I did? When? Where? Link?
Is Mike Brown as good as Leigh Halfpenny?
Is Jack Nowell as good as Alex Cuthbert?
Is Luther Burrell as good as Scott Williams?
Is Billy Twelvetrees as good as Jamie Roberts?
Is Tom May as good as George North?
In my opinion, not one of the above English players is as good as their Welsh counterpart. As such, "average in comparison to Wales" is a valid statement.
I just find it frustrating when people use such terminology to describe players they haven't much watched.
Sure, if you phrase it in such a way as only one backline can be quality and the other one has to be no better than average, then of course you'll be saying Wales are better because they're far more settled and experienced.
Looking at those face-offs again:
15: As Olyy says, Brown is making metres and beating defenders for fun. Over 100 metres against Scotland despite the sludge. He has facets to his game whch Halfpenny has shown glimpses of but doesn't consistently bring. With a 10 who can kick goals like Farrell, albeit not as good a percentage as Halfpenny, I'd happily have Brown above Halfpenny
14: I've always thought Cuthbert was a small firmware upgrade on Banahan.. ok, maybe a bit harsh. He's a winger for certain weather. A born finisher but he's not the same in the team on the back foot. Nowell isn't just a finisher,he beats defenders and makes ground when there's no room to do so. For his size he's also a far better defender than Cuthers.
13: Evens. I don't know about Burrell being better than Williams but neither do I think Williams stands out above Burrell. They are completely different players.
12. Roberts may not be at his best but he's still a go to man for Wales and getting them over the line so I'd give it to him. But Twelvetrees is playing pretty well, making good yards, distributing well. He'll continue to improve and with the right partner at inside centre I think he could be one half of a very good partnership.
11. Norths a bit of a star really. This said, JOHNNY May is electric and runs round entire defences. He beats defenders in simply a different way to North. He does things North can't do, and by the same token North does things May cannot hope to do. You'd have to opt for North right now given all the evidence but May is tearing it up and you can't dismiss him as average just because you'd prefer North. Give him a handful more games with England and see where his reputation is. The other thing is that George North looks pretty human sometimes; he makes defensive mistakes, yet for some reason people are oblivious to it because he'll also do things like fireman lift an opposition player. Cuthbert gets all the stick but North can be equally fallable.
If you'd watched much of these guys you wouldn't call them average. Besides this comparison, surely the more pressing fact is that this tournament so far the England backs have simply looked better almost man for man, and that's despite 4 of them having about 10 caps between the lot of them.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying by any means we have a better backline than Wales, but to call a young backline average when they're looking exciting and sharp against older more experienced teams, is very unfair.
In terms of yesterday, I think next week game Wales will put out Tipuric and Warburton. Lydiate can be so slow in rolling away on the floor, you can't afford tardiness like that when trying to keep the penalty count low.
