RugbyRebels

If you had asked me a few weeks ago, my answer would have been pretty straightforward - ‘complete performances’ - meaning solid scrum and lineout, a coherent back line and improvement at the breakdown.

With all of the injuries, I think achieving all of the above is likely to be beyond us. That said, I think there are elements of that we can hope for and as much as they have been forced, having opportunities to experiment in certain areas could make the injuries, a blessing in disguise.

The questions I want answered over the next couple of months are:

Can Underhill cut it as a test 7 and can he make it through 5 games?

Can Watson make a good enough impression at 15 to have a serious chance of leapfrogging Brown? With the injuries, I’d probably move Watson back to the wing if/when Brown is fit, but if he plays well enough at 15, I’d like to see him there for the SA tour with Daly on the wing.

Who is our preferred 13? At the moment it’s not clear whether it’s JJ, Slade it possibly even Te’o. I’d like to see Eddie back one of them and stick to it.

Can we change our game plan to get the best out of a player like Simmonds or Mercer? Obviously both have different strengths, but if either could prove as good as/or hopefully better than Hughes, it’ll be a massive plus.

Hopefully we’ll be closer to knowing the answers by the end of the tournament.

Thoughts?

a) Dominate/control games without Billy
b) Get the best out of Ford
c) Have Ireland beaten by halftime

Simple, a GS.

It seems a bit weird to see a call for Eddie to back a 13 and stick with him when by any reasonable definition he's done just that. However in our system as is we clearly could use extra strike runners at the back so maybe the 13 shirt is up for grabs. What I'd really like to see is 1-2 more carriers in the pack and an openside, neither at this moment looks likely

I was thinking that, how many matches had JJ missed under Eddie?

I'd look to see coherence of plan with all the new faces, and 4+ from 5. Growth of plan is too much to ask with this many changes, but if the new faces can come in and look at home, I'll be happy (ish).
I'd like to see Ford paired with a different IC though, with or without JJ at OC. Ford, Te'o, Slade has a nice look to it, Fax can come on for Ford for 30 minutes to give us a direct compare & contrast between the two of them with the same tools in the midfield.

Which Tyler wrote:I was thinking that, how many matches had JJ missed under Eddie?

I'd look to see coherence of plan with all the new faces, and 4+ from 5. Growth of plan is too much to ask with this many changes, but if the new faces can come in and look at home, I'll be happy (ish).
I'd like to see Ford paired with a different IC though, with or without JJ at OC. Ford, Te'o, Slade has a nice look to it, Fax can come on for Ford for 30 minutes to give us a direct compare & contrast between the two of them with the same tools in the midfield.

Problem with Teo at 12- which I'd love to see- is that, as per the analysis in another thread, our whole attacking strategy is dependent on have a second distributor at 12, and a vocal one at that- as they are also sorting the forward pods out. Now clearly with Slade at 13 in your pick, you could make it work, but then you lose what he'd be bringing wider out. So it'd be a hefty re-shuffle of plans; I'm not saying it can't be done, and indeed might be quite an appealing way of doing it.

A bloody improvement.
Honeymoon truly over for Jones. Chris Kamara could have made us look better after the WC, so time for this lot to prove that Jones was the right man to lead us to the next one

I have low expectations of this happening. All I see is pick Hartley, Cole, Ford, Farrell & Brown than give the impression of being ‘adventurous’ elsewhere without signs of moving forward.

Clearly someone has hacked p/d's account as there's no stipulation the head coach should wear a shellsuit to look one of the boys

p/d wrote:A bloody improvement.
Honeymoon truly over for Jones. Chris Kamara could have made us look better after the WC, so time for this lot to prove that Jones was the right man to lead us to the next one

I have low expectations of this happening. All I see is pick Hartley, Cole, Ford, Farrell & Brown than give the impression of being ‘adventurous’ elsewhere without signs of moving forward.

lol. Well not sure you can overly quibble with his results, but agree the performances need to improve.

I'm at the stage now where I've given up on trying to understand Eddie's thinking beyond the basic aim of winning every match. That is his first priority, not style nor development. If Lawtoje at 6 gets wins, I'm happy enough. If it has to be Ford AND Farrell, fair enough. If we can't find a better SH than Youngs, fair enough. Even Hartley at 2, fair enough.

Nothing matters but winning now. Ugly, pretty - it no longer means anything. It's just the scoreboard that counts.

Oakboy wrote:I'm at the stage now where I've given up on trying to understand Eddie's thinking beyond the basic aim of winning every match. That is his first priority, not style nor development. If Lawtoje at 6 gets wins, I'm happy enough. If it has to be Ford AND Farrell, fair enough. If we can't find a better SH than Youngs, fair enough. Even Hartley at 2, fair enough.

Nothing matters but winning now. Ugly, pretty - it no longer means anything. It's just the scoreboard that counts.

crikey, its only taken 10 years, but you've got there . Winning is the end of course, but its also the means to an end in building a style of play; you can do a lot more around the squad when you have a winning platform; I'd hope Eddie knows that we haven't yet got the game to be confident going into a world cup.

