With a squad named, its time to start getting excited. Particularly as it was named about a week ago. For those who can't remember it, this is the squad:
Catt, Genge, Marler, Mullan
Cole, Sinckler
Hartley, George, Taylor
Ewels, Itoje, Kruis, Launchbury, Lawes
Clifford, Harrison, Haskell, Hughes, Williams, Wood
Youngs, Care
Ford, Farrell, Lozowski
Daly, Joseph, Slade, Te'o
May, Nowell, Watson, Yarde
Brown
To a certain extent, there's not a lot to say here. Its very much a business as usual squad with everyone bar Catt, Williams and Lozowski previously involved. However, there's a few points of interest.
Uncle Eddie clearly wants Marler in the team asap and isn't sure when that will be, but the inclusion of both Genge and Catt points to an interesting call. Genge had one of the shooting stars of Jones' reign until missing the most recent training squad with Catt getting the nod. I've no idea who'll get the nod for the bench if Marler does miss some games but in any case, spare a thought for Paul Hill, another of the shooting stars who's now not making the squad at all. That might be a sign of Genge's fate as well - a team looking for more experienced scrummagers. We'll see. If Genge does join Hill in the cold, it wouldn't be the worst thing. Sparing young props heavy work loads is always a good thing and so too is Jones' philosophy of making the kids work for it.
Speaking of kids working for it, Ewels can congratulate himself on a job well done in making his first Six Nations squad. He's probably going to be holding tackle bags most of the time, fitness permitting, but its still a big step up for him. It also hints at the possibility of a big step back for Itoje - why else do you need five locks? In Robshaw's absence, Itoje is almost certainly the safest bet for England's blindside and heaven knows the flankers in the squad aren't making a man excited to play them. You'd imagine Itoje would end up besides Hughes in that case. That's a lot of raw talent but I wouldn't be surprised if come mid-point in the Six Nations, we were all pining for Robshaw and Vunipola.
The general assumption in the papers seems to be that May and Nowell are in pole position for starting shirts, with Watson's spell out costing him in the pecking order. If so, this opens up some interesting questions about who gets to sit on the bench. Te'o and Watson would seem to be the obvious pairing, covering everything and offering a few changes in plan. Jones doesn't always put too much stock in that sort of thing though and both Daly and Slade have displayed added versatility under him. In short, it could be anyone.
In any case, the real enemy this window is complacency. Which is not to dismiss the other teams - Ireland in Dublin should be a real challenge - or the impact of the injured. Those things matter a lot. However, Jones' reign to date has revealed an England team whose peak performance allows them to cope with those things (although they are yet to play an in form Ireland). The question is how long can they keep this up?
My prediction for this spring would be four wins and a coin toss as to who takes the Grand Slam in Dublin. Welsh folk may bristle at that one but with Gatland away, I reckon it would be an upset for them to win, Cardiff or no. And its now an upset when England lose to not-NZ in Twickenham until proven otherwise. Soon we'll see how true this holds.
p.s.
I'm a big fan of the U20 6N as a way to spend a Friday night. I haven't been paying too much attention to the squad this time round, so I'm just going to link you a pretty good review of England's squad I found elsewhere.
Wednesday 25 January 2017
Friday 20 January 2017
Ten things that really annoy me on a rugby pitch
There are few things more satisfying than playing a good game of rugby and one of them's playing an awful game where the other team don't have a hope. My uncanny ability to pull a muscle has so far limited the amount of this I've done so far this season but I've managed my latest comeback and my gods it is good.
However, there are a few niggling concerns. A few things that mar the enjoyment. Frustrations that I believe others can share, not least because most people reading this play with me and I'm fucking atrocious. So - tongue firmly in cheek - the ten things that annoy me most on a rugby pitch.
1) Getting up from a ruck and seeing the backs drop it/slice it out on the full/give an intercept pass/everything else negative. Bonus marks if it wasn't actually a back but rather a forward who's convinced he has mad skillz.
2) Every time someone gets a bit roughed up - high tackle, collision off the ball, that sort of thing - and someone runs in to start a pushing match. Not to punch them but just to have a good push. Half the time whoever did it is a good ten yards away from what happened by the time they got there.
3) Being about to get up from a ruck only to have next phase's pick and go land right on you because someone decided they could run upright into the biggest player around. They couldn't and now both of them are about to compress your kidneys.
