Australia v England - 1st Test
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As
@Margin_Walker says, injuries, playing for Bath, plus Curry’s good form and Lawes nailed on at 6. But all that aside, he’d be in the 23 regardless and has to start on Saturday. Otherwise hooper will have a field day. -
@Margin_Walker said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
For what it's worth, I'd go with something like this:
1.Genge 2.George 3.Stuart 4.Itoje 5.Chessum 6.Lawes 7.Willis 8.Vunipola
9.Care 10.Smith 11.May 12.Farrell 13.Marchant 14.Arundell 15.Steward16.LCD 17.Vunipola 18.Heyes 19.Hill 20.Ludlum 21.JvP 22.Porter 23.Nowell
Lots of calls for Lawes at lock, but I'd be surprised if Eddie did go for it. He just doesn't play there any more. Back row is on the slow side, but it's slightly offset by having a more mobile guy like Chessum at lock.
Can Ludlam not play 8? I find it hard to believe Vunipola has anything to offer on the field.
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@Bones said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
@Margin_Walker said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
For what it's worth, I'd go with something like this:
1.Genge 2.George 3.Stuart 4.Itoje 5.Chessum 6.Lawes 7.Willis 8.Vunipola
9.Care 10.Smith 11.May 12.Farrell 13.Marchant 14.Arundell 15.Steward16.LCD 17.Vunipola 18.Heyes 19.Hill 20.Ludlum 21.JvP 22.Porter 23.Nowell
Lots of calls for Lawes at lock, but I'd be surprised if Eddie did go for it. He just doesn't play there any more. Back row is on the slow side, but it's slightly offset by having a more mobile guy like Chessum at lock.
Can Ludlam not play 8? I find it hard to believe Vunipola has anything to offer on the field.
Vunipola's actually been going very well domestically. Had a great game in a losing cause in the Prem final the other week. With Dombrandt and Simmonds injured, it's one of the easier selections really at the moment.
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@Margin_Walker he seemed pretty average from what I saw of Saturday's game and I don't remember him doing much in quite a while - his size is now counting against him in terms of speed and agility.
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@MajorRage Jones strikes me as a great coach but not a great manager/selector.
England’s current struggles also seem to highlight the critical importance of assistant coaches and the rest of the support staff. No coincidence that England’s battling when you look at the outstanding technical coaches that have moved on.
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Fair comment, but most of the England team looked average at the weekend. He wasn't out on his own there. Strangely he's actually shown a bit more agility and speed this season than he has at times in the past when he's been a bit heavier. Here's him looking fairly sharp a few weeks back
He's always going to be a 'tight' 8 who won't be hanging out in the wide channels too much, but at the moment ha's probably the best option we have, given the injuries. Ludlum's a handy utility back row, but he's not really in the conversation as far as starting test match 8s go. Callum Chick was used in the Baa Baas game and he's military medium imo.
Tom Willis (Jack Willis' younger brother) was the other form 8 in the league this season. Certainly if you were only looking at stats (metres made, defenders beaten etc), but Eddie doesn't seem to fancy him.
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@barbarian enjoy it. That was a great win. The kind of gutsy, nuts on the chopping block performance that can spur a team to greater heights.
So its time for Eddie to pull finger and squash it cold this week. Far prefer Hooper bravely battling away in a hopeless cause than this nonsense of inspiring his team to find inner resolve they did not know they had.
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Yep, one constant in Eddie's tenure is that no one can stand working for him for too long. There's been a huge turnover in the rest of the coaching team and you get the feeling they aren't managing to recruit the best candidates because of it.
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@antipodean said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
Has anyone asked that squealy kid from reddit to update his hot take on England winning the RWC after that performance?
Don't do reddit. Ploise exploin ?
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@Catogrande thank you Rudyard
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@Machpants said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
@Bovidae said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
Has Hill been cited (assuming the judiciary thinks he should have got more than a YC)?
No press, so I guess not
That’s an absolute travesty
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@Smuts said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
@MajorRage Jones strikes me as a great coach but not a great manager/selector.
England’s current struggles also seem to highlight the critical importance of assistant coaches and the rest of the support staff. No coincidence that England’s battling when you look at the outstanding technical coaches that have moved on.
Nail on head, England have looked a different side since Steve Borthwick and Scott Wisemantel left.
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Independent disciplinary process update: Darcy Swain (Australia)
Australia second row Darcy Swain has been suspended for two weeks after appearing before an independent Judicial Committee via video link, having received a red card for an act of foul play contrary to Law 9.12 (a player must not physically abuse anyone) in Australia’s test match against England on 2 July.
The independent Disciplinary Committee, chaired by Wang Shao-ing (Singapore), joined by former players Chris Smith (New Zealand) and Stefan Terblanche (South Africa), heard the case and considered all the available evidence, including hearing from the player and his legal representative.
The player admitted that he committed an act of foul play but did not accept that it warranted a red card.
Having reviewed all the evident, the committee upheld the red card under Law 9.12.
On that basis, the committee deemed the act of foul play merited a low-end entry point of six weeks given the provocation before the incident, low degree of force exerted by the player and that no injury was caused to the victim. This resulted in a starting point of a six-week suspension.
Having acknowledged mitigating factors, including the player’s acknowledgement of foul play, clean disciplinary record, conduct at the hearing and expression of remorse, the committee granted the player full mitigation of 50 per cent of three weeks.
The committee further determined that given the above off-field mitigating factors and that a three-week sanction would be wholly disproportionate given the level and nature of the offence, the sanction was further reduced by an extra week, resulting in a sanction of two weeks.
The player will therefore miss Australia’s next two matches against England on 9 and 16 July. -
@Stargazer said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
The independent Disciplinary Committee, chaired by Wang Shao-ing (Singapore), joined by former players Chris Smith (New Zealand) and Stefan Terblanche (South Africa), heard the case and considered all the available evidence, including hearing from the player and his legal representative.
I think Wanganui TCOB had a guy playing in their Magpies Team (essentially 4th Grade/Pressies) around the late 80s/early 90s that had a name of something like that, although he was referred to as something completely different as is the custom in those grades. He always reckoned he was good enough to play in the Wanganui B Team so clearly a player of some repute. Wonder if it is the same Chris Smith?
Come to think of it Wainui might also have had a guy with that name in the early 1990s so it might ring a bell with @mikey07
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@Higgins The NZ Rugby History site has 4 Christopher Smiths listed. One played 3 games for South Canterbury, the second played 13 games for King Country, the third played one game for of Plenty, and the fourth played 55 games for North Harbour (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013) and 5 games for NZ U20 (2008). My guess it's the last one.
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