England Six Nations squad 2022

[Scotty]

How's Lauchbury doing? If he looks good should he be in for Ewels? Experienced lock instead of someone who's never going to be good enough if he is fit/in form enough.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Absolutely should be, but won't be
Not in the EPS so would require an injury to be called up,
Also EJ has never really seemed that keen on Launch whereas he's apparently in love with Ewels

 

[Scotty]

Absolutely should be, but won't be
Not in the EPS so would require an injury to be called up,
Also EJ has never really seemed that keen on Launch whereas he's apparently in love with Ewels

Really i thought he could change if he wanted and launch was coming back from injury so i assumed thats why he wasnt picked.

Oh well your likely right that EJ wouldnt anyway.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Maybe it's changed but it was always part of the EPS agreement with the club's that the initial squad can only be changed up due to injury, and there can only be a set number of changes from comp to comp (and then a full reset every...year? RWC cycle?)

 

[Scotty]

So next weekend we are so lucky its Italy, so i hope we dont change much, id keep the same 23 except id start Dombrandt with Simmonds at 6 or on the bench i dont mind and put Youngs in the bin(wont happen) and start Quirke. Quirke and Randall as 9s.

I want to see
Marler LCD Sinks
Itoje Iseikwe
Simmonds Dombrandt(8) Curry
Quirke Smith
Slade Marchant
Malins Staward Nowell(OHC,Radwan)

George,Genge,Stuart,Ewels(Chessum), Ludlam,Randall,Ford(although i want to see Smith play 80), Daly

I just want this squad to get some more gametime together, i wasnt all bad. LCD defending on the wing and has a brain fart and Smith overkicking a crossfield kick while under pen advantage and the bad defending that led to the try. But its a team with alot of experience but before this game when was the last time Isiekwe, Ludlam, Simmonds,Daly(at13) started for England. Also Steward Malins Marchant have also had limited time with England. And we missed Quirke on the bench as he might actually have trusted him.

 

[Jashay]

I think the Italy game would be a great time to give Alfie Barbeary a run out at 8. I was under the impression he had picked up an injury but he played the full 80 against Exeter.

Made most metres for Wasps, but apparently his tackling was pretty terrible, so if you're going to have a look then the Italy game is probably the place to do it... Well, maybe the Wales game based on the weekend!

If we did run Barbeary at 8 I actually wouldn't mind seeing Ludlam at 6 again.

Outside of that, at least one winger on the wing would be nice, and if Ben Youngs decides to practice being a living statue somewhere off-pitch I'd be delighted

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Really no need to rush Laucnhbury.

Bring him in for the summer tests, but for now let him try and survive the death trap that is wasps injury list atm

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Just got a sinking feeling that Jones will look at that performance and decide it was all Isiekwe's fault that Youngs was so slow and kick him off the squad, to be replaced by the bastion of rugby supremacy that is Ewels. Jones will then hug Youngs and go "there there, I think you are quick".

Youngs will then score a hat trick against Italy and just go to convince Jones he was right and the rest of the world was wrong.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

What are the chances of Jones bringing back Mako, Binny and Manu?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Think Manu will be called up in the off week between Italy and Wales,

Mako zero chance,
Binny I could see if there's an injury or two - but with EJ's love of playing Curry at 8 it'll take a few injuries before he's considered

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Mako zero chance,
Binny I could see if there's an injury or two - but with EJ's love of playing Curry at 8 it'll take a few injuries before he's considered

Have the Vunipola bros really burned their bridges with Jones or is it EJ just building depth in those areas before bringing them back?

I do think on Saturday that it was not building enough of a lead on the possession England had in the first half before the implosion in the last 15 mins which cost them.

Having enough of those ball carriers to get over the gain line is where England really miss them IMO.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Have the Vunipola bros really burned their bridges with Jones or is it EJ just building depth in those areas before bringing them back?

I think so, they'd have been in the mix otherwise
Rodd never would've gotten the nod in the autumn or this 6N if Mako was in EJs plans,
Same with Binny not getting a look in despite playing Curry at 8, and over the summer have Simmonds (and Curry) both missing, and us playing Chick (who I do rate, but realistically was never going to be in a first choice EPS)

I did think Binny would be in the this 6N squad, and starting, but we're that close to the RWC now that they'd be here if they were in EJs plans for the side, as they've been out for so long that they'd need some adjustment to the new coaches/combinations, not just parachute in the day before we set off

 

[MarkyH]

I didn't think we looked to bad on Saturday. We actually kept possession and our penalty count wasn't as nuts as it can be. Apart from a couple of brain farts Scotland never had pressure or looked like scoring. While England had pressure and didn't look like scoring. Daly and Slade are not that suited and would have liked to see Nowell in for Daly for a point of difference, same with Marchant in the 13 instead. Daly and Slade to similar. Dalys decision making is iffy too

To summarise, not to down at all. Good strenth in depth being built. 20 months from a WC.

