England EPS 2017/18 edition.

[ratsapprentice]

IF Curry is out injured (Not sure his status currently) have to say after watching that game Simmonds should play at 7.
I just can't see us fixing our defence in a week's time, certainly not with the current coach. having 6. Shields, 7. Simmonds, 8. Vunipola should do well if another fast game breaks out.

Shields taking a lot of lineouts is a major plus point in terms of 6 though the fact he handle it fairly well at this level gives us a proper 3rd option.

Hope England keep Wisemantel full time attack coach wise, the backs look the best since Argentina.
Also hope we go after Jason Ryles who was with us in the NI tests which seems to be the last time we had a good defence two games on the trot by the looks of it.

Saw Curry mouth "cramp" to the physio's when they came on, not sure where the idea that he was injured has come from.

Shields is only an inch or so shorter than Itoje, and a lot more explosive than Robshaw - naturally he's going to be a much better jumper.

I think Shields' contribution to the May try was telling - how many of our other 6 options could straighten the line, put in a step then throw a good left to right pass after drawing the defender.
Simple, but who else would do it?

It's patently obvious we need an attack coach. If it's Wisemantel, fine... but we need one.
We also haven't been defensively tight for a long time, so I don't know how effective Gustard has been...

 

[ratsapprentice]

Whenever I'd seen him in Super Rugby I'd thought of him as being much bulkier. RFU site lists him as being 112kg (although it also says Hughes is 115 and Simmonds is 93 so how reliable that is I don't know) but I'd of thought he could comfortably bulk up to ~116 without losing any mobility.

Completely unnecessary.

Here's a good player who's been playing to a very high standard for years... England get's hold of him and the first thing people want to do is get him bigger.
******* hell...

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Seriously what is everyone's obsession with making our forwards pack on a load of unnecessary weight

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

I am hoping Eddie plans for the RWC year to expand his coaching set-up maybe to something like

Head - Eddie
Forwards - Honestly not sure who but we need someone else in.
Lineout - Borthwick
Scrum - Hatley
Attack - Wisemantel
Skills - Ella
Defence - Ryles
Breakdown - Smith

It might seem Aussie as fuk but honestly Wisemantel, Ella, Smith, Ryles all improved England in their departments during their limited spell with us.
I'm sure their are English coaches available if needs be just to shut up the why not English born and bred brigade.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Just want to emphasise... altitude did not seem to be an issue. That's a bit positive.

Discipline was by far and away the single biggest issue - I completely agree with Jones on that.
It's totally possible to change that dramatically.

Physical aggression - I don't see any real venom from our players. I think that's a big problem in a sport where, ultimately, the point is to physically dominate your opponent.

Leadership - this ties in with the aggression, I still struggle to see any real displays of leadership. When Robshaw is one of your leaders, that's not entirely surprising, given his personality.*

*I'm genuinely not trying to lay into him.

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

Just want to emphasise... altitude did not seem to be an issue. That's a bit positive.

Discipline was by far and away the single biggest issue - I completely agree with Jones on that.
It's totally possible to change that dramatically.

Physical aggression - I don't see any real venom from our players. I think that's a big problem in a sport where, ultimately, the point is to physically dominate your opponent.

Leadership - this ties in with the aggression, I still struggle to see any real displays of leadership. When Robshaw is one of your leaders, that's not entirely surprising, given his personality.*

*I'm genuinely not trying to lay into him.

On Robo as a leader, I'm always gonna be a bit soft on him, but he seemed to be doing more of the communication with the referee work than Faz yesterday. Faz is antagonistic so I could understand if Robshaw has been told to do it, but in terms of leadership in that sense, Robshaw was the only player on the pitch yesterday doing that consistently

 

[ratsapprentice]

I didn't see him telling Itoje to pack his **** in.

Talking to the ref is small role relative to the leading of his own team.

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

I didn't see him telling Itoje to pack his **** in.

Talking to the ref is small role relative to the leading of his own team.

True, true... He's not captain though and I wasn't suggesting that he was trying to be. Just a thing I noticed. Honestly it's probably something Farrell has to deal with and learn to do

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

I didn't see him telling Itoje to pack his **** in.

Talking to the ref is small role relative to the leading of his own team.

This.
Leaders are the ones to tell players to calm down, stop being stupid or to pump them up.
Johnson was never that great with the ref's in terms of communication his body language did most of the talking, but he could control his team with such ease.

 

[ratsapprentice]

True, true... He's not captain though and I wasn't suggesting that he was trying to be. Just a thing I noticed. Honestly it's probably something Farrell has to deal with and learn to do

He's the second most capped England captain of the professional era. He doesn't need to be captain in order to tell someone to stop giving away penalties.
Didn't see Mako do it either, and he was officially 2IC.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Interesting stat that I've just read: England scored a try every time they entered the Bok 22.


Our attack was very good, but our indiscipline meant we couldn't apply it. And our poor kicking meant we couldn't use it from advantageous positions.

Conversely - our defense was poor, again.
Makes me think that perhaps Gustard was let go just as much as he jumped...

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

He's the second most capped England captain of the professional era. He doesn't need to be captain in order to tell someone to stop giving away penalties.
Didn't see Mako do it either, and he was officially 2IC.

Looking at the stats it's easy to see why neither Robshaw or Mako were digging into Itoje about his discipline; Mako had given away the same number of penalties as him (3) and Robshaw only one less.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I find it hard to believe Itoje only gave away 3 penalties

 

[ratsapprentice]

I find it hard to believe Itoje only gave away 3 penalties

One lineout - stepping across.

One high tackle.

One for not rolling after sacking a maul.

 

[higgik]

Nowell to 13 is a bad idea after seeong the final, he gets stood up too easy and can get gassed to easily as he has a lack of pace and 13 is the hardest position to defend. I highly rate nowell but not at 13. JJ works when we have a pack going forward. Like teo and manu at 12 tbh loz and slade are arguably 12s more than 13s, not sure if we are to put daly to 13, with watson may and brown as the back 3

Watching the ABs of Carter, Nonu and Smith showed how splitting the playmakers can be successful.

The back 3 used their eyes to pick the right running lines off one of the three, either straight of Carter, a pop pass from an initial carry by Nonu, or in the wider channels off Smith.

In this case a midfield of, Farrell, Te'o/Manu, & Lozowski would have a nice look to it. The back three would have to be hard running, physical and be able to read defences, and here lies the issue, only Daly fits this mould, although maybe Nowell might be seen as potential as well.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

One lineout - stepping across.

One high tackle.

One for not rolling after sacking a maul.

Yeesh, I definitely thought it was more.
If someone had told me double I wouldn't have batted an eye

 

[ratsapprentice]

There may have been more, but the stats say 3 and those are the ones I remember...

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

I recall at least 2 high tackles by Itoje so I don't believe it was 3 with 1 high tackle.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

S.Jones gave Curry a 4/10 and said he was overawed by test rugby
=/

 

[ratsapprentice]

S.Jones gave Curry a 4/10 and said he was overawed by test rugby
=/

He's a ****. His opinion is less than worthless.