Borthwick’s England 2.0

[Banquo]

Playing both Lawrence and Ojomoh (slightly) out of position would surely suggest a request (or hope on Lawrence’s part) to secure the 12 shirt for England. I can’t see why Bath would do that otherwise.

Beyond that, Mojo is becoming a numberless centre,

is this actually possible outside bath? Will text Dingwall

It does seem likely its under instruction tbf

[Slater582]

Marler back for Quins. Obano will be cursing the timing, especially with Genge apparently on the verge of a return.

Ford also back for Sale and Lawrence playing 12 for the first time this season.

Puja

Fin Baxter on stand-by apparently. Expect we'll be seeing him against Portugal then.

[FKAS]

Playing both Lawrence and Ojomoh (slightly) out of position would surely suggest a request (or hope on Lawrence’s part) to secure the 12 shirt for England. I can’t see why Bath would do that otherwise.

This.
Lawrence is more likely to be playing IC for England, so it's a good idea for him personally to get his eye in again there this weekend.
Equally, next week, Ojomoh is likely to be playing OC outside Redpath, so it's no real loss for him to get his eye in again there this weekend.

Beyond that, Mojo is becoming a numberless centre, comfortable in both shirts (though still more comfortable at IC).

Is it maybe just a tactic Bath are using to try and limit the impact of Ahki for Toulouse? Take away Ramos's direct running threat he'll want to go to when under pressure. See if they can disrupt the fluency of the Toulouse backline.

Be interesting to see if they switch back to the usual patterns with Redpath at 12 and Lawrence at 13 in attack.

[p/d]

I thought it was common knowledge VG has been working with SB

[Mellsblue]

Dombo vs Mercer stats with the obvious caveat that one plays in a good team and the other really doesn’t.

https://x.com/benjaminsuttonx/status/17 ... MV3j-SK8yQ

[Oakboy]

The questions remain: 1. Is Dombrandt the best club No 8 on a consistent basis over 80 minutes? 2. If so, can he reproduce it for England against top class opposition?

I think he can do some things better than his rivals occasionally. Beyond that, I have reservations but everything is surely in his hands. One early anonymous performance for England might cost him, I suspect.

Earl has shown he can contribute at the top level but his presence is more suited to the flank.

Until T Willis is given a decent run, I don't think overall comparisons are possible. He remains the best all-rounder porentially, IMO.

[p/d]

I dont get why AD’s face fits now when it was ignored for the WC. Earl saved SB’s blushes.

Willis looks the part moving forward. All the skills with the Mark Wilson dog

[Mellsblue]

Perhaps there’s a hope we can play more expansive rugby which would suit Dombrandt more than the turd we produced en France.
I also think T Willy could be the best of the bunch but he’s another player who gets better the longer it takes for him to get a chance.

[p/d]

Perhaps there’s a hope we can play more expansive rugby which would suit Dombrandt more than the turd we produced en France.
I also think T Willy could be the best of the bunch but he’s another player who gets better the longer it takes for him to get a chance.

Aye. You think we might try Marcus at 10 now?

[Mellsblue]

Fingers crossed

[p/d]

Fingers crossed

Smith at 10 with the padded bird net catcher at 15 might just work.

[Puja]

I dont get why AD’s face fits now when it was ignored for the WC.

You don't think he's taken his performances up a significant notch since being left out of the RWC?

Puja

[p/d]

I dont get why AD’s face fits now when it was ignored for the WC.

You don't think he's taken his performances up a significant notch since being left out of the RWC?

Puja

To be honest I think he has always played to this level, during the Jones era and pre WC

[Scrumhead]

I dont get why AD’s face fits now when it was ignored for the WC.

You don't think he's taken his performances up a significant notch since being left out of the RWC?

Puja

This may be giving SB way too much credit but I’m hoping that the reason for that was that we were setting up to play the ugly style of rugby we saw in the RWC and knew that would not suit him.

Now, with the squad looking very different and better suited to a more expansive style, he could be a key player.

The same could be applied to Mercer, but the way Dombrandt has responded in comparison to Mercer is telling IMO.

Furthermore, as Puja intimated, he (along with Barbeary) is the form 8.

[Oakboy]

I dont get why AD’s face fits now when it was ignored for the WC.

