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2024 Guinness Six Nations
[2019 Six Nations] England Squad
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<blockquote data-quote="Jashay" data-source="post: 938435" data-attributes="member: 78812"><p>For me, I feel like every part of the England team had a huge amount of positives, with the exception of the half-backs and No8. Mako, George, Sinks made a hell of a front row. All our locks played brilliantly. We actually have a back row worthy of the name. Billy seemed to have regressed to a Hughes-esque level, though; perhaps Eddie's trying to make him worse so that he can genuinely say that Hughes is just as good... A terrifying prospect.</p><p></p><p>Manu bursts back into the scene, Slade has been a revalation, pretty much every winger we've played has looked great, and Daly is starting to look like a decent counterattacking 15, even if he's still not a very good defensive one.</p><p></p><p>But what the hell is up with the half-backs? They've seemed so robotic, just going through the same motions regardless of the circumstances. People keep saying we take our foot off the gas, but I think it's more that our opponents adapt, and Youngs and Faz don't.</p><p></p><p>In the Scotland game, you can see the shift in the game after Spencer and especially Ford come on. Scotland had moved to a blitz defence, looking to cut passes and keep England pinned back; Faz and Youngs reacted incredibly poorly to that, trying to force the passes that weren't on. They kicked a lot, often without a meaningful chase, which gave Russell plenty of time to put some brilliant kicks in behind.</p><p></p><p>Ford and Spencer did precisely zero kicks from hand, and they both held on to the ball and attacked the line. When Scotland rushed up, Ford and Spencer took it into contact, or looked for the short/inside pass. Made an enormous difference.</p><p></p><p>But whilst that's a significant tactical shift, it's not exactly a complicated one, is it? I don't get why Youngs and Faz couldn't execute that themselves; Faz knows about running the ball from all his time at 12, and Youngs is supposedly famed for pulling off sneaky runs. Didn't see any of that this championship, though.</p><p></p><p>I'm using the Scotland game as the example here, but the overall story should be familiar from every single game except the Ireland one. Faz and Youngs are meant to be running the game, so they need to actually be adapting to it.</p><p></p><p>I'm also super miffed that we didn't get to see Ford-Farrell-Manu, and only got to see Ford-Manu-Slade for 5 minutes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jashay, post: 938435, member: 78812"] For me, I feel like every part of the England team had a huge amount of positives, with the exception of the half-backs and No8. Mako, George, Sinks made a hell of a front row. All our locks played brilliantly. We actually have a back row worthy of the name. Billy seemed to have regressed to a Hughes-esque level, though; perhaps Eddie's trying to make him worse so that he can genuinely say that Hughes is just as good... A terrifying prospect. Manu bursts back into the scene, Slade has been a revalation, pretty much every winger we've played has looked great, and Daly is starting to look like a decent counterattacking 15, even if he's still not a very good defensive one. But what the hell is up with the half-backs? They've seemed so robotic, just going through the same motions regardless of the circumstances. People keep saying we take our foot off the gas, but I think it's more that our opponents adapt, and Youngs and Faz don't. In the Scotland game, you can see the shift in the game after Spencer and especially Ford come on. Scotland had moved to a blitz defence, looking to cut passes and keep England pinned back; Faz and Youngs reacted incredibly poorly to that, trying to force the passes that weren't on. They kicked a lot, often without a meaningful chase, which gave Russell plenty of time to put some brilliant kicks in behind. Ford and Spencer did precisely zero kicks from hand, and they both held on to the ball and attacked the line. When Scotland rushed up, Ford and Spencer took it into contact, or looked for the short/inside pass. Made an enormous difference. But whilst that's a significant tactical shift, it's not exactly a complicated one, is it? I don't get why Youngs and Faz couldn't execute that themselves; Faz knows about running the ball from all his time at 12, and Youngs is supposedly famed for pulling off sneaky runs. Didn't see any of that this championship, though. I'm using the Scotland game as the example here, but the overall story should be familiar from every single game except the Ireland one. Faz and Youngs are meant to be running the game, so they need to actually be adapting to it. I'm also super miffed that we didn't get to see Ford-Farrell-Manu, and only got to see Ford-Manu-Slade for 5 minutes. [/QUOTE]
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2024 Guinness Six Nations
[2019 Six Nations] England Squad
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