[2014 EOYT] England v Australia

[goodNumber10]

Well thing is, even not agreeing on the Farrell question I can still say that having made the decision to try Farrell at 12 he should have stuck by it longer... :s. I do think they panicked a bit when they changed it after only an hour.

I think the Farrell for 36 decision was planned, so they could see how 36 went with Ford. I think that's the main reason they went with 36 in the Australia game. Farrell at 12 was solid, nothing more, his passing was ok but the game was so ponderous it's hard to make any informed opinion on how well he can play there.

I do wonder if we'll see him line up at 12 for Sarries.

No doubt that Tuilagi and Burrell are big losses. Yarde I'm fast losing faith in... I think we might have won another game with the first two fit. Even allowing for this, there'll always be in the back of my mind the "Yeah but, frankly, with our resources, we should have been able to do better"

Don't disagree with any of that.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

I do hope Eastmond and Roko haven't had their chance to play for England cut short by their injuries, both showed promise and it will be veyr bad if they are not in contention again for the 6N (barring injuries again). The only game Eastmond got was outside Farrell, who was not doing anyone any favours. We never saw Eastmond and Ford working together, which I really can't understand and this time there isn't an excuse. We have had both of them available and in the team at the same time and Lancaster chose to play them seperately. Now he has once again missed an opportunity by not putting them together when he had the chance and now injury has prevented it until the 6N. England are having chronic problems getting our backs into the game and it MUST be sorted. Ford together with Eastmond will go a long way to solving that together but not so much alone with someone else at 10/12 (especially if it is Farrell based on current form).

Also what do people think of Devoto? He seems like a big, strong player with some decent vision. Potential 12 as well?

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

I don't think we will see anyone small play at 12. Especially with ford at 10.

I also think it might be too late to bring In slade, devoto or hill and that Lancaster will stick with:

Barritt
Burrell
Tuilagi
Farrell
12trees

And just make up the pairing from that lot.

I kind of wish we had lost the Australia game as we only won because of our scrum which really warps out whole performance.

Ball at pace and backs with vision don't seem to be things we do!

 

[Geordie]

Re the Aussie Scrum,

What happened to Max Lahiff, the young prop who left London Irish for Australia. He looked a right prospect.

As for the England backs....dont expect anyone other than .....

9. Care / Youngs
10. Ford / Farrell
11/14. Watson, May, Nowell, Ashton, Roko
12/13 Burrell, Barritt, Eastmond, Manu,
15 Brown

 

[Every Time Ref]

Also what do people think of Devoto? He seems like a big, strong player with some decent vision. Potential 12 as well?

I think he's a good player with potential to be very good. Early last season, I actually thought he was our best option at twelve - obviously Eastmond steadily improved then pulled away with some class form, but that is unlucky for Devoto as I felt he was denied game time in order to help Eastmond's development. I feel he could be on his way out of Bath next season to be honest, he will rightly feel he is too good to be someone's understudy.

 

[TheSaffycen]

I think Devoto can be our Frans Steyn. Put him in the 22 shirt and he can cover 10/12/13/15 which is perfect for a RWC. The backs I would choose for the RWC
Scrum Half- Care/Wigglesworth/Cook
Fly Half- Ford/Farrell/Cipriani
Centres-Devoto/Eastmond/Barritt/Tuilagi/Joseph/Burrell
Wings-May/Rokoduguni/Watson/Nowell
Full Backs-Brown/Foden

Now I have 18 backs with 6 centres... The reason for this is that Watson, Nowell and Jospeh can all cover 15. Joseph, Tuilagi and Eastmond can all cover wing. Devoto/Eastmond and Barritt can easily cover different positions.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Re the Aussie Scrum,

What happened to Max Lahiff, the young prop who left London Irish for Australia. He looked a right prospect.

Whaaaaat? He was muck!
The archetypal Aussie prop - strong, good around the pitch, couldn't scrummage to save his life.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Looked like he was completely hanging whenever I saw him play for the Rebels.

 

[Jaguares]

Well at the saints we have a top class Australian tight head. If he went back home though I bet he wouldn't get picked despite being the current best scrummaging Australian around.

Salesi Ma'afu? Well, ARU should put the little money they have on the return of Ma'afu and stop spend on extravagant and unnecessary players like Tongan Thor or someone like him.

 

[The Jones Boy]

Now teams with deficient scrummaging may well be able to win some games through sheer skills in their backs, but backs can't show how skilful they are without the ball, and teams like England, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa will work out very quickly that they have scrum and maul dominance, they will smell blood in the water, and they will shut the game down and keep it tight and keep the ball for themselves. This is especially so in a world cup.

You can include Wales and France in that group too.
A world cup will see teams tighten up and look to their forwards to clamp down on the possession and the action outside of the first ten players.
All these teams will cause a weak front row BIG problems in a RWC situation.

 

[TheSaffycen]

You can include Wales and France in that group too.
A world cup will see teams tighten up and look to their forwards to clamp down on the possession and the action outside of the first ten players.
All these teams will cause a weak front row BIG problems in a RWC situation.

Why a team like Argentina can do so well also. That pack with Hernandez and Sanchez taking 3 points at every opportunity and they could easily beat the wallabies in a knock out comp.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

well there's a blueprint there for any team to beat us, just play a monster pack and go "up the guts and into em" as nick cummins would say