England v New Zealand - 2 November 2024

[Rugbyfan564]

Hold up, where's Underhill?

Been dropped -phased out like Steward as another player liked for a bit but then moved on quickly. Odds are he will go to France in 2026.

 

[TommiG88]

Been dropped -phased out like Steward as another player liked for a bit but then moved on quickly. Odds are he will go to France in 2026.

Yeah, good point.

 

[AngloScotsHybrid]

If Ollie Lawrence gets injured in the first minute England will have a midfield of Marcus Smith, George Ford and Henry Slade: the lightest midfield of all time.

 

[BMatt]

Ok randomly we got a squad today - was anyone expecting that? Team almost entirely as expected, minus the structure of the bench.

Slade starting, with no centre or winger options seems stupid, especially with Ford probably not being 100% fit either.

Centre and wing are covered, it will just be a merry go round.

E.g. if a centre is injured Freeman moves in, Furbank to wing, Smith to FB, Ford to FH.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Is Fin Smith injured?

A 6/2 with a 10 that can only play 10 doesn't work in my opinion and having watched Leinster do it a bunch this year. An unplanned reshuffle of the backline during the game is bad, changing the 10 doing so can be calamotous.

Starting backline is as strong as I've seen England for awhile.

Yeah, would feel much better with Dombrandt or B.Curry out of the 23 and Sleightholme on the bench
As it stands we lose anyone outside 10 and we're screwed
Guessing Randall is covering wing, Freeman 13, Smith/Freeman 15 and Ford 12 (pretty sure Smith/Ford played 10/12 for like 15mins either in the rwc warmups or in the rwc)

 

[AlRums]

How many captains and vice captains do England need? Are they going to have board meetings for each decision?

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Just realised I got an email from Steve Borthwick asking me to be vice captain but it went to my spam. No worries though, seems like he found another guy.

 

[Rugbyfan564]

How many captains and vice captains do England need? Are they going to have board meetings for each decision?

It comes across a bit pompous.

 

[BMatt]

How many captains and vice captains do England need? Are they going to have board meetings for each decision?

This was covered in the behind the scenes England rugby documentary, Chasing the Scrum.

 

[TopTen2003]

Does Freeman play 13 very often?

When I first saw the bench part of me wondered if Ben Earl was the back up centre if we lost Lawrence or Slade, given we could slot in Dombrandt or Ben Curry!

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

Stupid bench. SB always like to cock up something.

I wonder if we'll actually use the three back row options on the bench. If one of them only gets 10 minutes it's such a waste even having them and not having a proper 23 player who covers the back three.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Does Freeman play 13 very often?

When I first saw the bench part of me wondered if Ben Earl was the back up centre if we lost Lawrence or Slade, given we could slot in Dombrandt or Ben Curry!

12 starts there in the last season, not sure how many he shifted there mid game but will be a few more

Not an insane amount of experience but he's looked very good there whenever I've seen it

 

[Geordie]

Agree Freeman does look made for Centre. And means he likely gets the ball more also.
But he's a top class winger aswell. Good player to have

 

[IT157]

Agree that the 6:2 is dodgy with Slade and Ford both raw
If you're starting a Curry it should be Ben, he's been on fire this season

That said: it's all irrelevant because SPENCER IS FINALLY STARTING A TEST MATCH

3?

Never mind. Read it as Fin Smith, not Fin Baxter at first glance.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Is Lawrence back up winger and Smith backup 15? Trying to figure this one out.

Do IFW or Freeman kick much in play? That'd be another worry for me in terms of versatility of that backline medium term, need three high level kickers in the backs these days and England don't seem to have a lot of those in the back three for me based on the eye test. (Could be wrong here)

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Spencer, Smith, Slade and Furbank all great kickers - think that's enough, beyond that you get into the "X can't play 6, he's not a lineout specialist" trap we've been caught in for so long
Can't really recall Freeman kicking much but he's so good at everything he's probably great at that too and just never had to use it

Lawrence could probably do a job on the wing, I imagine Furbank would be first choice though (Smith to 15, Ford to 10) and probably even Randall before him, though
Like if we lost Freeman to injury then Randall on the wing is probably a better option than Ford at 12

 

[Scotty]

No Underhill? No Finn and a 6/2 split on the bench with no centre or wing cover? Wish we had Chessum at 19 not sold on BCurry at 20(above other options as in a back)

Also Slade I expected at 23, not starting.

 

[West Country Wail]

I can't really make sense of the 6:2 with Ford. I am bias but Slade makes sense given all the legacy camps and much wanted cohesion

 

[IT157]

No Underhill? No Finn and a 6/2 split on the bench with no centre or wing cover? Wish we had Chessum at 19 not sold on BCurry at 20(above other options as in a back)

Also Slade I expected at 23, not starting.

Underhill is obviously a great tackler, but I find him a bit too one dimensional for international standard. We are stacked at back row as well so the competition is tough.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Spencer, Smith, Slade and Furbank all great kickers - think that's enough, beyond that you get into the "X can't play 6, he's not a lineout specialist" trap we've been caught in for so long
Can't really recall Freeman kicking much but he's so good at everything he's probably great at that too and just never had to use it

Lawrence could probably do a job on the wing, I imagine Furbank would be first choice though (Smith to 15, Ford to 10) and probably even Randall before him, though
Like if we lost Freeman to injury then Randall on the wing is probably a better option than Ford at 12

Fair fair. Definitely not an issue when Slade is there, was more looking at it in the sense that he's injured or age and injuries catch up in the next couple years. Definitely want two guys outside the halves imo.