With 339 days to go until the biggest tournament in rugby kicks-off in England, who enhanced their chances of featuring at Rugby World Cup 2015 at the weekend, and who did themselves no favours?
GOING UP
Stuart McCloskey
Ulster, Ireland
With Brian O’Driscoll retiring, Irish centres were always going to be in the spotlight this year – but even the most die hard Irish fans wouldn’t have included McCloskey’s name in the mix before the season began. His form has been so good, however, that he can’t really be ignored. He tore it up again in Ulster’s win over Glasgow, making line breaks at will and beating plenty of defenders. He also made 12 tackles without missing any, giving further evidence that he deserves to be considered by Schmidt.
Matt Mullan
Wasps, England
Wasps’ scrum was dominant against Bath, in no small part down to the technical excellence of Mullan, who pulverised opposite man and England colleague Dave Wilson. With Corbisiero injured for the autumn, Mako Vunipola yet to return from an injury and Joe Marler hardly pulling up trees in a soft Harlequins scrum, more of this from Mullan could see him into contention for a starting spot.
Jonathan Joseph
Bath, England
Bath may have lost at the weekend but Joseph was again superb. He has developed a telepathic partnership with Kyle Eastmond inside him, and seems to have re-found his eye for a gap and rapid acceleration that made him such a danger when Bath signed him a couple of years ago. If he continues this sort of form expect him to push his name firmly into the already-cluttered mix of centres in contention this autumn.
Yoann Maestri
Toulouse, France
It’s been a ghastly start to the season for Toulouse, but a win against local rivals Toulon should have put smiles back on the faces of their fans. More pleasingly still, their set piece was vastly improved with Maestri prominent in both the lineout and the scrum. He also made 13 tackles and missed none in a highly unfussy performance.
Dan Baker
Ospreys, Wales
Taulupe Faletau has been inked in as first choice number eight for Wales for some time now, but no longer. Such is the form of Dan Baker at the Ospreys that he has thrown his hat genuinely into the ring to make a start for the national side this autumn. Against Cardiff he made 80 metres and beat seven defenders from just nine carries – stats that speak for themselves.
Jack Nowell
Exeter Chiefs, England
Nowell announced himself for the first time this season with a busy cameo on the wing that included two assists and deserved a try. His offloading ability was highlighted in both of his assists, while he showed quick feet and impressive pace in the build up to Armand’s try, too. He’ll be in the mix for EPS selection next week.
GOING DOWN
François Trinh-Duc
Montpellier, France
Rotten, rotten luck for Trinh-Duc who suffered a broken leg at the weekend and looks set to miss a sizeable chunk of the season. For years he has looked like France’s answer to the troublesome ten conundrum, only to be repeatedly overlooked by consecutive France coaches. Now, just as he had been recalled to the squad for the autumn and had put put together a brilliant run of form, he suffers a horror injury. We wish him a swift recovery, but his chances of playing at next year’s World Cup have taken a huge hit.
Mike Phillips
Racing Métro, Wales
It’s been a tough start to the season for Phillips. He’s not been getting the game time for Racing Métro, and when he has played, he’s not set the world alight. His main contender for the Welsh jersey, Rhys Webb, has been starring for the Ospreys, and to top it all off he might be released from his Racing contract this week with allegedly no club in Wales willing to sign him right now. If he has designs on playing in the World Cup, that needs to change, and sharpish.
Danny Cipriani
Sale Sharks, England
Cipriani wasn’t bad against Northampton, but he wasn’t great, either. He makes the going down column more for the rumours circulating today that he has been snubbed for England’s autumn squad with his opposite man at the weekend, Stephen Myler, being preferred. If true, it’s a crushing blow to the World Cup chances of the man who did a good job on the tour of New Zealand this summer, but seems still to be out of favour with Lancaster from his days in the Saxons.
Mike Brown
Harlequins, England
Almost certainly just a blip, the usually solid Brown had a torrid time of things at a drenched Welford Road on Friday night. Leicester’s intelligent kicking strategy had him pinned back and generally unable to counter attack, but more worrying was his inability to field several up-and-unders. Conditions were horrible, but we’ve come to expect better from England’s number one fullback.
Dave Wilson
Bath, England
Not a game to remember for England’s tighthead, who was given a torrid time at the scrum by Matt Mullan, conceding two penalties that allowed Andy Goode and Wasps to build a commanding lead. Such is England’s lack of depth in this area that Wilson will undoubtedly still start this autumn, but Lancaster will be severely hoping his travails at scrum time were nothing more than a blip.
