Rugby Union (was 2014-15, now an ongoing thread)

[Jon Crofts]

I watched the Glaaaaaaaaaaaarster Wasps game today whilst keeping half an eye on the Villa game, fair play to Andy Goode, 34 years of age still putting his body on the line for Wasps, top bloke.

[Villan For Life]

Anyone feel sorry for Jonny Wilkinson?

I do. I don't think you'll find a humbler sportsman and he seems to have fallen foul of a tabloid hoax which is a shame.

When I heard I did think it strange that only one member of the 2003 squad were being honoured in this way; I'm sure they all picked up something in the afterglow of 2003 so why single out Jonny now?

[paul_e]

Great game between Northampton and Newcastle last night, Newcastle would've beaten any other side in the league with that performance, just unlucky to be facing the best side in the league for whom Foden and Clark were superb and both are right in the mix for the England squad.

Strettle scored twice for Sarries (against London Irish who are so poor they must be incredibly grateful London Welsh exist) so expect to see calls for him to get a call-up despite the fact that he's proven repeatedly that he's not good enough at international level.

Finally brilliant win for Glaws away at Exeter, Kvesic was very good and really needs to be given a chance for England.

[lovejoy]

Slight robbery by Glos there, but an away win is an away win. Hook is no longer a fly half and not sure about Sharples at fullback but the back row were immense. Next week? Only Saracens.

[Dante Lavelli]

Saracens are not currently performing as well as previous seasons (according to Saracens supporting colleagues).

With regards to the Saints v Newcastle game, I read that 9 of the Falcons team where home-grown and also a few of the saints players had come through the falcons academy too.  In fact both clubs have excellent youth structures in place and are a credit to English rugby. 

There were some cracking tries.  For anyone who is interested BT Sport have highlights of all games on their website so easy to catch up on the weekend's action.   

[paul_e]

Saracens are not currently performing as well as previous seasons (according to Saracens supporting colleagues).

With regards to the Saints v Newcastle game, I read that 9 of the Falcons team where home-grown and also a few of the saints players had come through the falcons academy too.  In fact both clubs have excellent youth structures in place and are a credit to English rugby. 

There were some cracking tries.  For anyone who is interested BT Sport have highlights of all games on their website so easy to catch up on the weekend's action.   

Sarries are missing the leadership of Borthwick, when teams put them under pressure they look a bit rudderless this year.

Newcastle will have  agood side if they can keep a big chunk of this squad together, I think Brookes has peaked a bit early for them and will probably leave in the summer (saints look like the likely destination given Ma'afu is seemingly on his way to Toulon) but the rest of their squad seem to be progressing nicely.

Saints have a great youth system, there's 6-7 great young players there who are on the verge of breaking through, Collins and Stephenson are probably front of the queue at the minute but I fully expect Marshall (hooker), Hobbs-Awoyami (Prop), Olver (fly half) and Packman (wing) to break through over the next year or 2.  Given they've already brought through Lawes (best 2nd row in the world in my opinion), the Waller brothers and Jamie Elliott since they got relegated in 2007 (as well as a few older guys like Myler) they're definitely doing a good job but then they have a knack of picking up players who are solid but unspectacular and making them superstars (Foden, Clark, Wood, Dickson, Burrell, Manoa) which means they can afford to go all out and sign the odd gem like North and Corbs, they're a genuinely brilliantly run club who have created the best squad in the league over the last 6 years.

Regarding the tries Myler's is a masterpiece that should be shown to any youth side as an example of how to counter-attack in broken field play, the running lines with and without the ball from the entire backline are just fantastic.  Burrell's try takes some real skill to pull the ball in with a trailing leg and control it well enough to make the finish simple.  Newcastle scored a couple of fantastic push over tries from the lineout but I think the 2nd at least came a result of hurt pride.  Saints thought they could overpower the drive and committed men to doing just that.  After it didn't work the first time they should've just taken the men away so the ref called maul over then they'd have been free to come round the sides and tackle the ball, English teams tend to get a bit macho about those drives and don't like to force the maul to end early, it's something we really need to adopt.

[Dante Lavelli]

The chap who sits next to me at work used to play with Tom Stephenson for Buckingham, "yeah, I'm not surprised he is doing well as he was always quite good as a kid".

