No best-of-2012-nominee-Farrell? Out of love with Ashton as well?
I have to say the squad looks very very good and the majority of those guys have already shown their class at test level and with time to settle and getting to know each other better England should be pushing hard again come 2015. Especially the forwards where you have world class quality in depth.
I think SA are a year behind England ITO bringing the pieces together after both have been in a rebuilding phase. Super rugby 2013 should give us a bit more to work off of and I trust HM to bring the guys in.
Oh gods don't remind me about that nomination. I went for one 10/12, and was going to pick Farrell until I remembered that Twelvetrees has far more natural talent, just a matter of giving him international experience.
As for Ashton, if he's not getting on the end of breaks he's not anything really, and there's not a lot kind to be said about his defence.
This said - if Farrell improves, he's got the icewater needed for this level, and in a functioning backline Ashton can be deadly. But for now, I'm hoping they'll be overtaken by players with more potential.
I've gotta say, it looks promising. But there's a lot of young kids who need to put in two years of solid performances before I start to get very excited.
Agree with most of this, however I'd say looking ahead you need to add Ford into the mix for sure, if he can get some regular game time and develop a bit over through the season I'd predict him going to Argentina in the summer (which the cream of the EPL is with the Lions) and then who knows.
I'd also hope that Dixon or Youngs don't make it. Nothing against Dixon as a player but I reckon there will be better and younger guys kicking around in three years. Youngs offends me so that is a personal bias choice.
Also biased here but I like the way Daly plays so I'm rooting for him.
Finally we can all hope Steffon Armitage comes back from France, in which case he makes it into the 23 at least.
Ford was in my squad - completely agree with you there.
I can believe there will be better players than all of our scrum-halves, but am not optimistic. I can't see the prospects who look to me like they have it. Maybe Dan Robson.
Daly's a class act but needs to fix his defence and has two class acts ahead of him. As for SArmitage... would be good, but until he does, I'm not considering him.
