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England World Cup Squad

Ragey Erasmus said:
TBF there were train strikes on the Fiji day, which likely would have had an impact on attendance.
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There were trains strikes on during the wales games and the 6 nations games as well.

It doesn't help that the games are on later as it mean you almost have to stay over as well which makes for a very expensive day. It's been quite a while while wince England seemed to have planed at 3:00 game at twickenham, most seem to be later now.
 
Worth noting that IIRC club attendances are down about 10%, Twickenham often fails to sell out against tier 2 opponents (IIRC we also failed to sell out a 6N match for the first time in history this year - I'd count that as far more worrying than 60% capacity against Fiji), there was an actual top-tier match 24 hours earlier for those who wanted to watch good rugby, or just say that they'd been there (the latter being most of a Twickenham crowd).

Yes, there's a lot of dissatisfaction/apathy with England's game at the moment, but it's not the only factor behind absences.
 
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Quel Carreleur said:
Worth noting that IIRC club attendances are down about 10%, Twickenham often fails to sell out against tier 2 opponents (IIRC we also failed to sell out a 6N match for the first time in history this year - I'd count that as far more worrying than 60% capacity against Fiji), there was an actual top-tier match 24 hours earlier for those who wanted to watch good rugby, or just say that they'd been there (the latter being most of a Twickenham crowd).

Yes, there's a lot of dissatisfaction/apathy with England's game at the moment, but it's not the only factor behind absences.
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You also have to take into account the cost of living rises through inflation
 
So assuming Curry gets a ban, who do we think comes in to start? Willis straight into the 7 shirt or Ludlam to start either at 7 or at 8 with Earl at 7?

Think my preference would be Ludlam. A Lawes-Willis-Earl back row lacks carrying ability IMO.
 
Kruis jetting in and out as a line out consultant. Sounds environmentally friendly. Thought that was Borthwick's specialty? Shame he's not there as a player.

Maybe explains the uptick in Ford's kicking. Watch out for a back heeled conversion against Japan…..
 
Interviews with Walters flying around basically saying that the fitness regime meant that the warm up games were sacrificed. Pretty much the equivalent of a full test on the Tues before the Ire game etc.

Things like that always sound a bit like excuses or rewriting history. Nonetheless the Arg game suggested there may be some truth in it. Japan should test the lungs a bit while bigger tests await. Fitness alone won't win you the RWC but it can probably lose it.
 
That was the straw myself and a few others, were clinging to (remembering back to 2018).

Unlike 2018 though, it didn't to me that the players were exhausted from the start, so much as confused and disinterested.
 
Quel Carreleur said:
so much as confused and disinterested.
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Yeah, this is what I was thinking
By all acounts Walters is a S&C genius so hopefully our conditioning levels are very good, but I wouldn't rate strength/fitness amongst the top issues we've had this season (/this world cup cycle)
Obviously poor conditioning can lead into more mistakes being made under exhaustion etc. but even then I think it's a bit optimistic to think we're gonna start blasting out perfectly executed backs moves now because our bronco times are way better
 
The thing I find weird about the fitness claims is you can only improve your fitness so much in a set time period. These are already professional athletes, just how much change can you make in a few weeks? I struggle to see how it could be enough to justify a gulf in performance.

An unfit person can rapidly improve but you have diminishing returns as you become fitter.
 
Ragey Erasmus said:
The thing I find weird about the fitness claims is you can only improve your fitness so much in a set time period. These are already professional athletes, just how much change can you make in a few weeks? I struggle to see how it could be enough to justify a gulf in performance.

An unfit person can rapidly improve but you have diminishing returns as you become fitter.
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Maybe the C aspect of their S&C won't have improved massively but I'm very willing to believe that the S part has been improved upon a lot. You've got to remember that a lot of these players haven't had an extended period of not playing rugby since the COVID break as they all tour every summer and so don't get a pre-season. That's, what, 3 years (?) of only being able to do some moderate lifting 2-3 times a week so that they can be fully fit and firing for the weekend. But now they've had near enough 4 months of being able to lift heavy 5-6 times a week I don't doubt for a second that they'll have all made serious progress with their strength and power outputs.
 
"There was a famous Australian swimming coach, Bill Sweetenham, who worked with the British Olympic team. He made sure the swimmers were tired going into the World Championships, which just preceded the Olympics. They got some medals but he knew that if you can produce when you are tired and lacking energy, what are you going to be like when you are free of fatigue and energetic? That is what we are getting to now."

This is the interesting part to me. Seems as though fatiguing the players wasn't so much about getting them super fit as it was about getting them used to playing in horrid conditions so that they can now thrive in normal conditions. Kind of like when coaches would have you train with a 5kg ball so that when you go back to passing a regular ball you can absolutely rip it.

Honestly, Walters is probably the member of the current coaching team who I have most faith in. You only have to look at what he's done to George Martin to see how successfully he can develop players physically. So if he with his many qualifications, his years of experience and his direct access to the players says that this is how they should be training then I do believe him.
 
You mean... exactly as Eddie told us he was going to do in 2018 (whilst SB was forwards' coach); actually did in 2018, with performances on the pitch that looked like they were playing whilst exhausted; and got everyone confused as to why the players looked exhausted?
 
I'm not sure I buy in to this pre fatigue idea. Even if there were pre-fatigued, I'd like to see any science that backs up those claims. Playing when fatigued leads to more injuries and in reality they will never have to play that fatigued in the World Cup. It's almost like training for an iron man and then only doing a marathon. You might get better but also you could just train for a marathon.

Playing fatigued also doesn't account for the complete lack of gameplan or continuity shown on the pitch.

Maybe he's some kind of genius but I doubt he's that much better than any other s&c coach from the teams with top money.
 
Don't Skip Leg Day said:
Maybe he's some kind of genius but I doubt he's that much better than any other s&c coach from the teams with top money.
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He was the South African fitness coach for the 2019 World Cup...and Tigers prem league winning fitness coach..etc..etc...so he knows how to get a team fit for winning ***les.
 

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