England v Italy - 13th Feb at 14:15

[Robespierre]

Forza Azzuri !!!!!!

[ourla]

Farrell is the one for me. Never rated him and people are now starting to realise he’s not that good.

Hilarious.

[ourla]

England need to find some rhythm and fitness. Eddie will want to put the game to bed asap and get the bench on.

[TigerBoy1880]

Farrell is the one for me. Never rated him and people are now starting to realise he’s not that good.

Hilarious.

Agree. You have to laugh at his selection otherwise you’ll cry.

[Leicestertinytiger]

England: Daly; Watson, Slade, Farrell (capt), May; Ford, Youngs; M Vunipola, Cowan-Dickie, Sinckler, Itoje, Hill, Lawes, Curry, B Vunipola.

Replacements: George, Genge, Stuart, Ewels, Earl, Willis, Robson, Malins

Disappointed, was hoping to see Randall and Odogwu at least on the bench.

Also yet to see Ford-Farrell-Slade work as a midfield.

I remember the Ford Farrell Slade partnership ripping South Africa apart in the 40 minutes of the first test on the summer tour. So when it clicks it can work, but does lack a power runner so interesting to see how it works.

[Coleshillad]

If that's EJ's idea of moving on after last weeks performance, I think it's about time he moved on. Robert the Bruce and his spider should not have a place in the English professional game.

[Noggs]

Ford/Farrell is a proven combination and increases the kicking options. With Slade at 13 they have a line breaker able to combine with both the outside speed boys and strong back row support runners. Italy aren't the strongest of challengers but we need to see a good win with the combinations working well to give us a good chance in greater challenges to come.

[SthrnTiger]

England: Daly; Watson, Slade, Farrell (capt), May; Ford, Youngs; M Vunipola, Cowan-Dickie, Sinckler, Itoje, Hill, Lawes, Curry, B Vunipola.

Replacements: George, Genge, Stuart, Ewels, Earl, Willis, Robson, Malins

Disappointed, was hoping to see Randall and Odogwu at least on the bench.

Also yet to see Ford-Farrell-Slade work as a midfield.

I remember the Ford Farrell Slade partnership ripping South Africa apart in the 40 minutes of the first test on the summer tour. So when it clicks it can work, but does lack a power runner so interesting to see how it works.

Forgot about that test. I could get behind it if you had a powerful winger like Cokanasigia. Just think it’s a bit of a waste of Ford whose so good at putting people through gaps.

[sam16111986]

England: Daly; Watson, Slade, Farrell (capt), May; Ford, Youngs; M Vunipola, Cowan-Dickie, Sinckler, Itoje, Hill, Lawes, Curry, B Vunipola.

Replacements: George, Genge, Stuart, Ewels, Earl, Willis, Robson, Malins

Disappointed, was hoping to see Randall and Odogwu at least on the bench.

Also yet to see Ford-Farrell-Slade work as a midfield.

I remember the Ford Farrell Slade partnership ripping South Africa apart in the 40 minutes of the first test on the summer tour. So when it clicks it can work, but does lack a power runner so interesting to see how it works.

As a midfield it was dire in the Autumn. Farrell has no running game and Slade likes the outside arc so the opposition defence has an easy job of just drifting and swallowing up the English double miss pass wide. The backline is an unbalanced mess.

We'll probably bully Italy into submission but this selection is awful.

[strawclearer]

I don't want to worry anyone but here's the Italy XV.....

15 Wee Jimmy Trulla
14 Luca McSperando
13 Braw Bricht Brex
12 'Carry-oot' Canna
11 Monty McIoane
10 Pauli Garbisi
9 Stevie Varney
8 Mikey Lamaro
7 Jock McMeyer
6 Irn-Bru Negri
5 Davy McSisi
4 'Zena' Lazzaroni
3 Malkie Riccioni
2 Luca 'Brazi' Bigi
1 Andy Lovotti

[Scott1]

I don't want to worry anyone but here's the Italy XV.....

15 Wee Jimmy Trulla
14 Luca McSperando
13 Braw Bricht Brex
12 'Carry-oot' Canna
11 Monty McIoane
10 Pauli Garbisi
9 Stevie Varney
8 Mikey Lamaro
7 Jock McMeyer
6 Irn-Bru Negri
5 Davy McSisi
4 'Zena' Lazzaroni
3 Malkie Riccioni
2 Luca 'Brazi' Bigi
1 Andy Lovotti

Hahahah! Bit of useless trivia for you. Luca Brazi of Godfather fame was actually a real life mafia enforcer (as were many who were scarily hanging around the sets) and he was practising his lines when he was repeating himself in the film pre Don Corleone wedding meeting and the makers decided to leave it in the film. Sorry to go off topic!

[Old Hob]

Apparently, Eddie hopes to "play Farrell back to form". He'll never play him enough to make him creative, though.

[JP14]

I wouldn’t be surprised if the match and result is similar to the game in the last round of the 2020 Six Nations where the Italians put in a proper fight, we’re poor but still come away with a BP win.

[westwinds31]

I really don’t get Daly and Slade. I’m not saying they’re poor players. Far from it. But must-pick internationals?

I guess every head coach has his favourites. Shame not to see Odogwu and Randall. Guess they’re victims of what happened last week as much as Lawrence. Shame really.

Farrell is the one for me. Never rated him and people are now starting to realise he’s not that good.

That's brilliant. If you can't see what Farrell brings to a squad in terms of experience, leadership etc you never will. Some of the rubbish on here and in the media has been laughable. We've had a poor start, but, let's credit Scotland, they were very good and as much as we messed up, they stopped us playing. Before the Autumn Nations Cup comments come out, the whole tournament was poor, not just England. Whilst I agree that we need to see some sort of attack and that kicking isn't always the best option, I still say that Scotland forced us into errors and as we all know, you make an error, you try even harder to put it right and often it can result in more errors. Look at Jonny May, prolific try scorer, has been consistently superb over the last few years at international level, looked completely out of sorts - it's pressure.

I'd love to see Odogwu and Randall tearing it up, but who knows how they've gone in training, we don't see how they've fitted into the set up. Maybe Lawrence should have piped up and demanded the ball more ? Inside centres are normally very vocal. Or maybe Scotland put so much pressure on us, we were never in a position to give him the ball as an option, because we were forever on the back foot.

I'm still with Eddie. Enough players have spoken on podcasts and in the media about how he's the best coach they've ever played under. How good he is at motivating the players and how well he deals with them from a man management perspective. From my sofa, until we have a run of games where we're dominated as much as last week, we're still on the right track.

Oh, we're on a hiding to nothing this weekend. Win by 50 and it will be "we should have won by that amount" but anything less and the "Sack Eddie" and "Farrell out" noise will grow.

[JP14]

Well the person in charge of Worcester Warriors twitter account is a bit miffed at the dropping of Lawrence judging by all the tweets they’ve been liking and rightly so, frankly I think Jones has treated the guy really poorly.