The Official English Rugby Thread

[sockwithaticket]

Has Gatland taken anyone not playing regular test rugby before? I can't recall.

Ribbans becomes the latest to ascend from the shadow squad to the senior.

Last time out Sinkler and Te'o had 8 caps each only.

2013, Mako Vunipola had 9 caps, Matt Stevens had been retired from international rugby for a year

Christ I'd forgotten he went on that tour. Weird call.

The other guys at least were active parts of their national set up, albeit inexperienced, at the time of call up. I don't seen anyone who isn't being plucked out of the Prem for a Lions stint.

Has Gatland taken anyone not playing regular test rugby before? I can't recall.

Ribbans becomes the latest to ascend from the shadow squad to the senior.

I can't decide if I'm happy about this or not. He's been in tremendous form and I reckon Ribbans has a far higher ceiling than the likes of Hill or Ewels, but if it takes him away from Saints so he can hold tackle bags/pick up an injury then I'd rather not, thanks. If it was me in charge I'd have him starting alongside Itoje.

Almost certainly. I remain mystified as to what Ewels offers ahead of any number of other serviceable second rows in the Prem.

I wonder if he might supplant someone on the bench, he's a very good player indeed.

[sockwithaticket]

Somewhat related to my comments Odogwu yesterday, Pat Lam has chimed in about how little game time Malins and Earl have had recently and England seem to be relaxing their bubble and allowing players to go back to their clubs this week. Which is something, but it's surely a little tricky for them to slot back in after nearly 2 months away and I'll be interested to see how many feature and whether they start. If they don't, it's not really helping their lack of game time unless they get a good 25 - 30 minutes off the bench.

[SaintK]

Has Gatland taken anyone not playing regular test rugby before? I can't recall.

Ribbans becomes the latest to ascend from the shadow squad to the senior.

I can't decide if I'm happy about this or not. He's been in tremendous form and I reckon Ribbans has a far higher ceiling than the likes of Hill or Ewels, but if it takes him away from Saints so he can hold tackle bags/pick up an injury then I'd rather not, thanks. If it was me in charge I'd have him starting alongside Itoje.

Agree entirely (what a coincidence!)
Ribbans has never failed to impress me for Saints this season. There's an edge to him that both Hill and particularly Ewels don't have and I reckon he's the ideal replacement for Kruis

[JM2K6]

Has Gatland taken anyone not playing regular test rugby before? I can't recall.

Ribbans becomes the latest to ascend from the shadow squad to the senior.

I can't decide if I'm happy about this or not. He's been in tremendous form and I reckon Ribbans has a far higher ceiling than the likes of Hill or Ewels, but if it takes him away from Saints so he can hold tackle bags/pick up an injury then I'd rather not, thanks. If it was me in charge I'd have him starting alongside Itoje.

Agree entirely (what a coincidence!)
Ribbans has never failed to impress me for Saints this season. There's an edge to him that both Hill and particularly Ewels don't have and I reckon he's the ideal replacement for Kruis

What edge does he have that Hill doesn't? Ewels sure, but Hill's been bullying teams for Exeter (and giving away stupid penalties for England)

[SaintK]

I can't decide if I'm happy about this or not. He's been in tremendous form and I reckon Ribbans has a far higher ceiling than the likes of Hill or Ewels, but if it takes him away from Saints so he can hold tackle bags/pick up an injury then I'd rather not, thanks. If it was me in charge I'd have him starting alongside Itoje.

Agree entirely (what a coincidence!)
Ribbans has never failed to impress me for Saints this season. There's an edge to him that both Hill and particularly Ewels don't have and I reckon he's the ideal replacement for Kruis

What edge does he have that Hill doesn't? Ewels sure, but Hill's been bullying teams for Exeter (and giving away stupid penalties for England)

Hill may well have done for Exeter but he certainly hasn't looked like doing anything of the sort for England. Was more than happy for Hill to get selected but he's been a disappointment and hasn't stepped up so far. Longer term I reckon Ribbans has more to his game all round.

[Oxbow]

Agree with that. I've obviously seen a lot more of Ribbans, but from what I have seen of Hill he looks a good player playing in a very good Exeter side, whereas at times Ribbans has looked exceptional playing in a mediocre Saints side.

