Rugby Union 2012/13

[PaulWinch again]

How Wood and Robshaw miss out is utterly bewildering. I can't stand Gatland.

[PaulWinch again]

I just lifted the Aviva Premiership Trophy at work and it's bloody heavy!

[tomd2103]

How Wood and Robshaw miss out is utterly bewildering. I can't stand Gatland.

You could argue that Wood or Robshaw should have gone ahead of Croft and Lydiate, but I'm not sure you could argue that they should have gone ahead of any of the other flankers in the squad.  I personally wouldn't have had Kearney, Stevens, Hartley, Gray, Croft and Heaslip in the squad, but there you go.     

[lovejoy]

Why pick a captain who's not good enough to get in the team?
Gatland showing his bias.

[paul_e]

How Wood and Robshaw miss out is utterly bewildering. I can't stand Gatland.

You could argue that Wood or Robshaw should have gone ahead of Croft and Lydiate, but I'm not sure you could argue that they should have gone ahead of any of the other flankers in the squad.  I personally wouldn't have had Kearney, Stevens, Hartley, Gray, Croft and Heaslip in the squad, but there you go.     

Wood can probably blame Lancaster that he's not going.  He's the best 6 in europe but played most of the 6N at 8 where he's decent but not great.  However, he is a great 6, a very good 7 and and a decent 8, he should have been one of the first back rows down.  Warburton couldn't get into the wales side (at 7) and yet is picked as captain, sums it up for me.

[tomd2103]

How Wood and Robshaw miss out is utterly bewildering. I can't stand Gatland.

You could argue that Wood or Robshaw should have gone ahead of Croft and Lydiate, but I'm not sure you could argue that they should have gone ahead of any of the other flankers in the squad.  I personally wouldn't have had Kearney, Stevens, Hartley, Gray, Croft and Heaslip in the squad, but there you go.     

Wood can probably blame Lancaster that he's not going.  He's the best 6 in europe but played most of the 6N at 8 where he's decent but not great.  However, he is a great 6, a very good 7 and and a decent 8, he should have been one of the first back rows down.  Warburton couldn't get into the wales side (at 7) and yet is picked as captain, sums it up for me.

It must be noted that Gatland wasn't picking the side when Sam Warburton couldn't get into the Wales side!!  I agree about Wood though and he could have covered 8 as well.  There seems to be a lack of genuine lineout options in the backrow selections which will put pressure on the 2nd rows to win lineout ball. 

[paul_e]

How Wood and Robshaw miss out is utterly bewildering. I can't stand Gatland.

You could argue that Wood or Robshaw should have gone ahead of Croft and Lydiate, but I'm not sure you could argue that they should have gone ahead of any of the other flankers in the squad.  I personally wouldn't have had Kearney, Stevens, Hartley, Gray, Croft and Heaslip in the squad, but there you go.     

Wood can probably blame Lancaster that he's not going.  He's the best 6 in europe but played most of the 6N at 8 where he's decent but not great.  However, he is a great 6, a very good 7 and and a decent 8, he should have been one of the first back rows down.  Warburton couldn't get into the wales side (at 7) and yet is picked as captain, sums it up for me.

It must be noted that Gatland wasn't picking the side when Sam Warburton couldn't get into the Wales side!!  I agree about Wood though and he could have covered 8 as well.  There seems to be a lack of genuine lineout options in the backrow selections which will put pressure on the 2nd rows to win lineout ball. 

Croft has been picked for 2 things, his pace and his lineout contribution, I actually think that's an area where the lions will dominate them anyway.  What i think we're missing in the backrow is the link up player who makes everyone else have an easier time of it.  That's the real strength of Wood, he is always where he needs to be, both attacking and defending and he has great hands to get the ball on to the better runners.  We didn't see that in the 6N because at 8 there is a requirement to carry a lot more, which he doesn't have the acceleration to really offer at the highest level.

[paul_e]

Match schedule for the world cup released.

Villa Park has 2 group games

Australia vs the play-off winner (Russia would be my guess, but there's a hell of a lot of teams it could be)
South Africa vs Samoa

The latter would be a very good game to catch if you're interested.

[tomd2103]

How Wood and Robshaw miss out is utterly bewildering. I can't stand Gatland.

You could argue that Wood or Robshaw should have gone ahead of Croft and Lydiate, but I'm not sure you could argue that they should have gone ahead of any of the other flankers in the squad.  I personally wouldn't have had Kearney, Stevens, Hartley, Gray, Croft and Heaslip in the squad, but there you go.     

Wood can probably blame Lancaster that he's not going.  He's the best 6 in europe but played most of the 6N at 8 where he's decent but not great.  However, he is a great 6, a very good 7 and and a decent 8, he should have been one of the first back rows down.  Warburton couldn't get into the wales side (at 7) and yet is picked as captain, sums it up for me.

It must be noted that Gatland wasn't picking the side when Sam Warburton couldn't get into the Wales side!!  I agree about Wood though and he could have covered 8 as well.  There seems to be a lack of genuine lineout options in the backrow selections which will put pressure on the 2nd rows to win lineout ball. 

Croft has been picked for 2 things, his pace and his lineout contribution, I actually think that's an area where the lions will dominate them anyway.  What i think we're missing in the backrow is the link up player who makes everyone else have an easier time of it.  That's the real strength of Wood, he is always where he needs to be, both attacking and defending and he has great hands to get the ball on to the better runners.  We didn't see that in the 6N because at 8 there is a requirement to carry a lot more, which he doesn't have the acceleration to really offer at the highest level.

