England v New Zealand

[Sam Owen]

to see Monye run out with the 15 on his back

Monye fullback??...hmm whos the coach?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I hope he breaks someone this test series (not saying who, but his name sounds like he lives on a trailer park in the swamps of Georgia) - it's been too long since someone left the field on a stretched with a Lawes shaped dent in their chest

Monye fullback??...hmm whos the coach?

Happened last Autumn.
God knows what Johnson was thinking.

 

[Duckdee]

Is Lawes now 100% a lock? I don't mean ability-wise, but commitment-wise.

 

[Teh Mite]

Lawes has always been a very fast & agile, ball-carrying lock who could slot into the backrow if required because of his tackling ability: A bit like Tom Croft I suppose. I've only seen him as a backrow a couple of times, but he was hyped to play there because England wanted Shaw and Borthwick to remain in the boiler room "Because grunt is everything".

Sam: Monye slotted into the fullback role last year because Armitage was injured and there wasn't sufficient cover in the EPS to have another specialist fullback - For some reason the media decided Foden couldn't catch a high ball or tackle (which has since been proven bullshit) so he was left out, while Brian Smith decided that it was better for the Strong and quick Monye to be the sweeper instead of the defensively solid Cueto who has experience at 15.

Madness I tell you, Madness!

 

[Duckdee]

Lawes has always been a very fast & agile, ball-carrying lock who could slot into the backrow if required because of his tackling ability: A bit like Tom Croft I suppose. I've only seen him as a backrow a couple of times, but he was hyped to play there because England wanted Shaw and Borthwick to remain in the boiler room "Because grunt is everything".

Good-o. I was a bit worried there was going to be a battle between Croft and Lawes for the 6 shirt.

 

[Teh Mite]

Let's hope not, Croft is the best 6 we've had since Hill gave up the shirt.

 

[cyRil]

Good-o. I was a bit worried there was going to be a battle between Croft and Lawes for the 6 shirt.

Is that much of a battle?

 

[woodward]

You think they will beat Australia and South Africa?

 

[Teh Mite]

You think they will beat Australia and South Africa?

Why not?

The Wallabies are proper **** ATM and the Boks are (thanks entirely to P Divvy) a rudderless collection of very talented individuals rather then anything resembling a good team. Both are there for the taking and if any progress has been made since the summer tour, they should both be very beatable.

 

[woodward]

The Wallabies are proper **** ATM

uh, no.

 

[Teh Mite]

uh, no.

Bet you can't give a good reason to say why Aus aren't ****.

 

[lynam1104]

Look at their Tri- nations games they were very good in all of them the new rules suite their style. The AB's were much better but they brought them close twice so they can't be that bad. The AB's are going ti dominate this years AI's. While the NH teams could get wins over SA and AUS they won't beat the AB's. In 12 moths time the AB's will have lost forum( hopefully not because right now their a joy to watch) they have once aging peaked to early.

 

[nickdnz]

Bet you can't give a good reason to say why Aus aren't ****.

They've beated South Africa twice this year, and only lost to the AB's by a very short margin in the last two games, while seemingly to have improved each game. I wouldn't be so confident England will win, in fact I'd go for Australia winning comfortably. I could be wrong though, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[mohamed_ali12]

Lawes has always been a very fast & agile, ball-carrying lock who could slot into the backrow if required because of his tackling ability: A bit like Tom Croft I suppose. I've only seen him as a backrow a couple of times, but he was hyped to play there because England wanted Shaw and Borthwick to remain in the boiler room "Because grunt is everything".

Didn't Lawes say himself last year he prefers playing 6? I think it was on Rugby Club or maybe BBC sport.

 

[Teh Mite]

In the same way Foden prefers playing at Scrum-Half!

 

[profitius]

It'll be hard for England to beat any tri nation team this autumn. Teams need time to gel and the tri nation teams are well ahead of England in that sense.

At the world cup though I'd expect England to be very difficult to beat because they'll have time to form patterns etc so if I was from a tri nation country I wouldn't get too cocky.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Flutey injured today playing for wasps.
Being assessed by the England doctors to see if he'll be alright to play.
I hope to hell he is ok, because he's the most likely to be challenging Hape for the 12 shirt (despite Waldouck being the best option)

Sent from my MB200 using Tapatalk

 

[mohamed_ali12]

If Flutey's injured, can they bring in a replacement (i.e. Barkley)?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Depends how long he's likely to be out for, if he'll only miss the one game I doubt they'll bother as they have enough cover for that, but long term probably. They're more likely to promote from the Saxons though, which will see A. Allen, B. Barrett, D. Hipkiss or M. Tait called up (or add in Geraghty as well, if you're Martin Johnson....) i reckon, from those, it'll be Barrett as he got game time over the summer and is a 12.

Just read that Shaw is a maybe as well, and is being assessed by the England Doctors as well. I'm not too gutted about that, i do like Shaw, but it almost guarantees Lawes the 4 shirt, and will (hopefully) get Attwood some bench time.


ACTUALLY this is horrible horrible news. I hope Shaw is fine and dandy: Him going out injured means a Saxon lock will be called up.....BORTHWICK

 

[eot345]

i think laws, croft and moody will be able to snaffle their fair share of ball from mccaw and i have a stronge feeling england are gunna give NZ a bit of trouble when it comes to scrum time also as england have a pretty good scrummaging tight 5 and a meaty back 3 with Croft, Easter and Haskell/ worsley all being over 17 stone with Haskell/ Easter roughly 18!