International Rugby

[paul_e]

NZ citings have come back, no further action for Cane as it was judged an accident and 1game ban (which is effectively season ending) for fekitoa with a 'wrong card' slap on the wrist for the officials.  About as i suspected but i forgot to account for the end of the season for the ban.  Good to see them making good decisions like that.

[Chico Hamilton III]

I've got no interest in rugby at all. Don't understand the rules to start with because we never even played it at school but did I hear correctly the other day that the Fiji players were on £400 a man for the game against England? Is that right? the game must have grossed millions yet the players get nothing out of it? what happened there?

[paul_e]

I've got no interest in rugby at all. Don't understand the rules to start with because we never even played it at school but did I hear correctly the other day that the Fiji players were on £400 a man for the game against England? Is that right? the game must have grossed millions yet the players get nothing out of it? what happened there?

Probably not far off.  That's why so many players elect to play for other nations.  If every international currently playing who was born in Fiji played for them they'd have given us a much closer game.

[Jon Crofts]

That's about right, the RFU paid a fee to Fiji as a goodwill gesture, they don't have to pay it, but it's pocket money really.  All of Fiji's costs are met by the IRB for a tour like this, hotels, food, air fares etc.  The disparity is really because the big teams rarely if ever return the favour and play in Fiji, England last played there in 1991.  England players earned £22k each allegedly. 

[cheltenhamlion]

Gloucester are willing to throw a few bob at a decent 10 this summer according to my man ITK there. Taking Ford off Bath would be nice.

Sorry CL, I think he's destined for the AJ Bell Stadium and Sale - New owners can at last get Sale up to approaching the salary cap for the 1st time in living memory. Bath won't let him go back to Leicester, so would agree it will come down to Glawster or Sharks.

Why not Saints?  They typically run at a profit and have numerous new youth players so the salary cap should not be a problem, plus the fact that Myler has been 'steady' for the past few seasons without ever looking top class.  From my perspective, albeit local, they are a bigger club too.

Certainly bigger than Sale but bigger than Gloucester is debatable.

[paul_e]

Gloucester are willing to throw a few bob at a decent 10 this summer according to my man ITK there. Taking Ford off Bath would be nice.

Sorry CL, I think he's destined for the AJ Bell Stadium and Sale - New owners can at last get Sale up to approaching the salary cap for the 1st time in living memory. Bath won't let him go back to Leicester, so would agree it will come down to Glawster or Sharks.

Why not Saints?  They typically run at a profit and have numerous new youth players so the salary cap should not be a problem, plus the fact that Myler has been 'steady' for the past few seasons without ever looking top class.  From my perspective, albeit local, they are a bigger club too.

Certainly bigger than Sale but bigger than Gloucester is debatable.

On the last decade I'd say saints have pulled a fair way ahead of glaws, only really sarries and tigers compete with saints in that period.

Longer term you're right but I think there would be few current players who wouldn't pick saints on the balance of the squads.

[Tony Daleys Shorts]

Looking good for England at the moment, 12 wins on the bounce. Two winnable games coming up and back to back Grand Slams thus breaking NZ's recent record 18 wins on the trot on the process, easy!

Never quite that simple of course but we do look to have finally found a 9,10,12 combination that releases the back line and gets us looking like making breaks and scoring tries. The strength in depth of the front 8 is frightening, we have four world class locks for starters. Exciting times for English rugby.

[Dante Lavelli]

I'm not completely convinced by the 10 + 12 combination, unless it's sole purpose is to create for the back three.  Either Ford needs to learn to attack/break the line more often or Farrell needs to become more of a crash player.

[Dante Lavelli]

I was reading the comments on the BBC today and a few people were suggesting Daly as England's future fullback.
He certainly seems more of a 'head-up' player compared to Brown and can kick, however I've no idea what hr is like under the high ball.  I think he's got the potential to add a extra dimension to England's game, especially as it means Joseph can also be selected.

Thoughts?

[paul_e]

I was reading the comments on the BBC today and a few people were suggesting Daly as England's future fullback.
He certainly seems more of a 'head-up' player compared to Brown and can kick, however I've no idea what hr is like under the high ball.  I think he's got the potential to add a extra dimension to England's game, especially as it means Joseph can also be selected.

Thoughts?

