England v Japan - 24/11/2024 (16.10)

[Lé Ddanno]

Looking at the weather forecast, this could be an 'up the jumper' game. Rain all weekend and high winds, which might die back during the game.

Beat Japan with forward grunt? No-one is impressed.
Lose a close game (and the weather will make it lower-scoring) due to one piece of brilliance? Pitchforks at the ready.

Can't even close the roof...

Good. And I hope Eddie has done an Eddie for it, the spiteful ***** that he is might do one of his upsets

 

[Reiser99]

Would you have taken wins regardless of performance? I probably would have and taken the view it was something to build on (and don't under estimate the confidence of winning or vice versa). Very fine margins, but they are at this level.

Another concerning thing though was that these were home fixtures which are supposed to give a significant advantage.

But in the last few months we've beaten Ire who beat Fra who beat the ABs who beat Arg who beat the Boks who beat Aus who beat us. We *just* need to get on the right end of some of these results.

So what are SB's priorities for the 6N?

No1 has to be to find the winning habit. We're leaking points and losing games, but not really being humped on the scoreboard. Concede one try fewer per game and things could look very different…..it will be disappointing if the D doesn't look a shedload better.

Win is always better, but I'm definitely of the opinion that performance matters just as much as results, especially if you're supposedly building to something. People say great teams know how to win ugly, but those ugly wins are usually in between comfortable wins and good performances. If England had won one game ugly, it would have been an ugly win surrounded by ugly losses. That's the sign of a struggling team.

I disagree slightly with getting on the right end of these results. I think we've regressed. If we played as well as we did in NZ then we'd have won at least two games (probably NZ and Aus). We played a lot worse than we did in the summer, especially in defence. At this point, I'm not sure getting some wins would lead to a huge improvement because there is something fundamentally wrong with how England are being coached. It's either that or we hope that losing two coaches has had a huge impact on the team, even though many are experienced players.

For the 6Ns, obviously we need to win games. Italy and Wales are a must. Scotland should be too, but England will have to earn that. Picking off one of Ireland or France would be an excellent tournament and put England in with a shout of winning possibly. However, based on the autumn, an improvement in defence is a must as well. As you said we're leaking points and trying to out score teams is never a secure game plan. The best teams have a strong defence and a strong attack, not one. If we win 3 games with a poor defence and scraping results, then that wouldn't be good enough because then we're still not making progress.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Telegraph thinks Asher will be replacement loosehead

 

[Lé Ddanno]

Telegraph thinks Asher will be replacement loosehead

Is Genge borked? I wouldn't really be looking to start Fin if it wasn't absolutely necessary. Also is this a Charles Richardson job because he's a ******* hack

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Telegraph thinks Asher will be replacement loosehead

Guardian saying likewise and thinking he'll be joined by Murley.

Why the late announcement compared with previous matches?

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

What type of defence to Oyonnax have? That's Joe El Abd' other club right?

If he hasn't coached a blitz defence before then it will longer for the systems to be put in place properly and fine tuned. With only 3 games it would have been a disaster to change it round completely.

As to what we should do going forward? I don't know it depends on Joe El-abds strengths as a defence coach.

Apparently it's up and out as opposed to England's up and in.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Guardian saying likewise and thinking he'll be joined by Murley.

I hope that means Roebuck is starting but it'd be very SB for him to come off the bench last week, do well, and then get dropped

 

[Rugbyfan564]

Telegraph thinks Asher will be replacement loosehead

England plan debut for Asher Opoku-Fordjour, the 20-year-old next-gen prop

Sale Sharks front row who can play on either side of the scrum is likely to be deployed as a loosehead by Steve Borthwick

www.telegraph.co.uk

'Despite being deployed at tighthead for Sale Sharks, he is viewed as a loosehead by England and was a star of the Under-20s World Championship-winning team in the summer.

Very few modern props can seamlessly switch between loosehead and tighthead and his long-term position is set to be a test case of the new spirit of collaboration between Premiership Rugby and the Rugby Football Union since signing the Professional Game Partnership.

Speaking this year, Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson told England scrum coach Tom Harrison that the club would not be budging on their stance.

"He sees Asher as a loosehead," Sanderson said. "I disagree. I think we have a lot of looseheads with good mobility and a bit of fast twitch and it's an easier position to get technically right. Asher can work at tighthead and that is really rare, as rare as teddy-bear s---. He could be a good loosehead but similar to others in his position like Bev [Rodd]. He could be an exceptional tighthead given his mobility and his ability to stick in the scrum."'

 

[Rugbyfan564]

Prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour set to make England bow against Japan

Sale’s Asher Opoku-Fordjour is likely to be on the bench on Sunday as England seek a first Autumn Nations Series win

www.theguardian.com

The Guardian also say Dan Cole might play for his final appearance

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour set to make England bow against Japan

Sale’s Asher Opoku-Fordjour is likely to be on the bench on Sunday as England seek a first Autumn Nations Series win

www.theguardian.com

The Guardian also say Dan Cole might play for his final appearance

It should be. Time to move on.

Memories fade quickly, but for quite a while he was a very high quality player. The game's now moved on, but overall a very good career.

 

[Lé Ddanno]

Guardian saying likewise and thinking he'll be joined by Murley.

Why the late announcement compared with previous matches?

Cause he's bricking it

 

[Mumbles119]

Guardian saying likewise and thinking he'll be joined by Murley.

Why the late announcement compared with previous matches?

I mean they surely must have a team identified by now? Training together to be fully functioning (slight sarcasm).

Or if there are injury doubts/finess decisions? This is surely still too late to waiting on including someone unable to fully train etc

 

[Rugbyfan564]

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Eeeeeeehhhh

Should've been Ben Curry not Tom, who shouldn't be allowed to be playing, and then CCS should be starting at 8

Glad Asher is reserve tighthead and Roebuck still involved (though would've liked him to start)

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

That's pretty disappointing. Makes it feel that SB is running a bit scared of a bad result.

Furbank will look good v these and the 3 7s may work here but isn't really a semblance of a longer term plan.

Most exciting thing is a record number of double barrels on the bench.

 

[Mumbles119]

Interesting:
- 3 sevens as back row, with CCS covering all bench back row I assume.
- Furbank returning maybe for style of game wanted for this game?

Good:
- Involving Finn and Tom Roebuck.

Odd:
- No change to centres which has not been functioning. Maybe I just feel for Lozowski not getting any involvement, and the coaches are feeling this centre partnership needs all the time available to work on gelling and being a success.

 

[Geordie]

That's pretty disappointing. Makes it feel that SB is running a bit scared of a bad result.

Furbank will look good v these and the 3 7s may work here but isn't really a semblance of a longer term plan.

Most exciting thing is a record number of double barrels on the bench.

This looks like Damage limitation, try to get the win then shut up shop after a bad Autumn and prep for 6n....

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Gonna tune it at 55mins or so....

 

[Rugbyfan564]

Eeeeeeehhhh

Should've been Ben Curry not Tom, who shouldn't be allowed to be playing, and then CCS should be starting at 8

Glad Asher is reserve tighthead and Roebuck still involved (though would've liked him to start)

It's like they want to be punished because of the dementia crisis letting Tom Curry play.

 

[Lé Ddanno]

Cause he's bricking it

Bricking it. What a brave team