Aviva Premiership 15/16 - Round 18

[ratsapprentice]

Yah.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

Things that make me sad.

Cipriani. He honestly nearly makes me cry. Having sorted out his woeful defence he's just left with a significant portion of appearing to be a bell-end (can anyone cure that?). That said McGeechan rated the guy and today he showed exactly what England have been missing.With Farrell you have certainty, structure and defence. With Ford you have spontaneity, sleight of hand and running. With Danny? Both. He really is an outstanding talent that somehow we're going to waste. He never just slings it, he always looks for the 5% better option and often picks it. He's playing for Sale ffs it's hardly like the Harlem globetrotters but there he is, a shining light (apart from the bellendism).

If he keeps playing this well and does so on his return to Wasps I might have to make a shrine to wasted talent with Daniel Jerome Cipriani as it's founding and only saint.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Danny does not give you Certainty, structure and defence.

He is prob the most inconsistent 10 in the prem ATM.

One week best 10 the next he somehow loses the game all on his own.

Honestly the only one who is wasting his talents is him.

 

[j'nuh]

Ignoring the fact that he was very, very good in the air for England?

Well, yeah... why would his performances for England change the fact he was a liability in the air against Gloucester?

Whether it was an off-day (as Tigs says), or that his aerial game doesn't suit a fullback, I'm not too sure. Whereas wingers are challenged more regularly by uncontested kicks to the corner, fullbacks are challenged by the up-and-under, which Gloucester bombarded Watson with. And he didn't deal with it at all well.

 

[Patchey]

So, considering there has been some (not exactly unwarranted) chat about a replacement for Brown...

Who do you want to see at 15 long term?

 

[Patchey]

Wrong thread...damn.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Really....?

I'm not really sure what major distinction you are trying to make about the types of kicks a FB has to deal with vs the kicks a winger has to.... both positions regularly have to take up-and-unders, if anything the ones that a winger faces are more often contested than they are at FB.

It just seems weird that you're worried about his ability in the air based on the last game you saw, rather than judging it based on his history of actually being fairly reliable in the air.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

I guess that's fair (between the salty tears of frustration)

Danny does not give you Certainty, structure and defence.

He is prob the most inconsistent 10 in the prem ATM.

One week best 10 the next he somehow loses the game all on his own.

Honestly the only one who is wasting his talents is him.

I guess it's the hope that kills you. I watch Ford rise like a a thing that rises (a souffle perhaps?) only to bounce off the ceiling of goodness and plunge into the Burns (quite pleased with this one (despite injury which is harsh)) of mediocrity. I watched Farrell and his laser eye thing with abject fear that a pure structure 10 with nothing else could try and hit the heights of Sir Jonny of Wilkinson. There's Danny! A bell-end but what a magnificent one. But as you say one week he's awesome the next week he's getting arrested or getting it on with a tranny. Damn you Cipriani! Damn you all to hell!

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

You might want to put down that pint or WKD I guess.

 

[Raggs]

Danny doesn't give you consistency off the tee, but in play I've not seen him have a bad game in a while. He's working with an at times limited Sale side, but pulls the strings wonderfully. His kicks often seem on target only to curve to one side or the other, I wonder if he just needs to make a slight adjustment to lose that swerve.

 

[j'nuh]

Really....?

I'm not really sure what major distinction you are trying to make about the types of kicks a FB has to deal with vs the kicks a winger has to.... both positions regularly have to take up-and-unders, if anything the ones that a winger faces are more often contested than they are at FB.

It just seems weird that you're worried about his ability in the air based on the last game you saw, rather than judging it based on his history of actually being fairly reliable in the air.

Confession to make. I had another skim through the game. He didn't do as badly as I first thought in the air. He did make several mistakes in the game, some which I see as being "fullback mistakes", but his aerial game wasn't particularly terrible. I think my mistake was that Bath in general were bad in the air, and Watson made a couple of mistakes there and so I conflated the two.

The bolded are the aerial mistakes:
2:50, 6:20, 8:40, 35:00, 37:00