Comments on: Best Of The Weekend: England Consigned To Fifth As Ireland Win Grand Slam

By: AlexD

AlexD — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 00:12:06 +0000

Agree with Jake
I said on here BEFORE the Ireland game that EJ could have used the Scotland game as a liberating loss by going on a “playerthon” to choose new players and combinations of the same. The fact that he didn’t I guess was a case of Eddie having to acknowledge to himself his own selectorial and tactical follies of the past before belatedly biteing the bullet (unfortunately with another loss to the perennial Irish bogeyman)
Does EJ possess a stubborn/arrogant streak perhaps that can work for as well as against him?On this occasion it went against!
As others have said ” a good team doesn’t become a bad one overnight” and nor does a coach. So whilst its hats off to Ireland lets hope the SA tour really sees new ideas, new answers to problem areas, an attack coach and a revitalised team.

By: Pablito

Pablito — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 18:50:17 +0000

In that case I would too. He looks a good talent.

Is there anyone else?

By: VJ

VJ — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 18:26:53 +0000

Apologies. *2015.

By: Steve H

Steve H — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 17:52:05 +0000

Woodward is fit, qualifies for England and is playing well.
I’d take him to SA.

By: Pablito

Pablito — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 16:28:07 +0000

Tough one.

I’d continue with Brown whilst bringing someone through

Watson is not international quality at fullback

Daly has been mentioned. I can understand why but would like to see him at 13

Who else is there? Pennell is getting on a bit. Haley is off to Ireland?

Is Jason Woodward a. qualified and b fit again?

By: Mr B

Mr B — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 16:18:49 +0000

Pablito – All Valid points but one left out, viable options at full back.

By: Pablito

Pablito — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 15:26:34 +0000

Just realised I left France out of all of that!! Not sure why
S0
How would you rate each side’s tournament? What are the next steps?
Mediocre. Need to find a settled side and a reliable fly half

Who were the players of the tournament?
Bastareaud, Camara, Grosso – shame about Teddy Thomas

What would constitute progress for each team next year?
Have to be competitve at the tope end of the table

By: Pablito

Pablito — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 15:22:23 +0000

What do England do now?
Rest their players. Get an attack coach. Stop playing locks at 6. Start bringing through another 2 scrum halves. Play Elliott Daly or Henry Slade at 13. Play Watson on the wing. Say thank you and wave goodbye to Cole and JJ – and perhaps even Hartley. Develop a number of back row players – Underhill, Simmonds, Mercer, Armand, Willis (?) and I’d like to see Wray bought in. Find another big lad for 8 – Morgan? Switch Nowell (when fit) and May. Re-consider how Ford fits in.

How would you rate each side’s tournament? What are the next steps?
Ireland – solid with glimpses of great – Stander’s try being one. Over-reliant on key players. Must add more genius to undoubted solidity
Wales – baby steps forward. Gatland needs to commit to the new game plan. Found or rediscovered some good players though – Shingler, Navidi, Steff Evans
Scotland – same as, same as. One great win flattering to deceive. Must win consistently and learn how to pass
England – discussed. Must win games
Italy – Some nice passages. Need consistency. Some good players coming through

Who were the players of the tournament?
From each team –
Furlong, Ryan, Sexton, Ringrose, Stockdale Kearney
Shingler, Navidi, Steff Evans, Parkes
H Watson – everyone else up and down
Daly
Minozzi

What would constitute progress for each team next year?
Ireland – whitewash of aus in summer, beat NZ in Autumn, grand slam again
Wales – whitewash arg in summer. At least 2nd with one more win in 6 nations (not sure of autumn games
Scotland – win all summer games, beat SA and Arg in autumn. Win a 6 Nations away game that isn’t Italy, come second
England – SA whitewash in summer, win 2 out 3 in autumn, at the very least win all home games in 6 Nations and come at least 2nd but preferably first

By: VJ

VJ — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 14:54:43 +0000

Fair enough re: Lions – and certainly no heat intended, by the way! I just feel there are other ways to solve the Lions problem (as I would never argue there isn’t one).
As for BPs – true, but then Wales were rewarded for their excellent consistency early in the competition, so avoiding a late steal by Scotland based on points difference in a hypothetical rout of Italy. I know that may take the hype out of the last day, but it keeps all teams striving for tries right from the off, to avoid falling behind. I feel it raises the overall level, without detracting from the final day unduly (we were so spoilt by 2013 and that final day – they haven’t all been so spectacular).

