England team to face Australia named

What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.

Doesn't look like we will be complaining about lack of bulk in the pack, given Australia's current injury problems up front then probably not a bad thing. Glad Martin took my advice from Tuesday night re Lawes, I see Hodgson didn't make it, but can't really begrudge Youngs his chance. Not convinced about the balance in the centres, but could be very productive if it does come off.

Not sure why the announcement of a team which is just about exactly what everyone expected should make a difference, but now really looking forward to the game.

Unhappiness, where's when I was young
And we didn't give a damn
'Cause we were raised
To see life as a fun and take it if we can

That side could have been better in my opinion.

Jon Golding for Tim Payne
Rob Webber for Steve Thompson
Geoff Parling for Simon Shaw
Phil Dowson for Nick Easter
Ben Youngs for Danny Care

Golding, Webber, Cole, Palmer, Parling, Croft, Moody, Dowson, Youngs, Flood, Ashton, Hape, Tindall, Cueto, Foden

Courtney lawes left toasting his buns AGAIN.

Dowson has been called as cover for Fourie. This leads me to conclude that although his best work has been done at 6 or 8, the management are viewing him as a 7. Bravo!

1. Anyone other than Pansy would be an improvement
2. Mears and Webber would be an improvement on Banjo and Chuter
3. Fine!
4 & 5: Parling and Attwood would be an improvement on the penalty machine and the softie
6. Fine
7. Fine
8. As Dowson won't arrive in Aus until Friday am, there's a choice between Easter and Brand Haskwit

9. Youngs is better than Cup of tea Care
10. Fine
11. Fine
12. Barklay would be a big improvement
13. OK for this week
14. Fine
15. Fine

So 6 changes in the starting line up would improve the side considerably.

Still with those idiot coaches Wells and Ford in charge it doesn't matter who starts if the game plan doesn't change.

- Dan Cole reduced Flatman to rubble and Golding is injured.

- They want a strong scrummaging hooker, so Thompson makes sense to really press home the advantage we're likely to have.

- Youngs has a lot to learn still. He gets caught at the base of rucks far too often and Care's passing seems to have improved somewhat.

- Attwood/Parling/Barkley I agree with but Barkley's defense has been very dodgy in an England shirt in recent years, including Tuesday.

Good team. Very good bench. Lawes as a sub is the right decision. Great impact when he comes on hopefully.

But why Chuter, late replacement for Hartley on the bench rather than the more dynamic Webber?

The bench offers no real cover for 7 either. Worsley has played 7 much more than Haskell.

Scrummaging.

If Worsley had been picked in place of Haskell, people would whinge at his selection. The selectors can't win.

I think we need to cut Johnno a bit of slack here, folks.

After all, he only took a 44 man squad and, having only been off the plane a week-and-half, he was limited in selection due to players' varying levels of jet lag!

If England can dominate up front then it will be close. If Australia get any kind of parity up front (scrums in particular) then I can't see England getting within 15 points of them.

Tigeroo - you inhabit the same planet as Wells and Ford. Since when did Danny care's passing improve? It was@#$%&in the Baabaas game at TW1, and@#$%&in the 6N.

Barkley has been the form 12 in the GP since his return from injury in February, and his defence is fine. Maybe it's Ford's useless system that results in 30+ points a game conceded against the tri nations teams?

The only tightheads that Flats has struggled against are the Tigers ones, but he had the upper hand in the first half of the semi, and has always had the upper hand against Hayman for example.

Payne was stuffed out of sight by Bell, Golding and the Tigers props during the season (and didn't he end the season not as first choice for his club?), yet somehow has been an ever present.

Ford's useless defense? You mean the one that presided over 1 try on average every game in the autumn and the least tries leaked in the 6 Nations?Perhaps the tri nations teams are just that much better than us in recent years? 

Barkley's one on one defense is extremely suspect at international level. We saw it against NZ a couple of years ago and we saw it on Tuesday. 

Payne is pretty terrible but at least doesn't have a history of non-existant binding like Flatman does (who also offers nothing in the loose and has far less international experience than Payne). We don't need to give the ref another reason to penalise our scrum, as well as not knowing what's going on in it. I also wouldn't call giving Flatman the opportunity to inspect his colon, 'struggling'.

At the moment Youngs has a lot to learn, you dont want your scrum half snagged at the base of rucks all the time. Care is a better choice, just. What is our obsession with dropping 'the next big thing' the instant a challenger pops up.

The Master has spoken. We are the privileged ones.

Not much use having a tight defence if you can only score one try in the autumn internationals, and six in the five nations.

I fear the next two weekends could see tigeroo's dreams of world domination encounter another couple of unwelcome obstacles.

It's a bit like Billy Bunter waiting for the postal order which never comes.

BGF51,

No doubt the ink us already drying on the excuses, and Wales will somehow be blamed for England's abject failures!

Clearly the fact that we are located immediately next to Wales is dragging us to down to their level. Furthermore, several members of the hopelessly inept Welsh coaching team have been involved with an English club, which has helped drag the standard of club rugby down to such a level that it makes it hard for the Johnson master plan to function effectively. Anyone can see that the only reason Gatland, Edwards and Howley had success with Wasps was because the general level of English and European club rugby was appalling, and they were the best of a bad bunch.

Funny how being located immediately next to France doesn't drag us up to their level, though.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:06:10:16:07:10 by BGF51.

