Australia v England - 1st Test
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@Catogrande said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
Here's hoping for Underhill
Whatever happened to him? He was awesome in 2018 and then seemed to fall out of favour and seems to have had only sporadic appearances.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
@Catogrande said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
Here's hoping for Underhill
Whatever happened to him? He was awesome in 2018 and then seemed to fall out of favour and seems to have had only sporadic appearances.
Multiple injuries and is playing (and not really standing out) in a bottom of the league club side.
He's the kind of player that could pull something out of the hat if selected, but he's on the tour based on credit in the bank imo.
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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.
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@Stargazer said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
@Bovidae Only two press releases from WR about players having to attend an independent disciplinary hearing, a Romanian player and Swain, both for receiving a red card.
Hill only did two things worth citing, so why even bother? 🙄
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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
