Rugby Union 2013-14

[UK Redsox]

Brilliant from Burrell and Brown again, great try.

Hey... what... when did this kick off..... I thought it was 3pm

[paul_e]

I have no idea why Burrell was taken off there, that doesn't bode well, twelvetrees off and Burrell inside was the obvious change.

[Chris Smith]

Brilliant from Burrell and Brown again, great try.

Hey... what... when did this kick off..... I thought it was 3pm

12.30

[paul_e]

Good win but I'm disappointed with the subs, moving Farrell to 12 was clearly to keep him on to kick points, I have no idea why Wood or Burrell came off, Youngs came on 10-15 too early and I cant decide if Care came off too soon as well.

The Burrell change was the key one for me, twelvetrees and Manu offer a lot of good things but neither of them has a particularly good offloading game and we should've built our attack around that in the last half an hour when Italy were clearly out on their feet.

[Dave Summers]

I'm very content how we are moving forward.  Was lucky enough to be at Twickenham last weekend and it was a superb effort by the team, probably only downside was not winning by enough.   Yes today was frustrating at times, but I think that came from trying to force 50 points too early. 

Been a bot of a critic of Lancaster but I love the way we are now embracing this "all court" game and not afraid too play.  Agree with Paul that Burrell shouldn't have been the one too make way, although Manu was devastating.  Lovely little glimpse of what Ford can offer right at the end and as well as Farrell is playing, he has been superb this tournament, he doesn't offer that in his locker.

Two concerns have been the scrums all through, although when we made changes today it seemed to improve, we definitely miss Corbs and Cole there.  Also as much as I like both May and Nowell, neither have really taken their chance this time around.  So disappointed with May when I know he has everything in his locker, the amount of times he has cut inside has frustrated the hell out of me.  I don't think either of them have nailed down the wing spots and I still see two of Wade, Yarde and Watson as starters. 

Finally take a bow Mike Brown.  Genuinely didn't think he had these performances in him, well done sir.

Future is bright for England Rugby I think

[paul_e]

I'm not overly worried about the scrum, it's the strongest part of the game for wales and italy and we've got 2 of the best props in the world out injured.

Lancaster has definitely improved but he still doesn't seem to have worked out exactly how to use the backs, how much of that is down to the limitations of Farrell though I'm not sure.  Ford showed exactly why I'm still not convinced Farrell is the long term solution at 10, Farrell has an excellent boot and his game management and defence are good but he doesn't threaten the line enough.

I agree totally on Brown, I was never shy in stating my opinion of him and I'm genuinely amazed at the step up from him, I have largely the same opinion of Care as well.

Man of the series (from England) is between Lawes, Burrell and Brown for me, slightly generous for Burrell but given he made his debut in the opener his performances have been special, across all of the teams he's definitely the 'rising star' from the tournament.  The other 2 have been pretty much 10/10 in every game, I'd probably lean towards Lawes because he's done all the scrappy stuff but I'm worried that being a saints fan I'm slightly biased.

Across the entire squad the only person who's played and not done well is Goode who had a shocker against France and is largely responsible (along with Lancaster for thinking he was suitable cover for the back 3) for us not having a grand slam and the championship in the bag. I'd have liked to see Watson get his debut and Ford get a little more game time though.

[paul_e]

Just seen the red card from the wales vs scotland game, all I can say is 'what was he thinking?'  It's brutal but more importantly utterly brainless.

[PaulWinch again]

I thought we were very good after the first 10 minutes, it's a very difficult game to chase points. I was gutted when Burrell was brought off, as he is completely different to all our other centres. He's a super player and should be one of the first names on the team sheet. But overall we've made a lot of progress this 6 nations and Lancaster has made us a much more attacking side and we're developing very quickly.

[Ger Regan]

No doubt I'm biased, but I think there was a certain justice in O'Driscoll winning the championship in his last international. What a tense game though, unbearable at times.

[PaulWinch again]

There's an element of that I didn't begrudge him winning it, but I think England were probably the best side and definitely have the most potential for continuous growth over the next few years.

[peter w]

Not that fussed about not winning the Six Nations. We have the Triple Crown and unless it was a Grand Slam  I'm not fussed about finishing first. Points difference in rugby is, well, pointless. Saying that I'd have preferred finishing first but that would have been statistical more than anything.

[taylorsworkrate]

My viewpoint is that this England team, at this very early stage of their development have absolutely no right to be as good as they currently are.