[SaintK]

Love this
Obviously lost the side bet at the weekend
Any Quins followers know why Baldwin is off to Worcester next season? He's been playing well for Quins recently

[JM2K6]

Agree entirely (what a coincidence!)
Ribbans has never failed to impress me for Saints this season. There's an edge to him that both Hill and particularly Ewels don't have and I reckon he's the ideal replacement for Kruis

What edge does he have that Hill doesn't? Ewels sure, but Hill's been bullying teams for Exeter (and giving away stupid penalties for England)

Hill may well have done for Exeter but he certainly hasn't looked like doing anything of the sort for England. Was more than happy for Hill to get selected but he's been a disappointment and hasn't stepped up so far. Longer term I reckon Ribbans has more to his game all round.

But what does he have, exactly?

[JM2K6]

Love this
Obviously lost the side bet at the weekend
Any Quins followers know why Baldwin is off to Worcester next season? He's been playing well for Quins recently

It was a done deal before Gustard left. His claims seem reasonable - family reasons to be back near Wales.

[SaintK]

What edge does he have that Hill doesn't? Ewels sure, but Hill's been bullying teams for Exeter (and giving away stupid penalties for England)

Hill may well have done for Exeter but he certainly hasn't looked like doing anything of the sort for England. Was more than happy for Hill to get selected but he's been a disappointment and hasn't stepped up so far. Longer term I reckon Ribbans has more to his game all round.

But what does he have, exactly?

Through my Saints lens he looks quicker over the ground both ball in hand, hitting rucks and in defence, without looking at stats I'd say his lineouts and lineout calling (does Hill call at Exeter?) are at least as good, as are his kick off receives. He has an on field demeanour that is very positive and is obviously one of the on field leadership players at Saints whilst still retaining an aggressive edge to his game
Reminds me a lot of Kruis who I think England have yet to find a replacement for
Though neither Hill or Ribbans would be in my starting XV if Launchbury were fit

[Oxbow]

Lawes is out for 12 weeks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/56270920

[Kawazaki]

Lawes is out for 12 weeks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/56270920

Anyone keeping a list of players Jones breaks in England training?

[notfatcat]

Piss off, both of you. Especially with the "English media" crap, given it's the Welsh media who wrote headlines like this: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rug ... l-19938253

and some quotes





The insanely partisan nature of some 'fans' really grates, so it'd be fucking wonderful if we could avoid doing this shit in the national threads.

Fair enough, private grief and all that. I may have thought I was in the 6N thread.

Fair enough. It's not exactly private grief though - we've moved on from talking about two bad decisions and have already piled into the actual problems England currently has, that were evident well before the Wales match. People acting like we're here wailing and gnashing our teeth is just aggravating.

I seem to recall we argued about this many years ago on CAW!! Slip of the keyboard?

[notfatcat]

Found this on reddit, a list of every debutant under Eddie. Simmonds has more caps than I thought.

Yeah, I thought he'd only picked up about 2. Although not much to judge him on I'm afraid my memory of him is that he looked pretty ordinary and looking like he'd struggle to assert himself physically.

[SaintK]

Lawes is out for 12 weeks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/56270920

Anyone keeping a list of players Jones breaks in England training?

Looks like any thoughts that Lawes had about Lions selection have now disappeared
You can add Harry Randall to the Jones list as he's now broken as well. He's out for 8 weeks with ankle damage

[JM2K6]

Fair enough, private grief and all that. I may have thought I was in the 6N thread.

Fair enough. It's not exactly private grief though - we've moved on from talking about two bad decisions and have already piled into the actual problems England currently has, that were evident well before the Wales match. People acting like we're here wailing and gnashing our teeth is just aggravating.

I seem to recall we argued about this many years ago on CAW!! Slip of the keyboard?

It still felt wrong writing it, but it feels less wrong than with a team name that's plural ...

[notfatcat]

Give it time.

[JM2K6]

Plenty of time have passed, I'm not going to change

[Margin__Walker]

Teams for Tigers v LI tomorrow night. Pretty key game for both teams. Sadly no Montoya, so robbed of a possible match up with Creevy. Two decent young full backs up against each other

[JM2K6]

Irish XV looks far stronger, tbh.

Oh, and I worked out where I was going wrong on that discussion about Curtis Rona a few weeks back: I was getting him mixed up with Cooper Vuna. Woops.

[Margin__Walker]

Ha, that will explain it. Rona's actually had a quiet few weeks performance wise.