You don't think he's taken his performances up a significant notch since being left out of the RWC?

Puja

This may be giving SB way too much credit but I’m hoping that the reason for that was that we were setting up to play the ugly style of rugby we saw in the RWC and knew that would not suit him.

Now, with the squad looking very different and better suited to a more expansive style, he could be a key player.

The same could be applied to Mercer, but the way Dombrandt has responded in comparison to Mercer is telling IMO.

Furthermore, as Puja intimated, he (along with Barbeary) is the form 8.

Agreed. That does leave the question of lukewarm appearances in the last 6N, to an extent. If Dombrandt has found the required consistency and application and it is to be within a more positive style of play it could all be different. If he gets the chance ahead of Earl at 8, let's hope he does not waste it this time. I can't see him getting a 3rd chance with all the competition.

[fivepointer]

Mercer's unlucky. He hasnt played much due to injury and is in a side in poor form. Dombrandt seems to have upped his game and is worth having another look at. I've always liked him but it has to be said his international appearances to date havent been a roaring success.
I wonder if SB sees Earl as a No 8 so was only going to pick one other specialist there. With Curry, Underhill and Pearson in the squad another option at 7 seems unnecessary.

[Stom]

Dombo vs Mercer stats with the obvious caveat that one plays in a good team and the other really doesn’t.

https://x.com/benjaminsuttonx/status/17 ... MV3j-SK8yQ

I think that tackle evasion stat is a really interesting one.

Mercer breaks through tackles more than Dombrandt, but is that because Dombrandt knows what his job is, breaks the gainline and frees the arms, creating platforms and offload opportunities? And tying in close defenders.

While Mercer isn't tying in the defenders so much.

Maybe.

Anyway, I think Dombrandt is excellent.

[Banquo]

This article has me conflicted, I agree with the conclusion, but as the thought process also involved Earl or Faz as contenders at 12, I'm stuffed.

Had Manu Tuilagi been fit for the Six Nations he would have been the automatic starter at inside centre for England. It doesn’t seem to matter whether he is in bad form or injured, he is perceived as the panacea to the problem of England’s No 12. The George Ford-Owen Farrell combination did have its moments, but Farrell was always a fly half playing out of position.

The Sale Sharks centre is injured a great deal. That is a fact. So is the inconsistency of performance. Picking Tuilagi is an act of faith rather than an intelligent option. Eddie Jones was a great one to promise a prepared scenario for any and every eventuality. Yet here we are, a second Six Nations on from the Australian’s departure and we are still scratching our heads without an obvious alternative to the heavy-duty inside centre.

If available, Farrell, no matter how poor his form at present, would have slipped into the No 12 jersey while everyone crossed their fingers and hoped for the big man’s return to fitness for the latter stages of the competition. Where there should be alternatives, there are holes.

It is not going to happen, but it would have been thrilling to see some imaginative thinking and Ben Earl adapted as an emergency inside centre with the potential for who knows what in the future. Against Argentina in the third-place play-off at the World Cup, England’s player of the tournament picked the most exquisite of running angles for a rare moment of real creativity. The No 8 defends superbly, often positioned one out from a breakdown, and is better than any England back over the tackle. Would it have been any more of a risk, or a waste of talent, to shift him from back row to midfield? Remember, it is Italy that England face first up, not France or Ireland.

The man many believe can fill the Tuilagi role is Bath’s Ollie Lawrence, arguably the most powerful ball carrier in any Premiership midfield. His best form has been at outside centre. The 24-year-old packs a punch and has shown a propensity to slice through domestic and European defences this season. The slashing angle he cut against Racing 92 last Sunday was sublime. If England want penetration in the midfield, Lawrence is the leading option.

While Tuilagi loves nothing more than a shuddering collision, Lawrence’s chief weapon in attack is the ability to see and utilise space. He would rather run beyond the gainline than into it. At Bath he is liberated by the hands and vision of Finn Russell at fly half. Lawrence is not simply a bundle of muscle, as uncompromising as he can be in the tackle. On Sunday he will wear the No 12 jersey for Bath in Toulouse. It is an acid test to see whether he can replicate his fabulous form off the shoulder of Russell, instead of ten metres wider out and in space.

