Comments on: Six Nations 2019: England Player Ratings Versus Scotland

By: Andy Lawrenson

Andy Lawrenson — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 14:22:20 +0000

Totally agree with Jacob re Cole. The horse was already bolting when he came on, and to suggest that he is shot at this level because the whole team were waiting for a bath after half time is daft. Very harsh on Launchbury who made his tackles, won every throw aimed at him and scored a try with a nice little dummy. Extremely generous to Daly who tends to miss tackles, still looks dodgy under the high ball and looks far better going forward than defending. No more than a 5 at best. I don´t think his positional sense has improved much at all. I´d have Brown, Goode, Woodward, Watson and a couple of others in front of him as a 15, and am not sure I´d pick him as a centre either at the moment. C-D surely deserves a higher mark for actually doing the one thing that was required of him and hitting his jumper when under huge pressure. Also, despite scoring some nice tries the back line surely have to take collective responsibility for their dreadful defensive alignment in the second half and are all at least one mark too high. I do wonder whether having Nowell playing like an extra flanker sometimes leaves holes that don´t get filled and Mitchell must have been looking anxiously at the situations vacant column in “Rugby World” with five minutes to go.

By: Jacob Bassford

Jacob Bassford — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 22:23:40 +0000

Very unfair to give Cole a 4, your reasoning is a purely coincidental correlation, England slid because of the dinosaur and “Lenny”, not Cole.

By: Din P

Din P — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 20:56:14 +0000

Not everyone’s suddenly started talking Brown up Staggy. It seems fairly obvious that MB, with his record, is the sounder f/back option under pressure than Daly. Already mentioned are the latter’s missed Johnson tackle v Scotland & x kick v Wales for instance. However, to can Brown for 1 missed tackle v Woodward is hardly representative. BTW, perhaps the Kiwi could be another England option @ 15, not least abecause he plays for Glaastaah!?

By: Don P

Don P — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 20:41:09 +0000

Amazes me dometimes Jake, how people’s perceptions can vary so widely. I think Daly is a skilful, quick witted player, but, especially by being played out of position (why, only Jones can say.. maybe?), he is being unnecessarily exposed as not being the finished article @ f/back. Even so, v Wales when Adams scored against him & as I stated elsewhere, he made an error of judgement in competing for the late, aerial x kick. However, whatever position he had been playing in, the %age option would was to have let Adams have the ball & then placed himself in a position to have immediately driven Adams into touch as he landed. Never know for sure, but can t help but wonder if the out of favour Mike Btown would have done better. Not entirely ED’s fault that he’s @ f/back, although he could tell Jones he declines to play there in future, although it’s probably too late for that now as Slade seems glued into Daly’s better posi of 13.. or maybe 12? But this is not going to happen under Jones who’s calling in a psycho to sort out mentality instead of addressing real issues such as playing keep ball & er, positional incongruities. A shame for ED & England, although unsure about for Jones.

By: acee

acee — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 17:44:06 +0000

oops! Thanks for the heads up.

By: Don P

Don P — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 15:49:23 +0000

Well, TT, about this Shields thing, when he scored a brace last up, were you expressing similar sentiments? Also, as Wilson was only rated @ 5.5 here, should his presence not also be ?ed? Concern about perception v reality, esp as yr criticism was general & non specific.

By: jake

jake — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 12:15:43 +0000

Agree with you here Don, Daly was responsible for a couple of very questionable tackles. One missed on Johnson and one missed on Price in the build up to Bradburys try. He seems to be mimicking Farrell a bit with some chest-on-chest action yet failed to make any significant contact. He was also had a 3 on 2 (though deep in Englands half) and opted to kick which went dead.
Youngs is more responsible imo than Farrell, though both were poor. His passing is nowhere near good enough for an international 9. At pounts in the second half, where England has managed to get into Scotlands 22, his passing was either behind onrushing players or over their heads, killing any momentum and giving Scotland the upper hand in defence. His box kicking was aimless and constantly gave Scotland good field position to mount a counter.

By: SJ

SJ — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:17:56 +0000

I would love to see Underhill / Curry at 6 / 7 – I think both Warburton and Woodward have come out in the press saying that it would be worth a go and their playing styles are quite complimentary… Here’s hoping !

By: Don P

Don P — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 21:01:36 +0000

Not sure that this entirely makes sense Bolter. Understand yr pt about Launch being replaced by Hughes, a No. 8. However, to enable Ford to score @ the death, those fwds on the field @ that time did produce a series of pressure attacks to stress Scotland’s defence for this to happen.

By: Paulo

Paulo — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 20:54:30 +0000

Agree on Jack Willis, he’s a quality operator but I just don’t think he’s got the time to force himself in to contention. The other 50/50s for me are the experienced guys like Robshaw, Brown, Joseph and Ashton. They all have a case for inclusion. I hope that Hughes and Shields are left out but I can’t see Eddie doing that. What do you think of having only one genuine blind side in the above squad? I thought it could pave the way for playing Underhill at 6 and Curry at 7 for a game or two.

By: Don P

Don P — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 20:48:14 +0000

You been listening to Mike Tyson again D Maul?

By: SJ

SJ — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 20:21:21 +0000

Agree with that selection but I would be tempted with Jack Willis as a bolter in the back row. No doubt too late for him and without ample prep time before the RWC EJ will likely opt for Shields or Robshaw.