samoa last night showed how dangerous offloading can be.

poitre has been horrendous this 2nd half!

These damn favs winning at HT and the losing it second half is getting a bit tiresome........

Was that Sharpe again??

Nah. Bit dubious at best anyway.

that is never an obstruction!  Simulation!

Eng may win this but here they should be going 6 points up via this pen.  They have set their stall at to run everything from the first half so at least they are consistent I guess but they are no Maoris

On a line through this game how good were France last week! Or have the Aussie changes made that big a difference

France put on a real show last week. Powerful, more powerful, and generally accurate.

Only NH team that can play like a SH team. They just only do it now and then.

how embarrassing losing to this cac

same thing all the time get a chance knock on or give a pen away just useless

This puts Eng nicely down with Wales now.  Fra look well clear at least until tonight.

touch early for the 1.01?

so much for the england scrum dominating

Bugger, a real pain of a punting game. Needed either the Aussies to land that kick to go 9pts clear or England to take their 3pt chances and make it 20-20. Got neither.

Tier 2 T-Shirts in very big demand

tonights game Vis - 1st scoring play, nice price currently.

That's a v poor showing today from Eng. Back to the bad old times of going off nice favs and not delivering.

ingerland did ok bar the decision making, shoulda won by 3pts in taking the pens

It's closer to an all-round game than England have been in the past decade, but there are some basic lessons that need to be learnt quickly.

As least England are falling short with a young team now though, rather than plodding to defeat with crumbling old no-hopers.

No so fast Ozy - you have to lose to Italy/Scot in the 6 Nations or otherwise an Islander team before the T-Shirts come out.

No Hernandez tonight Furelli, which is a shame, but Sanchez doesn't need much of an excuse to have a pop.

"This puts Eng nicely down with Wales now"

bloody hell vis England aren't that bad!!

I think those Eng persons who think ye have anything more than a very average rugby team are in total denial

hmmm, I'll probably have a go, but would rather Fra had somebody other than Michalak as he's not really a DG man is he?

It doesn't look overly good to me Sewter - I don't rate this Aussie team at all yet they have been both sides now in close games.

Have we not learnt that you need a proper 7 at international level as shown by the SH teams. Robshaw ceratinly isnt that.. England still dont put enough players into the breakdown at times.

I really like Tom Johnson as a club player, but whether he is an international is debatable. Tom Wood looked very much an international before getting injured, but has been rushed back in before his form has caught up. Robshaw is almost certainly the best 6 in the country and he does a job at 7, but certainly isn't a natural openside. He's very much a classic link-man, but when teams have the likes of Pocock or Hooper, McCaw, Louw, you have to respond in kind. Someone with more raw power would be a nice start. England did miss Lawes last weekend and they probably missed Hartley as well. Some positions are looking in good health in terms of first choice, but back-up hasn't really materialised as yet.

I think we will be lamenting the lack of Armitage for some time though. England rarely produce a good 7 and when they do he is overlooked. On club form you could make a case for him being the best player available in any position. Another Simpson-Daniel.

Thomas Waldrom, Tom Johnson & Charlie Sharples dropped by England ahead of the Test v SA. Joe Marler out already so min 4 changes to XV

Absolutely disgraceful decision to drop Sharples and Johnson. Same old idiots in charge who see it as an easy to drop players from less fashionable clubs and cast them as some sort of scapegoats. It's been the case down the years with Gloucester players that they get one chance and if they don't set the house on fire straight off, they will be inevitably dropped. I've seen it so many times. All the while, far more culpable and less able players are kept in the squad because they wear a predominately green/white/yellow or black shirt week after week.

Makes me sick in disappointment for the lad but it's our gain I guess.

England head coach Stuart Lancaster has appeared to call into question the fitness of flanker Steffon Armitage.

Speaking in defence of England captain Chris Robshaw, Lancaster addressed the calls from both the public and the media for Armitage to be included back into the set-up by questioning whether he was fit enough to handle Test rugby.

"I want our players to stay in England and play in England," said Lancaster to the press on Monday.

"At Toulon he [Armitage] plays behind a dominant pack and they have got world-class players in every position. They are beating everyone on the front foot.

"To play for 80 minutes, at the highest level in Test rugby, when you're not on the front foot and have to keep running around at high levels of intensity, you've got to be fit."

Armitage was named on Monday as the best foreign player in the Top 14 by Midi Olympique, having excelled last season as Toulon reached both the Amlin Challenge Cup and Top 14 Finals.

England came unstuck against Australia's Michael Hooper last Saturday, raising the issue once again on whether a recognised "fetcher" is needed at openside flanker rather than England captain Robshaw.

