Team vs Italy

[Epaminondas Pules]

weird on launch and lawes

Just need some game time? Though it is another chance to get injured.

Has Randall played enough recently?

Randall must wonder if he's only good enough for a few minutes against Italy in Jones's eyes.

I very much doubt any such thought has been near his head.

[Adam_P]

Quirke being sent back is a joke. Why is Eddie so against any other 9s getting any meaningful game time

[Adam_P]

Chessum and Heyes retained. Hmm interesting.

Lawes, Furbank and Freeman released to Saints in time for the East Midlands Derby and we get none of ours back, thanks Eddie.

Lawes is still going through concussion protocol and I think Freeman is still injured, so it'll just be Furbank featuring on Friday.

[Banquo]

https://www.planetrugby.com/expert-witn ... sY5vLQ1XU0

[FKAS]

Chessum and Heyes retained. Hmm interesting.

Lawes, Furbank and Freeman released to Saints in time for the East Midlands Derby and we get none of ours back, thanks Eddie.

Lawes is still going through concussion protocol and I think Freeman is still injured, so it'll just be Furbank featuring on Friday.

Ah ok, never happy to hear players are still struggling with injuries even if it might help Tigers out a bit.

[Mikey Brown]

It’s the juggernaut, bitch.

[16th man]

Quirke being sent back is a joke. Why is Eddie so against any other 9s getting any meaningful game time

I think Raffi may have committed the career limiting mistake of becoming too obvious a pick for Jones to go with.

[Oakboy]

This article asks a few questions:


"Eddie Jones' chaotic style has left England looking confused - do not rule out an Italy win
Jones needs to settle on an approach that is going to win the Six Nations and then the Rugby World Cup and not deviate from it

AUSTIN HEALEY
10 February 2022 • 10:33am
Austin Healey
Eddie Jones chats with Ellis Genge
Eddie Jones needs to settle on an approach that is going to win the Six Nations CREDIT: AFP
Most of the conversations this week are around where Eddie Jones is going wrong. You hear a lot from ex-players that Eddie never consolidates, that he is always evolving. So that feels like a good starting point.

Eddie has one of those brains where he is always thinking, but he has never really settled on a style which he believes will take England all the way. The last Rugby World Cup was a good example of that. The one game where they went against the style of play was the semi-final win over New Zealand.

When I see someone like Ben Youngs, England's most-capped scrum-half of all time, you start to wonder whether Eddie has turned off people's instincts. Has he made them so stringent in the patterns they follow, that they actually forget the nature of opportunity?

When I retired people asked me who the best coach was that I worked with - Dean Richards, Clive Woodward, Brian Ashton and so on. I particularly enjoyed Ashton as a coach because he allowed you to be a free spirit and run free. But the best coach actually was Phil Larder. And he might read that and spit his teeth out, along with his cup of tea.

He was the best because he recognised the best style, and then didn't deviate from it. He added to it ever so gently now and again and allowed you to express yourself within it, but at no stage was anybody in any doubt about what the style and structure looked like. It was all based on a framework which he then built on. He made players better within that framework, and he never broke away from it. And if you broke it? You were told off. If you went against the framework, he went against you.

What we are seeing now is different in that players are staying blindly loyal to the framework, but the framework keeps changing. Players are getting tens of caps because they're obedient, and are following exactly what the coach wants them to do. Youngs is a prime example. He is the best of all the scrum-halves put together, when he is allowed to play by instinct. What I saw from him last weekend against Scotland was that he stopped at every ruck to make a decision, rather than feel a decision.

Jones needs a cup of tea and to slow his brain down
England head coach Eddie Jones retains the full support of the Rugby Football Union board following a Six Nations debrief, the governing body has announced.
England have a habit of losing tight contests CREDIT: PA/David Rogers
When you become that autocratic as a coach, you deprive players from feeling their way into a game. It is why England rarely tend to win the tight contests and why individuals make mistakes.

Eddie needs to have a cup of camomile tea and slow his brain down. Settle on an approach that is going to win the Six Nations and then the Rugby World Cup, and do not deviate from it. The churn of assistant coaches is too much - in fact, there is too much change taking place full stop.

Woodward didn't change. Neither did Richards. If you were not in the team who won the previous week, there was a very good chance you would not be next week either. It didn't matter who you were - myself, Martin Johnson, Neil Back, whoever.

Jones may not change... but he must let the players be the best versions of themselves
Youngs has 100-odd caps, but look at how much he has needed to change his style in order to fit in. How many times recently have we seen him pick up from the base and increase the tempo, like when he scored against Wales in last year's Six Nations? That is Youngs at his best.

Youngs is a better running scrum-half than Harry Randall. People will read that and go 'no way', but I am telling you that he is. Box-kicking - Youngs is nearly as good as Richard Wigglesworth. Danny Care's ability to spot space from tapped penalties? Youngs at his best does that too. He has 100 caps for a reason. Allow the players to be the best versions of themselves rather than fitting them into who you want them to be, Eddie.

Honestly, I think it's too late for Eddie to change. But if he can get the style right and find consistency, England have the talent in the bank to do whatever they want. The team for Scotland looked good on paper, yet when you saw them on the pitch it looked like they were all following instructions.

The worry, looking at Youngs, is how Marcus Smith might be affected in the long run. He's a proven match-winner in the final quarter. Yet you take him off for someone in George Ford who you had not selected in your original squad two weeks beforehand. That is a coaching mistake. As is constantly chopping and changing your style. How many of those mistakes does it take until you run out of coaching lives?

I'm not saying it will happen, but a loss to Italy does not seem completely ridiculous. There is that much uncertainty and confusion in the way England are playing."

[16th man]

Interesting that Healey manages to talk about comparisons with other scrum halves and what makes Youngs the best, and go an entire article on the subject, without usng the word pass once.

[Oakboy]

Interesting that Healey manages to talk about comparisons with other scrum halves and what makes Youngs the best, and go an entire article on the subject, without using the word pass once.

Good point. His slow delivery of pass could be about decision-making as Healey suggests, I suppose. The lack of accuracy is a different matter.

[Insouciant]

England team to face Italy: Steward; Malins, Marchant, Slade, Nowell; Smith, Randall; Genge, George, Stuart, Ewels, Isiekwe, Itoje, Curry (capt), Dombrandt.

Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, Marler, Sinckler, Chessum, Simmonds, Youngs, Ford, Daly.

[Puja]

England team to face Italy: Steward; Malins, Marchant, Slade, Nowell; Smith, Randall; Genge, George, Stuart, Ewels, Isiekwe, Itoje, Curry (capt), Dombrandt.

Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, Marler, Sinckler, Chessum, Simmonds, Youngs, Ford, Daly.

http://rugbyrebels.co/board/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5677

[jngf]

1. Ellis Genge (VC)
2. Jamie George
3. Will Stuart
4. Charlie Ewels
5. Nick Isiekwe
6. Maro Itoje
7. Tom Curry (C)
8. Alex Dombrandt
9. Harry Randall
10. Marcus Smith
11. Jack Nowell
12. Henry Slade (VC)
13. Joe Marchant
14. Max Malins
15. Freddie Steward
Finishers
16. Luke Cowan-Dickie (VC)
17. Joe Marler
18. Kyle Sinckler
19. Ollie Chessum
20. Sam Simmonds
21. Ben Youngs
22. George Ford
23. Elliot Daly

[Mellsblue]

So good they named it twice.