Lawrence’s first two starts for England were in the 2020 Autumn Nations Cup. His partner against Georgia and Ireland was Henry Slade. Four years on, and with Slade the name on everyone’s lips after his talismanic displays for Exeter Chiefs, this is a much discussed potential midfield combination. In 2020 Slade played No 12 and Lawrence No 13, but England used Lawrence crashing back into the hurly burly of the No 10-12 area, with Slade fading from in to out. It didn’t work because Lawrence was used inappropriately. He is more than a bosher.

Steve Borthwick, the England head coach, couldn’t have a better test of whether the Bath man can play either central role. Slade will not play No 12 again; he thrives in the wider channels, both as a tactical kicker and clever distributor. Slade’s goal-kicking under pressure epitomises the new-found gutsy side to what seemed at times his overly elegant game. The 30-year-old is working hard at the industrial aspects of his game but it’s the quality of his interventions, not the grafting quantity of touches, that mark him out at Test level.

Lawrence and Slade is a popular centre pairing. We’ll know more at full-time in Toulouse. Northampton Saints’ Tommy Freeman would be exciting to see at 13 but he should be earmarked as an intelligent and powerful free-roaming starter on the wing. I’d love to see him and Lawrence in tandem.

Elliot Daly is another classy operator. He was marvellous in a struggling Saracens side away to Leicester Tigers a few weeks ago. His experience and flexibility make him a natural from the bench. Harlequins’ Oscar Beard is another outside centre in high-flying form but, with plenty of good options, it would be a surprise to see the newcomer anywhere near Borthwick’s match-day 23.

That leaves one other contender: Fraser Dingwall. This is his tenth England camp and the Scotland-qualified centre remains uncapped. This season could be the breakthrough. Originally a No 13, he defends with the intelligence of the great All Black Conrad Smith. Not “genetically gifted”, to quote the man himself, but he makes things tick.

It may surprise some to see him supplant either Slade or Lawrence, but in recent months he has switched back and forth between No 12 and No 13. He has an excellent, understated all-round game. This season he has played four consecutive games at inside centre when Freeman was the object of interest at No 13.

He is a decision-maker and a facilitator for others around him. Fin Smith, the Northampton fly half, and Freeman get on wonderfully well with Dingwall’s no-nonsense approach to the midfield. So too could Marcus Smith or George Ford. My new England pairing would be Dingwall at No 12 and Lawrence outside him — no matter how well or badly Bath’s centre goes in Toulouse — with Earl encouraged to play the role of ball carrier off the fly half. Let’s look to the future, not the past.

STUART BARNES BTW

[Mellsblue]

Earl at 12 has been a Barnes curveball for a while. There’s always something in his pieces to make him look like an original thinker but if you ignore them I think he’s pretty astute.

[Banquo]

Earl at 12 has been a Barnes curveball for a while. There’s always something in his pieces to make him look like an original thinker but if you ignore them I think he’s pretty astute.

..well apart from calling for faz 'even if in poor form'. He has too many hobby horses to absorb any astuteness

[Mellsblue]

Earl at 12 has been a Barnes curveball for a while. There’s always something in his pieces to make him look like an original thinker but if you ignore them I think he’s pretty astute.

..well apart from calling for faz 'even if in poor form'. He has too many hobby horses to absorb any astuteness

I don’t think he’s calling for Faz at 12 more stating it would be the likely course of action if he were available, the way I read it. He’s been off the Farrell bandwagon for quite a while.

[fivepointer]

Barnes getting on the Fraser for England bandwagon.

Good to read.

[p/d]

Might as well play Dan at 12

[Banquo]

Earl at 12 has been a Barnes curveball for a while. There’s always something in his pieces to make him look like an original thinker but if you ignore them I think he’s pretty astute.

..well apart from calling for faz 'even if in poor form'. He has too many hobby horses to absorb any astuteness

I don’t think he’s calling for Faz at 12 more stating it would be the likely course of action if he were available, the way I read it. He’s been off the Farrell bandwagon for quite a while.

he says Faz would be the shoo in for 12 if available, unless I've misread it. In fairness, he's neither supporting nor anti, just a statement of fact I spose.

Anyway, Barnes always buries a grain of truth in his own narcissism

[Banquo]

Might as well play Dan at 12

Don't think Kelly is quite good enough.