EPS Form Watch

[Which Tyler]

If we all just give weekly updates / discussion on our team - feel free to use marks of 10; but I hate them personally.

Provisional EPS:​

Bath:
Charlie Ewels

George Ford
Jonathan Joseph
Semesa Rokoduguni
Anthony Watson

Exeter:
Luke Cowan-Dickie

Henry Slade
Jack Nowell

Gloucester:
Jonny May

Harlequins:
Joe Marler
Kyle Sinckler
Chris Robshaw
Jack Clifford

Danny Care
Joe Marchant
Marland Yarde
Mike Brown

Leicester:
Tom Youngs
Ellis Genge
Dan Cole
Will Evans
Mike Williams

Ben Youngs
Manu Tuilagi

Northampton:
Dylan Hartley
Paul Hill
Courtney Lawes
Teimana Harrison

Sale:
Josh Beaumont

Mike Haley

Saracens:
Jamie George
Billy Vunipola
Maro Itoje
George Kruis
Mako Vunipola

Owen Farrell
Alex Goode

Wasps:
Matt Mullan
Joe Launchbury
James Haskell
Nathan Hughes

Dan Robson
Joe Simpson
Elliot Daly

Worcester:
Ben Te'o

- - - Updated - - -

Bath:​

Charlie Ewels - Started and played well, seemed to lead the line-out to good effect. 10/12 tackles; 3 carries for 0m

George Ford - Controlled the game, rightly won MOTM. Kicked 4/4 + 2 DGs; 8/8 tackles; 4 carries for 22m
Jonathan Joseph - Nice hands on occassion, and solid in defence; nothing spectacular, but no real opportunity to either. 8/8 tackles; 3 carries for 8m; 1 defender beaten
Semesa Rokoduguni - Did very well in both defence and attack, would have scored but for a relatively marginal forward pass (marginal relative to others let go this weekend) - why is he not a regular for England? 3/4 tackles; 8 carries for 76m; 4 defenders beaten
Anthony Watson - DNP - Injured, allegedly could have played, but not worth risking here.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Tigers
Tom Youngs: lead well heavily involved in the come back also hooked
Ellis Genge: Will be the Tigers starting LH by end of season, solid in the scrum but brings huge amount of power and physicality
Dan Cole: Demonlish Glous Scrum
Will Evans: Not on for long but got stuck in looks very good at just 19
Mike Williams: Injured but fit for Wasps
Be. Youngs: Alright a beaut of a box kick for the O'Connor try
Manu: Very Very Very rusty

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Exeter

LCD: Had a decent game. Nothing spectacular though and was completely out performed by Taylor. Exeter did trust him throwing to the back of the line out though which is a good sign as he may have improved on a major weakness.

Slade: First game at 10 for quite a while and I thought he did well considering. Made some hard kicks and generally played quite well in the loose. Had a couple of blunders though.

Nowell: Didn't play, injured

 

[TheSaffycen]

George
Done his basics like you would think. Lots of talent and is definitely the 16 at the moment.
Mako
Scrum had parity but still won't destroy tightheads. Lovely off the bench but Genge will overtake him.
Billy
What is there to say. Guaranteed front foot ball and is starting to develop other parts of his game.
Itoje and Kruis
Neither were that great imo. Can't expect Maro to be incredible every game. Kruis could lose his England spot without constantly good performances.
Farrell
Injured.
Goode
Brilliant player. Very good again. Same as usual. Great club player and international probably won't make it.

 

[Every Time Ref]

Bath:​

Charlie Ewels - Started and played well, seemed to lead the line-out to good effect.

George Ford - Controlled the game, rightly won MOTM.
Jonathan Joseph - Nice hands on occassion, and solid in defence; nothing spectacular, but no real opportunity to either.
Semesa Rokoduguni - Did very well in both defence and attack, would have scored but for a relatively marginal forward pass (marginal relative to others let go this weekend) - why is he not a regular for England?
Anthony Watson - DNP - Injured, allegedly could have played, but not worth risking here.

