The Six Nations Thread

[Rugbyflanker]

Strange team! Care is a poor box kicker and Evans and Adams will love the space he will give them. Also I would've played Nowell with JJ and dropped May,Nowell carries superbly in traffic and we lose a ball carrier in Teo while already being light on the carry. COYE!

[Roly]

Strange team! Care is a poor box kicker and Evans and Adams will love the space he will give them. Also I would've played Nowell with JJ and dropped May,Nowell carries superbly in traffic and we lose a ball carrier in Teo while already being light on the carry. COYE!

Care is a better box-kicker than YBY has been lately - and all the players you mention are either starting or will finish in combination.

Its a good team and providing the mid-field doesn't miss too many tackles, will win at a canter. Yes England can be exposed out wide (two Italian tries) but England wont mind too much because they're much more potent collectively in attack and will score more.

Expect England to come out of the blocks and overwhelm Wales from the start. The bench is awesome so 'switching off' in the last 20 minutes isn't an issue.

[Rugbyflanker]

Care better box kicker than BY?/haha haha! Nowhere near as good,forget BY in a Tigers shirt but for England every single one of his kicks are contestable and when he wants distance he gets it. Cares little dink's are better but Italy's disallowed try was caused by Cares aimless boxkick into vast open space in MF,crazy comment mate I'm afraid!

[Roly]

for England every single one of his kicks are contestable

For the opposition, yep.... and if Youngs were available for selection over Care, you might even have a point.

And no more crazy than you suggesting that it was a strange England selection by Jones.

Which was of course, nonsense.

[Rugbyflanker]

Strange selection IMO of course. I can explain mine though as I did and don't you think JJ could be an Insurance policy against Cares kicking? Care better boxkicking than Young's is just pure lunacy! You obviously don't watch much of England

[Roly]

You obviously don't watch much of England

If you think Joseph is picked as an insurance policy against wayward box-kicking, you obviously don't 'watch much Wales'.

[Rugbyflanker]

Wayward box kicking means space,LHP dies with the ball but Evans and Adams won't,hence play your best defender first up. Not rocket science! And WG has had to completely abandon Warrenball with Injuries forcing him to play a Scarlets back line which is a running back line so not hard again,are these starters for 10? ;)

[Soggypitch]

It's a very good side, although personally I would have kept Teo in the 15 and brought JJ off the bench on 55/60 mins......

The bench should make a real impact, but hopefully that will be from a position of strength already created by the starters.

Should be a cracker, would love to see a 20 margin but I mustn't be greedy!!

[Roly]

Wayward box kicking means space,LHP dies with the ball but Evans and Adams won't,hence play your best defender first up. Not rocket science! And WG has had to completely abandon Warrenball with Injuries forcing him to play a Scarlets back line which is a running back line so not hard again,are these starters for 10? ;)

I take it all back. You're clearly a genius, a font of rugby knowledge with a gift for predicting the future. Which is why Eddie Jones should resign immediately and hand over the job to you....

[Roly]

It's a very good side, although personally I would have kept Teo in the 15 and brought JJ off the bench on 55/60 mins......

The bench should make a real impact, but hopefully that will be from a position of strength already created by the starters.

Should be a cracker, would love to see a 20 margin but I mustn't be greedy!!

There's a wider picture. Some will tell you that Scarlets (who's backs apparently Joseph wont trouble) are doing OK -- that they recently beat Toulon, Bath and, top their Pro14 group and won it all last year.... all true, but they only beat Toulon by 3. Had an aggregate score against a mid table Bath 48-35. Top their conference by 3 points from Leinster in a group including Benneton, S'n Kings and the Dragons. They just are not that impressive, honest.

T'eo was exposed a bit last week - Ford and Farrell were playing in something of a bubble. Therefore, Joseph is the obvious choice. Wales will likely kick the leather off the ball in an attempt to expose Brown and bypass mid-field contact. Joseph plays deeper than T'eo and is one of the best counter-attacking centres in Europe. I think T'eo might actually be a better finisher than starter.

Care is the more deserving starter at Scrum-Half. He becomes the most capped SH on Saturday for England for a reason and is playing very well currently. Wigglesworth is solid and will steer the ship home.

[mol2]

Not sure why anyone would suggest May should be dropped.

I would play Watson at full back and Nowell on the wing.
For me Brown is not the player he was.

[Soggypitch]

Not sure why anyone would suggest May should be dropped.

I would play Watson at full back and Nowell on the wing.
For me Brown is not the player he was.

It's all about opinions, but for me Brown is a rock solid test match full back, who catches the high balls, makes his tackles, kicks well and still makes good yards in attack. He is a winner and is not phased by anything.
Watson's day will come undoubtedly (although I reckon Nowell could make the better FB), but it's not quite yet.

Nice to have the choice to be honest!

[Soggypitch]

EJ accusing Alun Wyn of intimidating referee;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/ ... imidating/

I sort of got his "attack" on Patchell, young inexperienced 10, under massive scrutiny at Twickenham, but not so sure about this latest rant......

Still who am I to question Eddie's tactics, either during or before a game.

It's just losing to Wales is a nightmare anyway and if we do so after these comments, it will be even worse!!

Therein lies the difference I guess, Eddie never thinks for one moment that he will lose, whereas my natural pessimism (on rugby anyway).......

[biffer]

EJ accusing Alun Wyn of intimidating referee;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/ ... imidating/

I sort of got his "attack" on Patchell, young inexperienced 10, under massive scrutiny at Twickenham, but not so sure about this latest rant......

Still who am I to question Eddie's tactics, either during or before a game.

It's just losing to Wales is a nightmare anyway and if we do so after these comments, it will be even worse!!

Therein lies the difference I guess, Eddie never thinks for one moment that he will lose, whereas my natural pessimism (on rugby anyway).......

It's about the particular incident towards the end of the game where AWJ was deliberately standing over the ball while Russell was waiting to take the conversion. The ref had stopped to check something but AWJ was guilty of a bit of gamesmanship in deliberately disturbing the kicker's prep / routine.

[Tiger_in_Birmingham]

EJ accusing Alun Wyn of intimidating referee;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/ ... imidating/

I sort of got his "attack" on Patchell, young inexperienced 10, under massive scrutiny at Twickenham, but not so sure about this latest rant......

Still who am I to question Eddie's tactics, either during or before a game.

It's just losing to Wales is a nightmare anyway and if we do so after these comments, it will be even worse!!

Therein lies the difference I guess, Eddie never thinks for one moment that he will lose, whereas my natural pessimism (on rugby anyway).......

It's about the particular incident towards the end of the game where AWJ was deliberately standing over the ball while Russell was waiting to take the conversion. The ref had stopped to check something but AWJ was guilty of a bit of gamesmanship in deliberately disturbing the kicker's prep / routine.

If Russell were more astute he's have kicked the ball against AWJ.

1 - Conversion has been taken so try can't be checked
2 - AWJ in trouble for not being on the try line

if AWJ wants to start playing games then just outsmart him