- Oct 2, 2004
- 48,263
- 47,343
Fucking Ospreys breaking Billy V.
Still we got our own back with Haskell's assault on Jamie Roberts.
Hmmmm....not really a fair trade.
He’s starting to rival Sam Warburton in the brittle bone department.
Not looking great for English clubs generally in Europe this year and I do worry about the knock-on effect for the national team.
Only Exeter have it in their own hands to qualify, as even if (when) Sarries beat Northampton, they'd need to do it with a bonus point, hope Ospreys don't beat Clermont (or get any bonus points) and then hope results go their way in the race for best second place.
Northampton, Quins and Leicester have been a shambles, and Bath were torn apart by Scarlets the other day.
I was listening to a rugby podcast on the way in this morning and they think it's partly because the pro 12 teams are now stronger because they are being forced to qualify properly (and are therefore getting bigger squads) and partly because the English clubs are all going through a bad patch at the moment other than Exeter.
Personally I still think the pro 12 teams are helped a bit by not caring that much about their league until after the 6Ns (Ospreys being a prime example of that this year) but it's clear that for whatever reason the gap between those teams and the English/French teams is closing.
Will be interesting to see if it translates through to the 6 nations. I think Wales will be scuppered by injury and Gatland's refusal to adopt the style that is bringing Scarlets such success, but with Munster, Leinster and Ulster all topping their groups, you have to favour Ireland for the tournament at the moment.
Not quite that bad but it is frustrating for England particularly with Hughes out as well.
Fortunately Simmonds looks like some player so we'll be okay. Eddie may need to get over his aversion to picking Don Armand though.
Dave Ewers is looking good again at Exeter. Offers an option at 8 as well.
It'll be interesting to see what England do. Eddie's tactics seem to rely quite heavily on a ball-carrying 8, so without Billy or Hughes he'll have to either find an alternative or get his ball-carrying elsewhere.
My concern is that he'll try and Play Maro or Lawes at 7 which I thought unbalanced us horribly when we tried it previously.
With Ewers, Simmonds and Armand all playing well for the Chiefs, we do have options, but none do quite the same thing as Billy and Hughes so we'll need to adapt.
I think he'll most likely go with Maro and Underhill at 6 & 7 and Simmonds at 8. We'll certainly miss Billy and hughes though but we should be better at the breakdown.
I think he'll most likely go with Maro and Underhill at 6 & 7 and Simmonds at 8. We'll certainly miss Billy and hughes though but we should be better at the breakdown.
I'd be pretty surprised if Robshaw was dropped to be honest.
He's been an ever present under Eddie, and rarely has a bad game for England, and is even playing well in quite a poor Quins side.
We'll see though. He might decide that if we don't have a rampaging 8, then we instead need to sacrifice Robshaw's work-rate for the ball carrying of Itoje at 7.
I would like to see Simmonds at 7 actually as he was great over the ball for Exeter at the weekend, and I'm not sold on Underhill just yet.
Underhill has only just come back from injury as well. He looked off the pace against Scarlets the other night. Still only 21, though.
Depends how long Haskell gets banned for. I wouldn't do it, but wouldn't be shocked if he was put at 8 and just told to run hard at the opposition.
6. Itoje
7. Robshaw
8. Haskell
20. Simmonds
Italy first up, Haskell probably banned, where Simmonds might get the shirt with Underhill benching.
England look in absolutely terrible shape for the 6N. Ireland were favourites anyway but they should now walk it. A bit of a shame really as a few months ago I was thinking this year would be a classic.
England look in absolutely terrible shape for the 6N. Ireland were favourites anyway but they should now walk it. A bit of a shame really as a few months ago I was thinking this year would be a classic.
Terrible shape?
We've only lost one player from our first XV. Granted he's our best player, and granted his backup is also injured, but it's hardly the case that we're in terrible shape.
With the pool of players available to England we should always be able to cover a selection of injuries, let alone one, so don't think we can make any sort of excuse before the tournament on that front.
My team for the first game would be:
1. Mako
2. George (but it will be Hartley)
3. Cole
4. Lawes
5. Itoje
6. Robshaw
7. Simmonds
8. Ewers
9. Care (but it will be Youngs)
10. Ford
11. May
12. Farrell
13. Slade (but it will be Josephs)
14. Daly (Woodburn to come in if he's injured)
15. Watson (but it will be Brown)
That's still a very strong team with a very deep bench available (the players who don't get picked from above plus the likes of Launchbury, Williams/Sinckler, maybe even Tuilagi available?) so I don't think it's right to say we're in terrible shape.
I make Ireland favourites just because of the form of their international team recently, and the fact they have all carried that through into the top level club matches, but with us playing them at Twickenham I don't think anyone can say they are going to walk it.