Agree on all points. Re: Ford, worth pointing out he played very well while not playing in "his" style, a very handy characteristic for a flyhalf. Also kicked at 100%, which is no surprise to those of us who actually watch him rather than repeat outdated truisms about his placekicking ...

Does Ewels lead the lineout? Didn't know that, assumed it was Attwood - who also had a great game, MOM for me, but that's probably no longer relevant to a thread about England selection.

Exeter

LCD: Had a decent game. Nothing spectacular though and was completely out performed by Taylor. Exeter did trust him throwing to the back of the line out though which is a good sign as he may have improved on a major weakness.

Slade: First game at 10 for quite a while and I thought he did well considering. Made some hard kicks and generally played quite well in the loose. Had a couple of blunders though.

Nowell: Didn't play, injured

I noticed that about LCD as well, very encouraging.

Slade was solid, would like to see him playmaking a bit more though

 

[Which Tyler]

Agree on all points. Re: Ford, worth pointing out he played very well while not playing in "his" style, a very handy characteristic for a flyhalf. Also kicked at 100%, which is no surprise to those of us who actually watch him rather than repeat outdated truisms about his placekicking ...

Does Ewels lead the lineout? Didn't know that, assumed it was Attwood - who also had a great game, MOM for me, but that's probably no longer relevant to a thread about England selection.

Good point on Ford - though I don't think it's too far from "his" style - controlling where the game is played is probably his strongest suit IMO; and certainly never left him, however bad some people think he was last year; he was still the best tactical kicker and controller of territory in the league.
Sorry, I wasn't clear on Ewels - it looked like Ewels was leading the line-out to me; just the way the conversations seemed to be going - and whoever it actually was, did a good job. Both of those separate points were worth mentioning (though, as you say, Attwood did have a good game, and isn't in the EPS).

Incidentally, i have no problem whatsoever if people want to talk about potential EPS candidates in here; but the purpose is more for those of us who don't get to watch all the matches for themselves to get an idea of how the EPS squad are going from those who have watched the relevant matches.

 

[Peat]

Thoughts from the Sinner's Barf (the vomit of lost souls)

Ewels - Decent match, noticeable enough in a big forwards display

Ford - This is why I talk up his tactical kicking. Its really good. He was really good.
Joseph - Never going to be his game but did his job as well as he could.
Rokoduguni - Only Bath player who looked like sparking ball in hand danger

Hartley - Set piece did not go great. Displayed a lot of hunger and a few nice touches in the loose.
Hill - Thought the scrum started to creak more when he went on
Lawes - Willing but didn't happen
Harrison - Thought he played a decent part in the almost come back but grain of salt as I tuned out towards the end.

 

[ncurd]

I think there's a european challenge cup semi-final a couple of years back where Ford gives an absolute masterclass in tactical kicking. I've long thought it second best facet to his game and always wonder what the smeg people are talking when they say he's rubbish at it or when he's doing it well saying he's taking a leaf out of Farrell's book.

If Ford's playing the best to his ability usually his attacking distribution and tactical kicking are of a world class ability.

 

[Raggs]

Wasps Exeter

Mullan - Usual self basically, busy.
Taylor - Very good, full 80 minutes and involved for every minute, top tackler I believe. Lineouts were a bit wobbly, but it seemed to be a timing issue. I know he's not in, but he should be.
Launch - First game as captain and did it all, carried a few times effectively, tackled, rucked, worked very hard. Still not good at getting in the right position for restarts.
Hughes - Exeter know how to shut him down, but in his 60 mins on the pitch he made 12 tackles (only less than Taylor, Thompson and Launch, and not far behind considering he played 20 minutes less), carried better than any other forward too. Will need to do better though.
Robson - Very very good, must surely be benching for some England games, and starting against Fiji.
Simpson - kept the pace high, and one of my main usual complaints about him is that he puts his box kicks too long, doesn't seem to have the control to shorten them, but he absolutely nailed one in the game, perfect length for Wade to force Short to take it into touch.
Cips - still settling in, but did fairly well in defence, and did make things happen, more time will see more out of him.
Daly - Fantastic game, worked extremely hard and was massive in the restarts.


