[RWC19 Warm-Up] - England vs Wales

[higgik]

JJ is looking like the player he was in 2015. Get Tuilagi at 12 to pull in defenders instead of Francis and Jospeh could cause havoc.

I had my doubts about JJ passing, but he showed today he has got much better. Also his game suits Ford better than Farrell with the wider passing range and vision.
Think it will be Farrell-Manu-Slade or Ford-Manu-JJ

 

[spartan32]

A nice game of rugby that. No massive surprises. Wales looked rusty straight from camp, and looked a little guarded, no doubt not wanting injuries. England performed better than expected, some good moments in attack but some pretty shocking mistakes in D. Daly just has terrible positioning sometimes, and seems to have no idea how to cope with players running at him. That could be a real problem heading into the WC. I wonder if Watson, after what was a solid performance, may be a better choice? Good to see Watson and JJ back, with the later looking right back to his old dancing self, which is great. If Curry is broken I’ll be ******, and gutted for him. Hienz was solid and has no doubt booked his place for the WC. Pack were pretty good, especially in the 2nd when we destroyed the Welsh set piece.

All in all happy. But like i said before doesn’t mean much. Although I’ll admit I’m happy to spoil a welsh winning streak and chance of topping the rankings, after all the times they ruined our party.

 

[higgik]

JJ is looking like the player he was in 2015. Get Tuilagi at 12 to pull in defenders instead of Francis and Jospeh could cause havoc.

I had my doubts about JJ passing, but he showed today he has got much better. Also his game suits Ford better than Farrell with the wider passing range and vision.
Think it will be Farrell-Manu-Slade or Ford-Manu-JJ

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Must admit I did get a bit of pleasure at seeing AWJ taken to the floor by Genge then Lawes. He's the biggest wind up merchant there but then goes up to the ref whinging and like "Me sir? No sir! It's all them sir! Honest."

 

[Nudger]

Cant wait to see what our first team is going to do

 

[Rinkadink]

Cant wait to see what our first team is going to do

Play worse than the seconds, as is England tradition.

 

[higgik]

Had to wait for the highlights and think Watson is the starting FB, straight swap with Daly as I think his skills are needed on the pitch.
My starting team
15. Watson
14. Daly
13. JJ
12. Manu
11. May
10. Ford
9. Youngs
8. Billy
7. Curry T
6. WIlson
5. Kruis
4. Itoje
3. Sinckler
2. George
1. Mako

16. LCD
17. Genge
18. Williams
19. Lawes
20. Underhill
21. Heinz
22. Farrell
23. Nowell

Squad
Props: Mako, Genge, Marler, Sinckler, Williams, Cole (6)
Hookers: George, LCD, Singleton (3)
Back 5: Itoje, Kruis, Lawes, Launchbury, Billy, Wilson, Curry, Underhill, Dombrandt (9)
Scrum halves: Youngs, Heinz, Spencer (3)
Inside backs: Ford, Farrell, Manu, Slade (4)
Outside backs: Daly, JJ, Watson, Nowell, May, Big Joe (5)

 

[Rinkadink]

Had to wait for the highlights and think Watson is the starting FB, straight swap with Daly as I think his skills are needed on the pitch.
My starting team
15. Watson
14. Daly
13. JJ
12. Manu
11. May
10. Ford
9. Youngs
8. Billy
7. Curry T
6. WIlson
5. Kruis
4. Itoje
3. Sinckler
2. George
1. Mako

16. LCD
17. Genge
18. Williams
19. Lawes
20. Underhill
21. Heinz
22. Farrell
23. Nowell

Would look better if you swapped Heinz for Youngs and to a lesser extent Nowell for Daly.

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

My squad, only picked from players that are currently in the squad as I doubt any others are going to be recalled.
1. Mako, Marler, Genge
2. George, LCD, Singleton
3. Sinckler, Williams, Cole
4. Itoje, Launchbury
5. Kruis, Lawes
6. Curry, Wilson
7. Underhill, Ludlam
8. Vunipola
9. Heinz, Youngs
10. Farrell, Ford
11. May
12. Tuilagi, Francis
13. Joseph, Slade
14. Nowell, Cokonasiga
15. Watson, Daly

Edit: just had a look at the stats and remarkably, Cole didn’t touch the ball all game. He did make 3 tackles though so his presence was certainly felt.

 

[bushytop]

Must admit I did get a bit of pleasure at seeing AWJ taken to the floor by Genge then Lawes. He's the biggest wind up merchant there but then goes up to the ref whinging and like "Me sir? No sir! It's all them sir! Honest."

He’s just building back up some of the credit he spent during the 6N...

#this****aintpersonalhomieitsjustbusiness!

 

[Scotty]

Right so just watched the BBC highlights as i stupidly booked my puppy trainer to come at 2.30.... and couldnt do any other times shen i tried to chsnge it. So only seen hour long highlights not full game so may have missed a few things but still.

Pros
Heinz looked good
Ludlam worked very hard and didnt do anything wrong that you wouldnt expect for a debut player.
Watson tackled strong and great take high ball.
Dalys drop goal.

Cons
Dalys tackling.
Youngs scored a try at the end meaning EJ will see him as the best forever
Curry going off. Luckily he doesnt seem to be badly injured.


That was Wales' game to lose as they had a near full strength team.

Now JJ. He made that great break between parkes and Davies and didnt look up or would have seen Ford. Ive seen it many times he doesnt look for support as much as he should, all round he is a great but for me thats his biggest failure.

