A couple of the pundits here said that Tonga 'deserved' to win. Utter cobblers. England played Bennett style for 70 minutes and were clearly the better team. Had England not decided they'd won the game and it was time to think about the final that would probably have ended up 20-0.



As it was England took their foot off the gas, Tonga got a sniff and all of a sudden England's defence looks like a bunch of Under 9s, with players bunched and chasing the ball individually. There was one point near the end when Tonga moved the ball right where they were tackled, and anybody could see that they were going to try to move it left fast in the next tackle, but England's entire team were barley spread past the centre of the field. They were so congested there they had no chance to properly slide as a unit.



If I were Bennett I'd be very disappointed in the fact that none of the senior players took charge and got the team to regroup, especially after Tonga's second try. If we had as bad a five minute spell as that at any time vs Aus we'll also let in 2-3 tries.

If it takes 70 minutes to take hold, it can hardly be called intimidating.





All those moving hymns must have been terrifying for the poor English lambs.

Indeed.....except where I was sat there wasn't much hymn singing going on during the game and regardless of when England decided to fold, they did fold for the last 10 minutes or so.....the occasion got to them and the crowd were part of the occasion!

Edited for accuracy.





Like I said, if it takes 70 minutes for [size=70*cough*[/size "intimidation" to take hold, then 1) it's not intimidating, or 2) you don't know the meaning of the word.

England folded under pressure....they had to defend gallantly for 70+ minutes because they were under pressure from the Tongans side and the partisan crowd...if you don't understand that, then you've never payed sport at a high level!

Perhaps if the Tongan's had played for the previous 70 minutes like they did for the last 10 then the result might have been different. Maybe they were intimidated by the expectations of their own fans because for 70 minutes they were pretty poor

Once again edited for accuracy.



Acknowledging the tremendous atmosphere is not the same as being intimidated.



Intimidation means being frightened. Are you trying to tell me they were frightened of the flag-waving, hymn singing crowd?

Or they thought the job was done with 8 mins left and started to mentally clock off.

I opened the Times this morning expecting a decent write up.



Just 3 short paragraphs side snippets. Loads about union and cricket.

To be fair we'd lost Hodgson and Lockers, so it's hardly a surprise the players were blowing at the end. The bias from some of the media in the Sth hemisphere is ridiculous, especially in the Australian TV coverage. Kimmorley et al are a joke.

with 7mins to go and 20-0 up there wasnt any pressure!!



maybe clocked off/got tired/great tongan last effort/miracle after that but left themselves too much to do in the end.



England are battered, bruised and exhausted now.. will give it a good go for the first 30mins next week then it will all take its toll and aussies will run loose i think

You don't know much about sport psychology do you?

Ask any sportsperson, even at the lower grades but more so at the top end of the pile and pretty much all of them will say they don't really notice the crowd when they are engaged in what they are doing.



Sure when you're standing having a breather you'll hear it and see it but it's just noise, it's not intimidating per-se but if you're not used to the noise and/or the occasion it can effect you, not in an intimidating way but it can make you realise the enormity of the occasion, that is usually down to lack of experience/simple mental discipline.

Once you're in the thick of it you're too focused on what you are doing (or should be) to acknowledge the crowd at all.