He came through as a full back and looked very solid under the high ball. I think it's definitely an option to look at him back there.  The only 'problem' I have with it is that I think Watson is better at full back than on the wing and the wing options we have are immense.  The thing is whatever team we pick in the outside backs we're going to be leaving some fantastic players in the stands (or back with their clubs), just like 2nd row.

I think people talking about the fullback options is good though, I've shared my opinion on Brown lots of times so I won't repeat it but in the last year I've seen more and more people spotting the same flaws I've seen in him since he broke through and I honestly think that 15 is now our weakest position based on the Elite squad.  The real issue is that there's no one obvious to bring in who plays the position week in week out.  Haley looks a decent prospect but he's about it and I'm not convinced he's of the standard needed.  For that reason I'm all for giving Daly a shot there but I doubt it'll happen before Italy now.

[paul_e]

Not impressed with the ref here, by the law it's a red but to give nothing for the one against May a few minutes later is poor.

[Jon Crofts]

Refereeing was poor today, very poor, no complaints about Daly's red, he lost control of the scrum and the 15 minutes of nonsense at the end of the first half was diabolical. I had ref link and some of the shit he was saying was beyond belief.

Robshaw was immense again and fully deserved MOTM today. Real shame for Billy and hopefully Brown can shake off the dead leg.

Bring on the shackle draggers.

[paul_e]

Great result in the end, think the ref was harsh to give Marler a yellow (I don't disagree with his thought process but an international match where a team have already had a 'letter of the law' red isn't the time to make a point), their guy is getting a VERY long ban, that's right up there with the worst stamps you'll ever see.  Back to Daly I don't think there was any malice in it, he just got himself in a bad position and panicked a bit, I hope that will see the ban limited to just the 1 game.  Watching back I still think the ref got it wrong not to give a yellow for the guy taking May in the air, it was the actions of May that stopped it from being just as bad as the Daly one, not the actions of their player.

Aside from that I thought the pack played superbly and JJ and May were excellent given we were a back short for 76minutes.  The defensive work deserves credit as well with 14 points coming when we had 13 vs 15 which would stretch any team.

Still, all said, It's shown another side of this England team.

[nigel]

Agree, Paul. 
I suppose ref had no option with Daly red, the Argentine chaps misdemeanour was exactly the same but May managed to keep upright. Definitely yellow, could have had no complaint if it had been red, though.
Thought Robshaw was fantastic, again. New lease of life at 6

[paul_e]

Robshaw was always a 6, that's why I used to get so frustrated at him playing at 7, we looked lopsided and I felt bad to be blaming him for it but I just couldn't understand why he, as captain, didn't have the guts to say he was playing in the wrong role.  Just to be clear because I lumped the pack into a single group, Robshaw was brilliant today and deserved the motm award (but a few other forwards pushed him hard, Wood, Kruis and Lawes in particular all put in fantastic shifts).  I find it quite amusing that for years we had a great front row but couldn't find a back row to compliment them and now all of a sudden then locks and back row have all shot past the front row options (although Mako is becoming a big player for us now that he's learning to scrum).  Cole is my real worry in the pack, he's been the weak link for the last year or so.  I think we really need 1-2 of Sinckler, Hill and Brookes to step up and take that place now.

Absolutely with the Daly red, as I said it's a letter of the law red and that particular rule is 1 of 2-3 that they're really clamping down on.  The others are neck rolls and stamping, basically anything targeting the head and neck, the rules and the recent update sent out to all registered refs and all clubs makes it very clear that this isn't to be tolerated at any level.  I'm all in favour, I've played 4 games that were suspended because of injuries and 3 of them were for exactly these type of incidents (2 broken necks, 1 from overly aggressive clearout work the other from a shoulder on head clash where the tackler went off his feet with no arms and a fractured skull from a stamp).  What I don't accept is that player lands on shoulder = red, player turns and manages to land on side = penalty only.  That makes a mockery of the rules and makes me think that players may, in high profile games, be seen to have done the wrong thing by protecting themselves.  The rule, and interpretation, needs to be more about the actions of the offender and not the landing position of the victim.  Watching the 2 back I'm convinced that the main difference between the red and the pen is that Johnny May is flexible enough to twist himself out of a bad landing and his team have ended up being 'punished' for it.