1. The Curious Case of Kvesic
For quite some time now, a large band of England supporters have been calling for Gloucester’s Matt Kvesic to start at open side flanker for England. As of yet, he hasn’t had a look in and on Friday night we saw again both why he should be given a chance, and probably the main reason that he hasn’t.
Ten tackles made, not one tackle missed and causing havoc at the breakdown are pretty good stats in terrible conditions and behind a pack that was going backwards for most of the game but the most impressive improvement to Kvesic’s game is his physicality. He has got notably bigger without compromising his mobility and is still top of the turnover charts for this season in the Aviva Premiership.
The problem has historically been that he is not being backed up by his teammates. On Friday night Ross Moriarty missed two tackles from the blindside whilst Ben Morgan at number-eight made just three. Whilst those two are fine players who just suffered a bad night, it is true that his pack have more often than not in recent seasons been going backwards, which makes Kvesic’s options in attack quite limited.
2. Patience is a virtue
In the past four years Ben Spencer, the Saracens scrum-half, has been waiting in the wings, watching Neil de Kock and Richard Wigglesworth hog the limelight. But on Saturday the spotlight finally shone on him in only his second ever start in the Premiership – at Twickenham.
To say that he embraced the opportunity would be an understatement. With one sumptuous assist off the outside of his boot after a storming break, and a finish from a Chris Wyles break for a try of his own, Spencer’s day could hardly have gone any better.
He is already a Saxon but the lesson that needs to be learnt here is that patience is a virtue. Yes, all young players want to start for their clubs but what Spencer has done is learn from two extremely experienced international scrum halves and taken his chance when it finally arose.
Saracens speak very highly of him, as does De Kock himself – so keep your eyes on this particular number nine better than Worcester did on Saturday.
3. Another difficult week in the PRO12
A sorry week in Europe for the PRO12 sides last weekend has been followed up by a dour showing on the domestic front and it looks like it is starting to hit the clubs and provinces where it hurts the most: their pockets.
Over the six games at the weekend the average points amassed per match was 25.6 – or 12.8 per team if you want to look at that way. Now, of course the weather was never going to promote running rugby. But to add a bit of perspective, the Scarlets currently have one try bonus point from eight games and are second in the table.
The most worrying statistic, though, is the dwindling attendances. There were 10,000 unsold tickets at the first versus second match between Munster and Connacht at Thomond Park; a match that has historically sold well despite Connacht not being one of the bigger teams in Ireland.
I am not sure how Edinburgh can sustain housing 3,000 people in a 67,000 seat stadium but after the World Cup that Scotland have just had there must be questions as to why more local fans aren’t being drawn in. The two Scottish representatives were at home over the weekend and drew a combined gate of less than 10,000.
Answers are, as ever, on a postcard but something needs to change, and fast.
4. Discrepancies in refereeing remain
The way the game is refereed across this continent, let alone between hemispheres, is stratospherically different. Referees get a lot of stick and it is important to note that this is not actually the fault of the men in the middle themselves, more the administrators that are advising them on what is and isn’t acceptable.
When Toulon beat Clermont on Saturday night it looked, at times, that we were back at school with 30 people chasing one ball and diving all over it at the first sight of white leather. We all want to see the game flow and the ball in open play for longer, but not at the complete ignorance of the actual rule book.
Back in the Aviva Premiership, Sunday’s game between Leicester and Bath proved how far we still have to go with the refereeing of scrums. JP Doyle did his best, but the number of scrum penalties by the end of the game was atrocious. The issues were highlighted by former prop David Flatman in commentary; with former props questioning the judgement of the referees, you’ve got to question whether you can really understand what happens in the front row if you haven’t actually played there.
5. Have Robshaw and O’Shea predicted the future?
Without opening a huge can of worms, Chris Robshaw played at blindside flanker at the weekend and excelled. There is no other way of putting it. Three defenders beaten, two offloads and ten tackles. He did all of the dirty work that was asked of him and also linked play well.
Robshaw will meet with Eddie Jones this week and discuss his England future as both a player and a captain. The likelihood is he will lose the captaincy but if he can convince Eddie Jones, with Connor O’Shea’s backing, that he is now an out and out blindside then he has a very good chance of salvaging his international career.
6. Dan Carter will be a god in Paris even if he never plays
Saturday saw the unveiling of a legend of the sport to the fans of Racing 92 in Paris. In a very underwhelming ceremony in a very underwhelming stadium, Carter was paraded around the pitch whilst lapping up the praise of his new fans.
The fans will have been pleased to see him, though, especially after the lack of success that Johnny Sexton had with them and the differing form week on week of Remi Talles.
The fact that Carter’s face was shown on the TV, to more rapturous applause, more times than you count during Racing’s win over Toulouse shows just what a draw the World Player of the year will have be.
By Andy Daniel (@scrum5ive)
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
What a shocker – Robshaw better at 6 than 7…
I was never one of these “GET ROBSHAW OUT OF THE ENGLAND TEAM” people, but was always happy to say that he’s an excellent 6 and that it’s his more natural position. I won’t blame Jones for stripping him of the captaincy if that happens (and it’s likely), but he should definitely keep a spot in the squad as a 6. With Big Dave Ewers off the bench.
