I think as a sport we don't breed intelligent people. We like deference. So if the score goes well, we blame Eddie. (That doesn't mean he isn't to blame - but the players don't have self responsibility not to give away or do dumb ****)
In regards to today - the ones presumed under pressure:
Billy Vunipola
Owen Farrell
Elliot Daly
Ben Youngs
Negatives today:
Jonny Hill
Dan Robson
Ellis Genge
Maro Itoje
Discipline
Are we kidding ourselves a bit?
The Premiership?
As a sport, we've become ever more coach-led and don't trust players who go off script.
As a player, if you stick to the script, then it's not your fault if the script is wrong - if you go off script, then it's on you, succeed or fail. Go off script too often, and you'll be dropped as the coach can't trust you to play the game-plan.
I find this sad, but I also remember the reaction last time we had a coach who tried to empower the players - the players empowered themselves, reached a RWC final, and everyone blamed the coach, who was fired, for empowering the players.
Billy - a welcome return to form - not great form, but enough to retain his place on merit.
Owen - actually played okay, even ran a few IC lines and asked the defence some questions (basic ones, but better than not).
What he should have done better is to be respectful of the ref. Right or wrong, his word is final. The ref gets to talk first in any conversation, DO NOT talk over him. That gives you a chance to take a few breaths, and force yourself to relax and be less aggressive. Call him sir, say "yes" and that you understand but...
If your team is giving away soft penalties all over the place, you ARE going to lose the ref, and it's up to the skipper to impose better discipline. Don't tell your team mate that they were harshly done by when they were stupid - tell them that sh
it happens, but don't don't again.
If the ref is being particularly pernickety, then you need to be whiter than white - even if it puts you at a disadvantage in-play.
Elliott - was bad, and it's not just a single bad day at the office. He's not a fullback, and whilst it was a worthwhile experiment, it's also a failed one, that's been given longer than it should have been. He's easily replaced as we already have better options in the squad, including one that actually plays the way we want Daly to (Watson or Steward change the balance and set-up of the team, and need a new game-plan. Malins does on the pitch what Daly does on paper).
Benji - I've talked about this before, but I don't think it's been on this board. Youngs is a naturally talented scrum-half, when he's playing on instinct. Wind him up and let him go, and he can be brilliant, genuinely world class. He'll make mistakes, but they'll be massively outweighed by the good he can bring.
But he's... a bit thick I guess, or possibly not self-confident enough. He's got good instincts, but makes terrible decisions. Ask him to be the playmaker rather than the opportunist and he's great. Tell him to play off 9, select his runners, call the play, and he can't process all the information and starts second guessing himself, takes 3 times longer, and executes poorly and can lose us a game on his own.
Jonny - performed to my biases yesterday. He's played well in the prem and absolutely earned a shot at international level, but I'm not convinced. But nor is Ewels. In a team making too many brain farts, we can't afford him. Unfortunately, Kruis, Lawes and Launch are all unavailable; it's also too early (for me) to call him a failed experiment, but he's really not putting any pressure on those ahead of him in the pecking order.
Dan - on one of Youngs good days, can't complain about sitting on the bench for that long. He's not getting long anyway, even on Youngs bad days, but he needs to do better in 10 minutes if he wants to be trusted with longer.
Ellis - meh, props give away penalities, especially when you're in the ref's bad books as a team. I'd need info from people far more knowledgeable than I about the scrum to say what needs to be done there.
Maro - needs to be captain, and given past experience, that's probably help his game - it worked for Jonno, and Dylan, I see no reason it wouldn't for such an intelligent player. I think he's been given licence to live as close to the edge as he can, and that it's worth the penalties, which comes from higher up; and on a day like yesterday when things aren't going your way, you'll give away too many. I'd suggest he needs to adapt to the ref on the day more than the laws as a whole, and play ever so slightly within himself (or be allowed a touch more leeway as captains usually are).
Discipline - yup, Eddie likes fighty, tough players and fighty, tough teams who play on the edge. I think he's got too many that push too far , but his win ratio in general disagrees with me. Playing like that will always leave you open to sometimes just p
issing off the ref, and getting pinged off the plark.
Are we kidding ourselves? - we have a lot of individual talent in the prem, but that doesn't necessarily make a good team, and a lot of that talent is concentrated into positions with a lot of depth. We've a dozen backrowers who have all earned the right to show what they can do. They can't all, and the players in their positions are mostly going well themselves. Billy has in a rut for a while, but we know he's also world class when not in a rut, equally most of our backrow talent is on the flank - where the best are already being looked at. At #8, Wilson, Earl, Willis and Simmonds are all flankers who can cover 8 rather than specialists, they all require a complete reworking of the back 5 and game-plan. Dombrandt is simply not ready for international level yet (maybe this summer), Mercer should have been given a chance during Billy's rut (I know some don't see it - in much the same way that I don't see it in JHill) - but he's thrown his toys out of the pram and taken himself out of contention (I hope it works for him, and that he comes back stronger in a couple of years, but for now, he's not eligible).
At FH, Ford is world class and Farrell is a good international, and neither are remotely close to the scrap heap. However good Umaga, Smith or (especially) Simmonds are, they've got to show that they're better than that. Bear in mid - they won't be given the game-plan they want, they'll have the same restrictions placed on them that Ford does.
It's 9 and 12 we most desperately need someone to come through, we're starting to experiment, but several of our best talents have gone elsewhere.
Premiership - is ever less relevant to international sport. Club coaches get an 8 week pre-season and 36 week season with their players and no contradictions. Internationals get 2 1-week pre-seasons and 4 or 8 week season with their players, contradicting what most of them are told at club level.