I have to say, I'm not too concerned about Thompson's presence. I would prefer a fit Hartley there, but we need some sort of advantage over the Aussies and if we pick Payne, we need two strong 'uns next to him to compensate. However, given that the Aussies are down to their 4th choice props and were considering calling Matt Dunning into the fray, I do question the need for Chuter on the bench. Hopefully the damage will have been done by then and if we're in any need to either chase the game or exploit the spaces, Mears is far better suited to that then Chuter.

Genia's only on the bench so at least Care's pass won't be the worst on display - Burgess is woeful, but unlike Care, he is allowed by his coaches to break and snipe and he's quite good at that and also very strong defensively.

Can't see any justification for retaining Shaw, he's well past it. Attwod has a knock, I understand.

Back row picks itself.

Centres horrible. Struggling to see where the creativity occurs. If Australia get any kind of parity or quick ball up front Cooper and Giteau will cut us to pieces in midfield.

Wingers fine, back row fine.

Not too keen about no 7 cover given that Easter, Lawes and Haskell all cover 6-8 between them, but no one covers 7. Could have retained Lawes and picked Armitage.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:06:10:16:06:41 by Battering Ram Winger.

Centres horrible. Struggling to see where the creativity occurs. If Australia get any kind of parity or quick ball up front Cooper and Giteau will cut us to pieces in midfield.

The point of having Tindall and Hape is that they are both very good defensively so will not get torn to pieces. They will play well in this backline as they have wingers outside them who like to come into different places. Ashton is a great tracker who will always spot an offload, which Hape can give. Tindall will not let O'Connor get a sniff outside of him and straightens the line very well.

"Funny how being located immediately next to France doesn't drag us up to their level, though."

You seem to have overlooked the rather considerable expanse of "splosher" that separates us!

Just over 20 miles. Hardly a huge distance! London to Paris is only about 60 miles more than London to Cardiff.

I expect Croft to cover 7 if required, as he has done on a number of occasions.

"Just over 20 miles. Hardly a huge distance! London to Paris is only about 60 miles more than London to Cardiff."

You wouldn't want to swim it!


Edited for spelling errors.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:06:10:21:22:49 by arquero.

If Tuesday night were the barometer for selection (for those that played), then Chuter over Mears is the right choice. Throwing youngsters like Webber in at the deep end just insn't Johnsons's style, feel free to disagree with that style, but don't be surprised by it. Given the lack of Pphysical prescence up front on Tuesday, it is no surprise to me that both locks have been overlooked (possible injury to Attwood not withstanding). Barkley didn't do enough on Tuesday to put himself in the reckoning, Tait has only made the bench as he covers centre, Wing and Full back (he finished the gmae on Tuesday at full back). I'm hardly a member of the Tim Payne appreciation society, but he stood up pretty well (much better than anyone was expecting) against some quality opposition in 6N so I'm prepared to cut him some slack, he will never be a dominant scrummager, but of late he hasn't been falling over or going backwards either. I wouldn't complain if Flatman were selected, but he didn't exactly dominate on Tuesday either.

Unhappiness, where's when I was young
And we didn't give a damn
'Cause we were raised
To see life as a fun and take it if we can

Giteau is out injured, but his replacement Berrick Barnes is also a good player.

Barnes is a good player, but seeing Berrick Barnes and Rob Horne in the centres doesn't look as fearsome as Matt Giteau and Stirling Mortlock. Giteau has been playing lots at 10 lately anyway.

Unhappiness, where's when I was young
And we didn't give a damn
'Cause we were raised
To see life as a fun and take it if we can

Giteau out too, well Berrick Barnes is a good replacement but not as good. England will rarely get a better chance to win an away test in the SH. I just hope they really go out with the mental attitude of expecting to win, and then playing with the intensity to give themselves the chance of doing so.

Horne is now a better player than Mortlock is now (not was).

BUT

Reasons to be cheerful -

1). Two out of our 3 front row starters are good scrummagers. Payne's not great, but his opposite number is held by the Aussies in very low esteem indeed.

2). Burgess' service is absolutely rotten so hopefully Cooper won't get the time he needs to do the damage.

3). Barnes has had a stinker of a season at fly half for the Tahs, and hasn't played at 12 for a while.

4). Flood has looked really comfortable at 10 this season, he appears to have grown into the role with the pressure placed on him at Leicester. Plus if Wilko shows his Toulon form off the bench rather than the stinker form he showed in the AIs and the 6N, we have a great replacement.

5). Some of the bench talent looks exciting - Youngs and Lawes ashould have big futures.

6). Really importantly, Adam Ashley-Cooper isn't playing for the Aussies. Anyone who watches either the S14 or Australian Tests should know that this guy is really, really, really hard to stop and adds a massive amount of front foot ball to the Aussie cause, especially if they need an attack restarted. They'll miss him.

Having a NH ref won't hurt either, in fact a SH ref would have probably negated our strength up front.

Johnson's been quite brave picking Flood. Given the circumstances of the Aussie team, this game is crying out for us to revert to grinding out the win, by picking Wilkinson and playing territory, taking shots at goal.

I just hope we're not deluded enough to get dragged into an open expansive game against the Aussie backline.

I suppose Johnson sees longer-term development being equally important as the win.

Ho harm in playing territory when it suits, which Flood is well capable of, but trying to be more challenging and inventive off good ball, which is Flood's natural game. If only Youngs was starting at 9 then some said good ball may be more forthcoming, I think.

Does Tim Payne own incriminating evidence regarding Johnson and Andrew or something?

NO surprises there, Aus with no parity up front and still cut England to ribbons and run out 13 point winners.

10 point winners.

Only cause they booted a perfectly kickable penalty out at the end of the match. But, meh, 10 point winners with no scrum (so half their first phase possession nullified) says enough.