4) Picture it. Its been raining for three days before the game and there's somehow another three days worth of rain coming down right now. You've seen ploughed fields more suitable for rugby and the ball's greasier than cheap chicken. Someone's made a break. He's got support. The full-back tackles him and, rather than go to ground and trust his team to ruck over, he goes for the death or glory offload. Needless to say, there won't be glory but, honestly, even if there was, I'd still be annoyed. Taking high risk moves because they're more fun it part and parcel of social rugby but can people at least wait for good conditions before pretending they're Fijian?
5) On a similar note, getting up from a ruck to see your team halfway up the pitch with a gilt edged opportunity only to watch them somehow bollocks it up. Not only did they not get the try, you've now got to sprint up there instead of casually sauntering back to the halfway line and the water bottles.
6) There's also the annoyance of getting up from a ruck and seeing that the ball's been dotted down without a clue how it happened. Couldn't they have waited that extra few seconds for you to share in the emotional thrill? Also, for some strange reason, these always seem to involve thirty yard runs by props, even if the last ruck was five yards away from the line.
7) Poorly thought out tap penalty moves. We've all seen them, we all know them, we all hate them. Bonus points if the intended receiver wanders off into the backline and the scrum-half panics and picks the fly-half as a crash ball option after a good three seconds of dithering. Or the receiver is already level with the scrum-half by the time he's tapped the ball. Or when a forward takes it and thinks he'll dummy a pass and go himself. Or...
8) I hate dogging on refs. They come along and get it in the ear just so I can have a good time. That's not right really. However, sometimes we do the things we hate, because some refs don't make it easy for themselves. The ref I've come to dread the most is young, keen, knows the laws really well and has great eyesight. The average game of rugby at any level has a potential infringement every five seconds, nevermind at my level. A good ref knows what's important and what's not. Pedantic refs who do not are a misery, particularly when they don't have a sense of humour. No one plays rugby to have a penalty every thirty seconds.
9) Quick throw ins. There are two types of quick throw ins in this world. The first is when there's no one around at all and the forwards have to sprint up the pitch rather than having their well deserved break. The second is when there is someone around and the poor receiver is going to get buried. By some strange quirk of fate, the former only ever seems to happen to the opposition and the latter only ever seems to happen to my team. I wouldn't be quite so annoyed by them if it was the other way around.
10) Doing these things myself. It is easy to be forgiving and slap your team mate on the back and say "Don't worry, heads up". Its a lot harder to be forgiving when you're the knucklehead fucking up everything for everyone else. So the worst thing really is doing things like this myself. Admittedly my style of play means a lot of them just don't happen very often, but I still remember the time I threw a really sloppy offload...
... when already over the try line.
But I'm sure scrum-halves have a very different list of annoyances which contain things I am guilty of.
Anyway. There we go. I apologise for wasting two minutes of your life.
However, there are a few niggling concerns. A few things that mar the enjoyment. Frustrations that I believe others can share, not least because most people reading this play with me and I'm fucking atrocious. So - tongue firmly in cheek - the ten things that annoy me most on a rugby pitch.
1) Getting up from a ruck and seeing the backs drop it/slice it out on the full/give an intercept pass/everything else negative. Bonus marks if it wasn't actually a back but rather a forward who's convinced he has mad skillz.
2) Every time someone gets a bit roughed up - high tackle, collision off the ball, that sort of thing - and someone runs in to start a pushing match. Not to punch them but just to have a good push. Half the time whoever did it is a good ten yards away from what happened by the time they got there.
3) Being about to get up from a ruck only to have next phase's pick and go land right on you because someone decided they could run upright into the biggest player around. They couldn't and now both of them are about to compress your kidneys.
4) Picture it. Its been raining for three days before the game and there's somehow another three days worth of rain coming down right now. You've seen ploughed fields more suitable for rugby and the ball's greasier than cheap chicken. Someone's made a break. He's got support. The full-back tackles him and, rather than go to ground and trust his team to ruck over, he goes for the death or glory offload. Needless to say, there won't be glory but, honestly, even if there was, I'd still be annoyed. Taking high risk moves because they're more fun it part and parcel of social rugby but can people at least wait for good conditions before pretending they're Fijian?
5) On a similar note, getting up from a ruck to see your team halfway up the pitch with a gilt edged opportunity only to watch them somehow bollocks it up. Not only did they not get the try, you've now got to sprint up there instead of casually sauntering back to the halfway line and the water bottles.
