[England] Post-6N/Pre-RWC Player Watch

[Bada-Bing!]

Winger Chris Ashton is one of seven players who have been cut from England's pre-World Cup training squad.
Fellow wings Marland Yarde and Semesa Rokoduguni also miss out, along with scrum-half Lee Dickson and centre Kyle Eastmond.
Prop Matt Mullan and flanker Matt Kvesic are the two forwards dropped as England cut their squad to 39 players.

Per BBC

 

[Irish boy]

Think Eastmond is very unlucky been given one go and was pulled after one bad game against the best team in the world I'd have him in front of 12trees. Also surprised Easter survives

 

[luke1994]

Awful decision to keep both Twelvetrees/Burgess instead of Eastmond imo. Burgess is an experiment (that shouldn't be happening before a world cup) but 12trees has proven himself to be inconsistent and average time and time again.

 

[goodNumber10]

Think Eastmond is very unlucky been given one go and was pulled after one bad game against the best team in the world I'd have him in front of 12trees. Also surprised Easter survives

He's played NZ three times, SA once, and Argentina twice.

Hardly given one go is it?

The simple fact is he doesn't appear to be good enough at the elite level.

 

[Crapspray]

Err... the England rugby website is reporting the following players cut:

Ashton
Dickson
Eastmond
Kvesic
Mullan
Rockoduguni
Yarde

So never mind all this positive thought about Rocko playing. The squad now has 2 wingers in 39 players.

http://www.englandrugby.com/news/england-training-squad-trimmed/

---

I can see it now. Lancaster is going to put out this backline against France:

9. Care
10. Cipriani
11. Brown
12. Burgess
13. Slade
14. May
15. Goode

And then use it as an excuse to drop Burgess, Cipriani, May, and Slade.

 

[yaboyjj]

Err... the England rugby website is reporting the following players cut:

Ashton
Dickson
Eastmond
Kvesic
Mullan
Rockoduguni
Yarde

So never mind all this positive thought about Rocko playing. The squad now has 2 wingers in 39 players.

http://www.englandrugby.com/news/england-training-squad-trimmed/

---

I can see it now. Lancaster is going to put out this backline against France:

9. Care
10. Cipriani
11. Brown
12. Burgess
13. Slade
14. May
15. Goode

And then use it as an excuse to drop Burgess, Cipriani, May, and Slade.

How Watson in in ahead of Yarde or Roko, I'll never know- poor call imo.
I don't know if keeping only three wingers in the squad with 3 warm up games to play is such a good idea- especially considering there are half a dozen being kept for two other positions in the backs.
pretty annoyed at that

 

[TommiG88]

Lancaster likes a big team.

Burrell should be no where near the squad. Such a shame for Eastmond.

Kvesic being dropped is harsh on him too.

We will end up having an average World Cup and Lancaster will stick around to ruin 2019.

 

[Irish boy]

Watson in cause he can play full back.

Also don't mind him picking Burgess I think he will come good.

 

[Lé Ddanno]

Ĺ

Err... the England rugby website is reporting the following players cut:

Ashton
Dickson
Eastmond
Kvesic
Mullan
Rockoduguni
Yarde

So never mind all this positive thought about Rocko playing. The squad now has 2 wingers in 39 players.

http://www.englandrugby.com/news/england-training-squad-trimmed/

---

I can see it now. Lancaster is going to put out this backline against France:

9. Care
10. Cipriani
11. Brown
12. Burgess
13. Slade
14. May
15. Goode

And then use it as an excuse to drop Burgess, Cipriani, May, and Slade.

With the exception of Slade, those cuts work for me. Even May.

 

[Tmartin995]

Interesting only having six back three players left. I reckon they'll take five so one to be cut, almost certainly from fullback. Reckon it's between Foden and Goode. If Slade gets in I think Foden is more likely as Goode won't be needed to cover fly half and an extra wing cover will be needed.

I reckon the balance of the final squad will be 17-14 forwards back split (8 front row, 4 second row, 5 back row, 3 scrum halves, 2 fly halves, 4 centres, 5 back three).

 

[Irish boy]

Forgot Foden was in the squad he's definitely better than goode

 

[j'nuh]

Awful decision to keep both Twelvetrees/Burgess instead of Eastmond imo. Burgess is an experiment (that shouldn't be happening before a world cup) but 12trees has proven himself to be inconsistent and average time and time again.

Eastmond's not really got a place in the same 23 as Ford, at international level. Too easy for carriers to target, if they are on the pitch at the same time.

I wonder whether it was wise for Eastmond to move into the centres. It made sense at club-level because it made more of his distributive talents, and he's a good club player. But his size is a bit of a barrier for progression to the international stage in a way it wouldn't have been had he stayed on the wing.