To be fair the Glasgow match was sold out versus a poor Italian side in terrible weather. Not sure that counts as evidence of spectator disinterest in Scottish rugby. Edinburgh on the other hand are playing pretty dull rugby in a stadium completely unsuited to their needs. Also, Scotland just announced that their home 6N are sold out 3 months in advance. Not something that has always been the case over the last 10y. I am afraid The facts don’t really fit the narrative
indeed, Glasgow have sold out every home game this season. There are currently 6 tickets for this weekends game v Leinster available, game v Scarlets isn’t far off sold out, and game v Edinburgh was sold out months ago.
Apologies for my misguided comment on Glasgow as it seems that they could sell their stadium twice over for most games and the players that they have deserve that. I am actually surprised at their position in the Pro12 at the moment but their returning RWC players will sort that out I am sure. As bigger picture though I am perplexed by the attendances at Murrayfield for Edinburgh. With such a large catchment area what is the reason for not being able to attract a larger audience.
Glasgow are where they are due to losing 20+ players to the RWC. Three games we’ve lost we could (should) have won, even with the numbers missing, still picked up losing BPs in all three.
Edinburgh’s problem (aside from not being successful), is that there isn’t a supply and demand issue. The SRU offer a discount of £5 on tickets bought before midnight the night before a game. If the weather forecast isn’t looking great and you know there won’t be an issue getting tickets at Murrayfield on the day, then you’re less likely to buy in advance. If you want to see Glasgow play, you have no choice to buy in advance and so even if the weather is pish, you still go.
The points about Kvesic and Robshaw dovetail nicely. What remains to be seen is how Jones sees the future for both players.
Kvesic has done all he can individually and the shortcomings of his team mates are irrelevant,in fact his continued excellence sans support from the rest of the pack only strengthens his case IMO.
Robshaws biggest problem is O’Shea. I completely understand him supporting his captain but enough already! His protestations about Robshaw seem to have been on going since the last whistle of the WCup was blown.
We’ve got the message Conor,now give it a rest and let Jones decide what happens to CR at Int’l level.
To be fair, Robshaw might have O’Shea blowing his trumpet all the time but I completely understand why Conor is doing it, after all Robshaw has come under so much flak since the World Cup that I think O’Shea is trying to being the reasonable voice making sure that everyone doesn’t get carried away, rather that people remember that Robshaw is actually a pretty good player…
It would be interesting to see Robshaw alongside Kvesic (or Fraser/BoC), I can’t recall him lining up with a real fetcher. Wallace isn’t far off but he isn’t an out and out 7.
Agreed that Kvesic’s excellence with a poor pack should highlight his abilities more than hurt his chances. Speaking of which, Morgan needs to find some form.
I think it’s a mixture of things affecting the pro 12 attendances (from a purely Welsh perspective):
The matches are more often televised than not – there used to be one or two matches televised each weekend.
Travelling support – when most of the away supporters have to catch a plane, rather than a bus, to get to the match there are always going to be fewer of them.
Ticket prices – Do you really want to play £20 to watch the Blues play? Particularly when you can watch the game on TV. Would the number of supporters more than double if they charged £10?
Entertainment value – okay, it might be a particularly poor example, but I’m very glad I didn’t go to watch the Ospreys versus the Blues on Saturday.
Lack of atmosphere – a bit of a vicious circle, but it’s not much fun going to watch a match in a half empty stadium. You might as well watch it in the pub.
The clubs/regions/whatevers can’t do much about the first two (I suspect the TV rights are more lucrative than gate takings), but they should be able to do something about the second two (the fourth might be harder, admittedly) and when you start to get better attendances you can hope it’d be self reinforcing. They manage it for ‘Judgement Day’ – cheap tickets, get a lot of people in (helped by not having to travel more than an hour), create a good atmosphere and you’re onto a winner (even if the rugby sometimes leaves something to be desired). It’s just a shame that the rest of the season is completely different.
Too much rugby. 12 International games a year, 9 European weekends and 2 weeks for the play-offs. If players should play 30 games max a season, then the top players should only play 7-12 regular season games in the league – so somewhere between a third and a half.
The Pro12 squads don’t have the depth to rest the top players and keep the quality up. The Premiership and Top14, with all the imports, can manage a better job, but the overall quality is still less than it is in Europe and certainly international level.
When the weather turns bad, the rugby suffers, it’s no fun to sit out in the rain, and if the teams have to rest and rotate some of their top players, then what’s the point?
