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England vs Fiji 26th August 23

There's a decent gap in some positions in terms of experience isn't there? Blame Eddie for that the Kiwis seem to be much better having second, third plus choice guys have a decent number of caps in time for WC's.

I'm perplexed by Stewards number of starts at FB. His form has dropped off and if he goes down injured its another position that you're scratching your head who comes in other than Daly with the experience.
 
Geordiefalcon said:
England are going to get humped this weekend.
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Really not sure what's gonna happen in this game,
Fiji didn't look great vs France, but then we looked genuinely terrible vs them

Fiji looked a bit like the Fiji of old, all flash and no structure - half backs were poor, and they're starting Lomani this week who makes our lot look like Dupont. Good rugby player but rubbish 9

But then they're far more likely to spark something from nothing, and in general, this RWC, they've looked very good/far more structured than usual, and they'll definitely be smelling blood in the water
 
Fiji are going to **** us royally at the breakdown, they made France look pretty amateur there last week
 
In fairness Earl actually packs down at 8 very often for Sarries, even when he isn't wearing the 8 shirt. Packs down there for every attacking scrum when Wray is wearing 8 and sometimes even does it when Vunipola is wearing 8 too. I reckon he's probably had more scrums at 8 than 7 this season.
 
Pieter Steph du Teague said:
In fairness Earl actually packs down at 8 very often for Sarries, even when he isn't wearing the 8 shirt. Packs down there for every attacking scrum when Wray is wearing 8 and sometimes even does it when Vunipola is wearing 8 too. I reckon he's probably had more scrums at 8 than 7 this season.
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Yeah he's definitely our most experienced 8, played there a fair few times when breaking through into the Saracens side too

Couldn't be more opposite to Billy, so funny to see SB forced into putting him there. I hope he's given some free reign and not just told to run into brick walls all game
 
AlRums said:
www.rugbypass.com

'The England pack is probably the smallest, least physical pack we have had'

Nick Easter has delivered a withering verdict on Steve Borthwick’s attempt to make England a competitive force at the Rugby World Cup...
www.rugbypass.com www.rugbypass.com
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Pretty much every expert/former player has just echoed what's everyone is saying on here. Sometimes views differ, but right everyone says we're ******. SCW may have been too extreme with his idea, but he's right that sticking with what we've got won't work. Honestly at this stage Borthwick needs to scrape a quarter final and have a complete reset and clear out in February.
 
Injuries happen and we're not the only side to have lost likely starters. That should be what you have a squad for, but Borthwick seems to be intent on confusing everyone with his selections and tactics.

I was prepared to accept a simplistic gameplan, but I expected us to be very well drilled and I thought Borthwick would pick the right players to execute his tactics. Right now I'm wondering WTF he is doing?

May coming back in makes sense. For this gameplan, I'd have picked him anyway, but the rest of the side just exposes his muddled thinking and how dumb it was to pick only one unfit, lazy 8 (who is also now banned). It's embarrassing.
 
I don't understand the Smith to 15 thing. Ok there is the attacking game from 15, kinda wonder what we gain from that as you can bet the rest of the team will not be on the same wavelength to take advantage of that. One of the biggest criticisms of Daly at 15 was how poor he was under the high ball and as a last defender. Smith isn't particularly big, surely he'll just be targeted by kicks? He also won't have the instinctive positioning so will likely also be out of position for those kicks.

I don't see any way it ends in anything except Smith being set up to fail in the same way Bergamasco was when he played 9. There is nothing to suggest he can do the role at international level. We also have people whinging about playing players out of position and now we are proposing moving our current 15 to 12, our 10 to 15, our 7 to 8, our 12 to 13...
 
Ragey Erasmus said:
I don't understand the Smith to 15 thing. Ok there is the attacking game from 15, kinda wonder what we gain from that as you can bet the rest of the team will not be on the same wavelength to take advantage of that. One of the biggest criticisms of Daly at 15 was how poor he was under the high ball and as a last defender. Smith isn't particularly big, surely he'll just be targeted by kicks? He also won't have the instinctive positioning so will likely also be out of position for those kicks.

I don't see any way it ends in anything except Smith being set up to fail in the same way Bergamasco was when he played 9. There is nothing to suggest he can do the role at international level. We also have people whinging about playing players out of position and now we are proposing moving our current 15 to 12, our 10 to 15, our 7 to 8, our 12 to 13...
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Don't be so negative, we're building something


Something.
Somewhere.
 

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