Six Nations 2017
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Kruis now confirmed out for England with knee ligament damage. Being assessed tomorrow, but that may be it for the 6N for him.
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Sexton and O'Mahony out of selection for Scotland match with minor injuries not cleared up. Keatley drafted in at 10, Madigan not picked from Bordeaux.
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@Margin_Walker said in Six Nations 2017:
Kruis now confirmed out for England with knee ligament damage. Being assessed tomorrow, but that may be it for the 6N for him.
Huge amount of press with players and coaching staff declaring how they believe they have created good depth to cover absences and how players that have had little recent play won't be affected by that.
I'm not sure how much is simply answering the media questions and how much of it is that they are thinking a lot themselves about these 'issues' and trying hard to be positive.I can only compare with the ABs and have seen only the odd player that is able to come straight back into rugby at test level and perform near potential. Usually the comments afterwards are along the lines of ' I was fit enough and had all the training numbers but man did I feel it out there. I'll be better for that next week'
I'm really hoping that 'committed France' turn up and don't wave the white flag part way through the game if things aren't going well.
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@Crucial Yeah, I know what you mean. Even after being beasted for what seemed like weeks on end during pre-season training the first match back was always a bastard. Still we've really only got Hartley and Marler in this situation, less so Marler who hardly seems to have been away.
Daly in place of Jack Nowell is the stand out change for me. Nowell has been on fire for Exeter.
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Forgive my player ignorance @Catogrande but who is the fullback cover? Is Nowell a test level 15?
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@Crucial said in Six Nations 2017:
Forgive my player ignorance @Catogrande but who is the fullback cover? Is Nowell a test level 15?
I'd guess that Daly is the utility cover, he's certainly got the skills set. Nowell has played full back in the past, but not for some time and not at such a high level. I'd say that if Brown went down we would see Daly go to 15 and Nowell to the wing. Longer term I think that Watson will be our full back.
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@Catogrande said in Six Nations 2017:
@Crucial said in Six Nations 2017:
Forgive my player ignorance @Catogrande but who is the fullback cover? Is Nowell a test level 15?
I'd guess that Daly is the utility cover, he's certainly got the skills set. Nowell has played full back in the past, but not for some time and not at such a high level. I'd say that if Brown went down we would see Daly go to 15 and Nowell to the wing. Longer term I think that Watson will be our full back.
I thought Daly was a centre converted to wing?
The reason I ask is that it appears that Eddie & Co are taking a slightly different approach to other top teams where having two players in the back three with fullback skills is quite important to the gameplan. It affords the 15 to come into the line more on both attack and defence and sets up counter-attacking better.
If Eddie has some different ideas it will be interesting to see. it's not as if you expect less ball to be kicked to you in the 6N. -
Daly in for Nowell as the latter missed a couple of days training this week for personal reasons. Assume he would start all things being equal.
Daly definitely the 15 cover there. He's actually played far more there for Wasps than he has wing, which is effectively his third position.
Shame they played it safe with Mullan rather than Genge on the bench.
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@Crucial I think Percentage Eddie sees Daly as an ideal cover for centre, wing and full back, which allows him to have a back up 9 (Care) and an impact sub (Teo) as well as Nowell/Daly. This then allows him his favoured 5/3 split on the bench as Farrell can play 10 as well as 12. You could see similar thinking when Goode was the utility man that could play 10,12,13,15 or wing. The only problem being that he could play them all equally mediocrely.
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England: 15. Mike Brown, 14. Jonny May, 13. Jonathan Joseph, 12. Owen Farrell, 11. Elliot Daly, 10. George Ford, 9. Ben Youngs; 1. Joe Marler, 2. Dylan Hartley (c), 3. Dan Cole, 4. Joe Launchbury, 5. Courtney Lawes, 6. Maro Itoje, 7. Tom Wood, 8. Nathan Hughes.
Replacements: 16. Jamie George, 17. Matt Mullan, 18. Kyle Sinckler, 19. Teimana Harrison, 20. James Haskell, 21. Danny Care, 22. Ben Te'o, 23. Jack Nowell.