Perhaps a natural transition now would be to become a 10, but Bath have both Ford and Priestland... there's also scrum-half, but how many players have pulled off a successful transition to scrum-half? And they already have Matawalu and Cook anyway. And the back three is too crowded at Bath. Whilst the centres are the thinnest covered position in the Bath backline.

 

[TheSaffycen]

Eastmond's not really got a place in the same 23 as Ford, at international level. Too easy for carriers to target, if they are on the pitch at the same time.
I wonder whether it was wise for Eastmond to move into the centres. It made sense at club-level because it made more of his distributive talents, and he's a good club player. But his size is a bit of a barrier for progression to the international stage in a way it wouldn't have been had he stayed on the wing.

Perhaps a natural transition now would be to become a 10, but Bath have both Ford and Priestland... there's also scrum-half, but how many players have pulled off a successful transition to scrum-half? And they already have Matawalu and Cook anyway. And the back three is too crowded at Bath. Whilst the centres are the thinnest covered position in the Bath backline.

Not at the moment under Lancaster but if someone else comes in it could work. Only problem is until 2019 but contracts don't really mean anything nowadays.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Reckon team could look like:

1) Corbs
2) Webber
3) Brookes
4) Attwood
5) Launchbury
6) Wood
7) Clark
8) Morgan
9) Wigglesworth
10) Cips
11) Watson
12) Burgess
13) Slade
14) May
15) Goode

16) LCD
17) Vunipola
18) Wilson
19) Parling
20) Haskell
21) Care
22) Twelvetrees
23) Foden

 

[Peat]

Not at the moment under Lancaster but if someone else comes in it could work. Only problem is until 2019 but contracts don't really mean anything nowadays.

Only if that someone is Gandalf the White with a cart full of ent brew to stop them being midgets.

 

[TheSaffycen]

Only if that someone is Gandalf the White with a cart full of ent brew to stop them being midgets.

Well it could work if they used the Bath model.

 

[j'nuh]

Well it could work if they used the Bath model.

Fly-half and centre combined weights:
Wales (Biggar/Roberts/Davies): 47 st 10
France (Trinh-duc/Fofana/Bastareau): 46 st 13
New Zealand (Carter/Nonu/Smith): 47 st 1
Australia (Foley/Giteau/Kuridriani): 43 st 8
Ireland (Sexton/Henshaw/Payne): 45 st 11
South Africa (Pollard/De Allande/De Villiers): 47 st 6
Scotland (Russell/Scott/Bennett): 42 st 7
England (Ford/Eastmond/Joseph): 40 st 9

And it's not as if we'd be able to compensate with a physical back three.

 

[SelimNiai]

Fly-half and centre combined weights:
Wales (Biggar/Roberts/Davies): 47 st 10
France (Trinh-duc/Fofana/Bastareau): 46 st 13
New Zealand (Carter/Nonu/Smith): 47 st 1
Australia (Foley/Giteau/Kuridriani): 43 st 8
Ireland (Sexton/Henshaw/Payne): 45 st 11
South Africa (Pollard/De Allande/De Villiers): 47 st 6
Scotland (Russell/Scott/Bennett): 42 st 7
England (Ford/Eastmond/Joseph): 40 st 9

And it's not as if we'd be able to compensate with a physical back three. (Not that you would be able to substitute physicality in the centres for physicality out wide, anyway.)

That surprises me, shows how slight Trinh-Duc and Fofana really are

 

[TheSaffycen]

Fly-half and centre combined weights:
Wales (Biggar/Roberts/Davies): 47 st 10
France (Trinh-duc/Fofana/Bastareau): 46 st 13
New Zealand (Carter/Nonu/Smith): 47 st 1
Australia (Foley/Giteau/Kuridriani): 43 st 8
Ireland (Sexton/Henshaw/Payne): 45 st 11
South Africa (Pollard/De Allande/De Villiers): 47 st 6
Scotland (Russell/Scott/Bennett): 42 st 7
England (Ford/Eastmond/Joseph): 40 st 9

And it's not as if we'd be able to compensate with a physical back three.

Rokoduguni and Nowell/Yarde are pretty physical. Also I'm pretty sure if you gave Schmidt the chance with these two he could make it work.

 

[j'nuh]

England head coach Stuart Lancaster has singled out Gloucester wing Jonny May for praise at the pre-World Cup training camp in Bagshot.

Lancaster said: "He has been the stand-out performer so far, probably in the whole squad really.

(http://www.gloucestercitizen.co.uk/...ugby-s-Jonny/story-27549642-detail/story.html)