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[2024 Six Nations] England vs Ireland - 09/03/24

I say it after most England matches but how the hell did it take Earl so long to make the squad, comfortable the most consistent forward we have ball in hand, gets his fair share of turns overs as well
 
Earl wasn't great in his first like, ten caps. Very Ludlam in enthusiasm, but less impact and if memory serves was dropping balls, failing to secure our own ball and was just a bit chaotic. See Lawrence V Scotland or Malins in all his caps for similar smelling performances. The odd moment of brilliance massively offset by anonymity or dumb stuff because of the step from the Prem to absolutely not the Prem

He's absolutely made the shirt (8, I guess) his own now though. Imagine what could happen if we stopped cutting players so frequently (while also cutting rank bad players to get some lesser players a decent run coughcoughDALYCAREcoughcough)

Really impressed by Chessum today. He's been dogshit until now at lock this 6n. Knackered from scrums isn't it because he was making bad decisions in the first few mins. Maybe just being wide is his thing at the moment
 
Earl wasn't great in his first like, ten caps. Very Ludlam in enthusiasm, but less impact and if memory serves was dropping balls, failing to secure our own ball and was just a bit chaotic. See Lawrence V Scotland or Malins in all his caps for similar smelling performances. The odd moment of brilliance massively offset by anonymity or dumb stuff because of the step from the Prem to absolutely not the Prem

He's absolutely made the shirt (8, I guess) his own now though. Imagine what could happen if we stopped cutting players so frequently (while also cutting rank bad players to get some lesser players a decent run coughcoughDALYCAREcoughcough)

Really impressed by Chessum today. He's been dogshit until now at lock this 6n. Knackered from scrums isn't it because he was making bad decisions in the first few mins. Maybe just being wide is his thing at the moment
We clearly remember things a bit differently, he has 21 ish caps most of them aquired in the last year, all the while I remember him being very good, I certainly don't remember the drop we've seen from Dombrant.
 
How was Marcus Smith when he came on.
Difficult to judge. The subs in the backs were bad overall from the off: Daly's first move was a charged down kick into an Irish line (he did not improve), Care box kicked straight into a mark with zero pressure (he did not improve). I thought Slade was going ok but Mitchell was starting to puff a bit when he went off.

Smith was definitely looking to play, but with the mistakes, pressure, rest of the team doing the same etc I felt like he was trying a bit too hard at times
 
We clearly remember things a bit differently, he has 21 ish caps most of them aquired in the last year, all the while I remember him being very good, I certainly don't remember the drop we've seen from Dombrant.
I think we're sort of agreeing but from different timelines. He's been great for just about a year but prior to that his most notable international contributions were celebrating knock ons by knockons-for-hands-McKnockons-For-Hands.

My point, if I have one, is that I'm delighted he has pushed on because the coaching team showed some faith instead of ditching him and reverting to Billy or whoever, because his early games were underwhelming. Teamsheet is basically: Itoje, Earl, Mitchell, Martin, ok now who else?
 
I think we're sort of agreeing but from different timelines. He's been great for just about a year but prior to that his most notable international contributions were celebrating knock ons by knockons-for-hands-McKnockons-For-Hands.

My point, if I have one, is that I'm delighted he has pushed on because the coaching team showed some faith instead of ditching him and reverting to Billy or whoever, because his early games were underwhelming. Teamsheet is basically: Itoje, Earl, Mitchell, Martin, ok now who else?
Lawrence, Freeman, IFW, Chessum, all put their hands up today. None of them perfect, but all with tons of potential if they can build and make their performances today a consistent standard.
 

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