International Rugby

[Dante Lavelli]

That would be daft given the results in his absence and his lack of rugby. Let him bully the Sweaties for 25 minutes off the bench.

I think Hughes' first half performance last time out may count against him a bit.  Jones may wish to make a bit of an example to keep him really focused.

[cheltenhamlion]

Rumour has it he's in the starting 15.

At the moment Hughes' greater mobility strikes me a more effective weapon as a 'finisher' anyway.  Plus it must be hard to know at what point Billy will start blowing out his arse, so better to have someone ready to come on for him rather than introduce him in the 50th minute only to learn he has 20 minutes in the tank.

Timing similar, fundamental disagreement on use!

[peter w]

BV on the bench.

[UK Redsox]

England team

Brown; Nowell, Joseph, Farrell, Daly; Ford, Youngs; Marler, Hartley (captain), Cole, Launchbury, Lawes, Itoje, Haskell, Hughes.

Replacements: George, M Vunipola, Sinckler, Wood, B Vunipola, Care, Te'o, Watson

[Dante Lavelli]

Weirdly, I look at that team and, whilst a very good unit, they're mainly solid rather than spectacular.  However when the bench is factored in it becomes a much different animal.
The strength in depth is insane.

[paul_e]

Weirdly, I look at that team and, whilst a very good unit, they're mainly solid rather than spectacular.  However when the bench is factored in it becomes a much different animal.
The strength in depth is insane.

I'm not sure about that, I'd argue that of the backline there's only really Brown that I'd consider to be a solid selection and 4-8 in the pack are all big ball carriers with a solid, set piece focused front row.  Swap out of form Youngs for Robson and bring in Watson on the left and move Daly to 15 and I reckon you've got one of the most exciting England teams ever.  How flat Ford and Farrell play is the key to it, if they're working right in the faces of the scots we'll have the firepower to really hurt them.  That was the biggest problem with Lancaster he was happy for the backs to play it safe 5yards in front of the opposition at which point drift defence covering is far too simple and the gaps just aren't there.

[peter w]

I don't know. Lancaster tried to more expansive than Eddie Jones ever has. You could argue that he didn't have Billy and mako Vunipola has competent as they are now, that farrell had only just been moved to 12, that daly was only on the fringes, and he had no itoje. A lot of these players were brought through by the previous regime and Jones is reaping the benefit. not that i'm trying to stick up for Lancaster but he was definitely trying to shoft the ball more than Eddie Jones who looks for the contact and set-pieces with quick ball being the corner stone of it. England do look fitter now though.

[paul_e]

You're right but that was the problem, 10 and 12 were too deep so we shifted the ball wide but backwards so when it got to JJ hr was 10 yards behind play. That led to their tacklers and support moving forward at too many breakdowns which meant we were turned over too easily.

[paul_e]

Farrell limped out of training yesterday and hasn't trained today so we might see T'eo earlier than expected.

[Jon Crofts]

I think there's some bluffing going on with Jones over Farrell's injury, keep the sweaties on their toes.

[paul_e]

I think there's some bluffing going on with Jones over Farrell's injury, keep the sweaties on their toes.

It is a strange one, I wonder if he's just trying to take some of the pressure away by making the press focus on something other than the 18th win.

[cheltenhamlion]

I think there's some bluffing going on with Jones over Farrell's injury, keep the sweaties on their toes.

That was what I thought as well.

[olaftab]

Wales Ireland is getting very brutal now.

[paul_e]

Very aggressive but not much quality, ireland have been poor in defence.

[nigel]

Wales looked good, but I don't know how much that was due to Ireland not performing to usual standard.
Pretty sure Ireland will be firing on all cylinders next week.