Who were you impressed with over the weekend and who do you think played poorly?
By Jamie Hosie
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Surprised Joseph is on this list; can’t say I remember much of him from Sunday. For the first hour he saw barely any ball. Try was good but he was opposite a lock, and I found Eastmonds contribution to that try more impressive.
Mullan was certainly brilliant, our strength at loose-head is now great, it’s the other side where we have issues. Any signs of Dan Cole being fit?
On Cipriani – I would be absolutely gutted if he wasn’t in the EPS. How many 10s will be picked? For me, he is second choice behind Farrell, with Ford the other 10 in the squad. Would be surprised if we picked 4 10s, and even more surprised if Myler is selected as one of the top 3 with Burns involved too.
According to the Daily Mail (and whatever your thoughts on the paper, they tend to be on the money with their rugby reporting) it’s going to be Farrell, Ford and Myler in the EPS. Based on current form I think that is actually fair enough- Myler has been great for Saints, Alex King has really improved his all round play. However worth noting Myler (and Ford, bar the wasps game) have had armchair rides behind hugely dominant packs- Cipriani has had to try and impress behind a struggling Sale pack. He was outclassed by Myler at the weekend, think that may have been the tipping point.
They do seem to be the ones reporting the England teams the day before they are announced so I would assume that they’re right again here.
Myler decision surprises me though. Can you imagine what Cipriani would be like behind that Saints pack? He’d tear it up. Myler has certainly improved a lot, but he still doesn’t offer the attacking threat of Ford or Cipriani, and with Farrell the nailed on number one more reliable, I don’t really see the use for him. Farrell will start and I’d rather see a player with more attacking ability come on in the last 20, and however much it’s improved, that is not Myler.
” Farrell will start and I’d rather see a player with more attacking ability come on in the last 20″
Completely agree with that, at some stage in the pool (and hopefully knockout stages!) we are going to have to win a game in the last 20 and I don’t see Myler offers any real option to change gear and inject anything. Solid, reliable, will kick the points, but not game breaking.
Not JJs best performance of the season, but not bad either. But on form he’s got to be top of the list of 13s at the moment. Agree on Eastmond, his understanding of the game, quality of distribution and support play to go with the incredible agility and balance put him miles ahead of the other options at 12 at the moment. I know he’s not the biggest but I think he needs to be judged by what he does on the pitch, not on the scales (after all he’s not Welsh!).
Completely agree on Cips, I can’t see the argument for picking Myler ahead of him (if this is the case).
With Wilson, then Brookes and Thomas we aren’t too bad at tighthead. Brookes did really well in NZ. I’m not too worried over Wilson either, bad day at the office but the Wasps scrum were quicker on the ‘hit’ and got lower so don’t see it’s all down to Wilson. We’ve seen enough to know he can scrum!
I can’t get too excited over Nowell scoring his second prem try, decent prospect and did a solid job in the 6N but must be behind Roko and Wade (who looked pretty good defensively at the weekend in my view)
I’m worried by Warburton’s lack of form and general ineffectiveness so far this season.
Now you know how the rest of us felt when he was made Lions captain ;)
Yeah, winning the series was a real let down Matt :-)
Only said it’s how we felt when he was made Captain, no complaints on the outcome.
I’m sure if he stays fit and gets a consistent run of games under his belt he’ll get back in top form just in time for 06.02.15 …. bugger!
AWJ was the real leader on that tour, you only need to watch Lions Raw to realise that.
And, like any leader, he didn’t need to be named captain to do that. Leader/Captain – two different things.
A lot of unnecessary fuss is made about the captain. Nowadays it is largely an administrative rather than leadership role – lots of off field stuff and then the responsibility of being the on field contact with the ref. At the time, and since for Wales, Gats has been clear that Warburton has the respect of referees – a massively important factor in games. There are leaders all over the pitch.
Definitely a blip. Browny never has two bad games!
Toulouse and Toulon are not “local” rivals.
Mullan was excellent all round. Surprised not to see Haskell mentioned. Robshaw must be getting nervous!
Wood should be more nervous than Robshaw. Haskell plays the same role at 6 or 7, it’s perhaps a factor in his resurgence, that he now has the same role, week in, week out, and isn’t playing some at 6/7/8 across a season.
What nearly could have been… Haskell, Armitage, Vunipola. Hugely confrontational and physical pack there.
Haskell – Armitage – Vunipola is a back row that I would absolutely love to see in action.