Exeter I watched less closely.

LCD - Seemed fairly industrious with decent lineout balls, wonder if some refs may get the hump with his semi-dummy throws.
Slade - Excellent tactical kicking, and seemed to do OK with the backline. I didn't think it was a bad performance.

 

[Which Tyler]

Harrison - Thought he played a decent part in the almost come back but grain of salt as I tuned out towards the end.

For Harrison's tim eon the pitch, you'd have to make allowances for his opposite number - initially Tom Ellis (lock), then Rhys Priestland (FH), and finally unopposed

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Exeter Chiefs - Round 2

LCD - Got himself a try and had a good work rate. Powerful carries.

Slade - Awful game. Defensively poor (His missed tackle on Lozowski was just embarrassing) and didn't pass the ball. Showed why he shouldn't play 10. Had Hill not been even worse I'd have taken Slade off. I'm a fan of his but if he keeps playing like that then Mallinder or Devoto deserve his place in the EPS.

Nowell - Still injured

 

[Which Tyler]

Bath:
Charlie Ewels - Went very well playing out of position at 6. 12/12 tackles; 3 carries for 18m

George Ford - Immaculate control of the game, fantastic kicking game from hand. Kicked 7/11 and a drop goal; 6/6 tackles; 2 carries for 11m
Jonathan Joseph - Best defensive centre in England? did plenty in attack, but stopped anything that came anywhere near him in defence; organised well with a variety of partners, from an inexperienced Clark, and out-of-position Banahan, and out-of-position Priestland, and a very out-of-position Mercer. 4/5 tackles; 9 carries for 57m
Semesa Rokoduguni - Brace of tries; and everywhere - how has he not been a fixture for England for the last 24 months? 6/8 tackles; 13 carries for 143m
Anthony Watson - DTP, injured

Fringe: Attwood; earned MotM; and genuinely did earn it too; toss up between him and Ford IMO

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Kicked 7/11

63% isn't exactly great
Though in terms of the EPS I don't think it really matters as no one's really putting their hands up for the 12 shirt, so Farrell will be there.

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

63% isn't exactly great
Though in terms of the EPS I don't think it really matters as no one's really putting their hands up for the 12 shirt, so Farrell will be there.

I did agree that Faz was the #1 10 but Ford's looking very good so far. How many drop goals has he kicked? If he keeps on like he is ATM it would be hard to look past him for the England 10 shirt. But as you say, for the near future at least it looks like Ford-Faz will remain.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Ford's kicking this week and last has been on another level.

 

[Which Tyler]

0

63% isn't exactly great
Though in terms of the EPS I don't think it really matters as no one's really putting their hands up for the 12 shirt, so Farrell will be there.

100% last week is though, but you don't mention that for some reason.
Of course, generalising from a one-off will always do this, much better would be to look at season-long averages, where he's indistinguishable from faz.

ETA: or did you think I was saying that 7/11 was great for some reason?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Probably never mentioned it because we're talking about this week?

 

[Which Tyler]

Where's last week, we were talking about last week.

Which 1 week snapshot should we pick to be representative and/or worth talking about for anyone else? Or do we just mention it when it confirms bias, and ignore when it doesn't?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

What?

You posted about what happened yesterday, I said that 63% isn't the best for an international 10 but it doesn't really matter, in EPS terms, because Farrell is likely to be our 12 for the foreseeable.
Yes he got 100% last week but that wasn't what I directly quoted and responded to....

 

[Which Tyler]

Sorry, bloody android keyboard and small screen. No idea how it got that first sentence from me.

I meant to ask why 63% is worthy of comment this week, but 100% wasn't last week