Team for Italy

[Epaminondas Pules]

Watson looks more secure under the high ball than Daly. May more so. Anyone know if Johnny has ever had a run out at 15 ?

Although Watson failed to take one too.

And yes May has played 15 for Glaws in the past.

[richy678]

Watson looks more secure under the high ball than Daly. May more so. Anyone know if Johnny has ever had a run out at 15 ?

Although Watson failed to take one too.

And yes May has played 15 for Glaws in the past.

Without any discussion, I'm going to type:

Christian Cullen?

[Galfon]

Mako V will miss most of the Pool games due to his recurring hamster problem.

Coming soon now..

22 September Tonga
26 September United States
5 October Argentina
12 October France

Those last 2 could be interesting given Fra recent upturn.

[fivepointer]

It was a proper test match. Not a good one but Italy showed up and displayed enough resolution to make England work hard for their points.
Lawes and the 2 flankers were very good up front. Youngs did show a bit more verve, while May looked sharp.
Undoubtedly we looked better with Ford at 10.
Good cameos from the replacement props and I thought Ewels looked very sprightly.

[Stom]

It was a proper test match. Not a good one but Italy showed up and displayed enough resolution to make England work hard for their points.
Lawes and the 2 flankers were very good up front. Youngs did show a bit more verve, while May looked sharp.
Undoubtedly we looked better with Ford at 10.
Good cameos from the replacement props and I thought Ewels looked very sprightly.

I did only see from the 50ty minute but Italy were shit.

No go forward, no organisation and the half backs were terrible.

We were clunky.

[Mellsblue]

Was at the match so haven't read all the posts....apols for any repetition.
Marler was superb Youngs was not. How the ****ety **** was he named motm? That said, how much better did he look once he started to tap and go. Why did everyone try and turn him to a paint by numbers player.
The backs were clueless and rudderless in the first half. Good job Ford came on in the second half to save the day (insert the slightly tongue in cheek emoji). 13 outwards looked like they had never met each other at times but that may be expected given 13, 14, 15 were a combo of new players and a regular playing out of his England position.
Was there any explanation of the prop changes just before halftime?
Finally, the person in charge of logistics needs firing. I and plenty of others went to the park and ride, as suggested in the pre-match email, only to find there was no ‘ride’. The taxi drivers of Newcastle had a bumper payday and my wallet is £40 lighter.

[Scrumhead]

Mako V will miss most of the Pool games due to his recurring hamster problem.

Coming soon now..

22 September Tonga
26 September United States
5 October Argentina
12 October France

Those last 2 could be interesting given Fra recent upturn.

I’m not sure how much to read in to France’s ‘recent upturn’. They’ve definitely looked better but they’ve beaten Scotland and Italy at home and lost to Scotland at Murrayfield so let’s keep it in perspective.

Argentina have lost their last four with the slightly mitigating factor that they’ve played NZ, Australia and SA (twice) and only lost heavily in one of the four games.

I’ll always respect them both as potentially dangerous opponents, but I think we should be confident of beating both.

They also play each other in their opening game which will be informative. I think we ideally want one of them to pick up a narrow win with no BP. Hopefully by the time we play Argentina we’ll have 10 points in the bag and some momentum.

[Scrumhead]

Was at the match so haven't read all the posts....apols for any repetition.
Marler was superb Youngs was not. How the ****ety **** was he named motm? That said, how much better did he look once he started to tap and go. Why did everyone try and turn him to a paint by numbers player.
The backs were clueless and rudderless in the first half. Good job Ford came on in the second half to save the day (insert the slightly tongue in cheek emoji). 13 outwards looked like they had never met each other at times but that may be expected given 13, 14, 15 were a combo of new players and a regular playing out of his England position.
Was there any explanation of the prop changes just before halftime?
Finally, the person in charge of logistics needs firing. I and plenty of others went to the park and ride, as suggested in the pre-match email, only to find there was no ‘ride’. The taxi drivers of Newcastle had a bumper payday and my wallet is £40 lighter.

In other words, you got ‘taken for a ride’.

I’m a vocal critic of Youngs, but I thought he had one of his better games in a while. Ford coming on made a huge difference to our attack. As I said during the game, Canna looked better than Farrell.

[Banquo]

Mako V will miss most of the Pool games due to his recurring hamster problem.

Coming soon now..

22 September Tonga
26 September United States
5 October Argentina
12 October France

Those last 2 could be interesting given Fra recent upturn.

I’m not sure how much to read in to France’s ‘recent upturn’. They’ve definitely looked better but they’ve beaten Scotland and Italy at home and lost to Scotland at Murrayfield so let’s keep it in perspective.

Argentina have lost their last four with the slightly mitigating factor that they’ve played NZ, Australia and SA (twice) and only lost heavily in one of the four games.

I’ll always respect them both as potentially dangerous opponents, but I think we should be confident of beating both.

They also play each other in their opening game which will be informative. I think we ideally want one of them to pick up a narrow win with no BP. Hopefully by the time we play Argentina we’ll have 10 points in the bag and some momentum.

Both are the case of which version of the side will turn up on the day. Argentina can look brilliant, but no longer have a scary scrum. France, as ever, who knows.

[Puja]

Mako V will miss most of the Pool games due to his recurring hamster problem.

Coming soon now..

22 September Tonga
26 September United States
5 October Argentina
12 October France

Those last 2 could be interesting given Fra recent upturn.

