England v Scotland

[TRF_Cymro]

Venue: Twickenham
Date: Sunday 13th March 2011
Kick Off: 3:00pm GMT
Referee: Romain Poite
​

 

[Prestwick]

In the bag/not in the bag? If England take advantage of Scotland's obsession with having a godawful start to each game they'll be fine but Scotland really were running hard at Ireland in the last 15 minutes.

Going to be interesting to see if Johnno persists with his team or gets tempted to bring back Croft & Moody..

 

[TRF_Olyy]

England should smash them, but it's never that easy with Scotland...
I imagine Moody will be back and captaining, with Haskell on the bench at the expense of Fourie - though I wouldn't change the team (bar Hape) at all, even Fourie made a good impact off of the bench (though if it's between him & Haskell then I'd pick Haskell, for his current form and ability to play any three of the backrow positions)

 

[Teh Mite]

This one is the real banana skin. Scotland will be furious they let the Ireland game get away from them and the Calcutta cup (which is worth precisely a bazillion times more then the Triple Crown) will be just the inspiration they need to get some sort of momentum going towards New Zealand.

I'll be pleased as **** if AR goes with Parks, Jackson looked a useful 10 IMO and Patterson can worry about the kicking. Lamont should find a new lease of life at inside centre also.

 

[Peat]

Right now Scotland don't look like they could find their way to the tryline with an atlas, a guidedog and a full team of Sherpas. The only time they was France who hadn't been told it was a full contact game.

Unless this changes in the next fortnight, providing England's performance levels don't drop and they hold their discipline there is only one winner here.

 

[WetAndCold]

Scotland always up their game for England, and only a fool would dismiss them because of their poor performances so far. England can't give away as many penalties as they have been because Parks or Patterson will be playing. Every game so far, we have gained the lead before giving away penalties in our own 22 immediately after. If we can keep the penalties down, Scotland will have to do something pretty special to win on current form. This match, as Bullitt said, is the potential banana skin of the tounament for England: Scotland haven't had a good game so far; every team has one...

We need to change our centre pairing though, badly. Hape and Tindall are decent in defence and have missed very few tackles, but watching Tindalls passing is like watching an u12's game. We have a great back three, but they loose all their momentum having to jump or go backwards to catch Tindall's passes. If we have a heavyweight in the outside centre position, lets at least have one who can pass as well as tackle. Isn't it the O/C's job to produce good ball for the back three? Hape just doesn't seen to do anything. He made a decent break to set up an Ashton try against Italy, and he is a decent tackler but that's it. Surely England Rugby has two better centres who can have a game in a couple of weeks. the RWC is in 8 months and England won't get very far with a centre pairing like our current one.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Scotland may be without the majority of their best players for this:

Locks Richie Gray (knee), Alastair Kellock(hand and neck), flanker John Barclay (knee), fly-half Ruaridh Jackson (calf), centre Sean Lamont and full-back Chris Paterson (both shoulder) are all being monitored in the aftermath of the loss at Murrayfield.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12321_6785998,00.html

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Wow thin on the ground to say the least.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

The one thing we musn't change is the halfbacks, we need to keep Flood right where he is and not at 12. The thing that can be said about Hape is he's there for a reason - strong crash ball etc. He needs to be judged mainly on those merits and what he adds to the team game, not as an individual. Before the France match(in which Tindall played very well), I was more worried about 13 because whereas Hape has a clear role to play, Tindall really doesnt. He's a bit of a lump, but not as much of a lump as Hape, and as we've seen doesn't have the best pass or speed. Nor is he creative. SO even though overall as a balanced player I would say Tindall is better than Hape, I think in the context of this team Tindall should be the first to be changed.

That's the theory. But there's no time really. We have to be ready for Ireland with the team we already have, which leaves the world cup warmups for experimentation.

 

[WetAndCold]

I agree: If Hape's there to break the gainline and offload to the outside centre, it would be better to have someone with a bit of pace at O/C, One who can then get a good pass (unlike Tindall's) away to Cueto/Foden/Ashton. Not another 'crash baller'. Tindall did have one of his best games against France yesterday, but I still think that we could do better.

In reply to RugbyTopShop: I think that moving Flood to inside centre would be a really bad decision. Him and Youngs have been immense. They had a bit of a slump on Saturday, but they're still probably the best halfback pairing in the 6n at the mo. Having Wilko come off the bench at ~60mins has worked well so far. Wilkinson's been really good. And according to Guscott; Wilkinson =/= Centre

We probably shouldn't tinker now (and MJ won't) but I think we should try some more 'creative' centre's; this will give us an idea of what to try for the WC warmups.

 

[gethefunk]

I would say that if Tindall is playing then we will have a chance, he is really the loose thread in the England game at the moment, granted if we score a try it will be a miracle but the Calcutta cup means a lot to us, more than the six nations does.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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Also this game is very psychological as we will be playing again in New Zealand in the last of the Pool games which could potentially put either team out of the World cup !, we have nothing to loose and everything to gain from this game, its going to be very tight...<o></o>
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http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/pools/index.html Sat the 1st of October <o></o>

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Depending on the Scottish injuries this could be a close game as its the Calcutta Cup. Richie Gray has looked amazing in games as has Kellock. Just feel Scotland are almost there but missing players through injury and some of their best players have lost some form. The turn around is round the corner mind. Whether its against England im not quite sure.

 

[Prestwick]

Right now Scotland don't look like they could find their way to the tryline with an atlas, a guidedog and a full team of Sherpas.

I have to say that would be awesome if a team did literally score a try using an Atlas and a team of sherpas.

That said, I would say that if England come to town with the same aggressive defence they exhibited in the second half then Scotland will find it very hard. One thing England did leak though was penalties. 14 against Italy and 7 against France.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

 

[dangandan]

jees it would be great to see scotland somehow cause an upset. would make things much easier for us

 

[no-1-rugby-fan]

England have got to be favourites with home advantage but Scotland always seem to up their game with the Calcutta Cup at stake.

 

[seatea15]

I wasn't loving our chances on this one before I seen the list of potential injuries!

Scotland do raise their game against England which is really our only hope. If each player turns up and plays out of their skin then we may push it close.

That being said though, don't every team do this against England? And they've not had too much trouble winning so far.

 

[B10]

Sheridan out of Scotland and Ireland games. Good chance for Corbisiero who's been excellent so far

 

[Teh Mite]

The irony being a lot of English will lament that while equally a lot of celts will celebrate.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Exactly Bulitt. Sheridan's good to have around but to be able to bring in Corbisiero is in no way a loss for us. In fact he's probably a more rounded player. I'm far more worried about Flood, although 'sore achilles' implies its not a big one.

 

[WetAndCold]

It looks like they're just resting Flood from training as a precaution, but he should be fit for Scotland. Corbisiero is a very good player, so as others have said; although I think Sheridan is awesome in the scrums, It's not a big blow for England at all. Still think we should change our centre's though!