The Official English Rugby Thread

[Slick]

I’ve seen a few people picking Chessum at 6 for this weekend, does he play there much?

He's gone - injured in Training !!

Oh that’s a shame, I’ve liked him this 6N

[Paddington Bear]

Got to assume they’ve decided Earl isn’t up to it, which seems surprising given how not up for it our back row looked Saturday and he’s certainly the most dynamic of the back rows.

[JM2K6]

Yup whatever reason was used for Earl being binned off before is clearly pretty major in Borthwick's eyes. Very odd.

[geordie_6]

Bevan Rodd retained, about time.

[Ovals]

Bevan Rodd retained, about time.

Still unlikely to make the matchday squad if past selections are anything to go by. Fingers crossed though.

[geordie_6]

Bevan Rodd retained, about time.

Still unlikely to make the matchday squad if past selections are anything to go by. Fingers crossed though.

After the weekend I'm clinging onto anything vaguely positive.

[fishfoodie]

Bevan Rodd retained, about time.

Still unlikely to make the matchday squad if past selections are anything to go by. Fingers crossed though.

There's no way Mako & Cole should be in the EPS.

They're probably the most expensive GBP/Minute paid players in the damn thing

[Paddington Bear]

Bevan Rodd retained, about time.

Still unlikely to make the matchday squad if past selections are anything to go by. Fingers crossed though.

There's no way Mako & Cole should be in the EPS.

They're probably the most expensive GBP/Minute paid players in the damn thing

Cole has won scrum pens every time he's come on, in fairness. Saturday will be his 100th cap I believe.

[Torquemada 1420]

From French media comic take on the game:
"Apart from a sharp counterof Steward, the American fridge mounted on wheels, the XV of the Rose remained harmless. Marcus Smith attacks the line and at this level, we can even say that he harasses it to such an extent that he risks ending up in a hashtag on Twitter. But the Harlequins FH gives the impression of playing alone, without knowing if it is because he is deeply selfish or if his teammates have too limited an imagination to understand what he is trying to do"

[Paddington Bear]

There was still a sense of shock within the England camp at the manner of their record home defeat to France, who went ahead inside two minutes with a try by Thomas Ramos. “You look at that first passage of play and it was about 80 seconds long, lads looked out on their feet,” Sinfield said.

“They have not been like that the whole campaign so why is that? What is that about, we didn’t change our training load last week, we have been really smart in monitoring and the players have had a say in how we move forward and the sort of sessions we put together. It has been difficult to really go ‘it is that one thing’.”

[inactionman]

There was still a sense of shock within the England camp at the manner of their record home defeat to France, who went ahead inside two minutes with a try by Thomas Ramos. “You look at that first passage of play and it was about 80 seconds long, lads looked out on their feet,” Sinfield said.

“They have not been like that the whole campaign so why is that? What is that about, we didn’t change our training load last week, we have been really smart in monitoring and the players have had a say in how we move forward and the sort of sessions we put together. It has been difficult to really go ‘it is that one thing’.”

It was every-bloody-thing

[JM2K6]

There was still a sense of shock within the England camp at the manner of their record home defeat to France, who went ahead inside two minutes with a try by Thomas Ramos. “You look at that first passage of play and it was about 80 seconds long, lads looked out on their feet,” Sinfield said.

“They have not been like that the whole campaign so why is that? What is that about, we didn’t change our training load last week, we have been really smart in monitoring and the players have had a say in how we move forward and the sort of sessions we put together. It has been difficult to really go ‘it is that one thing’.”

Well that's concerning

[SaintK]

From French media comic take on the game:
"Apart from a sharp counterof Steward, the American fridge mounted on wheels, the XV of the Rose remained harmless. Marcus Smith attacks the line and at this level, we can even say that he harasses it to such an extent that he risks ending up in a hashtag on Twitter. But the Harlequins FH gives the impression of playing alone, without knowing if it is because he is deeply selfish or if his teammates have too limited an imagination to understand what he is trying to do"

Lost in translation mate!

[JM2K6]

The hashtag joke is pretty good tbf

[Margin__Walker]

Times are going with a Farrell/Tuilagi/Slade midfield.

[sockwithaticket]

If true, that strikes me as being bad player management.

If Farrell is to be first choice number 10, he shouldn't have been dropped last week. If he was deemed to have been playing poorly enough to warrant dropping, then I don't see why the entire team, but crucially the forwards, being dominated last week should be a black mark against Smith in particular and lead to Farrell being restored to fly half.

Honestly, I think Smith would best be served by being left to get on with doing his thing at Quins, in an environment that wants to play to his strengths, rather than being dicked around by conservative national coaches who don't seem to know what they want from him.