The Harlequins captain produced more turnovers than any other player during the June series against South Africa, but appears more physically suited to the blindside flank.

"Chris has been named captain for the series and I'm more than happy with his contribution on and off the field. I don't see that Chris' performance would warrant being dropped," added Lancaster.

"There are not many in my opinion who play at seven in England in the same way as Michael Hooper or Richie McCaw do. It's quite hard to magic someone up to play in that way in our competition."

I don't really get it. He's absolutely barnstorming for Toulon, week after week, he was exactly the same for Irish but probably a bit more "raw" in his early days. He's about as all action as you can imagine a forward being, but apparently he's not fit enough because he plays for a good team????

What about the multitude of Leicester players Lancaster picks? Are they not fit enough because they tend to be on top up front? Fatty Waldrom keeps getting picked! The French think Armitage is one of the best around and there is A LOT of competition in his position. A bafflingly ridiculous argument from Lancaster.

I don't want to see Robshaw dropped either, but that simply doesn't have to be the case. Square pegs in square holes please

More moronic quotes from Lancaster.

England seem to be the only one of the 'top' international sides who feel that they can exist without a true open side. Armitage would be in just about any other side in the world but as he isn't 6'5 and 19st, he won't get picked. Instead, we'll be left with knuckleheads like Worsely, Waldrom etc.

I wonder if Lancaster thinks he will undermine and upset his captain by picking Armitage. All the bullcrud comments are exactly that, very, very poor excuses as to why SA shouldn't be included that are so ludicrous it is apparent for all to see. Hopefully the exposure keeps coming though, because I don't think Warren would have a problem leaving his out of form captain at home when it comes to the Lions tour

"I want our players to stay in England and play in England," said Lancaster to the press on Monday.

How come Lancaster was picking Palmer when he was at Stade Francais then?

Drops Sharples and keeps flat track Ashton in can't see the logic in that.

Palyers should be given a full series of games to prove themselves. E.g all of the Autumn or the whole of the 6 Nations.  Dropping somebody after 5 minutes in the team never achieves anything.

"I want our players to stay in England and play in England," said Lancaster to the press on Monday.

"At Toulon he [Armitage] plays behind a dominant pack and they have got world-class players in every position. They are beating everyone on the front foot.

"To play for 80 minutes, at the highest level in Test rugby, when you're not on the front foot and have to keep running around at high levels of intensity, you've got to be fit."

Dean Richards never ran about like a headless chicken but he was just about the best destructive back row we have produced.

All spell playing Rugby in France might make them better players. At least they could come back able to pass and catch.

Lancaster appeared to be his own man when he was caretaking and the general opinion was that he wouldn't get the job

unfortunately now he is "the man" he has looks to have fallen into line and his selection policy is indistinguishable from previous managers

**at least Wales had the bottle to drop Warburton albeit for 1 match

I've no real problem with Lancaster leaving out Armitage. I might not agree with it, but that is his perogative as coach.

I do have a real problem with him disparaging Armitage though when 1. Armitage has not been in any recent squads and 2. he's not been to see Armitage play.

Lancaster seemed like a breath of fresh air when he came on the scene, but someone needs to tell him to wind his neck in. He's reverted to type and is the latest arrogant candidate in a long line of England coaches for the emperor's new clothes.

I think I broadly agree RW. I'm not convinced it's arrogance on Lancaster's part, I think he has tried to defend his decision but got his reasoning badly wrong. Much better to say "nobody playing in France plays in my team" (which in these days of easy movement across european borders is a tad suspect) than to try to claim Armitage has failings, which he has absolutely no proof of. One is a coaches prerogative, the other is essentially slander.

I don't like this idea that playing abroad should exclude you, unless as in Haskell's case recently he was on the other side of the world. Armitage saw an opportunity to play at a higher level and to better himself as a player (as well as improving his bank balance) and he took it. It appears to have worked as the French think he is brilliant. Does he have to now take a wage cut and play for Bath in order to play for England? A situation that could well lead to stagnation as a player......

When a player is running full speed and throws a pass then trying to judge it by the lines on the field is totally irrelevant. To think that there are people using betfair and betting on rugby don't know that is mind boggling.

The pass has to be aimed backwards, so even if it goes well forwards it can still be ok if the hands are showing a backwards pass and the initial movement of the ball is in that direction. Plenty of passes out wide go well forwards and this "momentum" doesn't necessarily cut it as an excuse.

Essentially, when a ball goes that far forwards the crowd are always going to expect a whistle to blow. Best thing to do though is tackle the bloke before he passes the thing.........