Banquo wrote:

p/d wrote:A bloody improvement.
Honeymoon truly over for Jones. Chris Kamara could have made us look better after the WC, so time for this lot to prove that Jones was the right man to lead us to the next one

I have low expectations of this happening. All I see is pick Hartley, Cole, Ford, Farrell & Brown than give the impression of being ‘adventurous’ elsewhere without signs of moving forward.

lol. Well not sure you can overly quibble with his results, but agree the performances need to improve.

Hard to quibble (such a great word), though in hindsight do wish we had been turned over a few more times, as paper and cracks keep coming to the fore

5 high quality, consistent performances. In other words a big step up from last year.
Ideally 5 wins. Unlikely i feel, but we should be aiming for a clean sweep.
Developments in our play. converting a greater percentage of chances in attack and forcing more turnovers in defence.
Advancement of individuals. Turning the good into outstanding, and the promising into effective performers. There should be big opportunities for a few forwards to advance their case.

Win the GS

Specifics:
The emergence of a dominant scrum
Average of less than 10 penalties conceded per match
A direct attack option in the midfield: ie: either Te'o or Manu (or both) in the starting midfield.
Watson to full back
No club 2nd rows picked in back row.

Digby wrote:It seems a bit weird to see a call for Eddie to back a 13 and stick with him when by any reasonable definition he's done just that. However in our system as is we clearly could use extra strike runners at the back so maybe the 13 shirt is up for grabs. What I'd really like to see is 1-2 more carriers in the pack and an openside, neither at this moment looks likely

Factually Eddie has largely stuck with JJ, albeit amongst very regular speculation that he is only one performance away from being dropped for Slade or Te’o.

We’ll never know, but had Te’o been fit, I think there’s a high chance we would have seen him in the AIs rather than JJ.

For absolute clarity, I would have JJ as first choice every day of the week.

Tries greeted by a warm yet firm handshake or, should Care score, ruffling of his hair

p/d wrote:Tries greeted by a warm yet firm handshake or, should Care score, ruffling of his hair

May I add that only the captain talks to the ref?

Which Tyler wrote:

p/d wrote:Tries greeted by a warm yet firm handshake or, should Care score, ruffling of his hair

May I add that only the captain talks to the ref?

Seconded. Though our 14 vice captains might feel this somewhat devalues their roles

p/d wrote:

Which Tyler wrote:

p/d wrote:Tries greeted by a warm yet firm handshake or, should Care score, ruffling of his hair

May I add that only the captain talks to the ref?

Seconded. Though our 14 co-captains might feel this somewhat devalues their roles

FTFY

Might I suggest a lack of applauding the opponent who's given away a penalty, or otherwise rubbing their nose in it. Even for our Saracens contingent.

Which Tyler wrote:

p/d wrote:

Which Tyler wrote: May I add that only the captain talks to the ref?

Seconded. Though our 14 co-captains might feel this somewhat devalues their roles

FTFY

Might I suggest a lack of applauding the opponent who's given away a penalty, or otherwise rubbing their nose in it. Even for our Saracens contingent.

I feel a valuable opportunity was missed recently to keep Itoje's jaw wired shut permanently so he wouldn't keep shouting at people on the pitch.

Puja

I want to see a grand slam. I'd settle for the title.

But there has to be some genuine improvement in play. I want to see our backrow working together more consistently well. I want to see ball used effectively in the backs. If we're persisting with Farrell at 12, I want to see him actually hold a defense.

I want to see a couple of players put their hands up. Whether that is Simmonds, Ford, Watson, May, Mako, Itoje or someone else, I don't mind. But I want to see some truly high class individual performances to go with the team performances. We need to be working on providing players with the opportunity to play well, not just grinding out wins.

80 minutes of sustained intensity, with none of the collective 20 minute sit back, feet up, look around with your mouth open spells that this team is prone to.

Can Itoje improve his ball carrying technique?

An open-side flanker?

I think the injury list is a blessing in disguise.
Its post Lions tour and apart from last years A.I's a first hit out towards the RWC.
Having this spring, to be forced to look at fringe and "perhaps" players is a brilliant opportunity at this precise point in the 4 year cycle. You're man EJ has used all the far eastern Zen in his DNA to make chaos an opportunity.

It's prity clear Manu has totally shat his nest with EJ - as he prefers to pick Teo in the strong centre role, even though Teo is not possibly quite all there fitness wise.
Any English qualified player with half a shout can absolutely think he has a chance - there is no closed shop or shirt blocking - apart from IMO Hartley and Robshaw,

I don't think we will get it this 6n, but others are correct - we would benefit by honing a more dominant set piece in the context of being able to shunt opposition teams back in the scrum, and not being shy of creating a more dynamic, faster, driving maul off a caught lineout.