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

[ratsapprentice]

Kvesic is going to end up the Anthony Allen of the back row, I can feel it.

Mullan was never going ahead of Corbs; the 5th prop must be able to play both sides and Mullan can't. Still couldn't care less about Mullan's domestic form.

If they're cutting nine, three more to go, no?

+1

...I hate doing that.

 

[j'nuh]

Three ways Kvesic gets into the England squad:
1. Change of management
2. Robshaw gets too old/injury-prone/out of form
3. He becomes too good to ignore, even for Lancaster

The fact that Kvesic has been in so many of England's wider squads means that Lancaster does see something in him.

 

[j'nuh]

Mullan was never going ahead of Corbs; the 5th prop must be able to play both sides and Mullan can't. Still couldn't care less about Mullan's domestic form.

For me, loosehead, tighthead, hooker and scrum-half are too specialised not to take three of each, so I'd take 6 props and leave Corbs out. My squad make-up would be:
3 hookers, 6 props, 4 locks, 5 backrow, 3 scrum-halves, 2 fly-halves, 2 centres, 1 centre/fly-half (Slade), 1 wing/centre (Nowell), 2 wings, 2 fullbacks

Could also sacrifice a backrow for another centre or wing and have a lock cover the backrow.

Oops, didn't mean to double-post.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Kvesic is going to end up the Anthony Allen of the back row, I can feel it.

Mullan was never going ahead of Corbs; the 5th prop must be able to play both sides and Mullan can't. Still couldn't care less about Mullan's domestic form.

If they're cutting nine, three more to go, no?

So can I expect Kvesic to move to Leicester soon and become key player for us?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Corbisiero isn't even playing Prem loosehead to club 1st XV standards,
The thought of him being considered international tighthead cover gives me diarrhoea.
I'd feel more confident with Fat Stevens.

 

[Peat]

Corbisiero isn't even playing Prem loosehead to club 1st XV standards,
The thought of him being considered international tighthead cover gives me diarrhoea.
I'd feel more confident with Fat Stevens.

Leaving aside the fact that there are those saying he was playing well at the end of the season, I'm not going to rush to make judgements until I see how he is after England's big old beastly pre-season. If the problem was his physicality, a pre-season might have fixed it.

I'd rather we took three looseheads and three tightheads as well, but apparently Lancaster doesn't.

 

[ratsapprentice]

http://forums.rlfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=586388

Wouldn't surprise me that much.

 

[yaboyjj]

Corbisiero isn't even playing Prem loosehead to club 1st XV standards,
The thought of him being considered international tighthead cover gives me diarrhoea.
I'd feel more confident with Fat Stevens.

Wilson covers LH better than Corbs TH sure, I disagree with most RE Corbs though- I'm sure he'll come good at LH, and as I mentioned earlier, his form in the last couple of games was def on the rise- he largely kept the ~two best prem scrums at bay (Tigers/Sarries)
I'm gutted that Kvesic and Yarde are going home, although less concerned about wing with Roko/May still in though- I'd be happy with any combo of Nowell/May/Roko (Ashton gone already would give me substantial peace of mind though)

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

http://forums.rlfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=586388

Wouldn't surprise me that much.

Still in contract with bath isn't he?

If he does go I'm placing 100% blame on Lancaster.

Picking Burgess ahead of him for England must be a massive kick in the whatsits.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Wilson covers LH better than Corbs TH sure, I disagree with most RE Corbs though- I'm sure he'll come good at LH, and as I mentioned earlier, his form in the last couple of games was def on the rise- he largely kept the ~two best prem scrums at bay (Tigers/Sarries)
I'm gutted that Kvesic and Yarde are going home, although less concerned about wing with Roko/May still in though- I'd be happy with any combo of Nowell/May/Roko (Ashton gone already would give me substantial peace of mind though)

Ermmmmmmmmm no he didn't keep the Leicester scrum at bay.

Only when Leicester had our 3rd choice hooker, 2nd/3rd choice TH did he look remotely better.

But the one game he play against Leicester last season he got mopped up.

IMO.

 

[Peat]

It was our chasers. It was ridiculous. The absolutely best example of how awfully organised we are on that front is when we won a free kick on the left handside of the pitch, and kicked into/just outside of their 22. Free kick, meaning everyone is available to chase and put on pressure, and the two who were first up trying to make the tackle and put on pressure? Robshaw and Billy V... and that was a regular feature btw it wasn't just a one off. Now those two weren't bad at applying a bit of pressure, but they were never going to make it in the air. No one else seemed too bothered about chasing.



I felt we got turned over far too much in the 6N when we went wide and started looking like making breaks, so saying it mostly looks like the 6N pack doesn't look great to me .