 

[Which Tyler]

I think so, they'd have been in the mix otherwise
Rodd never would've gotten the nod in the autumn or this 6N if Mako was in EJs plans,
Same with Binny not getting a look in despite playing Curry at 8, and over the summer have Simmonds (and Curry) both missing, and us playing Chick (who I do rate, but realistically was never going to be in a first choice EPS)

Same argument would say that Ford would never get a recall, because Smith took his place

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Same argument would say that Ford would never get a recall, because Smith took his place

Fair point,

I do wonder if it were Smith to get the injury, rather than Farrell, whether Ford would've been called up though

 

[Reiser99]

Upon further reflection the performance wasn't as bad as I first thought. However, I still think there are some huge glaring issues.

Attack: For all of our possession we actually made very little headway. There are a few reasons for that. Firstly is Youngs. He's too slow and passes poorly. Far too often he passes to the person who is not moving. Further his kicking game wasn't good enough and just handed possession back to the Scots far too easily. He needs to go.
Second, I can't see and haven't seen for a while what England's game plan actually is in attack. We tried different things, but none of them consistently and with now clear purpose. Far too often we just had single runners running straight at the defence which was easy to defend. We tried passing wide, but were so slow that we couldn't get around Scotland's defence. But also was the way we changed between tactics. It was almost like, well that didn't work let's try something else. There seemed to be no overall plan. The only plan I have seen is to kick it and hope it's contestable or they make a mistake.

Tactics: Leading on from that, the overall tactics still seem to be based around kicking percentage based rugby. It's very negative and often relies on the opposition making mistakes. So often we kicked in their half, hell once even in their 22. Now partly this was due to a poor attack, but also because that's EJ's game plan. Kick to put pressure on. However, it's not working and Scotland didn't seem to struggle to much under the high ball.

Selections: EJ keeps getting some selections wrong. The backrow was not balanced. We had no big heavy hitter to really tie in defenders. Simmonds made some ground occasionally, but there was no one to tie in defenders. It made it very easy for Scotland to defend. On top the centres and wings as well were not right. We had no one who could make a clean line break or punch a hole in the defence regularly. Daly seems to be as I suspected, a stop gap until Manu or Farrell are back. Marchant and Malins are not out and out wings. I'm fine with Malins there as he is reliable in the air and actually looks dangerous. Marchant for me is nothing more than cover who can do a semi-decent job at club level. He's a centre and should be used there. We needed a centre who could and would try and break the gainline. We needed wings who could exploit the space better. On top the use of subs was atrocious.

For me we have the ingredients of a very good team, but the person getting it wrong is EJ. He's not getting the most out of the players and actually limits them with either his tactics or selections.

 

[RedruthRFC]

Having enough of those ball carriers to get over the gain line is where England really miss them IMO.

I have long been of the opinion that it is as simple as this for England. Back before the 2017 Grand Slam (that wasn't) game, I couldn't see them reliably getting over the gain line against a combative Irish pack. They couldn't, played the game on the back foot and lost without scoring a try. The massive change of fortunes from the RWC semi (where they were getting over the gain line at will) to the final (where they struggled) is another example, as are the past two Calcutta Cup losses. I'm sure there's more examples.

 

[RedruthRFC]

Same argument would say that Ford would never get a recall, because Smith took his place

Only if that agrument ignores Jones' opinion of the next player in the pecking order. TBH, I'm not even sure who the next in line would be for the 10 shirt.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Only if that agrument ignores Jones' opinion of the next player in the pecking order. TBH, I'm not even sure who the next in line would be for the 10 shirt.

Furbank, probably - Bailey training with the squad but if push came to shove (i.e. if all of Smith, Ford and Farrell are out) I'd expect EJ to start Furbank

 

[RedruthRFC]

Furbank, probably - Bailey training with the squad but if push came to shove (i.e. if all of Smith, Ford and Farrell are out) I'd expect EJ to start Furbank

Thanks, I can't even blame a hangover for not being able to figure that out for myself!

That sort of clarifies things for me. I can see Jones being more inclined to fall back on Ford in a key position when the next option is a guy who has only played 14 minutes in the position at international levelagainst Canada.