I’m not sure how much to read in to France’s ‘recent upturn’. They’ve definitely looked better but they’ve beaten Scotland and Italy at home and lost to Scotland at Murrayfield so let’s keep it in perspective.

Argentina have lost their last four with the slightly mitigating factor that they’ve played NZ, Australia and SA (twice) and only lost heavily in one of the four games.

I’ll always respect them both as potentially dangerous opponents, but I think we should be confident of beating both.

They also play each other in their opening game which will be informative. I think we ideally want one of them to pick up a narrow win with no BP. Hopefully by the time we play Argentina we’ll have 10 points in the bag and some momentum.

Both are the case of which version of the side will turn up on the day. Argentina can look brilliant, but no longer have a scary scrum. France, as ever, who knows.

There's an argument to play Marler, George, Cole, Launch, itoje in the Argentina match and just brutalise their scrum. It's such a weakness nowadays.

Puja

[Banquo]

I’m not sure how much to read in to France’s ‘recent upturn’. They’ve definitely looked better but they’ve beaten Scotland and Italy at home and lost to Scotland at Murrayfield so let’s keep it in perspective.

Argentina have lost their last four with the slightly mitigating factor that they’ve played NZ, Australia and SA (twice) and only lost heavily in one of the four games.

I’ll always respect them both as potentially dangerous opponents, but I think we should be confident of beating both.

They also play each other in their opening game which will be informative. I think we ideally want one of them to pick up a narrow win with no BP. Hopefully by the time we play Argentina we’ll have 10 points in the bag and some momentum.

Both are the case of which version of the side will turn up on the day. Argentina can look brilliant, but no longer have a scary scrum. France, as ever, who knows.

There's an argument to play Marler, George, Cole, Launch, itoje in the Argentina match and just brutalise their scrum. It's such a weakness nowadays.

Puja

Is Launch a better scrummager than Kruis? Genuinely no idea. Doubt Mako will be fit in any case.

[Mikey Brown]

Yeah I thought the scrum was meant to be one of Kruis's big strengths as the set-piece guy, but it's always hard to judge the order of things here beyond who packs down on the TH side.

[Freddo]

Mako is a great player but what is the point in taking him if he will miss all the pool games? Even after they thought he was fit to play he tweaked his hamstring again. I just don't think it's worth taking the risk and wasting a spot that a fit LH could take especially with Marler covering TH.

Also to be fair to the backs Francis and Marchant was a new combination. Farrell had a shocker though. He is a 12 for me.

[Puja]

Both are the case of which version of the side will turn up on the day. Argentina can look brilliant, but no longer have a scary scrum. France, as ever, who knows.

There's an argument to play Marler, George, Cole, Launch, itoje in the Argentina match and just brutalise their scrum. It's such a weakness nowadays.

Puja

Is Launch a better scrummager than Kruis? Genuinely no idea. Doubt Mako will be fit in any case.

Actually, me neither. I was just going on the basis that Itoje is rated as a big scrummager and Launch looks broader than Kruis or Lawes. Looks can be deceiving though, so I haven't a clue.

Puja

[Oakboy]

Throughout the match so many of our passes were arriving too high, detracting from the receiver's momentum. Farrell got one right to Marchant. Ford was about the only one to be pretty much faultless though Heinz was an improvement on Youngs.

[Stom]

Throughout the match so many of our passes were arriving too high, detracting from the receiver's momentum. Farrell got one right to Marchant. Ford was about the only one to be pretty much faultless though Heinz was an improvement on Youngs.

While Ford was good, you can't call him faultless. One pass to, I think, Curry was rank bad. And there were other imperfections, too.

[jngf]

For me Curry shouldn’t be played at 6 unless you have another 7 who can link pairing up with him.

[Scrumhead]

There are few times I agree with you jngf, but I think that’s a fair statement. Unless he’s playing left and right with Underhill, Curry should be playing his natural game at 7. Being asked to play as a blindside makes no sense to me.

[morepork]

Jesus, Farrell is getting worse.

[Banquo]

There are few times I agree with you jngf, but I think that’s a fair statement. Unless he’s playing left and right with Underhill, Curry should be playing his natural game at 7. Being asked to play as a blindside makes no sense to me.

what was his role, as opposed to his number/where he packs down? I saw enough of the game to not want to watch any more .

[Scrumhead]

TBH I’d have to watch back to get a proper feel for what he was doing differently (which I definitely won’t be doing)! It just seemed like he wasn’t as visible in attack or at the breakdown. The support line he ran for May very early on when he got clobbered by Hayward was the only time I recall seeing him pop up in attack. In comparison, Wilson seemed to be everywhere.

[Banquo]

TBH I’d have to watch back to get a proper feel for what he was doing differently (which I definitely won’t be doing)! It just seemed like he wasn’t as visible in attack or at the breakdown. The support line he ran for May very early on when he got clobbered by Hayward was the only time I recall seeing him pop up in attack. In comparison, Wilson seemed to be everywhere.

Be interesting to see if either was given a Hooper like roaming brief in defence, and indeed in attack. Wilson had nearly double the tackles, but a similar number of carries.

[Stom]

TBH I’d have to watch back to get a proper feel for what he was doing differently (which I definitely won’t be doing)! It just seemed like he wasn’t as visible in attack or at the breakdown. The support line he ran for May very early on when he got clobbered by Hayward was the only time I recall seeing him pop up in attack. In comparison, Wilson seemed to be everywhere.

I didn't see a lot of the game but what I did see, he was very conspicuous in defense as a 7, and in attack he seemed to spread: he popped up out wide several times.