England Rugby 2018/19 Thread

[Mumbles119]

Maybe the Eddie plan is to have an interchangeable centre set up based upon carriers and playmakers.
So using Farrell, Tuilagi, Slade and Te'o you can mix and match a playmaker or carrier for 12 or 13.
Playmaker/Carrier = Farrell/Tuilagi
Carrier/Carrier = Te'o/Tuilagi
Carrier/Playmaker = Tuilagi/Slade
Playmaker/Playmaker = Farrell/Slade

But Eddie has just been delayed in trying Carrier/Carrier out, due to player injuries.

I need to go back and check, but have all these combinations been tried out yet? If so, then maybe Eddie is ticking off his WC prep list to have preset options he will select from.

All random speculation of course, but maybe this would also support the Eddie approach of splitting the team into units and solely focusing on changes within separate units without worrying about whole team. I.e. back five forwards instead of solely back row and second row. Or the back three as Full Backs.

 

[Which Tyler]

AHH, reminiscent of the glory days of the Noon, Tindall midfield.
Or, more recently, the Barritt, Burgess midfield.

What could possibly go wrong?

 

[g6mcg]

AHH, reminiscent of the glory days of the Noon, Tindall midfield.
Or, more recently, the Barritt, Burgess midfield.

What could possibly go wrong?

Each iteration has been a slight improvement. Gets more complicated if you include Hape-Tindall and Tindall-Tuilagi.

 

[Scotty]

Maybe the Eddie plan is to have an interchangeable centre set up based upon carriers and playmakers.
So using Farrell, Tuilagi, Slade and Te'o you can mix and match a playmaker or carrier for 12 or 13.
Playmaker/Carrier = Farrell/Tuilagi
Carrier/Carrier = Te'o/Tuilagi
Carrier/Playmaker = Tuilagi/Slade
Playmaker/Playmaker = Farrell/Slade

But Eddie has just been delayed in trying Carrier/Carrier out, due to player injuries.

I need to go back and check, but have all these combinations been tried out yet? If so, then maybe Eddie is ticking off his WC prep list to have preset options he will select from.

All random speculation of course, but maybe this would also support the Eddie approach of splitting the team into units and solely focusing on changes within separate units without worrying about whole team. I.e. back five forwards instead of solely back row and second row. Or the back three as Full Backs.

Slade isnt slow but then you also have JJ's Pace. Where does he fit into this?

Farrell. IC. playmaker
Manu. IC/OC. Bosher
Slade. OC. playmaker (IC energancy)
JJ. OC. Pace
Teo. IC/OC. Bosher(injury cover IMO)

 

[Mumbles119]

Slade isnt slow but then you also have JJ's Pace. Where does he fit into this?

Farrell. IC. playmaker
Manu. IC/OC. Bosher
Slade. OC. playmaker (IC energancy)
JJ. OC. Pace
Teo. IC/OC. Bosher(injury cover IMO)

I would assume JJ would still been preferred choice if not for injury.
Yes JJ certainly has pace, but he is also the playmaker category too, in so far that is a good distributor.
I am speculating that Eddie has a very simplified plan of a couple of categories for each player unit that he can swop in and out. Player selection is simply down to who is available.

 

[curtbob7]

Form Centre pairing is Tuilagi and Slade for me. Don't think Joseph ousts either of those. He's in front of Teo though, but obviously iddi likes Teo.

 

[MarkyH]

Ford - Farrell - Tuilagi is clearly our best option. JJ on bench.

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

May be my Exeter bias but I think Slade's clearly been our form player in the centre so far this 6 Nations.

 

[Scotty]

Form Centre pairing is Tuilagi and Slade for me. Don't think Joseph ousts either of those. He's in front of Teo though, but obviously iddi likes Teo.

Exactly, and JJ is fit so if we wernt going with manu slade, then i would have liked to see manu JJ . But teo SHOULD be an option which we really only use in easier games or because of injuries IMO.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

As I've said elsewhere I think the captaincy is piling too much pressure on Faz at 10. So....

If Hartley's fit, I think he should take back the armband.

If he's not then I don't mind Faz captaining provided he's at 12.

But if Faz is staying at 10, I'd be inclined to take a gamble and give it to Itoje. I prefer a forward as captain anyway. Itoje's seemingly well respected by opponents, and always in the thick of the action. He'd set the right tempo and turning 25 during the tournament, its probably a good age for him to step up.

 

[Scotty]

As I've said elsewhere I think the captaincy is piling too much pressure on Faz at 10. So....

If Hartley's fit, I think he should take back the armband.

If he's not then I don't mind Faz captaining provided he's at 12.

But if Faz is staying at 10, I'd be inclined to take a gamble and give it to Itoje. I prefer a forward as captain anyway. Itoje's seemingly well respected by opponents, and always in the thick of the action. He'd set the right tempo and turning 25 during the tournament, its probably a good age for him to step up.

