From: grahamc@hpwin052.uksr.hp.com (Graham Cutting)
Subject: Re: England v France (long)
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 09:42:48 GMT
Organization: HP, Berkshire, England
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1.4 PL6]

Just thought I would add a few other points to Bruce's good post.

Bruce Beadle (bruce@siesoft.co.uk) wrote:
>England 16 France 15
>
>England began their pursuit of an unprecedented third Grand Slam with a very
>fortuitous victory over France at Twickenham on Saturday. England are 
>notoriously slow starters in this competition and for the first thirty minutes 
>they were given an abject lesson in set piece rugby. A late change had brought 
>Martin Johnson of Leicester in as replacement for Wade Dooley.  The conditions 
>were grey and overcast with a strong swirling wind. This meant that this was 
>always going to be something of a lottery, but France made far better use of 
>the conditions early on. 
>
>England were ahead by virtue of a Jon Webb penalty with their very first 
>attack, but the French responded quickly. They won possession from the 
>lineout, this in spite of their scrum half doing the throwing in. The ball 
>moved back to Lacroix who hoisted up a huge garryowen. Webb was underneath 
>this, seemingly with time and space to spare, but he contrived to miss the 
>catch and Saint-Andre followed in to score. Camberabero duly converted 3-7. 
>Webb has always looked decidedly vulnerable under the big up and unders and 
>I am surprised that opposing teams do not use this tactic more often.
>Webb kicked a second penalty but France increased their lead when Camberabero,
>whose propensity to kick would be matched only by the likes of Naas Botha 
>hoisted a steepling kick, this time the English defence found themselves the 
>wrong side of their own line and Saint-Andre followed up to score. The try 
>was reminiscent of the one that Will Carling scored against Wales here last 
>year.
>Camberabero was so embarrassed at the ease with which the French were 
>breaching the English try line that he missed an easy conversion under 
>the posts. 

There were a few other incidents before the first try I think are worth 
a mention.  The high ball had already shown weaknesses in England's ability
to deal with them.  Andrew had attempted to catch a highball that had
not quite found touch and it bounced of his chest giving France a scrum.
Later, another kick into England's half.  Camberabero had kicked down
field but Webb, in collecting it, fumbled and fell to the ground.  He 
gained his feet in time and found touch.

Then came those two highball tries ...

The first one does fall squarely on Webb's shoulders, he simply lost sight
of the ball as he turned and England were 7 points down.

The second was a team effort.  Not one England player left the ground in
an attempt to catch and compete for the ball.  Webb was firmly there waiting
for it to land in his arms and I could, I'm sure ;-), just hear the 
England team all shouting "Yours".

>
>It was at this stage that the English benefited from their first stroke of 
>luck. Webb struck a penalty from the left side of the field, the ball skewed 
>off the far post a la Marty Roebuck, and Hunter had the wherewithal to follow 
>the ball, while all around stood and stared, he took an easy catch and scored. 
>Webb converted 13-12. Just before this Phillippe Sella, the world's most 
>capped centre, playing probably his last game at Twickenham, had gone off, 
>he had been hit full in the face by a Rob Andrew clearance, I think he may 
>have been suffering from double vision. He was replaced by Franck Mesnel.
>

Just before half-time Camberabero had tried a couple of drop-goals from
different field positions.  And had also missed a penalty.  I thought that
he used the kick when France had a good attacking line and with their 
backrow I would have thought that they would have tried a few wide.

The only weakness in their backrow was that Benneton and Cabbanes were
playing left and right rather than open and blind.  Cabbanes being the
quickest would always be ineffective on a ball going left (I think Cabbanes
was on the right).

>In the second half England looked a whole lot better in defence. There were 
>only two more scores, a penalty to either side.  ...

The French scrum only looked in trouble once throughout the match and 
that was when a ball deflected back towards England and Moore took the
strike.  The French scrum collapsed as Tordo attempted to strike the ball
again.  Webb missed from just inside France's 10m.

There was also the only backs move (of any note) of the whole game.  England
had a scrum and the ball was passed along the line to Guscott, he made a 
dash and broke the tackle.  Fed outside to Webb who shipped it on to Hunter
who was then tackled by three French defenders.  Webb tried to retrieve the
ball but it had gone into touch just 1 or 2m outside the French line.  A
scrum was given for Webb hanging onto the ball.  France cleared to touch.

> .............................................. Late on England had their 
>second stroke of luck when Camberabero hit the crossbar from a drop goal 
>attempt. 

This deflection was well taken and quickly fed to Webb who cleared under
pressure.  Had Guscott hung on just a moment longer then more points for
France looked likely.

Hueber also tried at least one drop goal late in the 2nd half.

>         France's other centre Lacroix went off to be replaced by Ougier who 
>was playing very much out of position. When France tried to run the ball late 
>on they suffered from not having both their first choice centres. This was a 
>much improved France they showed commitment and discipline, they even matched 
>the English for fitness. There were few plus points for England. I thought 
>Ben Clarke had a good match and of course Hunter again proved he is 
>comfortable at this level. Winterbottom spent most of the game with a huge 

Clarke was the only England forward that got a head of steam and drove
forward but Teague and others were doing a lot of grafting.  It was a v. hard
game for both packs. 

>bandage around his head after suffering a gash that required stitching early 
>on. I am sure this limited his usual massive contribution in the loose. All 
>in all a poor performance by England, but then this was never going to be 
>a classic in spite of all the hype beforehand

Webb showed that he can regain his game even after an awful start.  That
does show character even if it exposed game-losing weaknesses.  His pass
to Hunter was also to quick and there were points there to be had.  

In fact, Webb was invloved in _all_ of the points in the game, if not to
blame for all.  

If Wales have Clement at fullback then Webb had better practise his catching.

>
>I'll leave the final word with Geoff Cooke the England manager:
>"We are hardly ecstatic. We are relieved that we have got the win, despite 
>making more errors in one game than in a season. We are disappointed with 
>the error count, especially in dealing with their kicks. We virtually gave 
>them 12 points, and we had to work very hard. We took one or two wrong 
>options, especially when players were isolated behind colleagues. We have 
>watched our mistakes and our scores and we will do a full analysis in the 
>next couple of weeks before we sort ourselves out to play Wales."

After watching a video of the game Cooke has stated that England hadn't
played as badly as he had first thought.  Althought the error count was
still far too high. 

>
>Scores: Webb (pen, 15 sec, 3-0); Saint-Andre/Camberabero (try/conv, 8 min, 
>3-7); Webb (pen, 10 min, 6-7); Saint-Andre (try, 16 min, 6-12); Hunter/Webb 
>(try/conv, 38min, 13-12); Webb (pen, 55 min 16-12); Camberabero (pen, 60 min, 
>16-15).
>
>bruce@siesoft.co.uk   Bruce C. Beadle, SNI, Bracknell RG12 8FZ England.
>Phone : +44-344-850485 (Desk).  |  +44-344-862222 (Switchboard)
>"Do you really think that's wise?" - Sgt Wilson, Dad's Army

--
Graham Cutting
grahamc@hpwin052.uksr.hp.com
Hewlett-Packard, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 1HN, England
Newsgroups: rec.sport.rugby