posted Sep 17, 2007

Must be Farrell to play the remaninding games, of course, as it is the small print of his contract.

I wonder why England took Dan Hipkiss. Is he too young or too in form to fit in with the old codgers?

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posted Sep 17, 2007

Flood is a 10. We have two 10s in JW and OB. At 13 we can either put in Tait or Hipkiss. Given the physicality maybe go with Hipkiss, with Tait yet again on the bench. Lewsey at 15. Who at 14 and 11 - Cueto (in his proper position) and Simpson Daniel ?

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posted Sep 17, 2007

the decision has just been announced - Flood it is...

could have been better to use a trafic cone, a tackle bag or even a scrummage machine as at least the opposition wouldnt be able to run throught the scrummage machine as easy....

When Noon is packing his bags to fly home is there ayway of him chucking Perry, Corry and Easter in his suitcase and smuggling them out of the camp too?

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posted Sep 17, 2007

Balshaw.

If you trace back the moment England began their rise to the top, culminating in becoming world champions, it was Balshaw's chip over the top to put Dan Luger in in the 88th minute of the November 2000 22-19 victory over Australia.

Balshaw can do it again. He is the most gifted natural runner of his generation and can show the England backs how hitting space flat, at pace is done again (like he did when he first burst on to scene in 2000/01) - it's what the back line has been crying out for for the best part of 3 years.

Add to that the fact that his old Bath team mate Mike Catt is back in the side (arguably the best deliverer of those flat passes and all-round distributor at inside-centre in the game today) and it becomes obvious that Balshaw needs to get on the next plane to France and get straight into a few one-on-one sessions with his former Bath/England colleagues of late 90s/early 00s vintage Mike Catt and Brian Ashton to blow away the cobwebs of the ponderous, stultifying rugby we're seeing and rediscover the sort of defence-splitting rugby only the three of them can now do at this late stage in proceedings.

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posted Sep 17, 2007

<<Balshaw.>>

Now I have officially heard everything. Balshaw's performances for England in the last five years haven't been so much defence splitting as side splitting.

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posted Sep 17, 2007

talking_sense - Given that JW is fit, there's no way we are going to see Catt playing.

Thankfully. He has been truly dreadful so far.

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posted Sep 17, 2007

Is Flood going out there as a 10 a 12 or a sub to cover both? Lets face it, Wilkinson will be starting if he's fit whether he deserves to or not. Barkley showed in the USA match that he can break defences, ok only the Yanks but still he did it, and Robinson is our only other player to do that yet. So, Barkley clearly deserves to start, in my opinion at 12. This means that we have flown someone out to warm the bench when we have clear deficiences at full back and on the wing. Whats wrong with flying out a full back?

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posted Sep 17, 2007

Flood would've been great LAST week, but do we really need a bench warmer now? Full back worries me, Tait, Lewsey and Cueto do not play there for their clubs. Lewsey will do a job there, but was just starting to find some form on the wing.

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posted Sep 17, 2007

Personally, the one who worries me more than anyone really is Perry. TOO SLOW! It has to get to the back row in the first place for them to then be able to do something with it.

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posted Sep 17, 2007

Assuming Robbo is not going to be fit my backs for the Samoa game would be;

Gomarsall 9, Wilko at 10, Tait at 11, Barklay at 12, Hipkiss at 13, Cueto at 14 and Lewsey at 15.

Forwards would be Sheridan, Chuter, Stevens, Kay, Shaw, Worsley, Moody and Easter.

In my opinion this world cup is beyond us and we should use the remaining time to blood our future.

It's time we give some of our up and coming prospects the opportunity to shine, as clearly the old guard have not been up to the task and will not be around for the future either.

We have been looking to contain teams rather than create anything ourselves and we have not had the defensive abilities or speed around the park to be able to do this.

Let's learn something from 2003-2007 by beginning the rebuilding process here and now!

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