ECC Semi 1: Bris vs Bordeaux, Friday 25th 19.45

[Puja]

I wonder what Jones thought of Earl's performance. Sinckler is in anyway so, presumably, Earl was Jones's main reason for being there.

He might have been keeping half an eye on Randall as well. How did he go?

Puja

[fivepointer]

Earl went pretty well. Not the eye catching performance of last week but Bordeaux were on a different level to the Dragons.
Very enjoyable match. Bris are good to watch but you do sometimes yearn for a bit of straight, hard running and playing for territory.
Randall has to improve on his kicking. He put up a few last night, none of which were that good. His broken field running is terrific and his distribution is improving but he cannot go any higher without a better kicking game. Not easy when Bris so rarely kick but its got to be in his armoury.

[Timbo]

Earl got better as the game wore on. He’s a serious athlete.

I’d have thought Malins caught Eddies eye. He seems more of a credible alternative to Daly than Furbank to me, and he fits the bill of what England appear to want in a fullback.

[Raggs]

Thought Earl (and saw it before) showed not amazing form over the ball. A better ref would have pinged him rather than rewarded him.

On a new page, so whoever it was that said that they need to fix their man more, is absolutely right, so often they went wide, but the defence was always able to just keep drifting across.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Bristol commonly play on the outside arc. If you rush they go round you and if you drift they hope to push to the outside and pull the outside defender in to create the overlap. Bordeaux drifted intelligently, whilst also packing the centre well.

[Oakboy]

I wonder what Jones thought of Earl's performance. Sinckler is in anyway so, presumably, Earl was Jones's main reason for being there.

He might have been keeping half an eye on Randall as well. How did he go?

Puja

I thought Earl's performance was patchy - some good, some anonymous. Theoretically, based on his physical attributes, he ought to have a pretty high ceiling but in what was arguably his highest club-match level to date and with Jones watching, he was not outstanding. If Jones had Curry x2, Underhill, Willis, Simmonds and possibly one or two more ahead in the ranking it would not surprise me. Time will tell.

Randall has lots of sharpness about his game that I like but I can't see Jones being interested in a physical lightweight.

As I keep saying, interpreting Jones's selectorial priorities is the hard bit. He's never yet picked exactly the 23 that I would have chosen (which matters not a jot). I just can't see the reasoning by some of his choices so predicting who he will pick is beyond me.