Going back to this - the Scotland game is a pretty good example of England making lots of breaks and, yeah, a lot of them the forwards aren't really in view. The first one with Burrell offloaded to Youngs - that's Burrell and Joseph clearing; Youngs' inside ball to Brown, Robshaw's killing himself to get there but can't do so quicker than the Scots backs and he's the only person doing so; Joseph made a half-break and we got turned over with Hartley and Marler not there in time to help Ford clear. Lawes gets to Nowell's break down the wing but Nowell can't get the offload away... so...

I should probably wait to finish my ruck counting process before I say for sure, but I'm now closer to Raggs PoV - but I still think I'd back our breaking half-backs, we manage to keep enough breaks to make it worthwhile. That we are short a very fast player in the back row though, yeah, ideally.

Further thoughts from watching -
Marler doesn't have a good opening time in the scrum against Scotland
Joseph has an annoying habit of occasionally dislodging balls from rucks with his hind foot, might seem minor but at the wrong moment that leads to a seven point swing
Watson might be the most frustrating player in an England shirt out there

 

[j'nuh]

Wilson covers LH better than Corbs TH sure, I disagree with most RE Corbs though- I'm sure he'll come good at LH, and as I mentioned earlier, his form in the last couple of games was def on the rise- he largely kept the ~two best prem scrums at bay (Tigers/Sarries)
I'm gutted that Kvesic and Yarde are going home, although less concerned about wing with Roko/May still in though- I'd be happy with any combo of Nowell/May/Roko (Ashton gone already would give me substantial peace of mind though)

But Corbs hasn't been truly good since around the Lions tour, more than 2 years ago now. And even back then, he was only a borderline world class player, behind Healy at least, even missing out on the initial Lions squad selection. I was a massive fan back then, but I'm not sure where people have the confidence that he'll ever get back to those levels.

 

[Peat]

But Corbs hasn't been truly good since around the Lions tour, more than 2 years ago now. And even back then, he was only a borderline world class player, behind Healy at least, even missing out on the initial Lions squad selection. I was a massive fan back then, but I'm not sure where people have the confidence that he'll ever get back to those levels.

I think Corbs' injuries throughout that 12-13 season probably just had more to do with the Lions tour than his ability level ^_^

 

[Raggs]

Brookes covers both sides well.

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

I'm a massive corbs fan but would never count him as a tight head.

We either take 6 props or call up a prop as soon as there is an injury

 

[Maverick1987]

Going back to this - the Scotland game is a pretty good example of England making lots of breaks and, yeah, a lot of them the forwards aren't really in view. The first one with Burrell offloaded to Youngs - that's Burrell and Joseph clearing; Youngs' inside ball to Brown, Robshaw's killing himself to get there but can't do so quicker than the Scots backs and he's the only person doing so; Joseph made a half-break and we got turned over with Hartley and Marler not there in time to help Ford clear. Lawes gets to Nowell's break down the wing but Nowell can't get the offload away... so...

I should probably wait to finish my ruck counting process before I say for sure, but I'm now closer to Raggs PoV - but I still think I'd back our breaking half-backs, we manage to keep enough breaks to make it worthwhile. That we are short a very fast player in the back row though, yeah, ideally.

Further thoughts from watching -
Marler doesn't have a good opening time in the scrum against Scotland
Joseph has an annoying habit of occasionally dislodging balls from rucks with his hind foot, might seem minor but at the wrong moment that leads to a seven point swing
Watson might be the most frustrating player in an England shirt out there

Having Launchbury and Wood back will make all the difference to our speed around the break down . JL and TW are so much quicker than Attwood and Haskell

 

[ratsapprentice]

Not necessarily - there was some sort of tactic to hold off from entering the ruck in the 6N, watch some of the games and you'll see it.

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

Not necessarily - there was some sort of tactic to hold off from entering the ruck in the 6N, watch some of the games and you'll see it.

I've noticed that, it's defiantly a tactic that England have used.....to little effect. I think some of our players are bad at rucking (Hartley is a bad at rucking in my opinion), or not fit enough to get there quick enough

 

[yaboyjj]

But Corbs hasn't been truly good since around the Lions tour, more than 2 years ago now. And even back then, he was only a borderline world class player, behind Healy at least, even missing out on the initial Lions squad selection. I was a massive fan back then, but I'm not sure where people have the confidence that he'll ever get back to those levels.

He didn't make the Lions tour because he was injured for most of the season beforehand and pretty much went to Argentina for game time- he walked into the test team from what I can recall, at his best he was a much better scrummager than Healy for sure (who is a bit overated himself in this regard) and was very handy around the field too. Lets not kid ourselves here, Corbs back to his best would walk back into the England starting team (the coaches are I'm sure aware of this too), which is the reason he makes the squad after a season he'd wish to forget.

 

[ncurd]

Actually I thought the tatic of holding off committing players from ruck worked superbly against Wales bit that was the only time it did.