Tipuric can definitely do that.

[PaulWinch again]

I'm excited by the squad we're taking to Uruguay and Argentina. Particularly interested to see Wade, Kvesic, Billy, May, Tomkins, Eastmond and also Foden back.

[paul_e]

I'm excited by the squad we're taking to Uruguay and Argentina. Particularly interested to see Wade, Kvesic, Billy, May, Tomkins, Eastmond and also Foden back.

I don't think it will happen but I'd love to see a 10-15 of:

Burns
Yarde
Eastmond
Joseph
Wade
May

so much pace, they'd be devastating behind a commanding scrum (which we have).  Of the scrum halves in the squad I'd probably pop dickson in at 9 and tell him to just concentrate on quick ball to the backs.

On top of that I want to see Kvesic and Billy V both get a good run at 7 and 8 respectively and I'm optimistic we'll see Lawes and Lauchbury play together.

[lovejoy]

Watching the Heineken cup final as a neutral I found it distinctly unsatisfying that the clearly stronger team dint win. With someone as strong at kicking as Wilkinson he'll keep you in touch but there's something wrong with the scoring system that sees this happen.

Deleon Armitage - what a twat, no class that bloke.

[paul_e]

A couple of interesting topics from this weekend:

Richard Cockerill is the Fergie of Rugby, horrible man who spent most of the final trying to turn the officials to his side.

Wayne Barnes was very poor in that he is very inconsistent, for most of the penalties conceded you can find an example from the game of the penalty not being given.  He was, however, particularly bad with the scrums where he let Leicester do what they liked, Tonga'huia was pinned 3-4 times for doing nothing wrong.

Which leads to:  Dylan Hartley.

I think he's a bit unlucky.  The footage you can find online doesn't show the actual incident.  What you can see though is hartley, on his knees, next to Tom Youngs, about to speak, then it cuts away, and 2-3 seconds later he's sent off.  For Hartley to turn to Barnes and say in a way with no uncertainty to him that he's a fucking cheat seems a bit unlikely to me.  Hartley is adamant that he was talking to Youngs and I believe him, from what I can see.  Even the ban seems to be based entirely on Barnes having absolutely no doubt that it was directed to him, with testimony from other players being completely ignored.  That sounds wrong to me.

Moving on.  Yarde, Wade and Eastmond all scored for England and May showed a glimpse of his quality at the end.  If we can get all of them delivering for England we'll destroy teams, all 3 tries were excellent examples of a top finisher using their pace and balance to convert a half chance.  Yarde also did really well in the build up to the try by...

Freddie Burns - scored the try, controlled the game, kicked his points, and played with a progressive open style that England just don't have normally.  One bit of play between him and Twelvetrees in the 2nd half was almost rugby porn it was that good to watch.  If Farrell is still the unquestioned first choice by the world cup I'll be very upset, Burns has almost as good a kicking record and is on a par with Game management but has so much more to offer on top.

Last one - Elliott Daly was in the wrong kit and should be in the tour party going to Argentina but regardless of that he was exceptional, light years ahead of Goode who England have been stuck with recently.  Brown did well and Foden is clearly world class but Daly as Full-back/Centre cover has got to be something to look at next year.

[Dave Summers]

In terms of England Paul e, like you I was really encouraged by what I saw yesterday. Yes we have to qualify it by the fact they were against the Baa Baas, but I have seen many England teams in recent years with a lack of experience get blown away by the Barbarians.

The move you mentioned between Burns and Twelvetrees was a thing of beauty and just shows what potential we have if used correctly.  Maybe I will be accused of being unpatriotic but I have little interest in the Lions as things stand.  The test team is already inked in to be a combination of mostly Wales with a few Irish and I don't see one England or Scotland player being picked.  That being the case I am much more interested in our tour to Argentina and how we develop our game.

I just hope that if things go well over the summer then the Lions players don't automatically get picked again in the Autumn. If Freddie plays well and we run in a few tries and win, then he has the shirt for me no matter how many pens Farrell may kick in Australia?.

Was very impressed like you with Eliot Daly yesterday and it was good to see Lancaster talk him up after the game.  Eastmond provided a lovely little cameo at the end as well, but not sure of his best position.  Up front I thought Attwood was good alongside the magnificent Launchbury (Why has POC been picked on the strength of one game at Quins?).  Corbiersero immediately solidified the scrum and I am convinced he would be the starting loose head in Australia if he had stayed fit.  Morgan was also very good and we missed him badly in the 6N.  I also like the look of Kvesic too.

Finally a mention for the captain Webber who may just have become number 2 back up to Youngs?

So, here is the Dave Summers matchday 23 for November, presuming all fit and available :

Corbiersero
Youngs
Cole

Launchbury
Attwood

Croft
Morgan
Wood

Youngs
Burns

May
Twelvetrees
Tuilagi
Wade

Foden

Vunipola
Webber
Thomas
Lawes
Robshaw
Care
Farrell
Eastmond

Done very quickly and I am sure I will have changed my mind in a few hours :-)

[paul_e]

I mostly agree but:

Parling in for Attwood - I'm a big fan of Parling at the minute.
Yarde in for May who moves to the bench - I think Yarde might turn out to be a bit special, his run down the line for the first and break his his own try were moments of genius.
Robshaw in for Croft with Wood at 6 - you want the biggest impact player on the bench and that's Croft for me

I'm certain that 10 and 12 are the weak points for england, so seeing a 10 and 12 who looked solid in defense but also provided so much quality going forward was great.