England:the Journey continues!

[RagingBull]

Proves that Ford can't play behind a backwards pack.

He was like this when Bath played Leicester @ Welford Road and similar to the final.

[Spicer]

The final ten minutes were fantastic. The other 70 were awful.

[jgriffin]

The final ten minutes were fantastic. The other 70 were awful.

Two words
Easter
Cipriani

Easter marshalled the forces. Cipriani and Ford play the old 2xfive-eighths and drag France all over. Burrell hasn't the nous, Barritt hasn't the talent, 12T has given up it seems. If Lancaster can't see it then he's a fool. As SCW said, Cipriani is a class act and a place has to be found for him.
Launchbury was nowhere, and England severely lack a proper set of 7s.

[drc_007]

For the first 70 mins the England forwards seemed to be unwilling or unable to take the French on which was very troubling. We should not be fooled by the last 10 mins, half the French side were already thinking about a cold beer.

[jgriffin]

For the first 70 mins the England forwards seemed to be unwilling or unable to take the French on which was very troubling. We should not be fooled by the last 10 mins, half the French side were already thinking about a cold beer.

But did the side that was on for 65mins look like the one on for the last 15? In the French case, largely; in the English,no. A more intelligent head than Robshaw's needed = Easter.

[northerntiger]

That was dire.
We have no back row.
Good though Ford is, he can't play behind a beaten pack.
I don't know whether it is Tom Youngs fault, but the line out was awful. Incidentally, we never challenged theirs at all.
Vunipola, today, was very poor.
Launchberry is not fit.
What on earth has been going on in that camp for the last 2 months!!!!!!!!!
We have no back row.

[fortysix]

We do have a very good back row actually
6 CROFT 7 ARMITAGE 8 EASTER

We also have a very bad back row
6 WOOD 7 ROBSHAW 8 VUNIROLYPOLY

[fortysix]

BROWN
WATSON
JOSEPH
SLADE
MAY
CIPRIANI
YOUNGS
COLE
YOUNGS/ HARTLEY
MARLER
ATTWOOD
HAVENT A CLUE-Lawes ??
CROFT
EASTER
ARMITAGE

[RagingBull]

Vunipola did have a bad game but he has also been one of England top performers.

To call for him to be dropped for someone who has hardly feature in any England's game in the last 3/4 years is just a major knee jerk reaction.

Mind you people calling for SA inclusion are just as short sighted.

[jgriffin]

Vunipola did have a bad game but he has also been one of England top performers.

To call for him to be dropped for someone who has hardly feature in any England's game in the last 3/4 years is just a major knee jerk reaction.

Mind you people calling for SA inclusion are just as short sighted.

Why? Or Kvesic? Or any decent 7. Any 7 at all? Can you admit that having no 7 is a mistake?
Agree re Vunipola, the 8s should be him and Easter.

I think the 7 issue unbalances the forwards horribly. Cole has to play as a 7, not a guard; Youngs got through an astonishing amount of tackling, mainly because others were out of position. Lawes was anonymous and Launchbury clearly not at the races. Marler was Marler. The system isn't working very well and may be badly exposed, especially with any ref that's keen on the breakdown.

[baz1664]

An embarrassing performance from a very under cooked and out of form England team, Robshaw completely out of his depth at international level, not a world class 7, Marler has shown he is not an international prop, tonight he was pinged time after time, to here Stuart Barnes slagging off Tom Youngs when he is throwing to an out of form and lack of game time locks like launchbury and Lawes just sums the bloke up, we have leaders like Slater, Kitch, Parling and Kruis who should be running the lineout, all enforcers who will boss other locks. The Lancaster/Farrell regime is showing its colours, picking the golden hand shake men will not win you a World Cup!!!!!!

[RagingBull]

Vunipola did have a bad game but he has also been one of England top performers.

To call for him to be dropped for someone who has hardly feature in any England's game in the last 3/4 years is just a major knee jerk reaction.

Mind you people calling for SA inclusion are just as short sighted.

Why? Or Kvesic? Or any decent 7. Any 7 at all? Can you admit that having no 7 is a mistake?
Agree re Vunipola, the 8s should be him and Easter.

I think the 7 issue unbalances the forwards horribly. Cole has to play as a 7, not a guard; Youngs got through an astonishing amount of tackling, mainly because others were out of position. Lawes was anonymous and Launchbury clearly not at the races. Marler was Marler. The system isn't working very well and may be badly exposed, especially with any ref that's keen on the breakdown.

I think you're mistaking me a bit I don't want armitage in the team because of how he plays it is because of the implications it could have on club rugby.

I def want a seven and have been wanting kvesic to have a decent run at 7 for the last year.

Hell even Seymour would have been a better shout at seven than Robshaw last year.

[The Boy Dave]

RagingBull

Vunipola did have a bad game but he has also been one of England top performers.

To call for him to be dropped for someone who has hardly feature in any England's game in the last 3/4 years is just a major knee jerk reaction.

Mind you people calling for SA inclusion are just as short sighted.

Vunipola is not dynamic enough for the top level yet, he needs to be fitter and faster if he can be.
He is a very good young player.
Others are not dynamic or smart enough and never will be!

[Mr Bean]

I think the people calling for lawes/launchberry to be dropped are having memory problems. Since they have started playing together as a pair they have been stand out performers. Somebody mentioned Marler definitely not being international standard. Who else are you going to play. Mako Vunipola is good in the loose but his scrummaging is no where near as good, and Corbisiero is lacking match practice and has been way off form. The person also said Marler gave away too many penalties, it would be interesting to see the comparison between him and Cole. It was hard to tell how the scrum was functioning as the surface was just plain terrible.
The people also who are calling for Steffon Armitage to play, when playing for the national team I want a player to give 100% The rule where Lancaster is only picking players who are plying their trade in England is not new. If he really wanted to play for England in the world cup he would have come back for a second or two then fattened his paycheck. He has had plenty of chances and he has chosen not too. Lancaster or the RFU have not stepped in his way in fact I seem to remember them trying to push through a deal with bath which SA turned down.

[Mr Bean]

However yes the back row is unbalanced I would have proffered to see 6. Robshaw/Wood 7. Kvesic/Fraser (when he is fully fit I think he is better than Kvesic) 8. Vunipola/Morgan