Oh and Slade is a lucky, lucky boy.

[Ovals]

If true, that strikes me as being bad player management.

If Farrell is to be first choice number 10, he shouldn't have been dropped last week. If he was deemed to have been playing poorly enough to warrant dropping, then I don't see why the entire team, but crucially the forwards, being dominated last week should be a black mark against Smith in particular and lead to Farrell being restored to fly half.

Honestly, I think Smith would best be served by being left to get on with doing his thing at Quins, in an environment that wants to play to his strengths, rather than being dicked around by conservative national coaches who don't seem to know what they want from him.

Oh and Slade is a lucky, lucky boy.

Yep - it looks like muddled thinking and a bit panicky.

[inactionman]

Times are going with a Farrell/Tuilagi/Slade midfield.

I'm not an avid Times reader - are they usually on the money with this sort of stuff?

Lawrence's injury - and that of Kelly - has unfortunately opened the whole inside centre debate again, which might regress us back to where we started.

[JM2K6]

The Telegraph has been ground zero for leaks so we'll have to see what they say.

Slade, eh. Be personally responsible for two line breaks with bizarre decision making leading to 10 points in the first 5 minutes, do absolutely fuck all of use the entire game (1 tackle, 5 passes, 4 runs for 5 useless metres), off the back of a dire performance in the previous match... and be undroppable.

[Mahoney]

Abandoning the Smith experiment on the basis of last week seems moronic to me. 1-8 were blown away. 9 was fucking awful. 13 was fucking awful. 10, 12, 11, 14 & 15 were the only ones who were mostly OK.

My prediction - the pack front up this week, so we lose by 15-20 points with the usual depressingly mediocre back performance instead of by 50, and English rugby en masse announces that this "proves" that Farrell over Smith is the right call.

We have such a depressing national rugby culture.

[Mahoney]

Ironically we played our best bit of rugby in the entire match leading up to our try with the Smith/Farrell combo. Smith played first receiver. Farrell played inside centre. We went through multiple phases with Smith orchestrating things. And it worked really well; Farrell carried and passed well.

Of course we then reverted to Farrell being first receiver for... reasons.

[JM2K6]

(Also let's not mention the dreadful Farrell pass that led to a French try, for... reasons...)

[dpedin]

Times are going with a Farrell/Tuilagi/Slade midfield.

I'm not an avid Times reader - are they usually on the money with this sort of stuff?

Lawrence's injury - and that of Kelly - has unfortunately opened the whole inside centre debate again, which might regress us back to where we started.

Tuilagi and Slade midfield is possibly the worst defensive pairing he could pick! The Irish will have a field day running their angles at this pair who are both very flat footed and get caught square on their heels more often than not! Disaster ....

[Kawazaki]

(Also let's not mention the dreadful Farrell pass that led to a French try, for... reasons...)

You fannies do like a Farrell conspiracy theory don't you?!

[JM2K6]

(Also let's not mention the dreadful Farrell pass that led to a French try, for... reasons...)

You fannies do like a Farrell conspiracy theory don't you?!

What conspiracy? Pointing out that even Farrell made a howler and that it's largely gone unnoticed and unmentioned in the rush to slag off other players isn't conspiratorial thinking.

p.s. I loved the brief glimpse we got of Farrell playing as an actual 12. More please.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

Still unlikely to make the matchday squad if past selections are anything to go by. Fingers crossed though.

There's no way Mako & Cole should be in the EPS.

They're probably the most expensive GBP/Minute paid players in the damn thing

Cole has won scrum pens every time he's come on, in fairness. Saturday will be his 100th cap I believe.

What's the ratio between scrum penalties won and tries conceded?

Quite rightly many will stand and applaud his 100th cap, that's a huge achievement in any role and especially his. And yet a lot of those cheering on his milestone will be wondering if he should be there

[Dinsdale Piranha]

There's no way Mako & Cole should be in the EPS.

They're probably the most expensive GBP/Minute paid players in the damn thing

Cole has won scrum pens every time he's come on, in fairness. Saturday will be his 100th cap I believe.

What's the ratio between scrum penalties won and tries conceded?

Quite rightly many will stand and applaud his 100th cap, that's a huge achievement in any role and especially his. And yet a lot of those cheering on his milestone will be wondering if he should be there

This is perfectly balanced by Mako giving away scrum penalties at a similar rate.