100% agree Itoje is a future captain of england and could be the AWJ type of leader, very smart, can be composed but also it is so obvious what playing for england means to him, but for me thats post world cup. We keep hartley and faz as captains giving itoje VC or CC when one of them arnt on the field, but dont throw him in at the deep end in a world cup, maybe a pool game vs tear 2 nation as CC to prepare him.

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

T'eo has proven he isn't a bosher, or a playmaker and doesn't have any pace so for me he needs to go out to pasture. The only thing he does do is cover 12 and 13 (not that we really need any more 13 cover with Nowell, JJ and Daly.

On a side note i'm sure Eddie would love to try

10 Slade
12 Ford
13 Farrell
11 T'eo
14 Tuilagi
15 May

....why the hell not Eddie!

 

[Scotty]

T'eo has proven he isn't a bosher, or a playmaker and doesn't have any pace so for me he needs to go out to pasture. The only thing he does do is cover 12 and 13 (not that we really need any more 13 cover with Nowell, JJ and Daly.

On a side note i'm sure Eddie would love to try

10 Slade
12 Ford
13 Farrell
11 T'eo
14 Tuilagi
15 May

....why the hell not Eddie!

Love it! Power on the wings and lots of great handling to get it there how could it ever go wrong.

 

[Scotty]

30 players top 2 in every position IMO(for 31 man squad purposes as id up underhill over shields at 6) how many of eatch will we take as i imagine we will take 3 LH and 3 TH 3 hk and 3 SH. Who is added and who drops out.
Mako genge
Hartley george
Sinks cole
Itoje lawes
Launch kruis
Wilson shields
Curry underhill
Billy hughes
Youngs robson(Spencerif not fit)
Ford faz
May big joe
Manu teo
Slade JJ
Nowell watson
Daly brown

 

[Jashay]

I think he takes three of each of the front row, but only two scrum halves. So Moon, LCD and Williams in.

Then I think he'll only take 3 wings; May, Nowell and... Well, my head says Watson, my heart says Joe as a bolter. Who knows how Watson will be when he makes a comeback? But I honestly think he might take Ashton if Watson isn't up to it.

And I reckon only 5 in the back row. Curry, Wilson, Billy for sure. I think he should take Underhill, but if he does that then one of Shields or Hughes would drop and I'm not 100% convinced Eddie would do that. (Annoyingly)

Injuries might scupper all those plans, though. I could see Cips coming in if one of the centres is injured; Eddie would presumably use Faz to fill the gap and need another FH.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Double Curry back row for Sale this weekend

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Decided to do a little statistics because I'm sad like that. England really do seem to have a mental problem when it comes to winning and it's not recent. We have had the highest average finish over 10 years (2.1), the highest average points for (127.1) 2nd lowest points against (81.5), the highest average points difference (45.6) and the highest average number of tries (12.5) yet we have won as many tournaments in those 10 years as Wales and Ireland.

In those 10 years the side with the lowest points conceded won the tournament 9 times whilst the side with the highest points scored only won 5 times out of 10. Over those 10 years our average points difference was actually 23% higher than the next highest (Wales). The fact we are able to lead or be very close to leading in almost all the scoring stats and yet aren't able to convert that into more actual tournament wins does seem to indicate a tendency to bottle it at crucial moments, which won't skew the stats much if they are smallish losses but will skew the number of tournaments won.

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

Just to.put this out there to tall the "Mike brown doesn't pass" people, yaa boy has the most offloads in the prem this year (27)

All praise englands WC saviour!

 

[Jashay]

I was just reading the beeb article on how the Premiership relegation battle is unusually broad this year ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47706494 ) and I was wondering; is there a rule about only selecting from Prem sides? It could have quite an impact on the squad:

Mark Wilson is at Newcastle, and they are bottom. Tigers are in the RZ, and there's 6 England players there! Cole, Genge, Tuilagi, May, Ford, Youngs... Wasps are only 3 points clear ATM, and that's another 5 (although Robson is out for some time, and I wouldn't miss Shields or Hughes, so maybe it's only 2 really)

Bristol are the only team without a player in the squad (if you go by the 35-man training squad for the 6N).

 

[Scotty]

I was just reading the beeb article on how the Premiership relegation battle is unusually broad this year ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47706494 ) and I was wondering; is there a rule about only selecting from Prem sides? It could have quite an impact on the squad:

Mark Wilson is at Newcastle, and they are bottom. Tigers are in the RZ, and there's 6 England players there! Cole, Genge, Tuilagi, May, Ford, Youngs... Wasps are only 3 points clear ATM, and that's another 5 (although Robson is out for some time, and I wouldn't miss Shields or Hughes, so maybe it's only 2 really)

Bristol are the only team without a player in the squad (if you go by the 35-man training squad for the 6N).

No rule, championship players can be picked but likly most will jump ship before they go down, most have it in their contract that then can terminate it should the team get relegated