With just under a year to go, who enhanced their chances of featuring at Rugby World Cup 2015 at the weekend, and who did themselves no favours?
GOING UP
Chris Robshaw
Harlequins, England
Answered his critics with an abrasive, all-action performance that included a smartly-taken, opportunistic try when Christian Wade failed to ground the ball over his own line. His contenders for the England jersey upped their game, now he has too. It’s over to them again to make the next move.
George Ford
Bath, England
The young Bath fly-half’s stellar start to the season continues. Against Leicester he was sublime, pulling the strings intelligently and showing plenty of glimpses of how dangerous he is with ball in hand. He brought the dangerous runners in Bath’s backline into the game superbly, and the sweetly-struck drop-goal is proof of how confident he is at the moment. Just a joy to watch (unless you’re a Tigers fan).
Dave Attwood
Bath, England
You could almost put the entire Bath team in the Going Up column – but I’ve settled for one back and one forward. Attwood was the pick of the pack, which is no mean feat because to a man they outmuscled their visitors. Attwood was everywhere, smashing into rucks, carrying the ball over the gainline and making a game-high 15 tackles. Poignantly, he was up against, and outshone, fellow England hopeful Geoff Parling.
Kieron Marmion
Connacht, Ireland
With Joe Schmidt in the crowd, Marmion couldn’t have picked a better time to score a beauty of an individual try that not only enhanced his own reputation but won the game for his side. Scrum-half is not a position of great strength for Ireland, and Marmion is doing a great job of playing himself into, at the very least, Conor Murray’s deputy role.
Tommy Seymour
Glasgow, Scotland
Wing will be a hotly contested spot for Scotland this year, and Seymour is doing a good job of pushing himself to the top of the list of options. He scored at the weekend as Glasgow overcame a numerical disadvantage to get a bonus point win at the Dragons, and was a livewire every time the ball came his way, finishing with seven defenders beaten and 133 metres made.
Rhys Webb
Ospreys, Wales
Webb was superb for the Ospreys against Edinburgh, bagging two tries in the first 11 minutes to completely take the wind out of the visitors’ sails. The first included a 50 metre sprint in which he showed great pace, and the second was an intelligent snipe from close range. Given that Gareth Davies also scored a brace this weekend, the pressure is really on Mike Phillips to keep hold of his shirt this autumn.
Liam Williams
Scarlets, Wales
Granted, playing at home to Treviso is not the most thorough examination in rugby, but Liam Williams looked every bit the international fullback as he tore the Italian defence to shreds. He finished with two tries, but the most encouraging thing was to see him get hit late after scoring a try and not respond with a similarly petulant act, as he has done in the past. If he can keep his head, Wales have a brilliant replacement for Leigh Halfpenny should he fail to recover from injury in time for the autumn.
GOING DOWN
Christian Wade
Wasps, England
Wade had made a bright start to the season at Twickenham, but his defensive frailties were shown up when he fumbled a regulation ball behind his own try line to allow Chris Robshaw to dot down for what never should have been a try. He still showed some nice footwork in attack, but if he’s to get a shot with England his defence really needs to tighten up.
Ben Youngs
Leicester Tigers, England
Just as the whole Bath team could be above, pretty much the entire Tigers team could be in the Going Down column. Youngs needs a strong start to the season to assert pressure on Danny Care in the England pecking order, but this was not a good performance from the new Leicester captain, a couple of wayward box kicks summing up a fairly miserable afternoon for the younger Youngs brother.
Aaron Cruden
New Zealand
Somewhat surprising to find a player who didn’t play at the weekend in this column, and yet Cruden’s stupidity in missing the team flight to Argentina after a big night out means he has now been dropped from the All Black squad for the remainder of the Rugby Championship. Do not expect Beauden Barrett to show any compassion, and given how good a player he is, allied with the expected return of Dan Carter, Cruden could well face an uphill battle to get back in the squad.
Billy Twelvetrees
Gloucester, England
Twelvetrees hasn’t had an awful start to the season – but he hasn’t had a brilliant one, either. As the likes of Kyle Eastmond, Luther Burrell and Sam Hill have all impressed so much, it’s inevitable that Twelvetrees’ stock, when it comes to the England pecking order, is likely to drop a bit. He didn’t do a great deal against Exeter, and certainly didn’t look as dangerous as his opposite man Hill. It’s always going to be difficult given the number of new people around him, but at some stage he needs to take a leaf out of Robshaw’s book and remind us all why exactly he’s the England incumbent ahead of the guys mentioned earlier.
Yoann Maestri
Toulouse, France
It’s far from all being Maestri’s fault, but the lock is part of a Toulouse front five that is getting pulverised week after week in the Top 14 at the moment. The prop cupboard is pretty bare at the Ernest Wallon, which is arguably more the problem, but it’s doing Maestri’s France prospects no good to be playing in a pack that is being so comprehensively shoved around every game.
What do you make of our list? Who were you impressed/disappointed with over the weekend?
By Jamie Hosie
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Think you’re right on the Bath players, after a performance like that you could name most of them as Going Up.. but of the ones not mentioned, I think Rokoduguni is an interesting one to consider. 4 tries in three games & solid in defense, even against the likes of Goneva who otherwise has been a destructive force this season.
There’s lots of names in the hat in terms of the players that have picked up caps, but versus Wade & Ashton, factor in Watson & Nowell out injured he can’t be too far out of the senior squad picture. with Yarde and May the only other two wings used in recent times, I’d be tempted to put a bet on him making the world cup squad next year.
If Attwood can continually play at that level then he should be in the first 15 for England. The pack need a Retallick/Etzebeth style player and he looks he could fit that mould.
If it were my choice I’d play him with Launchbury
I would not rule out playing Launchbury at 6, or as cover on the bench for both second and back row (as with Croft). His game at the moment is so much based around work rate and number of tackles etc. Often descriptions of his contribution sound like a 6.
Don’t forget how good Lawes has been both as a physical player and running the line out.
Really tough to pick between the three of them. And if Parling is playing well… Great to have the competition and depth, but not a decision I would want to make.
Launchbury for me needs to stay at lock. He offers the physical presence as well as that work rate. Lawes offers the physical presence too, and can run the line out. For me, those two are first choice.
I like Attwood, but Parling edges him for me based on his leadership skills. In the last 20 minutes, to have a cool experienced head come on could be vital. Harsh on Attwood, and he would certainly be fourth in line if any were to be injured/seriously out of form.