[geordie_6]

Starting
15. Freddie Steward
14. Anthony Watson
13. Henry Slade
12. Manu Tuilagi
11. Henry Arundell
10. Owen Farrell (C)
9. Jack van Poortvliet

1. Ellis Genge (VC)
2. Jamie George
3. Kyle Sinckler
4. Maro Itoje
5. David Ribbans
6. Lewis Ludlam (VC)
7. Jack Willis
8. Alex Dombrandt

Replacements
16. Jack Walker
17. Mako Vunipola
18. Dan Cole
19. Nick Isiekwe
20. Ben Curry
21. Alex Mitchell
22. Marcus Smith
23. Joe Marchant

https://www.englandrugby.com/news/artic ... inal-round

[JM2K6]

Genge goes from starting captain to not even being sole vice-captain, presumably because Ludlam's hatful of penalties meant he had more dialogue with the ref

[Oxbow]

That Farrell/Tuilagi/Slade axis just fills my heart with joy. At least Arundell is starting I suppose.

[sockwithaticket]

Reckon we'll do well to keep the margin of Irish victory to 15 points.

[Hal Jordan]

As much as I want Isiekwe to do well, he seems very underwhelming at Test level.

[FalconJock]

Jack Willis has apparently signed a season extension with Toulouse with an option for another after that.

Obviously would love for him to come back to the Prem, but after the experience he's just had with Wasps, not to mention his two serious, long term injuries, it's hard to begrudge him the wages and stability of a Top14 powerhouse team.

In other random news apparently there are rumours that Dave Walder has left Newcastle with immediate effect. Odd time of the season for a head coach to go.

That's a Jake exclusive and seems to be on the money, although not announced.

Davison also left for Saints with immediate effect today with Heffernan coming in on loan. Tough spot for Newcastle as they are struggling on the pitch and seem to be cutting costs at the same time (likes of McGuigan also leaving mid season). Will take some clever recruitment and coaching for them to compete next season.

People in the game always say Falcons already spend significantly under the cap. Whoever they can get to replace Walder has a hell of a job on their hands if the expectation is to keep them a Premiership outfit if there's even less money to put towards players and some of the best ones are already being offloaded. Carreras still needs a semblance of a team around him to keep scoring tries.

Falcons confirm that Walder is off at the end of the season but wil step back immediately with Mark Laycock taking charge until the end of the season

https://www.newcastlefalcons.co.uk/news ... le-falcons

[Paddington Bear]

We were promised rugby 2.0 from this cycle and instead in the last competitive game of it return to a 10-12-13 partnership that last served us well in 2019 having tried a billion other options. I don’t blame Borthwick - there’s no point playing Smith if your pack is going backwards and you’re not planning on running it, and where the team is is hardly his fault. But fuck me what a waste of four years. That 2019 side are pretty much all still playing and we’ve just gone backwards at a rate of knots. Worst of all on Saturday they just didn’t seem to give too much of a shit, Genge basically admitted it. If Sweeney had any decency he’d walk.
I think we’ll play better, much better than last week but there’s only one result in the offing here.

[Hal Jordan]

At least we have nothing riding on it but pride, so get the beers in and enjoy the whipping like a Tory MP chained up in a sex dungeon.

[JM2K6]

We were promised rugby 2.0 from this cycle and instead in the last competitive game of it return to a 10-12-13 partnership that last served us well in 2019 having tried a billion other options. I don’t blame Borthwick - there’s no point playing Smith if your pack is going backwards and you’re not planning on running it, and where the team is is hardly his fault. But fuck me what a waste of four years. That 2019 side are pretty much all still playing and we’ve just gone backwards at a rate of knots. Worst of all on Saturday they just didn’t seem to give too much of a shit, Genge basically admitted it. If Sweeney had any decency he’d walk.
I think we’ll play better, much better than last week but there’s only one result in the offing here.

Yeah, that's the thing - it's likely that France was the nadir and that any improvement will just encourage callow conservative coaches to think that they were right actually. I think everyone expects us to lose handily and if it's by 25 rather than 45 then there'll be a lot of very bizarre "I told you sos" being bandied about about how England are only capable of a "kick, tackle, Tuilagi" game plan.

[Kawazaki]

England need to get poaching PDQ. Must be loads of Kiwis and Saffas playing in Super Rugby who have an English granny.

[Madness]

Aki vs Manu at 12, bets on a red card for either or both??

[ASMO]

England are going to be abused, horribly, JVP, Farrell, Slade, Tuilagi, now there is the core of a back line that will terrorise Taranaki girls U12 extra B. Sadly we are playing Ireland.

[SaintK]

So Chessum done for the season. Suffered a fracture dislocation of the left ankle at England training
Due to undergo surgery next week.
Hope it all goes well. He's been one of the better players for England this 6N