6) There's also the annoyance of getting up from a ruck and seeing that the ball's been dotted down without a clue how it happened. Couldn't they have waited that extra few seconds for you to share in the emotional thrill? Also, for some strange reason, these always seem to involve thirty yard runs by props, even if the last ruck was five yards away from the line.
7) Poorly thought out tap penalty moves. We've all seen them, we all know them, we all hate them. Bonus points if the intended receiver wanders off into the backline and the scrum-half panics and picks the fly-half as a crash ball option after a good three seconds of dithering. Or the receiver is already level with the scrum-half by the time he's tapped the ball. Or when a forward takes it and thinks he'll dummy a pass and go himself. Or...
8) I hate dogging on refs. They come along and get it in the ear just so I can have a good time. That's not right really. However, sometimes we do the things we hate, because some refs don't make it easy for themselves. The ref I've come to dread the most is young, keen, knows the laws really well and has great eyesight. The average game of rugby at any level has a potential infringement every five seconds, nevermind at my level. A good ref knows what's important and what's not. Pedantic refs who do not are a misery, particularly when they don't have a sense of humour. No one plays rugby to have a penalty every thirty seconds.
9) Quick throw ins. There are two types of quick throw ins in this world. The first is when there's no one around at all and the forwards have to sprint up the pitch rather than having their well deserved break. The second is when there is someone around and the poor receiver is going to get buried. By some strange quirk of fate, the former only ever seems to happen to the opposition and the latter only ever seems to happen to my team. I wouldn't be quite so annoyed by them if it was the other way around.
10) Doing these things myself. It is easy to be forgiving and slap your team mate on the back and say "Don't worry, heads up". Its a lot harder to be forgiving when you're the knucklehead fucking up everything for everyone else. So the worst thing really is doing things like this myself. Admittedly my style of play means a lot of them just don't happen very often, but I still remember the time I threw a really sloppy offload...
... when already over the try line.
But I'm sure scrum-halves have a very different list of annoyances which contain things I am guilty of.
Anyway. There we go. I apologise for wasting two minutes of your life.
Friday 6 January 2017
Eddie and Clive
In proof that even broken clocks get it right twice a day, the Mail have posted a pretty interesting interview of Eddie Jones with Lord Baldermort asking the questions. Its well worth reading as a rough guide to what we may expect this year and going forwards from England. For those who don't want to, here's a rough summary of the important bits.
1) The Lions tour will impact on the year
Yes, I know, not a surprise, but Eddie's talking about losing 10-15 players for the Summer and maybe resting them in the Autumn as well. The latter bit's not usual if memory serves but makes sense. The players are taking on huge workloads and if we want them to be around for the World Cup, something has to give. Better to do it at a time of the coach's choosing when they need it most.
What there isn't is any talk of resting front line players who don't make the Lions, like Lancaster did in 2013. This seems understandable if England are going to get stripped as bare as Eddie and anyone who doesn't believe Gatland is totally biased expect. There'll need to be as much experience around as possible to give the many noobs a chance of making it. Eddie talks up the two windows post-Six Nations as a chance to produce great 3rd and 4th choice players and says "If we can sit down in the last week of November and say we have got 45 guys who can play Test rugby at the level that will be required at the 2019 World Cup, then this year will have been an enormous year for us."
2) Two years, two years and three months; the projects in winning a World Cup
When challenged on whether Hartley is a World Cup winning captain, Eddie said he saw the World Cup as three projects. The first two years, the next two years, then the last three months. Right now Eddie's focused on the first two years and says Hartley will do a fantastic job for those. Then they assess what happens for the next two.
Reading between the lines, we can expect a few changes to the team once we've exited the first project. I'm not going to bet on Hartley being one of the victims, but I wouldn't bet against it either. Other obvious potential victims include Haskshaw, Mike Brown, and one of Ford and Farrell. That includes a lot of Eddie's current leadership group so I'm definitely not betting on all of them going but it seems likely that the first project involves grooming new leaders.
3) Ideas from the players
Speaking of leadership, Eddie said that he wants 80% of the ideas coming from the players by the World Cup, and only 20% from the coaches. He reckons its currently 50-50 and that a year ago it was all from the coaches. As Eddie says, "the players must own the game". Its great to hear him target this, but looking at the current England team, you wonder how many of them are genuinely capable of doing that. This could play a big part in shaping who's part of the next England team and who's not.
4) Beating New Zealand
Eddie tried playing the Maori All Blacks with a lot of running the ball and he tried it with a lot of structured play. He lost the first 60-15 and the second 19-18. So cancel all thoughts of trying to beat them at their own game.
