Morganmike,
I didn't say England played well for the full 80 minutes, but for the first time in a while it played for the full 80minutes. In the past we have seen England fall apart once the subs bench comes on, that didn't happen when some of the starting 15 were gradually replaced. Of course there is room for considerable improvement all round. To build up the spirit and moral of the team it was a very necessary victory, over the championship favourites after a terrible series of game losses.
The whole point of sport is to win, not just to compete for the sake of the game itself. Italy's poor performance and losing streak a few years ago , lead to speculation they may be dropped from the 6 nations, so winning does matter, not good enough to just compete..
Don't you just love arm chair critics (no matter how authoritatively they speak), who seem to lose sight of its the winning rather than how the game was played that really matters to many in the heat of competition. Now they need to improve and build on that success and deliver a more consistent winning performance.
I 'd take a far from perfect winning performance, no matter how scruffy, over a more technically perfect performance loss, any day
Last edited by JohnHarris; 09/02/25 02:14 PM.
