Six Nations 2017
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@gollum I was thinking the same, Gatland is a huge Faletau fan and I can not see him missing the plane except in the event of a dire injury. No 8 is now a position of strength for the Lions, with Vunipola and Faletau the likely contenders but waiting in the wings are Heaslip who is having a resurgence of form, Hughes who is beginning to show what he's made of and Moriarty tearing it up for Wales.
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Jonathan Jospeh out of the match day squad altogether for England. Didn't see that coming. He must be England's top try scorer over the last year as well as the defence co-ordinator. Big call from Eddie, albeit against Italy.
Centre picks are Daly, Slade and Teo with Farrell being a 10/12. Apparently they have been training with a 10. 12,13 combo of Farrell, Teo and Daly.
Hmmmm
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I know it's only Italy and JJ has had a couple of quiet games, but that's pretty harsh. Especially to miss out on the squad altogether to Slade at this point, who isn't in the same sort of form he was a year or two ago.
Farrell, Teo, Daly should be interesting if that's what they go with and certainly gives us a more direct option at 12. Also don't lose anything offensively at 13 with Daly. Great to see Mako back
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In other news, overnight the head of the 6N has told Georgia to fuck off out of it, the tournament is closed and isn't opening to new ideas.
Now, if Italy had been consistently performing at a level above wooden spoon .. then I could kind of understand his point.
But they haven't, and thus I can't.
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@MajorRage said in Six Nations 2017:
In other news, overnight the head of the 6N has told Georgia to fuck off out of it, the tournament is closed and isn't opening to new ideas.
Now, if Italy had been consistently performing at a level above wooden spoon .. then I could kind of understand his point.
But they haven't, and thus I can't.
Italy is close, Rome is a nice city and the stadium is always full. No benefit to them to look for Georgia.
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@MajorRage said in Six Nations 2017:
In other news, overnight the head of the 6N has told Georgia to fuck off out of it, the tournament is closed and isn't opening to new ideas.
Now, if Italy had been consistently performing at a level above wooden spoon .. then I could kind of understand his point.
But they haven't, and thus I can't.
Italy. Sometimes making Scotland look good since 2000
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@MN5 said in Six Nations 2017:
@MajorRage said in Six Nations 2017:
In other news, overnight the head of the 6N has told Georgia to fuck off out of it, the tournament is closed and isn't opening to new ideas.
Now, if Italy had been consistently performing at a level above wooden spoon .. then I could kind of understand his point.
But they haven't, and thus I can't.
Italy. Sometimes making Scotland look good since 2000
Scotland. Sometimes making Italy look good since 2000.
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@Duluth said in Six Nations 2017:
Bring back the 5 Nations
Hear hear. The fucken Eyeties have brought NOTHING to the tournament overall.
Not shit enough to be minnows and not good enough to consistently challenge the big boys.
The Scots have that mantle well and truly covered without the spagetti eaters ruining it for everyone.
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@Duluth said in Six Nations 2017:
Although that would mean Scotland putting their title on the line - they are the reigning five nations champions
As if I need reminding of that. They still sing about the deeds of Leslie x 2, Murray x 2, Townsend, Tait, Logan and all the other heroes of 99.
Martin Leslie scoring twice against France and twitching uncontrollably will be etched in the memory banks forever!
Go the Hutt....I mean...Scotland
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@MN5 said in Six Nations 2017:
@Duluth said in Six Nations 2017:
Bring back the 5 Nations
Hear hear. The fucken Eyeties have brought NOTHING to the tournament overall.
They've brought soccer-style "simulation", so that's something.
Like the Argies to the 4N... occasional gritty/sometimes-even-good performances, falling back to cheating diving shit when they don't think they have a chance.
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@Margin_Walker said in Six Nations 2017:
I know it's only Italy and JJ has had a couple of quiet games, but that's pretty harsh. Especially to miss out on the squad altogether to Slade at this point, who isn't in the same sort of form he was a year or two ago.
He's just rested surely? Its not a dropping. He'll be straight back when it matters.
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@gollum said in Six Nations 2017:
@Margin_Walker said in Six Nations 2017:
I know it's only Italy and JJ has had a couple of quiet games, but that's pretty harsh. Especially to miss out on the squad altogether to Slade at this point, who isn't in the same sort of form he was a year or two ago.
He's just rested surely? Its not a dropping. He'll be straight back when it matters.
This is EJ taking the opportunity to work out what positional depth he has from the players he already rates. There are obvious weak points depth wise in talent and he has some spare parts lying around that he otherwise rates. may as well see how it all fits together.
I won't happen but it sure would be funny if Italy actually get their shit together for once and put a big scare up the Poms. Don't forget, they managed to beat SA not long ago so a shuffled England could be there for the taking. -
England team to face Italy.
Brown; May, Te'o, Farrell, Daly; Ford, Care; Marler, Hartley, Cole, Launchbury, Lawes, Itoje, Haskell, Hughes.
Replacements: George, M Vunipola, Sinckler, Wood, Clifford, Youngs, Slade, Nowell
Looks like Eddie has gone all out for attack and is looking to up the points differential. However having both Teo and Daly out of their normal positions (you could argue Farrell too) is something of a gamble.
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Little surprised not to see Teo at 12 & Daley at 13. Not really sold on what the point of that is, unless Eddie feels he has no depth at 13 & needs Teo covering there & 12 too. Teo at 13 has the look of a player who will stop the attack not spark it and I'm not sure he has the gas to take the outside line well & not just run sideways.
Would have liked to see Watson at 15 as well.
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@gollum Agree all round, I'm not sold on Teo at 13 either but I can see that Eddie does not want to split up the Ford/Farrell axis but also wants to get Teo on the park. Eddie has shown he is not scared of admitting a blunder and yanking someone off the park early and he has cover with Slade and Nowell.
Watson would seem to be the longer term option at 15 but I think lack of game time has counted against him.
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Might be an element that Farrel is pivotall & Ford is a confidence player so dropping Farrell means Fords awful goal kicking is exposed & dropping Ford means he gets all mopey & his form drops.
I'd guess after 55 minutes Slade will be in the centres anyway with Ford subbed. I'd almost forgotten Slade was a class unit.
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@gollum Yes Farrell is currently un-droppable, Ford though has a degree more vision and his decision making (when on song) is superior, but let him miss a few kicks at goal and invariably his all round game suffers. Oddly enough that wasn't the case on the pre-summer tour game against Wales where he missed 6/7 but we scored five tries.
You may be right in that we could eventually see a Farrell, Teo, Slade combo at 10/12/13 and that has a good look to it. Slade is a class unit but not currently in the best of form. Lack of game time cannot have helped though.