By: Leon

Leon — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 14:43:11 +0000

Big congratulations to Ireland,
great value for the slam. Had a slow start to the tournament but grew into it as the weeks progressed. Also good value for second in the rankings will be exciting to see where you are in a years time going into the RWC,

As for England there are a lot of takeaways from this tournament. I don’t think things are as bad as many are making out but we were severely lacking intensity at the breakdown (be that due to fatigue or tactics) which needs to be resolved for us to progress. Notably we have had good spells in every game where the intensity was picked up but we seemed unable to maintain that for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. Going back a couple of years to the Australia tour we had that intensity for 60+ minutes of the game and were looking a force to be reckoned with so we need to find a way back to that.

Also concerned at the constant refusal to look at a 3rd option at 9 as we struggled without Youngs. Eddies stance on this is baffling and Wiggy isn’t a realistic option going forwards

By: Ten Ton Donut

Ten Ton Donut — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 14:20:23 +0000

My scrapping the Lions comment was meant as tongue in cheek. I personally can’t stand the Lions but I am aware I’m in the minority and I don’t expect them to go anywhere anytime soon.

As for Bonus Points I’m sure I read somewhere that under the old system 4 teams would have been competing for 2nd place on the final day. Then it would have come down to points scored with all teams going for it. As it went Scotland could never have really pushed for 2nd place as they just didn’t have the bonus points to compete. Also with the disparity in home and away games and the difference that that can have the Bonus points work against those with more away games.

By: VJ

VJ — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 13:58:41 +0000

Sorry, going to have to disagree comprehensively with two of your points here, 10-ton;
1 – that BPs made the tournament worse. Really not sure how you’ve come to this decision, given that even under the old system the table would have looked the same; Ireland were clear after round four, and all bar Italy from the rest were capable of coming second. Ireland went for four tries against Scotland instead of cruising at three because they knew it would put the pressure on England – thus showing the BPs do encourage more tryscoring. It’s fair to say it doesn’t have quite the same impact as it would in a season-long competition, but it encourages try-scoring nonetheless in my books. It does no harm having uniformity with all other tournaments (that I know of, at least) as well.
2 – Getting rid of the Lions. Sorry, but b******s to that; its a hell of an occasion, and has acres of tradition – and I also believe it could be a big tool in spreading the game further (warm-up and/or mid-week matches against other smaller nations instead of all club sides, e.g.). But my main problem is that this is a knee-jerk made because England looked jaded, just as Wales have in the past too, post-Lions.
Sexton, Murray, and Furlong were all immense on the Lions tour, and were immense again in their GS. Why? They get rest from the IRFU, which polices such things as a matter of priority. And no, before anyone asks, I DON’T believe a lack of relegation means they get away with it; Ulster, Munster and Leinster over the last decade have consistently come top of domestic AND even European tables because they understand the opportunity given by these enforced rest periods to bring on new blood and develop strength in depth, while keeping their prized stars primed for the big matches. If all the teams in the Aviva did the same with rest periods, even if you ended up with a lot of closer matches, the average results would barely change, because you’d play your big names in the crunch top-of-the-table matches, and then give your 1.5 team a really testing game against the bottom quarter teams (also giving those teams a chance to develop instead of getting remorselessly hammered, week in week out). And they might do better in Europe as well.
I can go on on this topic, but will leave it at this: if the RFU and Aviva clubs cared about matching the relative success of the IRFU in this area, they would enforce a similar system, instead of ragging their players every week and blaming the Lions for their problems. The teams that try to rotate effectively (Exeter springs to mind), surprisingly enough get better results on average. Rotation is not the kiss of death many perceive it to be.
So, in a trade-off between ‘fresher’ players no longer going on Lions tours, versus a season that still allows for the Lions spectacle AND potentially solves (at least in part) the growing player concern over rest and recovery (instead of resorting to that cr*p about extending the season), I’m afraid to me that decision is a no-brainer.