Will Goodrick-Clark is one to watch. Signed from Richmond 18 months ago (had previously done a year in the Gloucester senior academy). Just properly breaking into the first team and has been a bit of a revelation. He's been going very well against the THs he's been up against, so will be interesting to see how he gets on against Cole tomorrow.

[JM2K6]

He looks like a plasticine model of himself.

[Margin__Walker]

#bekind

Not all front rowers can be as roguishly handsome as Creevy.

[Bullet]

Teams for Tigers v LI tomorrow night. Pretty key game for both teams. Sadly no Montoya, so robbed of a possible match up with Creevy. Two decent young full backs up against each other

Virtual mascot?

[Margin__Walker]

Think a few clubs do it at the moment. Get a child's name up in lights on social media channels on the day.

Pretty sure Harry Randall fulfils the role on Bristol match days.

[Raggs]

Jack Willis is documenting his recovery:

Huge amount of damage, but the surgeon said he'd be disappointed with anything but a full recovery, which is great news, albeit, it may be a year...

[sockwithaticket]

It was so nice to hear the lift in his voice around 4:30, he seemed heartbreakingly down earlier on.



Slightly related note, teams for the Wasps game this weekend




Looks a pretty strong Glaws lineup.

I'm happy to see Young and Miller come back for Wasps. I'll never understand why Miller hasn't had more games for the club while fit. Young will hopefully bring back some of the breakdown threat we've been missing with both him and Willis unavailable. Umaga was looking better for us last week, so hopefully that trajectory continues. Not having to change 9 due to an injury for the first time in a while will be nice too.

I'd like to think we can win this, but I thought that last week too and we've seemingly found it nigh impossible to spend time in the opposition half in recent weeks.

[Ovals]

It was so nice to hear the lift in his voice around 4:30, he seemed heartbreakingly down earlier on.



Slightly related note, teams for the Wasps game this weekend




Looks a pretty strong Glaws lineup.

I'm happy to see Young and Miller come back for Wasps. I'll never understand why Miller hasn't had more games for the club while fit. Young will hopefully bring back some of the breakdown threat we've been missing with both him and Willis unavailable. Umaga was looking better for us last week, so hopefully that trajectory continues. Not having to change 9 due to an injury for the first time in a while will be nice too.

I'd like to think we can win this, but I thought that last week too and we've seemingly found it nigh impossible to spend time in the opposition half in recent weeks.

Would have been nice to have had Odogwu back this week - but Eddie has kept him - despite him not having played, now, for 6 weeks.

Really need to beat the bottom club if we don't want to completely lose touch with the top 4. Hopefully we can up our game a bit from previous weeks. I'm sure Gloucester will also be targetting this fixture for a win.

[JM2K6]

Lavanini shoves a teammate into contact, causing a high tackle, then cleans out the defender around the neck.

Penalty to tigers, yellow card for Irish, 3 points.

[sockwithaticket]

I agree with Healy ( ) that seems fairly harsh even as a yellow. Rogerson started lower than many do and that was a fairly significant drop in height from the tackled player facilitated by his own man.

[Margin__Walker]

Lavanini shoves a teammate into contact, causing a high tackle, then cleans out the defender around the neck.

Penalty to tigers, yellow card for Irish, 3 points.

That was completely ridiculous. So harsh

[sockwithaticket]

Oof, bad miss from Jackson there.

[JM2K6]

The latch before contact is bad enough without letting the latched players just fall on top of the tackled player, Barnesy

[JM2K6]

That is also a terrible decision, Barnes. Don't let players buy penalties ffs

[Margin__Walker]

Knock on FFS!

[Raggs]

That is also a terrible decision, Barnes. Don't let players buy penalties ffs

The player on the floor kept bouncing up even when the ball was resting on his chest. He was acting the maggot.

[Margin__Walker]

Parton will be a big loss for us if he's out for a while. Is in great form at the moment.

Frustrating game so far

[JM2K6]

That is also a terrible decision, Barnes. Don't let players buy penalties ffs

The player on the floor kept bouncing up even when the ball was resting on his chest. He was acting the maggot.

He was lying flat and the ball was there to be cleared. It was on his chest only because the ball carrier tried his absolute hardest to buy the penalty.

[Margin__Walker]

Is pre binding like that legal on the pick up? I lose track

[JM2K6]

Is pre binding like that legal on the pick up? I lose track

No.

Irish getting ridden hard here.