England tour to RSA
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I remember the indignation from some here when I suggested Luke Whitelock or any fringe New Zeland backrower could walk into the England team and here we are. This selection without even waiting for him to land in England cannot be good for the English game but thats what you get for hiring a mercenary coach.
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@dmx Thats a little harsh on Eddie I think. He's had a huge amount of success coaching so is in demand. The England rugby coach is arguably the biggest job in world rugby - which coach worth their salt wouldn't want it?
Gatland, Schmidt, Cotter all mercenaries?
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@majorrage said in England tour to RSA:
@dmx Thats a little harsh on Eddie I think. He's had a huge amount of success coaching so is in demand. The England rugby coach is arguably the biggest job in world rugby - which coach worth their salt wouldn't want it?
Gatland, Schmidt, Cotter all mercenaries?
You could add Henry and Hansen to that list based on their coaching a foreign country.
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@crucial said in England tour to RSA:
So, from this squad, what has Eddie done to remedy England's biggest issue
this season, for years, speed to the breakdown?
Still looks to be a team suited to one-off ball crashing, set-piece plays and the occasional loose play from the back.Fixed your slight error there. But to answer the question, Tom Curry and Sam Simmonds have some speed about them and not just overall speed they have that "quick" about them too. Eddie though has shown reluctance to experiment in the back row and has used a trio of big bashers most of the time. It remains to be seen if he will try something a bit different and lets face it, it couldn't go much worse than the 6N this year.
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Fair point, though I was really taking a shot at Eddie in particular for his extremely short term approach. You would think it would be reasonable given the player numbers in England to build a culture and have players at least play domestically for some period of time before being selected. You would think it would be good for the long term integrity and culture of the game not just his win/loss column.
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Seems to me this tour could be a real banana skin for Eddie.
After a great start to his English Coaching, a couple of losses in the 6N meant the sheen came off. Losing 2 or 3 games overseas means there is really only one home season before the RWC, and then if you don't know your top team or how you're going to play, the wheels could really come off in the leadup.
There's loads riding on this - I'm looking forward to it. Go you Saffers!
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@nzzp plus SA seem to be getting things moving in the right direction with plenty of talent coming through in time for the RWC and playing some attractive rugby with their usual upfront aggression.
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@taniwharugby said in England tour to RSA:
@nzzp plus SA seem to be getting things moving in the right direction with plenty of talent coming through in time for the RWC and playing some attractive rugby with their usual upfront aggression.
I agree. They will be a real handful.
also, anyone know where Handre Pollard is? He started in 2015 in the Semi, but haven't seen him since. Wikipedia says he missed 2016 with a knee injury. Is he still in SA, or moved to Europe? He was some player pre-injury, very good and a real threat with ball in hand and off the tee
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@nzzp said in England tour to RSA:
Seems to me this tour could be a real banana skin for Eddie.
After a great start to his English Coaching, a couple of losses in the 6N meant the sheen came off. Losing 2 or 3 games overseas means there is really only one home season before the RWC, and then if you don't know your top team or how you're going to play, the wheels could really come off in the leadup.
There's loads riding on this - I'm looking forward to it. Go you Saffers!
Thinking in the press here seems along the lines of 'England cannot afford to lose this series'
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@nzzp said in England tour to RSA:
OK, cool. How's he going? Knee injuries are horrific, hate to see them happen to classy players (or anyone for that matter)
I've only seen the Bulls play once, live against the Chiefs. Pollard played very well in that game. Ran the team well, scored a try and kicked 4 conversions.
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@majorrage said in England tour to RSA:
REad an article this morning from the DAily Mail where Shields was described as "Chris Robshaw, with better hands".
Fark me, Robshaw's hands must be appalling!!!
Robshaw gets a lot of unwarranted stick but this is the first time I've seen that as a criticism.
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Here's the article ...
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby/news/article.cfm?c_id=80&objectid=12049368
Agree with you that Robshaw takes a lot of unwarranted stick. I suspect the writer of this article has don more research on Shields, than actually watching him play.
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