The subject of beating New Zealand comes up a lot in this interview. His assessment of the situation is as follows:
1) The Lions tour will impact on the year
Yes, I know, not a surprise, but Eddie's talking about losing 10-15 players for the Summer and maybe resting them in the Autumn as well. The latter bit's not usual if memory serves but makes sense. The players are taking on huge workloads and if we want them to be around for the World Cup, something has to give. Better to do it at a time of the coach's choosing when they need it most.
What there isn't is any talk of resting front line players who don't make the Lions, like Lancaster did in 2013. This seems understandable if England are going to get stripped as bare as Eddie and anyone who doesn't believe Gatland is totally biased expect. There'll need to be as much experience around as possible to give the many noobs a chance of making it. Eddie talks up the two windows post-Six Nations as a chance to produce great 3rd and 4th choice players and says "If we can sit down in the last week of November and say we have got 45 guys who can play Test rugby at the level that will be required at the 2019 World Cup, then this year will have been an enormous year for us."
2) Two years, two years and three months; the projects in winning a World Cup
When challenged on whether Hartley is a World Cup winning captain, Eddie said he saw the World Cup as three projects. The first two years, the next two years, then the last three months. Right now Eddie's focused on the first two years and says Hartley will do a fantastic job for those. Then they assess what happens for the next two.
Reading between the lines, we can expect a few changes to the team once we've exited the first project. I'm not going to bet on Hartley being one of the victims, but I wouldn't bet against it either. Other obvious potential victims include Haskshaw, Mike Brown, and one of Ford and Farrell. That includes a lot of Eddie's current leadership group so I'm definitely not betting on all of them going but it seems likely that the first project involves grooming new leaders.
3) Ideas from the players
Speaking of leadership, Eddie said that he wants 80% of the ideas coming from the players by the World Cup, and only 20% from the coaches. He reckons its currently 50-50 and that a year ago it was all from the coaches. As Eddie says, "the players must own the game". Its great to hear him target this, but looking at the current England team, you wonder how many of them are genuinely capable of doing that. This could play a big part in shaping who's part of the next England team and who's not.
4) Beating New Zealand
Eddie tried playing the Maori All Blacks with a lot of running the ball and he tried it with a lot of structured play. He lost the first 60-15 and the second 19-18. So cancel all thoughts of trying to beat them at their own game.
The subject of beating New Zealand comes up a lot in this interview. His assessment of the situation is as follows:
"The only way you beat them is to minimise that [unstructured play], don’t give them any loose kicks or loose ball. You don’t necessarily have to play long phases against them and if you kick, make sure you have got a good kick-chase so they have to kick the ball back to you. You minimise the situations they enjoy most and maximise those they enjoy least."
Its possible to see this as a call for very boring rugby and it may turn out that way, but that runs counter to everything we've seen of England's ruthlessness in going wide when its on this year. What it is definitely talking about is suffocating them and giving them no chance for unstructured play. That is only sensible.
He also talks about having a forward pack that has pace and power as an area where England can potentially achieve an advantage over New Zealand. We've seen him go straight for adding that with newcomers like Itoje, Clifford, George, Genge, Hill, Sinckler and on and on. Interestingly though he doesn't seem too bothered that his backs aren't physically imposing. Bluff or fact?
The only sobering note is that Eddie emphasises the importance of tempo but agrees with Lord Baldermort's statement that many clubs are playing slow rugby. When asked if he can the need for tempo across to the clubs, Eddie's response is: "No we can’t and we are not really going to try." Lets hope the clubs see the light on their own; another year of frustration dealing with the underfunded Celts in Europe might have been a step forwards.
5) The best is yet to come
Finally, Eddie says England haven't played as well as they can. That's obvious to everyone who can see lightening and hear thunder but it is good to see the coach acknowledge it and point out areas of improvement. The set-piece, defence and attack are all mentioned - or as its otherwise known, rugby - but he talks about the set-piece most. And as he says, there's still a lot of players developing.
What we can expect, therefore, hopefully, is an influx of pace and power (particularly in the pack) starting this summer but only really graduating in 2018. Once we get the pack, once we get the platform, that's when the attacking game can really take off. And from there? Victory. Hopefully.
I still remain slightly sceptical of Eddie, largely because English rugby never has nice things so he can't be a nice thing. It all makes sense so far though. Here's hoping it doesn't stop - we certainly have reason to hope.
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