[lovejoy]

Great bottle shown by Gloucester to win tonight, we are usually strong under the Friday night lights. Don't understands ow Kruis doesn't get a red card for taking the tackled player beyond the horizontal, with intent. It's the inconsistency which is so frustrating. Luckily justice was served with the late kick from Hook who missed some sitters otherwise.

[paul_e]

Great bottle shown by Gloucester to win tonight, we are usually strong under the Friday night lights. Don't understands ow Kruis doesn't get a red card for taking the tackled player beyond the horizontal, with intent. It's the inconsistency which is so frustrating. Luckily justice was served with the late kick from Hook who missed some sitters otherwise.

Brilliant win, Robson's try was superb.  Looks like Morgan is going to be out for a while though and I'm not entirely sure what Wood did but it sounds like it's nothing too serious.

I agree on Kruis, that was a stonewall red card, I can't see any justification in it being just a yellow, it was an awful tackle.  I also thought the yellow for May was totally uncalled for, aside from the fact that it was borderline whether he actually did anything wrong (I think the maul was over tbh) to give someone a yellow immediately after a 10-15minute delay in the game for a technical offence is just bad game management for me.

[bertlambshank]

Great game of rugby tonight.

[cheltenhamlion]

Stick on red for Kruis and I thought we had screwed it up with some botched chances and leaving lots of points out there off the tee. Two big wins the last couple of weeks.

[paul_e]

Newcastle will have a good side if they can keep a big chunk of this squad together, I think Brookes has peaked a bit early for them and will probably leave in the summer (saints look like the likely destination given Ma'afu is seemingly on his way to Toulon) but the rest of their squad seem to be progressing nicely.

Brookes is now confirmed as joining saints next year, that will be good for him, he's right on the edge of the England squad, I can't see him making the world cup but 2016 6N I think we might see him and Thomas fighting out for a place on the bench behind Cole or maybe even looking at the starting spots if Cole can't get/stay fit.  I'd be very surprised if Wilson stays after the world cup.

[peter w]

Anyone know how or in particular who, is progressing from the youths - or under 21s or something - that won the World Cup last year?

[paul_e]

From 2014

Maro Itoje (the captain and 2nd row) has had a few appearances for Sarries, he's going to be a brilliant player, probably the most exciting young forward I've ever seen, he's a step on again from Lawes in terms of a 'back-row lock' not as aggressive in defence but a superb ball carrier.

Billy Burns (fly half) seems to be firmly established as the gloucester backup 10 and has looked good when he's played, slightly more controlled than his brother.

Henry Purdy (Centre) moved to Gloucester in the summer and has had a fair few appearances, looks decent but I don't think he's international class.

Ross Moriaty has had a few appearances form Gloucester but it's too early to tell where he's at.

I don't think many of the others have had more than 1-2 cameos so it's too early to judge, I think another 12-18months and we'll see a few more come through.  The 2013 side is interesting though, from the final:

England: Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs); Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby), Harry Sloan (Harlequins), Sam Hill (Exeter Chiefs), Ben Howard (Worcester Warriors); Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs), Alex Day (Northampton Saints); Alec Hepburn (London Wasps), Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs), Scott Wilson (Newcastle Falcons); Tom Price (Leicester Tigers), Dominic Barrow (Leeds Carnegie), Ross Moriarty (Gloucester Rugby), Matt Hankin (Saracens), Jack Clifford (Harlequins) (capt).

Replacements: Scott Spurling (Saracens), Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi (Northampton Saints), Tom Smallbone (London Irish), Harry Wells (Leicester Tigers), David Sisi (Bath Rugby), Callum Braley (Bristol Rugby), Ollie Devoto (Bath Rugby), Henry Purdy (Leicester Tigers).

So you've got Nowell and Watson who are full internationals and both look at home.  Slade (In my opinion Exeters player of the season), Cowan-Dickie and Clifford (in my opinion Quins player of the season) all on the cusp of the squad and Devoto and Hobbs-Awoyemi who look top class but happen to be at the back of probably the strongest areas of the squad for their respective sides.  So in all likelihood we'll see 6-7 of that squad capped as full internationals before too long, that's a hugely impressive conversion rate.

[lovejoy]

So Glos seems to be the best breeding ground for young players to come through and get a game from that analysis.