[2021 Six Nations] England vs Scotland (06/02/21)

[Not Eddie Jones]

Daily Mail is reporting Willis to start, but that could just be hot air. It seems strange to me that Willis would start given that he's onyl in the squad due to Underhill's injury. I would have thought Wilson or Earl would be the next man up, unless Willis is absolutely killing it in training. But like others on here, I'd rather see Wilson and his carrying given the weather.

 

[Not Eddie Jones]

Old Hooker said: Since it was introduced in 2004 Irish players have won Player of the Tournament 7 times, Welsh 5, Scotland 2, and the non Celtic nations a mere one each. Masi was Italy's winner, Dupont France's, but who was England's winner?

Mike Brown?

 

[Which Tyler]

Personally, I'd start Willis, Curry and Wilson.
Bring Billy on to wreak havoc against tired legs - especially as he'll inevitably be unfit, and not match-sharp

 

[MikeTheNative]

i think it's Owen Farrell.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

15. Elliot Daly (Saracens, 47 caps)
14. Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, 46 caps)
13. Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 34 caps)
12. Ollie Lawrence (Worcester Warriors, 3 caps)
11. Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 61 caps)
10. Owen Farrell (C) (Saracens, 88 caps)
9. Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 104 caps)

1. Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers, 23 caps)
2. Jamie George (Saracens, 54 caps)
3. Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 8 caps)
4. Maro Itoje (Saracens, 43 caps)
5. Jonny Hill (Exeter Chiefs, 4 caps)
6. Mark Wilson (Newcastle Falcons, 19 caps)
7. Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 28 caps)
8. Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 56 caps)

FINISHERS
16. Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 26 caps)
17. Beno Obano (Bath Rugby, uncapped)
18. Harry Williams (Exeter Chiefs, 18 caps)
19. Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 85 caps)
20. Ben Earl (Bristol Bears, 8 caps)
21. Dan Robson (Wasps, 7 caps)
22. George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 72 caps)
23. Max Malins (Bristol Bears, 3 caps)



Not bad

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Not what I expected but I like it. Quite a lot.

 

[ncurd]

Farrell rewarded as starting fly half by being utter **** all autumn/winter....can't work that one out.

Apart from that its fine but its not going to make me enthused because our attack is even more ducked than it originally was. Doesn't matter who plays 11-15 except for their defense.

 

[Not Eddie Jones]

Great to see Wilson in there. Willis not even in the 23. So much for the Daily Fail exclusives.

Surprised Ford isn't starting, but Lawrence at 12 is interesting. A 5-3 split on the bench though? What's Eddie playing at?!

 

[MikeTheNative]

Great to see Wilson in there. Willis not even in the 23. So much for the Daily Fail exclusives.

Surprised Ford isn't starting, but Lawrence at 12 is interesting. A 5-3 split on the bench though? What's Eddie playing at?!

There's only three 2nd rows in the 23 as well. Are we sure he's really picked that team?

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Old Hooker said: Since it was introduced in 2004 Irish players have won Player of the Tournament 7 times, Welsh 5, Scotland 2, and the non Celtic nations a mere one each. Masi was Italy's winner, Dupont France's, but who was England's winner?

Mike Brown?

Correct. In 2014. Feels like a pretty poor return all things considered.

Anyhow can't complain about that selection too much although I'd have had Hill and Lawes the other way round. And Daly still isn't a full back but his selection was inevitable.

 

[Not Eddie Jones]

Correct. In 2014. Feels like a pretty poor return all things considered.

To be fair, England only won 4 ***les over that span, whereas Ireland won.... er, 4.

Hang on a sec...

 

[TommiG88]

I like the team, and in celebration I will get drunk this weekend whilst I watch the game.

 

[klitarris]

Pretty happy with that team. I'm glad Stuart is in there, he's an absolute beast in the scrum, and if the weather forecast is right you'd expect a lot of dropped balls and therefore a lot of scrums! No real surprised in the rest, although I did expect Ford-Farrell at 10-12. Glad to see Wilson back but like others I'd have liked a Curry-Earl-Wilson backrow with Willis on the bench. But realistically Jones was never going to drop Billy V.

To be honest, I'm more interested in the game plan than the players. I'm certainly not against kicking, but I'd like to see decisions made as to the best time to kick and the best time to not, rather than what we saw in the Autumn which appeared to be very much pre-planned to kick virtually everything. As I said back then, I fully expect that come 6N time the game plan will be a bit more balanced (I hope so anyway!).

Interested to see whether the how the Saracens guys play. They'll obviously be missing match sharpness but may actually have benefitted from a bit of a break.

 

[Scotty]

15. Elliot Daly (Saracens, 47 caps)
14. Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, 46 caps)
13. Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 34 caps)
12. Ollie Lawrence (Worcester Warriors, 3 caps)
11. Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 61 caps)
10. Owen Farrell (C) (Saracens, 88 caps)
9. Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 104 caps)

1. Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers, 23 caps)
2. Jamie George (Saracens, 54 caps)
3. Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 8 caps)
4. Maro Itoje (Saracens, 43 caps)
5. Jonny Hill (Exeter Chiefs, 4 caps)
6. Mark Wilson (Newcastle Falcons, 19 caps)
7. Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 28 caps)
8. Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 56 caps)

FINISHERS
16. Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 26 caps)
17. Beno Obano (Bath Rugby, uncapped)
18. Harry Williams (Exeter Chiefs, 18 caps)
19. Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 85 caps)
20. Ben Earl (Bristol Bears, 8 caps)
21. Dan Robson (Wasps, 7 caps)
22. George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 72 caps)
23. Max Malins (Bristol Bears, 3 caps)



Not bad

Wanted Willis in there somewhere but tbh im happy with that. Hopfefully more attacking play so we can see what this back line can do.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Farrell rewarded as starting fly half by being utter **** all autumn/winter....can't work that one out.

