I get the feeling he was bombarded with "management" development courses etc. James Haskell talked about the time he was invited to a meeting with Lancaster and some senior players and it was Lancaster doing a presentation which he was planning to show the rest of the team and he wanted senior player feedback before he did it. Smacks of someone out of thier comfort zone doing something they were not used to doing.
Only if Nowell was on the flank, there was three 13s on the pitch and 4 locks in the match day 23.
Eddie was far too loyal to Youngs, Farrell and the Vunipolas!
I think you also saw it with the England football team and Southgate. He has his favourites even though they were not on form and deemed undroppable, even if it affects the way the team plays ie doesn't improve it. It comes across a bit as blind loyalty because they didn't let him down in past tournaments.
It's the great Eddie paradox, he is simultaneously accused of not trying enough people and trying too many. As pointed out, he had has favourites, who walked in regardless of form and health. They were completely untouchable. You then had everyone else who could get maybe 5 games tops and then be dropped never to be heard from again. It's the worst of both worlds. We've now got a team whose core have tons of caps but are in poor international form and a fringe of players really struggling to make the squad as they will be dropped even if they outperform the incumbent.
I disagree with Agnew on this one and other parts of his article. There a slightly diffrent mentality in the batting (bowling was never a problem). Before they were told to go out and biff it but innevitably would be out to a poor shot. Now they are being told to go out and look to score instead of defend. That doesn't excuse bad shots as Brook said post this match and you have to own up to them.
I don't think it's that they won't be dropped. I think they would be eventually, but it's more giving them a chance and not punishing them after 1 or 2 bad games. Under Root and Cook England were constantly tinkering with the side. Knowing that you are being given a fair chance just takes that bit of pressure off.
The role of the senior players is also to let the coach know what is / isn't working. The coach, rightly, has the final say, but a culture where those conversations don't happen or are ignored is broken.
You may view it differently to me but I've found England didn't look like they had much fight the last 3 years and many players looked like they couldn't be bothered. The number of times teams have made a break against England and you rarely see anyone really pushing to close it down. May is probably the only one who gives it 100% to chase someone down.
Thats fair, you watch them more closely than I do. I suppose I still fear Jones' England a good bit because they always matched up well against us too.