It is slightly annoying that we haven't won the grand slam this year, as we were pretty dominant at France barring the first 20 minutes. I do think however, that the main reason we haven't won the six nations is because of not putting the 45-50 points on the Scots that our performance really should have merited.

Fair play to Ireland, they beat France and we didn't. I've often thought about the merits of using the head to head tie break rather than points difference, but if France would have won on Saturday, under that system they would have won the title. No one would have believed that France deserved it.

Anyway, on to the WC and we really are going to go extremely close to winning it. Obviously need a lot more luck with injuries than we have recently had.

[Meanwood Villa]

The table sometimes lies. England were the best team this tournament, no doubt. This will be rectified next year hopefully.

[paul_e]

The table sometimes lies. England were the best team this tournament, no doubt. This will be rectified next year hopefully.

England were comfortably the best side in the tournament for 380 of the 400 minutes we played, the opening 20 against France cost us badly.

I also agree that we didn't get the score we should've against Scotland, another 20 points in that game would've have been flattering, it was genuinely the most dominant display I've seen in the 6N for years, be fair, Scotland were lucky to get 0.

For me:

Front Row - very strong depth, Mako and Youngs offer great impact from the bench. Hartley has taken the lions disappointment onboard and become a genuinely world class hooker, his line out work and play in the loose is immaculate, needs some work on his hooking in the scrum though (which is common because they haven't had to do it for years).  Marler and Wilson have moved on from able deputies to being genuine challengers for the shirt.  Cole was his excellent self before his injury.

2nd Row - For me this is the best part of the team, Lawes and Launchbury were superb, Attwood was excellent from the bench, I think we've got the best 2nd row in world rugby, all of them could play 6 at this level which makes us so strong in the loose.  Lawes has become the best line out jumper in Europe.

Back row - Wood is the perfect 6, he does everything.  Robshaw still has limitations on the floor but his work rate and tackling are superb and he's a very good captain.  Billy V will go on to be one of the all time greats and Morgan is a fantastic impact option from the bench.  No comment on Johnson as he barely played and isn't an impact player.

half backs - Farrell does what he does, great game management, impeccable kicking but questionable temperament and doesn't threaten the line enough.  Care was excellent, seems to have finally grown up, I hope he keeps on track off the field as well.  In backup I'd like to have seen more of Ford but his cameo against Italy was good and Dickson, like Farrell, did what he does, not quick enough to snipe around the fringe but offers great control and works very quick ball, both are great alternatives to the starters.

Centres - Twelvetrees was fine but struggled to really impose himself, made a few fairly basic errors but was generally good.  Burrell was awesome, hit the ball at pace and regularly broke the line, freed his hands well too offload and create chances and his timing of passes is great as he always commits his defender, he was right up there with Lawes and Brown as our player of the tournament and I was gutted to not see him and Manu together for the last half hour.

Back 3 - Nowell looks like an international winger, made a few mistakes but learned from them and got better and better as the tournament went on.  May... didn't.  I like him but he ran into too many blind alleys and generally looked a little short of quality.  Brown was superb, I had no idea he had that quality in him, if he can carry it on we have an exceptional fullback on our hands.  Goode shouldn't make the squad again, too slow and defensively suspect.

For the summer I'd like to see Ford get more time, Burrell and Manu play together and Watson/Wade/Yarde get a go on the wing ahead of May.  I also think we really need to give Kvesic some game time before the world cup, we have good options in every position in the pack except 7 and we need to get some game time for an alternative, right now a Robshaw injury would mean we'd either move Wood or play someone with 2 caps to his name, we know we have depth at 6 and 8 at the minute, we need to ensure that is in place at 7 as well.  Finally I'd love to see Elliot Daly, Kyle Eastmond and/or Jonathan Jospeh get a chance in the centre, right now we have 3 big strong crash centres, they're all different but they all rely on their strength, I'd like to see a bit of guile in there as well and those 3 are best options for that right now.

Jonathan Davies has largely the same thoughts as me on most of these as well in his team of the tournament - I think Heaslip only got the vote at 8 because Billy got injured and BoD at 13 is clearly sentimental, he pretty much admits that, Burrell was the star at 13.

[villan1975]

How on earth Jonathan Davies can put any welsh backs in the team of the tournament is national bias and nothing else. Their back line against England was shambolic at best. I admit I didn't see the Scotland game but Scotland are a poor side with fifteen let alone fourteen.