In my opinion, which will probably get laughed at by some, under RC we werent actually that far away from Wasps, Exeter etc even at the end. The problem was that Sarries had an unbelievable ( ) run of seasons which put more pressure on. No other English team looked that good.
Exeter are very beatable, they are just also very consistent so do well in the league. But we know they struggle against the top sides in Europe.
The club was in decline for sure. But how many of the factors were actually in RCs hands e.g. Dusty Hare leaving etc
The thing with the decline under Cockers was that we were the best club in Europe - the decline was inevitable whoever was Head Coach or DoR, you can't stay at the top forever.
Yes, every leader has an expiry date and you have to move on with fresh ideas and renewed enthusiasm, but the problem is that we have declined much faster and much further since Cockers left. Perhaps what this shows is that the part of the leadership that had reached it's expiry date was in fact above Cockers...
It seems that people will defend Cockers till their dying day.
What is without doubt is that his failure to blood younger players, even on loan outside the club as is being done now, and his ability to completely alienate players who he either disliked, Gibson and Thomas the Tank, or wouldn’t do it his way, made the job of whoever came in after him more difficult.
IMHO he should have left 18 months before he did, or he should have been moved on if he wasn’t prepared to modernise his methods.
Anyway what has this got to do with whether or not Borthwick is coming to the club
To bring this back to the topic at hand... what worries me more than the lack of Borthwick news is the lack of rumours around who would replace him as forwards coach for England.
The longer this drags on, the longer I worry that this was a rumour the club were happy to allow to go unchallenged as it kept the fans quiet in terms of wanting change.
I think we need him desperately or we will drop this year. Can't see where the points will come from. I expect probably 1 point max from Saints and Chiefs and then it's playing catch-up already ,Sarries -35 isn't gonna help us!
"Rugby isn't a contact sport,ballroom dancing is a contact sport. Rugby is a collision sport" Heyneke Meyer
Saints with the England boys fresh will be the one, if we win or even come close we can begin to look up the table, if we get stuffed it'll be a case of waiting to be lapped by Sarries. We could always shuffle Murphy off sideways and promote Mike Ford as a stop gap.
CitizenSmiff wrote: ↑Sun Nov 24, 2019 2:37 pm
Saints with the England boys fresh will be the one, if we win or even come close we can begin to look up the table, if we get stuffed it'll be a case of waiting to be lapped by Sarries. We could always shuffle Murphy off sideways and promote Mike Ford as a stop gap.
Would Ford be willing to be promoted? Correct me if I’m wrong but I seem to remember him saying he’d rather stay in his current role.
I don’t think he can still be a coach in the Six Nations if he becomes our HC, unless in the meantime between now and Easter he is simply a “consultant”?
Formerly of Burbaaage (not Inkleh), now up north at uni
CitizenSmiff wrote: ↑Sun Nov 24, 2019 2:37 pm
Saints with the England boys fresh will be the one, if we win or even come close we can begin to look up the table, if we get stuffed it'll be a case of waiting to be lapped by Sarries. We could always shuffle Murphy off sideways and promote Mike Ford as a stop gap.
Would Ford be willing to be promoted? Correct me if I’m wrong but I seem to remember him saying he’d rather stay in his current role.
Professional courtesy that I think, be a bit awkward if he started publicly campaigning for his boss' job, especially given the current situation.
CitizenSmiff wrote: ↑Sun Nov 24, 2019 2:37 pm
Saints with the England boys fresh will be the one, if we win or even come close we can begin to look up the table, if we get stuffed it'll be a case of waiting to be lapped by Sarries. We could always shuffle Murphy off sideways and promote Mike Ford as a stop gap.
Would Ford be willing to be promoted? Correct me if I’m wrong but I seem to remember him saying he’d rather stay in his current role.
Professional courtesy that I think, be a bit awkward if he started publicly campaigning for his boss' job, especially given the current situation.
I believe the Bath experience had made him wary of any DOR/HC job.
Leicester Tigers 1995-
Nottingham 1995-2000
Swansea (Whites) 1988-95
A game played on grass in the open air by teams of XV.
The Beeb is reporting that Scott Wisemantel, England attack coach since mid 2018, is moving on despite being offered a new contract, his last contract having expired with the World Cup. The article says Steve Borthwick is expected to join us after the Six Nations. The article doesn’t say there is a link between the two things but I’d be surprised if Jones didn’t want to avoid too many changes at once.
Last edited by Grimlish on Tue Nov 26, 2019 8:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
) run of seasons which put more pressure on. No other English team looked that good.
