England Rugby 2018/19 Thread

[MarkyH]

Here is my 31 as I would pick right now....

A player may be replaced for medical or compassionate reasons, but would be unable to return to the squad.

Vunipola, , Genge
George, Hartley, Cowan-Dickie
Sinckler, Williams
Itoje, Launchbury
Lawes, Kruis
Shields, Underhill
Curry, Simmonds
Vunipola, Wilson
Youngs, Wigglesworth,
Ford, Farrell,
May, Nowell
Te'o, Slade
Manu, Daly, Joseph
Cokasigna, Watson
Brown,

My starters in bold. It's not a bad team tbh

Standby: Cole, Moon, Hepburn, Ewels, Mercer, Willis, Robshaw, Care, Williams, Marchant, Ashton
Tough on a couple. But in the event of any injuries we can call them up anyway..

 

[Reiser99]

The only thing is do differently to this is swap JJ and Manu; whilst not giving up on Billy just yet.Hartley would start a crunch game as well.

For the 6N though, I'd be getting game into the back row you've put, with Billy terrorising defences off the bench; and equally, get as much game-time as possible into Cokanasiga, and Daly at FB.

I can see your points, I just think we've had a habit of rushing Billy and Manu back, that we need to focus on balancing it more. Part of the problem is that EJ does't know his best 23 and so we try to pick, but can only go on what we've seen, some of which we disagree with (like Te'o).

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Not sure Watson has been much better at 15 for England than Daly has.
He's got a lot more experience there in general, though, so deserves some more time there. I'm just not convinced he's the saviour many make him out to be.

 

[Reiser99]

Here is my 31 as I would pick right now....

A player may be replaced for medical or compassionate reasons, but would be unable to return to the squad.

Vunipola, , Genge
George, Hartley, Cowan-Dickie
Sinckler, Williams
Itoje, Launchbury
Lawes, Kruis
Shields, Underhill
Curry, Simmonds
Vunipola, Wilson
Youngs, Wigglesworth,
Ford, Farrell,
May, Nowell
Te'o, Slade
Manu, Daly, Joseph
Cokasigna, Watson
Brown,

My starters in bold. It's not a bad team tbh

Standby: Cole, Moon, Hepburn, Ewels, Mercer, Willis, Robshaw, Care, Williams, Marchant, Ashton
Tough on a couple. But in the event of any injuries we can call them up anyway..

Do you know what made me laugh...no one has even mentioned Robshaw since the start. Hopefully now EJ will realise he's not as good as other players and his time is up. I like the guy, but he's not the future and there are far better players currently.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Has Watson even played 15 for Bath?

 

[MarkyH]

Do you know what made me laugh...no one has even mentioned Robshaw since the start. Hopefully now EJ will realise he's not as good as other players and his time is up. I like the guy, but he's not the future and there are far better players currently.

Ha! He's standby at best. When you see the impact Underhill or Shields have you realise what Robshaw doesn't offer

Being able to replace injured players who know the systems and roles will be important. Hence players like Care and Robshaw to come in if something happens.

I'm also well aware that there will be so many more injuries between now and then

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Very strongly disagree with the people who are suggesting Shields hasn't been at least "good", I think the back-row as a unit has worked incredibly well, and has without a doubt been the biggest improvement we've seen in the team this series.

In fact, I'd be reluctant to change it whatsoever for the time being. Billy on the bench please.

If our scrum works as well as it did today with Lawes and Itoje (and that's a big if), then I'm pretty happy with how that's going.

Agreed. As good as Billy is, he's such a one-trick pony that whatever back row he's a part of is always going to be unbalanced. Other than Shields' dire offload attempt vs SA(?) I think he's been really impressive, was very impressive vs NZ IMO.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Don't even think that was a particularly bad offload attempt, Ashton was running the line, he was just tackled as he was doing it.

It's like doing a backflip - it always looks **** when it goes wrong.

 

[MarkyH]

We're winning turnovers lads. That rarely happens. We got way more than the Aussies today. Backrow specialists are important, I hope EJ doesn't forget.

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Not sure Watson has been much better at 15 for England than Daly has.
He's got a lot more experience there in general, though, so deserves some more time there. I'm just not convinced he's the saviour many make him out to be.

Every time I've seen Watson play FB he looks like a wing covering FB. Seems to lack some of the really key attributes like defence and the ability to bring his wingers into the game.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

We're winning turnovers lads. That rarely happens. We got way more than the Aussies today. Backrow specialists are important, I hope EJ doesn't forget.

As if to really hammer home the point, Australia were missing one of their best turnover specialists. We have proper flankers, they lack their best breakdown specialist and we win the breakdown.

That's not just a coincidence. Just like when we had Curry at 7 we were getting more turnovers.

 

[MarkyH]

You can win way more turnovers than you can opposition lineouts by picking a specialist back row rather than an extra lock!

Hammered home!

 

[Every Time Ref]

Not sure Watson has been much better at 15 for England than Daly has.
He's got a lot more experience there in general, though, so deserves some more time there. I'm just not convinced he's the saviour many make him out to be.

I'm not calling him a saviour, I'm calling him a better option than a) a guy who's looked to old and slow for international rugby for a couple of years; and b) a guy who doesn't play the position and couldn't catch an STD in a brothel. Do you disagree that he's the best option of the 3 if fit?

 

[ratsapprentice]

As if to really hammer home the point, Australia were missing one of their best turnover specialists. We have proper flankers, they lack their best breakdown specialist and we win the breakdown.

That's not just a coincidence. Just like when we had Curry at 7 we were getting more turnovers.

Aye, picking three back rowers who can all carry, tackle and ruck at least decently is crucial.

 

[Every Time Ref]

Aye, picking three back rowers who can all carry, tackle and ruck at least decently is crucial.

Agreed, often when people talk about breakdown ability they refer to turnovers and ignore the importance of rucking technique to generate quick clean ball in attack

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Do you disagree that he's the best option of the 3 if fit?

Absolutely, Brown is easily the best option we have atm.

He's not that quick but he's the best at being a fullback, he carries very well into traffic as well.
Would like to see him in a side not playing like absolute balls, again - he was excellent in Argentina, for example.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Aye, picking three back rowers who can all carry, tackle and ruck at least decently is crucial.

bUt WhAT AbOUt tHE LInEouT

 

[MarkyH]

bUt WhAT AbOUt tHE LInEouT

 

[Every Time Ref]

Absolutely, Brown is easily the best option we have atm.

He's not that quick but he's the best at being a fullback, he carries very well into traffic as well.
Would like to see him in a side not playing like absolute balls, again - he was excellent in Argentina, for example.

Fair enough, it's a reasonable argument. I didn't mean that in a sassy way, it was a genuine question. I do think it's a bit of a classic case of getting better by not playing, but sometimes that's legit - see Hartley.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Erratic series in terms of performance, but most of us would have taken those results before the series started and there's some serious firepower to come back. Some real positives with the RWC in mind.

Moon may not get another chance, but he took his unexpected opportunity exceptionally well and has got himself up the pecking order.

Bar any 6N scrummaging disasters Sinckler's now the starter at TH.

Underhill is now inked in. I don't really care which shirt.

Wilson's done extremely well. Jones should think very carefully before bringing Binny straight back in.

Shields has quietly improved.

Coka's given a hint at what he's capable of. And it's a lot.

Still plenty of issues, but we're in a better place than a month ago.