England 6 Nation squad 2024

[Vieux Talonneur]

A shrug … I suspect it doesn't matter who plays, there is little to no chance of us winning next round.

I would be happy to grow the kitchen sink at the French though. If you'd asked me a month ago, I wouldn't have given us a sniff in Lyon. Now, I think we have a chance.

Agreed.

That would be nice in itself but would it really represent progress? Fra are clearly suffering a RWC hangover and will be without at least 3 world class players. We'd need to look at the 6N as a whole which, assuming Ire dispatch us fairly easily, up to that point would be at, or slightly below, expectations.

However that pans out, we're heading to NZ in the summer and then hosting NZ, Aus and the Boks in the AIs. By the year end we'll have a pretty clear idea where we stand and whether we're progressing. Little to be enthused about so far though.

 

[Rugbyfan564]

It was ridiculous to bring in the nation swapping to start with - it was solely to appease the Pacific Players Union and then it didn't even help them, now it's just Tier 1 nations abusing it

Need to bin it off asap

They won't through. Or they will do it in a way that means players like Marcus Smith and Sam Underhill get forced out as well.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

They won't through. Or they will do it in a way that means players like Marcus Smith and Sam Underhill get forced out as well.

Why, neither swapped nations?
Underhill born while his Dad was stationed in America with the RAF,
Smith's Dad is English and he's lived here most of his life

 

[Reiser99]

I still can't get my head around it tbh, lots of clubs and international sides use blitz defences - why is FJ's so special?

Something to do with cohesion is my bet or is it trying to remove bad habits and replace with good ones?

 

[Rugbyfan564]

Why, neither swapped nations?
Underhill born while his Dad was stationed in America with the RAF,
Smith's Dad is English and he's lived here most of his life

I think they could well decided the easiest is a rule that you play where you were born.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I think they could well decided the easiest is a rule that you play where you were born.

I don't think they'd would ever do that, tbh
The only thing they'd ever change would be residence periods and mmmmmmmmmaybe Grandparent rule (but considering they didn't after Grannygate, I can't see that ever happening either)

 

[Saintjay]

Mike Tindall claiming it was one of Englands best performances for 4 years. The plan etc is clearly there. Which i think is a stretch tbh. Weirdly home advantage and kick back from the Scotland game i think England can have a good hit at Ireland.

I think either England are blown out the water or they'll scrap a three point win. If the do get blown away the heat is starting to turn up on Borthwick. After the AI's he'll be nearly 25/30 games into his tenure. Hopefully we'll be a more settled squad and we see improvements or SB could be in trouble if we have another poor 6N's.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Mike Tindall claiming it was one of Englands best performances for 4 years. The plan etc is clearly there. Which i think is a stretch tbh

Yeah, I don't get this train of thought either - we've seen England pull the odd 5-10min stretch of good rugby out of the bag a few times under Borthwick but it's not led to anything consistent

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Mike Tindall claiming it was one of Englands best performances for 4 years. The plan etc is clearly there. Which i think is a stretch tbh. Weirdly home advantage and kick back from the Scotland game i think England can have a good hit at Ireland.

Are we really reduced to "best" being a bit of ambition for a few minutes, error riddled and ultimately soundly beaten by a middling side?

Read this morning that Borthwick has used 13 separate 9-10-12-13 combinations. Not all his fault, but a fair bit is. By contrast White, Russell, Tuipolotu and Jones started 7 games together last year and all 3 this. Centres are also a Glasgow partnership.

Go figure.

 

[LIONSxv]

I think they could well decided the easiest is a rule that you play where you were born.

If that the case that would be the competitive end for smaller T1 nations such as Scotland , Italy and Wales. Even NZ would be greatly adversely affected
South Africa would dominate WR for the foreseeable future

 

[Reiser99]

Are we really reduced to "best" being a bit of ambition for a few minutes, error riddled and ultimately soundly beaten by a middling side?

Read this morning that Borthwick has used 13 separate 9-10-12-13 combinations. Not all his fault, but a fair bit is. By contrast White, Russell, Tuipolotu and Jones started 7 games together last year and all 3 this. Centres are also a Glasgow partnership.

Go figure.

Do England have more injuries in camp than other nations? It feels like it to me.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Breaking News!
Borthwick has revealed his new way to decide selection issues.
You can only play for England if you sound like you ought to be a motorway service station, as he does.

Chessum, Furbank, and Cunningham South pretty much have their shirt numbers locked in.
Anyone called Smith is cut from the squad.
Blamire and Ewels have responded positively to the development.

It might open the door to an unlikely return for Twelvetrees?

Ford was in doubt until someone said "What? Ford?" and that sealed the deal.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

I think they could well decided the easiest is a rule that you play where you were born.

That would have deprived us of one of the greatest blindsiding punches delivered by a teenager of all time…..unless Argentina had been playing Germany.

 

[Crash Hamster]

Are we really reduced to "best" being a bit of ambition for a few minutes, error riddled and ultimately soundly beaten by a middling side?

In any sporting contest, you'd expect each team to have the upper hand at some point. Portugal scored a try against England A, in what was mostly a complete stuffing.

England duly had a period of, if not dominance, at least ascendancy against Scotland. It's possible to see this both as an improvement over the previous bilge and as being below the standards acceptable for an England side. I don't think these are exclusive positions, it's more the slant that commentators wish to apply.

I do wonder how long Sniff Bostik will use the 'we've won x out of the last 9' metric, where x is going to be a rapidly decreasing number...

Do England have more injuries in camp than other nations? It feels like it to me.

It does seem that way, but I pay less attention to other countries' injuries. Certainly, being minus Marcus Smith could be a major handicap. Would he have been given the 10 shirt? We'll never know.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

It does seem that way, but I pay less attention to other countries' injuries. Certainly, being minus Marcus Smith could be a major handicap. Would he have been given the 10 shirt? We'll never know.

All the press commentary is that he would have.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Wales and Italy are missing quite a lot - possibly France too? If not they will be after the Italy game
Think it's only Ireland and Scotland that are pretty much full steam

 

[LIONSxv]

If we look at the decade , England's injury record for the six nations is appalling. You can't predict from one game to the next who is going to be fit
Compare that to Ireland , who have much smaller base.
It's a preparation/training/workload issue for me

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

So much respect for that.

Also:
Curry out, Pearson in
Muir in for Feyi-Waboso

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Curry out, Pearson in

It's gonna happen regardless, but I hope Ireland absolutely **** England up to an embarrassing extent

 

[Rugbyfan564]