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Author Topic: International Rugby  (Read 381879 times)

Offline cheltenhamlion

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #1995 on: October 23, 2017, 06:33:12 PM »
The BT Sport commentators touched on this at the weekend: They reckon it's big plus for England as there will be three potential jumpers with Kruis as the constant, calling the line-outs.  In addition, either Lawes or Itoje can take a rest (during the game) when needed.

No idea which position is considered more demanding or where you can "rest".  Regardless, having both at 100%, at their destructive best, for the whole game is quite frankly scary.

They key thing is that it means we can have all 4 of our world class locks in the 23, Lawes and Itoje at 5 and 6 and Launchbury or Kruis at 4 with the other on the bench.  It's a bit tough on our back row players but whilst we have 2 exceptional 8s (and a 3rd coming through quickly in Sam Simmonds) I'm still not totally convinced by the 6.5s that we seem to be overloaded with.  I'd be looking at Underhill to solve that one in the short term but I really like the look of Jack Willis at Wasps as the longer term solution there.

Ben Morgan is back on the park for Gloucester now as well.

Offline paul_e

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #1996 on: October 23, 2017, 08:36:42 PM »
The BT Sport commentators touched on this at the weekend: They reckon it's big plus for England as there will be three potential jumpers with Kruis as the constant, calling the line-outs.  In addition, either Lawes or Itoje can take a rest (during the game) when needed.

No idea which position is considered more demanding or where you can "rest".  Regardless, having both at 100%, at their destructive best, for the whole game is quite frankly scary.

They key thing is that it means we can have all 4 of our world class locks in the 23, Lawes and Itoje at 5 and 6 and Launchbury or Kruis at 4 with the other on the bench.  It's a bit tough on our back row players but whilst we have 2 exceptional 8s (and a 3rd coming through quickly in Sam Simmonds) I'm still not totally convinced by the 6.5s that we seem to be overloaded with.  I'd be looking at Underhill to solve that one in the short term but I really like the look of Jack Willis at Wasps as the longer term solution there.

Ben Morgan is back on the park for Gloucester now as well.

Indeed, probably not ready for the autumn games but he'll be an option come the 6N.

Offline paul_e

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #1997 on: October 25, 2017, 04:30:01 PM »
England squad gets announced tomorrow.  Marler misses 2 of the games from his citing (correct decision, forearm/elbow to the head, not sure how he escaped a red at the time), Hartley has been cleared (correct decision - http://www.rugbydump.com/2017/10/5968/dylan-hartley-cleared-to-play-after-citing-for-bizarre-encounter-with-rabah-slimani - check the video).  Hughes is still to come through but I suspect he'll be ok.

Stilll a shit load of injuries around though and a lot of younger players who've had brilliant starts this year.  I suspect it'll be a fairly big squad (36-37 as opposed to the 33-34 he's picked the last few times) and there will be 3-4 'one for the future' picks in there.


I'd put money on Marcus Smith being one of those.

Offline paul_e

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #1998 on: October 26, 2017, 10:04:52 AM »
Squad:

Backs: Mike Brown (Harlequins), Elliot Daly (Wasps), Jonny May (Leicester Tigers), Denny Solomona (Sale Sharks), Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby), Danny Care (Harlequins), Owen Farrell (Saracens), George Ford (Leicester Tigers), Piers Francis (Northampton Saints), Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby), Alex Lozowski (Saracens), Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs), Marcus Smith (Harlequins) *, Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers).

Forwards: Tom Curry (Sale Sharks), Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby), Nathan Hughes (Wasps), Nick Isiekwe (Saracens), Maro Itoje (Saracens), George Kruis (Saracens), Joe Launchbury (Wasps), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Zach Mercer (Bath Rugby) *, Chris Robshaw (Harlequins), Sam Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs), Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby), Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Tom Dunn (Bath Rugby), Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers), Jamie George (Saracens), Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints), Matt Mullan (Wasps), Mako Vunipola (Saracens), Harry Williams (Exeter Chiefs).

Mostly happy with that, I still think we need to replace Care and Brown in the squad before the world cup but other than that I think it's about right.  Smith is in as expected as is Simmonds.  Mercer as well is a bit of a surprise for me because I don't think he's quite there yet but I guess they wanted a 3rd option with Billy being missing.  I'm not sure about Tom Dunn but with Taylor and Cowan-Dickie out injured there's no other obvious 3rd choice hooker.

Offline UK Redsox

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #1999 on: October 26, 2017, 10:44:56 AM »
I've not been following top level rugby that closely. Is there anyone from Glawster who had a case to be in the squad ?

Offline paul_e

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #2000 on: October 26, 2017, 12:17:19 PM »
I've not been following top level rugby that closely. Is there anyone from Glawster who had a case to be in the squad ?

Trinder and Thorley are probably the closest but i think both of them would've needed there to be 2-3 injuries really.

Online Dante Lavelli

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #2001 on: October 26, 2017, 01:20:17 PM »
I've not been following top level rugby that closely. Is there anyone from Glawster who had a case to be in the squad ?

Trinder and Thorley are probably the closest but i think both of them would've needed there to be 2-3 injuries really.

Just shows how quickly we have developed; as there was a period, not so long ago, where Twelvetrees seemed like a regular.

Offline paul_e

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #2002 on: October 26, 2017, 02:12:44 PM »
I've not been following top level rugby that closely. Is there anyone from Glawster who had a case to be in the squad ?

Trinder and Thorley are probably the closest but i think both of them would've needed there to be 2-3 injuries really.

Just shows how quickly we have developed; as there was a period, not so long ago, where Twelvetrees seemed like a regular.

For me he's yet another centre who's fallen into the trap of letting an attempt to fix a weakness in his game bring his one outstanding attribute down to the point where he's average at everything.  When he broke through he had an ability to glide past people but got trampled by big runners.  He's bulked up to fix that, and is defensively much better but in doing it he's lost that agility.  He's certainly not become a bad player but there's just nothing special there.  Joseph is showing signs of going the same way as well unfortunately (he's been in terrible form this season).

Offline paul_e

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #2003 on: November 11, 2017, 03:35:18 PM »
That Hughes try is special, from the contact out was just exceptional all the way.

Offline taylorsworkrate

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #2004 on: November 11, 2017, 03:38:09 PM »
Great try. Apart from that we have been poor though

Offline PaulWinch again

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #2005 on: November 11, 2017, 03:39:00 PM »
Sloppy this, too many penalties.

Offline paul_e

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #2006 on: November 11, 2017, 03:42:02 PM »
I think you have to commend the Argentina pack a fair bit to be honest, yes there are too many penalties but most of them are a result of pressure.  I think there'll be 30ish points here for us though.

Offline UK Redsox

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #2007 on: November 11, 2017, 04:00:51 PM »
Poor decision by the ref to bin the ARG player. As the commentators said, he was looking at the ball and almost got his hand on the ball. He shouldn’t be penalised because Brown put in a better jump.

Offline taylorsworkrate

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #2008 on: November 11, 2017, 04:01:34 PM »
Poor decision by the ref to bin the ARG player. As the commentators said, he was looking at the ball and almost got his hand on the ball. He shouldn’t be penalised because Brown put in a better jump.

Yeah, a yellow was very harsh

Offline PaulWinch again

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Re: International Rugby
« Reply #2009 on: November 11, 2017, 04:25:32 PM »
This is very hard work.

 


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