Matt O'Connor unhappy with England

[DickyP]

Seems cockers agrees with MOC's comments. As he says look at the stats.

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/T ... story.html

Of course he did - what else do you do when some journo looking for problems asks you "Do you disagree with your right hand man and think he's wrong?". RC may have his faults but disloyalty is not one of them.

[boon]

from an england supporter of neither tigers nor sarries these comments did look a lot like sour grapes.

it all looks particularly rich given cockerill has today confirmed ford will start in the lv final. so flood isnt good enough to start for tigers but should be for england? just comes off as arrogant.

i suspect some tigers fans will say oh but its tigers perogative to pick their team and use their available resources as they wish. but thats the point - its lancaster & co's perogative to pick the england team which is why, whatever you & i may make of their picks, o'connors comments to the press reflect badly on him and to a lesser extent tigers.

& as someone says above, quite possibly dont help the individual players.

still, whoever you field at 6ways next week, i hope to see you there

[Tigerbeat]

cockerill has today confirmed ford will start in the lv final. so flood isnt good enough to start for tigers but should be for england? just comes off as arrogant.

Hi Boon, I dont see that there is any arrogance in this. Cockerill has used the competition to give opportunities to some fringe players. Ford has been on the fringe and has performed well and is being rewarded with a starting spot.
It would have been very difficult to drop him when he has played so well.

Good luck to Northampton...........see you at Sixways next week!!

[kingol22]

it all looks particularly rich given cockerill has today confirmed ford will start in the lv final. so flood isnt good enough to start for tigers but should be for england? just comes off as arrogant.

For a long time now we have treated the LV as a development competition, this is why Ford started over Flood because it is Cockerill's selection policy for this tournament.

[Tiglon]

18 months ago Youngs and Flood were 2 of the key factors in ripping Australia apart. Twice. No, they're not in the same form now, but I think that is at least in part down to their treatment by England.

This is a major reason why England have fared so badly since '03 - no consistency in selection. The likes of Australia and NZ identify their best players and show faith in them, this breeds confidence. In England we drop our best players after a couple of poor performances, this breeds uncertainty and doubt.

Watching Youngs play recently, he just looks like he has no confidence... I wonder why that is?!

[fleabane]

Except, Tiglon, when he played last week for Tigers?


England are undoubtedly a less threatening and more predictable team without BY and TF.

SCW for England!

[Isambard]

Time for MOC to go back to Australia.

[Soggypitch]

I agree MOC should never have made those comments. Even if they had a basis of fact, it was not appropriate and simply made us (ie Tigers management and supporters) look wingers.

Let the players do their talking on the pitch, Flood and Youngs will soon be back "in the fold".

[DickyP]

This whole "storm-in-a-teacup" about MOC amuses me. It may well have even done some good in the way that injudicious comments from opposition coaches has fired up teams in the past.

We all know that his remarks and others responses didn't deserve a fraction of the media space given to them and would have been ignored if they'd been any real sports news on the day he uttered them.

[mol2]

Misses the point:
The real travesty isn't that Farrell is starting at 10 ahead of Flood - the real travesty is that Flood's not on the bench whilst Charlie Hodgson gets the berth!

[Bill W (2)]

it was not appropriate and simply made us (ie Tigers management and supporters) look wingers.

Whether Tigers managers and supporters play on the wing is somewhat irrelevant.

O'Connors views were cleared by Tigers Senior Managers (the Peters). To Ian Ritchie they represent input to his decision.

[Hairy Egg]

Misses the point:
The real travesty isn't that Farrell is starting at 10 ahead of Flood - the real travesty is that Flood's not on the bench whilst Charlie Hodgson gets the berth!

At last someone else who sees the real traesty, it should be Flood and Farrell fighting for the starting spot.

Charlie Hodgson should not be allowed anywhere near an England shirt - he's had enough chances in the past. He will never get the back line moving unless they are chasing up and unders.

This is the only complaint I have with the England selections at the moment.

[TigerAlex]

Misses the point:
The real travesty isn't that Farrell is starting at 10 ahead of Flood - the real travesty is that Flood's not on the bench whilst Charlie Hodgson gets the berth!

At last someone else who sees the real traesty, it should be Flood and Farrell fighting for the starting spot.

Charlie Hodgson should not be allowed anywhere near an England shirt - he's had enough chances in the past. He will never get the back line moving unless they are chasing up and unders.

This is the only complaint I have with the England selections at the moment.

Agree totally. I'm not a Farrell fan, but he's a young guy who's doing a decent enough job at the moment and hopefully he will continue to improve. However, Farrell can do everything Hodgson can and do it better. What is the point of having someone on the bench who is the same except worse than the starting player? It's a waste and if something goes wrong, or the game plan isn't working, what options have you got? I don't protest Farrell starting, but Flood should be on the bench so that if the Farrell way isn't working, there is something different available.

[Soggypitch]

Of course the vast majority of Tigers fans and indeed (IMO) English rugby fans will agree that Flood should be on the bench not Hodgson. Flood is a better 10 but more pragmatically he can cover more positions than Hodgson - it's that kind of strange logic that seiously makes me question Lancaster's credentials.

However surely the point of this thread is whether MOC was right to say what he did in PUBLIC.

Bill (when he isn't correcting my typos) claims The Peters condoned it. That's an educated guess IMO and I'd prefer to believe that they didn't condone the original comments but decided to remain silent about them (in public) out of loyalty. Very creditable, loyalty is fundamental to their relationship. However for all we know MOC could have received a serious boll****ng from The Peters in private.

After all what have his comments actually achieved, except to make those assosiated with Tigers look like whingers, and with Flood's return from England again last night, it could be argued that MOC's comments have hardened Lancaster's resolve and have in fact made it more difficult for Flood/Youngs to get their places back.

As I've already said, the performances of our England players for Tigers over the next few weeks will be what decides who gets the shirt on Summer tour.

[jgriffin]

I think this world only exists if SL gets the England job. If Mallett or some other vastly experienced international standard coach gets it, the England squad and team may look quite different very quickly.