France: 15. Scott Spedding, 14. Noa Nakaitaci, 13. Remi Lamerat, 12. Gael Fickou, 11. Virimi Vakatawa, 10. Camille Lopez, 9. Baptiste Serin; 1. Cyril Baille, 2. Guilhem Guirado (c), 3. Uini Atonio, 4. Sebastien Vahaamahina, 5. Yoann Maestri, 6. Damien Chouly, 7. Kevin Gourdon, 8. Louis Picamoles.
Replacements: 16. Clement Maynadier, 17. Rabah Slimani, 18. Xavier Chiocci, 19. Arthur Iturria, 20. Loann Goujon, 21. Maxime Machenaud, 22. Jean Marc Doussain.
Italy: Edoardo Padovani (Zebre); Giulio Bisegni (Zebre), Tommaso Benvenuti (Treviso), Luke McLean (Treviso), Giovanbattista Venditti (Zebre), Carlo Canna (Zebre), Edoardo Gori (Treviso); Andrea Lovotti (Zebre), Ornel Gega (Treviso), Lorenzo Cittadini (Bayonne), Marco Fuser (Treviso), George Biagi (Zebre), Abraham Steyn (Treviso), Maxime Mata Mbanda (Zebre), Sergio Parisse (Stade Francais Paris, capt).
Replacements: Leonardo Ghiraldini (Toulouse), Sami Panico (Calvisano), Pietro Ceccarelli (Zebre), Joshua Furno (Zebre), Francesco Minto (Treviso), Giorgio Bronzini (Treviso), Tommaso Allan (Treviso), Michele Campagnaro (Exeter Chiefs).
Wales: Leigh Halfpenny (Toulon); George North (Northampton), Jonathan Davies (Scarlets), Scott Williams (Scarlets), Liam Williams (Scarlets); Dan Biggar (Ospreys), Rhys Webb (Ospreys); Nicky Smith (Ospreys), Ken Owens (Scarlets), Samson Lee (Scarlets), Jake Ball (Scarlets), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys, capt), Sam Warburton (Cardiff Blues), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Ross Moriarty (Gloucester).
Replacements: Scott Baldwin (Ospreys), Rob Evans (Scarlets), Tomas Francis (Exeter Chiefs), Cory Hill (Newport Gwent Dragons), James King (Ospreys), Gareth Davies (Scarlets), Sam Davies (Ospreys), Jamie Roberts (Harlequins).
Scotland: 15-Stuart Hogg; 14-Sean Maitland, 13-Huw Jones, 12-Alex Dunbar, 11-Tommy Seymour; 10-Finn Russell, 9-Greig Laidlaw (capt); 1-Allan Dell, 2-Fraser Brown, 3-Zander Fagerson, 4-Richie Gray, 5-Jonny Gray, 6-Ryan Wilson, 7-Hamish Watson, 8-Josh Strauss
Replacements: 16-Ross Ford, 17-Gordon Reid, 18-Simon Berghan, 19-Tim Swinson, 20-John Barclay, 21-Ali Price, 22-Duncan Weir, 23-Mark Bennett
Ireland: 15-Rob Kearney; 14-Keith Earls, 13-Robbie Henshaw, 12-Garry Ringrose, 11-Simon Zebo; 10-Paddy Jackson, 9-Conor Murray; 1-Jack McGrath, 2-Rory Best (captain), 3-Tadhg Furlong, 4-Iain Henderson, 5-Devin Toner, 6-CJ Stander, 7-Sean O'Brien, 8-Jamie Heaslip
Replacements: 16-Niall Scannell, 17-Cian Healy, 18-John Ryan, 19-Ultan Dillane, 20-Josh van der Flier, 21-Kieran Marmion, 22-Ian Keatley, 23-Tommy Bowe.
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England to win comfortably, Wales to get over Italy and Scotland to win for 78 minutes...
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And Finn Russell kicks off and we're underway.
Woo hoo!
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First scrum after knock on in Scottish lineout.
Let's see how this goes.
