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Carl Fearns

Yeah - this is pretty much how I read it.

He knew what he was doing by backing out of the Gloucester move and it shows a massive error of judgement/lack of awareness of Eddie's style to argue with him rather than taking the stick and stating his case on the pitch.

Or alternatively it shows Jones read it just right and that Fearns can't take things not going his way. You look at how he reacted to the Bath situation. The whole Burgess thing was a right fuckup (another guy who then renaged on his contract) but Fearns essentially told us to get stuffed and then went chasing the money in France rather than finding another English club. He seemed to be like Armitage in thinking he was so good an exception would be made for him even after he went abroad. Now Jones tries to tempt him back but tells him where he needs to improve (as he has done with every England player) and Fearns throws a hissy fit AND pulls out of a contract. This whole series of incidents suggests he has completely the wrong mentality for international rugby. He is a player who would take being dropped very personally and negatively. I could not see him going through what Robshaw did and reacting the same way.

Anyone who thinks they are so good they don't need to do what every other player must do doesn't belong in an England shirt.
 
Or alternatively it shows Jones read it just right and that Fearns can't take things not going his way. You look at how he reacted to the Bath situation. The whole Burgess thing was a right fuckup (another guy who then renaged on his contract) but Fearns essentially told us to get stuffed and then went chasing the money in France rather than finding another English club. He seemed to be like Armitage in thinking he was so good an exception would be made for him even after he went abroad. Now Jones tries to tempt him back but tells him where he needs to improve (as he has done with every England player) and Fearns throws a hissy fit AND pulls out of a contract. This whole series of incidents suggests he has completely the wrong mentality for international rugby. He is a player who would take being dropped very personally and negatively. I could not see him going through what Robshaw did and reacting the same way.

Anyone who thinks they are so good they don't need to do what every other player must do doesn't belong in an England shirt.

Are you serious? Of course he told Bath to get stuffed why wouldn't he?
 
More that combined with what has happened since. Nothing shows he takes things going wrong well.

OK well who does? Imagine how you would have felt in his situation? How can you expect anyone to be anything but angry when told by his employer he was no longer required due to some untried bloke from another sport arriving on a massive wage bill?

Bath handled him and the situation badly and should expect to be told to get stuffed.
 
I had some sympathy for Fearns over the whole Burgess saga, but the Gloucester scenario puts things in to a completely different perspective.

If he truly believed he was good enough he should made the move and done everything he could to perform at a level where Eddie would want to pick him.

On the whole, Eddie seems to want to test players to see whether they have the right combination of humility balanced with self-belief and a willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed. Fearns did the opposite which is why he'll never win an England cap.

Saying he'll play for France just makes him look like a merc.
 
Good point Jones Boy, everyone who is slating Fearns seem happy to except the likes of Nathan Hughes and Ben Te'oa.
I can only assume you've missed literally everything that's been written on this board about the capping of Hughes and Te'o

OK well who does? Imagine how you would have felt in his situation? How can you expect anyone to be anything but angry when told by his employer he was no longer required due to some untried bloke from another sport arriving on a massive wage bill?

Bath handled him and the situation badly and should expect to be told to get stuffed.
He wasn't - he was told that he wasn't good enough to be first choice starter (which was true) and that [Redacted] would be preferred over him for the time being.
I would absolutely agree that Bath handled him (and Devoto, and a few others) badly; but do'nt make up buillshit to make it appear worse than it was.

Which also makes no difference whatsoever to how Fearns has since treated Gloucester, and Eddie Jones.
 
I can only assume you've missed literally everything that's been written on this board about the capping of Hughes and Te'o


He wasn't - he was told that he wasn't good enough to be first choice starter (which was true) and that [Redacted] would be preferred over him for the time being.
I would absolutely agree that Bath handled him (and Devoto, and a few others) badly; but do'nt make up buillshit to make it appear worse than it was.

Which also makes no difference whatsoever to how Fearns has since treated Gloucester, and Eddie Jones.

Who?
 
In a conversation about Fearns, quoting you talking about Fearns, and in a post where I'm talking about Fearns... and you want to know who I'm talking about?

I'll give you a clue, it want the first choice starters of Garvey, Louw and Houston, now was it [Redacted] who took Fearns' place.
 
OK well who does? Imagine how you would have felt in his situation? How can you expect anyone to be anything but angry when told by his employer he was no longer required due to some untried bloke from another sport arriving on a massive wage bill?

Bath handled him and the situation badly and should expect to be told to get stuffed.

Robshaw lost the captaincy, got told he was a 6.5 and not good enough and got torn to shreds by Jones. I'd say he rebounded from that pretty well. The entire England squad were told none of them were world class and their fitness was not good enough, they then went on to become one of the strongest finishing team in the world. Fearns gets told about his areas to improve and contrast that with the rest of the England squad. A lot of players have improved under Jones and I can't think of any who have really got worse off the top of my head (maybe Wood?) Other English players took their criticism as areas that they should address if they wanted to play for England, Fearns apparently took it as a personal attack and got all defensive.
 
In a conversation about Fearns, quoting you talking about Fearns, and in a post where I'm talking about Fearns... and you want to know who I'm talking about?

I'll give you a clue, it want the first choice starters of Garvey, Louw and Houston, now was it [Redacted] who took Fearns' place.
Why can you not just Burgess
 
Robshaw lost the captaincy, got told he was a 6.5 and not good enough and got torn to shreds by Jones. I'd say he rebounded from that pretty well. The entire England squad were told none of them were world class and their fitness was not good enough, they then went on to become one of the strongest finishing team in the world. Fearns gets told about his areas to improve and contrast that with the rest of the England squad. A lot of players have improved under Jones and I can't think of any who have really got worse off the top of my head (maybe Wood?) Other English players took their criticism as areas that they should address if they wanted to play for England, Fearns apparently took it as a personal attack and got all defensive.

I agree. Wood is a funny choice though. I agree that he hasn't improved under Eddie, but he's probably the best example of a player that was dumped and told he wasn't good enough who came back from the dead to get back in to the squad.

IIRC, he didn't take Eddie's criticism well to begin with but then knuckled down, worked hard and put himself back on the radar. If anything he is the example Fearns needed to follow.
 
That he's uncapped at 28 suggests Eddie wasn't the only one with reservations. Worse players than him have been capped but since when was life fair?

He has one opinion, Eddie has another. Only one of those matters. Eddie shoots from the hip and is provocative, but I don't think he'd set out to p*ss off someone who he thinks may be of use to him. He clearly didn't fancy Fearns and exercising that kind of judgement over players is what he's paid for.
 
I'm not a fan of this switching countries through residency, but I understand that in a professional sport, coaches will pick the best players available to them.

If Fearns qualifies for France, then good luck to him, but I'd prefer to see players buckle down and try and win a place for their "proper" country.
 
Fearns' priority must be to earn as much money as he can in what's left of his career in elite rugby, and I'm sure that at Lyon, he'd be well paid.
Whether he gets selected for France remains to be seen, particularly as Frenchfan correctly pointed out in an earlier post, Bernard Laporte doesn't want "foreigners" playing for France.
 
The residency rule is ridiculous, it should be at least 5 years - long enough to deter a player from moving to a country with the sole ambition to play international rugby because they aren't good enough to play for their own nation.

As for Fearns, I think the summer tour to Argentina showed that England are pretty well stocked in the back row so I can't say I feel like he's someone we're missing out on at all.
 

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