No **** - he was playing with an attacking non-entity inside him - that's the problem with Barritt.
Certainly don't think he either messed up that overlap or looked unthreatening - the tackler tackled him pretty much as soon as he received the pass.
Yeah - but the fact that the opposition are having to put effort into marking him is positive in itself.
That is true. I'm not saying he had a shocker, by any stretch, but he didn't do as much as usual. I'm judging him by very high standards, because he's a very good player, it goes without saying that he did lots of good things because he always does (including exemplary defence as ever) - even if today was his best, he's still the best outside centre England have.
I also agree that it's not his fault, Barritt's lack of threat of course had a big effect, but one of his great strengths for me is that he can turn slow static ball into better ball because he has the skill to take the ball standing still with two defenders on him, step and wriggle, cross the gainline and present.
On the overlap, I'd have to watch it again but my feeling at the time was that a) it was really excellent defence, I don't want to take that away from Kearney (I think it was Kearney?); but b) if JJ had come from 5 metres deeper he would've taken that out of the equation - he had the space to sit deeper and give himself time to get the pass away
I think JJ was pretty effective given the circumstances
Absolutely agree. Just saying he has set his own standards very much higher than "effective"
On Barritt - I'm hoping it was just first game back rustiness, but even his defence wasn't much to write home about today. If he's going to be picked he has to be making big, highlight-reel tackles consistently for 80 minutes a game to justify it because he's never going to earn his place on attack. Agree with Rats that people assume he's a battering ram because of his defensive physicality when he really isn't. To be honest I'm just resigned to accepting we simply don't have an inside centre without massive, glaring issues and one of them is just simply going to have to do. I suspect it'll be Barritt for this World Cup because the old truism goes that defence wins World Cups, but I think it's much of a muchness until the answer arrives. I'm not convinced by the #slade4twelve hype because as Peat said he doesn't play there. Not to say he couldn't pick it up quickly and it's a very exciting possibility for the future but Lancaster isn't going to be wasting World Cup training camp time to teach someone a new position. (Althoguh apparently he would use it to teach someone a new sport ... )
mwuhahaha