Apart from that its fine but its not going to make me enthused because our attack is even more ducked than it originally was. Doesn't matter who plays 11-15 except for their defense.

Faz and Binny will be picked as long as they're still drawing breath.

Faz is a much better player than he showed in the Autumn. I can't help feeling he was playing to strict orders, but as a senior player and skipper he should be standing up to Jones / going off piste when the game situation demanded.

In the Times the other day Matthew Syed was writing about Cipriani wondering how he'd have turned out under different management. Part of his argument was how Ferguson had got the best out of the previously unmanageable Eric Cantona by embracing him for what he was rather than trying to control him. It's a very fair point. Anyhow in that article he described Jones as "a nice enough guy but has quite a brittle ego that struggles with other strong people". That chimed with me and and while Jones' seeming 'my way or the highway' approach will get results (and should do with the talent at his disposal) I don't think under his leadership we will ever consistently be greater than the sum of our parts. Naturally I hope to be proved very wrong on that.

 

[Nudger]

Thank you eddy
Chances are that it's going to be freezing and ******* down so dont expect to much running from our 25 .yes I'm showing my age

 

[ncurd]

Faz and Binny will be picked as long as they're still drawing breath.

Faz is a much better player than he showed in the Autumn. I can't help feeling he was playing to strict orders, but as a senior player and skipper he should be standing up to Jones / going off piste when the game situation demanded.

In the Times the other day Matthew Syed was writing about Cipriani wondering how he'd have turned out under different management. Part of his argument was how Ferguson had got the best out of the previously unmanageable Eric Cantona by embracing him for what he was rather than trying to control him. It's a very fair point. Anyhow in that article he described Jones as "a nice enough guy but has quite a brittle ego that struggles with other strong people". That chimed with me and and while Jones' seeming 'my way or the highway' approach will get results (and should do with the talent at his disposal) I don't think under his leadership we will ever consistently be greater than the sum of our parts. Naturally I hope to be proved very wrong on that.

I means in Cips case he's more like a Pietersen doesn't seam to get on well wherever he turns up after an initial period of good grace. After they've been to so many places you really have to blame the player.

I accept Farrell will start I'm just frustrated with compromised it even more by moving Ford to the bench. With Ford not getting any chance because if he comes on Farrell will be moved to 12.

 

[will311293]

As much as i could very easily be upset at Willis not being picked, I probably would have gone with Wilson and Earl in the team. Both have been fantastic this season and add a lot to the team when on the pitch.
Wilson in particular does a lot of hard graft without the return in praise sometimes but what he does is excellent, plus Willis even admitted he hasn't played a huge amount of rugby recently due to being on fringe of england, injured and enforced 2 weeks break.

Interested to see how the Scotland backline looks, particularly if its Redpath vs Lawrence. Got to say i know Farrell is a shoe in but Ford has played well this year. Not sure too many surprises were expected? Interesting to see how Stuart goes against a strong Sutherland and how Genge goes against Scottish Tighthead (is it Fagerson? surely Nel ain't still going). Both powerful scrummagers (genge and Sutherland) and reckon Stuart and Fagerson could be put under pressure.

 

[Jashay]

Glad to see Lawrence in the backs, although I hope they plan to use him a little better than the autumn tactic of 'run at people and never get the ball'. When Ford comes on I hope they sub out Slade so we can see Ford-Lawrence, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Hope Malins and Robson get some decent time too.

That pack is a meaty one! I said in the other thread that if England started Stuart, Hill and Billy it would be incredibly heavy, so I went on a Wiki jaunt and added it all up. Assuming Wikipedia's numbers are accurate, the England starting pack has a weight of 964kg, which is 2kg more than France's 'heaviest international scrum' against Wales in 2019.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

15. Stuart Hogg CAPTAIN (Exeter Chiefs) – 80 caps
14. Sean Maitland (Saracens) – 50 caps
13. Chris Harris (Gloucester) – 23 caps
12. Cameron Redpath (Bath Rugby) – 0 caps
11. Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh) – 5 caps
10. Finn Russell (Racing 92) – 51 caps
9. Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors) – 37 caps

1. Rory Sutherland (Edinburgh) – 11 caps
2. George Turner (Glasgow Warriors) – 12 caps
3. Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – 34 caps
4. Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors) – 17 caps
5. Jonny Gray (Exeter Chiefs) – 61 caps
6. Jamie Ritchie VICE CAPTAIN (Edinburgh) – 23 caps
7. Hamish Watson (Edinburgh – 36 caps
8. Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – 9 caps

Substitutes:
16. David Cherry (Edinburgh) – 0 caps
17. Oli Kebble (Glasgow Warriors) – 5 caps
18. WP Nel (Edinburgh) – 40 caps
19. Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors) – 65 caps
20. Gary Graham (Newcastle Falcons) – 2 caps
21. Scott Steele (Harlequins) – 1 cap
22. Jaco van der Walt (Edinburgh) – 1 cap
23. Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors) – 26 caps


Redpath vs Lawrence will be fun - they're best mates