Looks like Eddie Jones can only make 10 changes to the WC squad. Hence think it could be:
1. Jamie George
2. DYLAN HARTLEY [Rob Webber]
3. Tom Youngs
4. Kieran Brookes
5. Dan Cole
6. Joe Marler
7. Mako Vunipola
8. HENRY THOMAS [David Wilson]
9. George Kruis
10. Joe Launchbury
11. Courtney Lawes
12. DAVE ATTWOOD [Geoff Parling]
13. MARO ITOJE [James Haskell] – *new cap*
14. Chris Robshaw (c)
15. MATT KVESIC [Tom Wood]
16. WILL FRASER/BoC – *new cap*
17. DAVE EWERS [Nick Easter] – *new cap*
18. Ben Morgan
19. Billy Vunipola
20. Danny Care
21. JOE SIMPSON [Richard Wigglesworth]
22. Ben Youngs
23. Owen Farrell
24. George Ford
25. ELLIOTT DALY [Brad Barritt]
26. LUTHER BURRELL [Sam Burgess]
27. Jonathan Joseph
28. Henry Slade
29. Jonny May
30. Jack Nowell
31. Anthony Watson
32. Mike Brown
33. Alex Goode
I always thought the 10 applied only to forced changes, so Burgess for example could be replaced without counting towards the 10, as could Easter if he’s happy to formally retire from internationals.
The good news is actually fewer changes are needed than perhaps one would initially think.
*applied only to unforced changes
I think on current form Haskell might keep his place. Itoje in for Parling instead of Attwood. Itoje is a lock who can play 6, not the other way round.
It would be a shame if you’re right because I think there are other players outside of this that Jones will want to have a look at. Players like Yarde, Beaumont, Ashton, Auterac to name a few.
Start with a clean slate, but then get told you can still only change ten players.
I think that “rule” is fairly flexible. Certainly when SL came in it was completely ignored.
I certainly wouldn’t remove Haskel anywayl, his form for Wasps has been outstanding, and he has also actually been very good for England in the 6 nations. Unfortunately he didn’t get much of a chance in the WC.
Unfortunate is right considering Wood was playing, and he hasn’t shown any good form for some time.
I feel this is somewhat exaggerated.
Haskell got worse as the 6 Nations went on. He was good against Wales despite somehow running into a post and failing to score. He was more anonymous in the following games, went missing against Ireland and capped it all off with an idiotic trip against France
Seems to happen every time with Haskell’s international career – has one or two great games followed by a number of mediocre ones. He is also prone to the odd appalling error of judgement
He’s had his chance and shown that he is not consistent enough at this level. I would drop him for Ewers
Completely disagree that he was anonymous, although i do agree that his carrying was quieter as the 6 nations went on. Was a stupid trip again France, can’t really argue with that.
I certainly think Ewers deserves a shot, but I’m not seeing many other flankers in the Premiership that are better than him, so I wouldn’t be moving on from him completely.
Haskell is 31 in April and as good as he is for wasps he has never translated that to international. In all honesty he just isn’t a player that other countries will fear.
What good is giving caps to a mediocre international who we’re going to get little out of. Same goes for robshaw.
In terms of 6s playing as well, admittedly it’s hard to come up with any but Haskell has never played for England like he does for wasps. Both ewers and Beaumont have started the season well so they’d be my two 6s.
Haskell is in ridiculous shape, he lives and breathes fitness. 31 is like most 25 years olds to him so age really is not an issue.
I would like to see Ewers given a chance, but Beaumont is an 8 or lock in my eyes; certainly not a better 6 than Robshaw, Wood or Haskell.
I don’t think Haskell should start in the 6 nations but I would not completely discard him either. If Ewers got injured then he should be right in the mix.
He couldn’t have been more anonymous than Wood though. Most of the games Wood was playing in I forgot he was even there. Haskell may have been tackled and hit the post, but at least he had the ball and was running in the direction of the try line, which is more than I can say for Wood.
I don’t think Haskell is someone to disregard just yet. He is still one of our most experienced players, and is great form at the moment.
To be fair to Wood, he did only play for about 30 mins in the 6 Nations. I’d have Haskell in front of him though
Haskell should be an emergency pick only. He’s been in great club form before and demonstrated that he cannot transfer that to the international stage in any consistent fashion
Its not like he’s some new tyro whose abilities are untested and unknown. We know all about him and know that he is not going to hit the international heights.
The Tier One nations 6s in the RWC were Kaino, Fardy, Lydiate, Louw, Matera, O’Mahony, Dusautoir, Zanni and whoever Vern Cotter picked out of a hat that day
There aren’t many players there that I would choose Haskell in front of – Zanni for sure and a couple of the Scot choices.
Forgot to say. My flanker choices for the EPS would be Robshaw, Ewers, Fraser and Clifford and I’d have Itoje in one of the lock places as we know he can also cover 6
See I’d go Robshaw, Ewers, O’Connor and Kvesic.
Says a lot about how many options there are. Haskell would then be next cab off the rank for me, and to honest I’d he half tempted to have him over Kvesic anyway.
I think we need to view Itoje as more of a six than a lock. One area where England fall short in is having a couple of big beefy units in the second row mix. Maro is more lithe and athletic and only about six foot five,not ideal when the average height for a lock these days is around six-seven to eight. Ewers,Itoje and Robshaw would bring different but equally valuable qualities to the back row.
Throw in Kvesic and Fraser and find a pair of giants to complement Kruis,Launchbury et al.
as for Haskell, I have never been totally convinced.I too, thought he had an iffy 6N and a quiet WC.That’s not unforgivable but ,and it’s big but,James is never short of an opinion when in front of a camera or reporters note book but he definitely did not show himself to be a leader when the wc chips were down.