Watson had a great game from what i saw, ball in hand, high balls and defence.

Very good performance from a second string England team especially with 3 drop outs 2 days before.

Hope underhill and slade are back next week.

Want to see full strength team but with watson FB and Daly at 23.


Heinz and Ludlam both didnt disappoint and heinz did some great quick delivery. And almost scored a decent try.

Also great to see england get a good lead and not blow it late on

 

[Every Time Ref]

Right so just watched the BBC highlights as i stupidly booked my puppy trainer to come at 2.30.... and couldnt do any other times shen i tried to chsnge it. So only seen hour long highlights not full game so may have missed a few things but still.

Pros
Heinz looked good
Ludlam worked very hard and didnt do anything wrong that you wouldnt expect for a debut player.
Watson tackled strong and great take high ball.
Dalys drop goal.

Cons
Dalys tackling.
Youngs scored a try at the end meaning EJ will see him as the best forever
Curry going off. Luckily he doesnt seem to be badly injured.


That was Wales' game to lose as they had a near full strength team.

Now JJ. He made that great break between parkes and Davies and didnt look up or would have seen Ford. Ive seen it many times he doesnt look for support as much as he should, all round he is a great but for me thats his biggest failure.

Watson had a great game from what i saw, ball in hand, high balls and defence.

Very good performance from a second string England team especially with 3 drop outs 2 days before.

Hope underhill and slade are back next week.

Want to see full strength team but with watson FB and Daly at 23.


Heinz and Ludlam both didnt disappoint and heinz did some great quick delivery. And almost scored a decent try.

Also great to see england get a good lead and not blow it late on

Think you’re right about JJ being a bit blinkered but I’d have put him in my “pros”, having a world class player back from long-term injury poking that sharp in attack and defence is priceless for a coach this close to a World Cup.

My other big pro was Heinz, had forgotten what it looked like for an England 9 to pass the ball away from the ruck quickly and (mostly) accurately. More by luck than judgement, but for the first time ever I feel like EJ has made a good decision in the scrumhalf area.

 

[higgik]

Would look better if you swapped Heinz for Youngs and to a lesser extent Nowell for Daly.

I think Heinz really made the critics look stupid yesterday. His marshalling of the pack was good and he posed a threat with his running. As for Nowell, I love the guy but concerned about his injury. If fully fit, definitely.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

My other big pro was Heinz, had forgotten what it looked like for an England 9 to pass the ball away from the ruck quickly and (mostly) accurately. More by luck than judgement, but for the first time ever I feel like EJ has made a good decision in the scrumhalf area.

It's just a shame it came at the expense of Spencer (who could offer the same) and not Youngs - Spencer getting that 15mins off the bench would've been much more useful

 

[Which Tyler]

I think Heinz really made the critics look stupid yesterday. His marshalling of the pack was good and he posed a threat with his running. As for Nowell, I love the guy but concerned about his injury. If fully fit, definitely.

Out of interest - what do you think his critics were saying?

About the worst I remember being said was that he'd likely be solid, dependable but old and kiwi - essentially 2016 Wigglesworth with a residential qualification.
The criticisms were that people felt Spencer, Robson, Maunder, Chudleigh, or whoever else might have a higher ceiling, be younger, or be "more English". Even then, I think most were acknowledging that Heinz was less likely to have a bad day at the office than any of the above.

It seems to me that Heinz did exactly what people expected him to do - thus making no-one look stupid. To do that he'd have needed to put in a virtuoso play-making performance. He didn't, he looked calm, and dependable, and he gave the ball to Ford nicely for him to dictate the game.

 

[MikeTheNative]

Great ploy from Gatland. Knows that Wales preform better as underdogs so got the players to deliberately throw the game to stop them from being number one......

What made this defeat worse was going into these block of games I was actually positive for once, then they go to show you why your always wary about being positive for a Wales team!
It's not panic stations yet but there was way too many handling errors, lost set pieces but worryingly no intensity at all. I understand that it's a World Cup warm up match and nobody wants to get injured but that's exactly what it looked the Welsh players were doing, completely blown away in the first 20 minutes by England's physicality.

 

[Scotty]

For next week id go stronger while getting players in the 31 game time.

Genge
LCD
Williams
Itoje
Kruis
Underhill
Curry(Wilson, underhill 6,7 if curry not fit)
Billy

Spencer
Ford
May
Manu
JJ
Big Joe
Watson.

George
Mako
Sinks
Lawes
Wilson
Heinz
Faz
Daly

No need to see youngs.

Give JJ back to back games for form, though im a big fan of what slade can do. Both have their own strengths. JJ more likly to make a break, slade more likely to put someone in space or make the right decision after a break.

Genge, underhill, Spencer, Big Joe and Watson need game time for me, they are all players that no one would complain about in the starting 15 whilst they all havnt had enough game time.

Put out a very strong bench capable of turning the game.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

So if England win next week us two have a clash to go number 1 the week after. I feel that would bring two already close bros even closer together.

 

[ncurd]

So if England win next week us two have a clash to go number 1 the week after. I feel that would bring two already close bros even closer together.

There is something slightly hilarious if that comes to pass. Wales never officially number 1 but Ireland and England could be for at least a week...

 

[MikeTheNative]

Gareth Davies had the most typical Gareth Davies performance ever. Poor box kicking, poor passing, poor tempo then pulls out a wonder try out of nothing. With him you are carrying his average even sometimes poor core scrum half skills as he can do that occasionally. I still can't believe that Wales' best scrum half, Webb, will be watching the world cup on the TV.