With 346 days to go until rugby’s showpiece event 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
Semesa Rokoduguni
Bath, England
Rokoduguni’s rise has been an incredible one, and although he might be 27 – a little older than most make their international debut – if he continues to perform the way he did at the weekend against Saracens, how can Stuart Lancaster ignore him this autumn? He tore the best defence in the league to shreds and deserved a try of his own.
Rory Kockott
Castres, France
Castres have had a woeful start to the season so their 51-10 thumping of Grenoble at the weekend was not before time. Scrum-half Rory Kockott, recently included in France’s squad for the Autumn Internationals, was instrumental to their victory, contributing 21 points including a try of his own. Given the nine jersey for France has been passed through several sets of hands in recent times, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Kockott given a chance to make it his own this autumn.
Tommy O’Donnell
Munster, Ireland
Munster enjoyed less possession and territory than Leinster at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, and yet still managed to run out comfortable winners. This was down, in no small part, to their defensive efforts, which were led by their marauding openside flanker, who finished the match with a game-high 17 tackles. There’s no Sean O’Brien for Ireland this autumn, so O’Donnell is bound to be in the mix for the Ireland seven shirt.
Matt Kvesic
Gloucester, England
Kvesic has started the season strongly, and put in another huge shift in Gloucester’s fine win at home to the Tigers. He was a mountain of physicality at the breakdown, winning two turnovers and generally marshalling the area to prevent Leicester getting any quick ball. All the talk this season has been of Robshaw, Fraser and Haskell – but do not write off Kvesic just yet. It would be a huge surprise if he missed out on the EPS when it is announced in a few weeks’ time.
Dave Attwood
Bath, England
It’s becoming a bit boring to mention Bath players in this column, but they’re playing that well, they’re impossible to ignore. Attwood has been one of the players of the Premiership season so far and again impressed against Saracens, smashing his way through 13 tackles on Friday night and obliterating men at the rucks. Given the form and injury status of several other England locks, he could be heading straight for a starting spot this autumn.
Scott Williams
Scarlets, Wales
Williams played well in the Scarlets’ win over the Dragons but makes this column mainly for his glorious assist for his side’s first try. After darting through the defence with a well-cut line, he floated a majestic 20 metre pass out to his centre partner Owen who didn’t have to break stride on the way to the line. It was a thing of real beauty.
GOING DOWN
Chris Ashton
Saracens, England
Ashton was the fourth best winger on the pitch at the Rec on Friday night, and given they were all English-qualified, it doesn’t do his international chances much good. While the likes of Bath’s Rokoduguni, Eastmond and Joseph all sparked attacks with line breaks and clever offloads, Ashton wasn’t able to provide any impetus to the Saracens attack despite them enjoying more possession and territory. He is far from the only one to blame for this, of course, but add it to his yellow card and it was a night to forget for him.
Ross Ford
Edinburgh, Scotland
Most Scotland fans have been exasperated by Ross Ford’s place in the international side for years, and so it would be ironic if it was his club form that eventually lost him his place. Since their shock victory over Munster in round one Edinburgh haven’t won again, and the set-piece has been a shambles. Given the converse form of Glasgow, Ford won’t be the only Edinburgh player to miss out this autumn.
Graham Kitchener
Leicester Tigers, England
This one needs a caveat, as Kitchener was actually one of the better Leicester performers against Gloucester. That said, he is part of a front five that is just not enjoying the success a Tigers unit usually does, the scrum and the line-out both suffering. In Parling’s absence Kitchener really needed to step up and for all his brilliance in the loose – he is remarkably mobile and a good footballer – the set-piece has not been good enough.
Jamie Heaslip
Leinster, Ireland
Leinster’s captain was not the rallying point they needed him to be in their biggest game of the season against Munster. He was outplayed by Robin Copeland, who does not have the skills of Heaslip but outdid him in the desire and work-rate stakes. The Leinster number eight has long saved his best performances for the green of Ireland, and is highly unlikely to be shifted from the number eight shirt, but it will still be a bit of a worry for Joe Schmidt to see one of his most important players go missing in such a big game.
Christian Wade
Wasps, England
This might seem a little harsh given that Wade scored a sublime try that he had absolutely no right to, but it was once again his defensive errors that must have caught the eye of Stuart Lancaster, who happened to be in the stands. For the second time this season he failed to ground a bouncing ball behind his own try line, leading to a simple score for the opposition. It’s the sort of error you cannot afford to make in the high-intensity, minuscule-margin-for-error environment of international rugby.
Who were you impressed with over the weekend and who do you think played poorly?
By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43
Rarely disagree with these ever, but I do with a few this week.
Kvesic – would it be a surprise to see him out of the EPS? Considering Haskell wasn’t in the last one, and will almost certainly be in this one, one flanker has to miss out. Surely with Robshaw and Haskell in the EPS, will there be space for Kvesic? That’s not to say he has been poor – he is playing a lot better now than he was last year when he was in the EPS, simply that due to others coming in, I’d actually be surprised if he is included.
Wade – now I’m biased, but surely he deserves his England chance? Yes these two errors this year are dreadful, and he needs to cut them out, but – in numbers terms, he cost his team a try and scored a sublime one that not many other players would have finished. For me, he will score more wonder tries than he will make errors. It wasn’t shown up this week but Rokoduguni’s defensive positioning make Ashton look good, so whilst he has performed well, I wouldn’t have him down as an automatic pick.
What I like about NZ is that they create a club atmosphere within the AB camp. That means that club form is less valued than international form, hence the likes of Nonu and Cruden playing for the AB’s despite weak club form. There obviously needs to be a balance, but I’d rather see England go this way (which SL does a bit with his ‘credit in the bank’ lines), than picking the Prem Hotshot of the month.
Jacob – completely agree with your last paragraph.
Concerned about Wade and his defence. Last season Ashton was scoring left right and centre for Sarries, but defensive frailty meant most did not want him in the team. I did not notice that about Roko, and unfortunately have deleted the game now. however I did see him making a few good tackles, and not dropping off as Ashton can. Positioning cna be coached by the defence coach to a degree. Ashton seems unable to hold onto his man when he gets in an international.
p.s. Quins fan, so not biased on either of these.
I haven’t seen this bad defensive positioning from Rokoduguni that Jacob speaks of. On the contrary, I’ve thought he’s been pretty solid defensively so far this season. Far better than Ashton and Wade.