Loyal Support
Loyal support?
By Vespulavulgaris
March 31 2013
Loyalty is unarguably one of the most admirable of human traits. Except of course if you are the head coach of the England rugby team. Then it makes you the target of pretty much every person on every discussion forum on the internet. I'm not going to beat around the bush any more, I am of course talking about Stuart Lancaster's decision to keep playing Chris Ashton on the wing despite the fact that he hasn't scored an international try in what seems like decades, and he's not doing much better in the domestic league.
It is impossible to argue that he isn't out of form, the question is whether we should have the same loyalty as Lancaster obviously did. He gave Ashton the opportunity to play himself back into form by picking him for what should have been the easiest game of the tournament, of course it is only the easy game if you have wingers who can score tries, and the evidence would seem to suggest that we don't. And so we were left with having no choice but to pick him again against Wales. You know the result of that one. Interestingly Jonathan Davies was the only person brave enough to say on live TV what every single fan was saying at home. Wales won because they played wingers on the wing. We played a Fullback on one wing and a Spectator on the other. So was Stuart Lancaster wrong? Was his loyalty misplaced?
Well, yes, in a word. Loyalty is indeed an admirable trait when it is given to the right person or people. Lancaster should be loyal to his players, but first and foremost he should be loyal to the team, to the country, to the strip. Just like he told us he was going to make sure the players were. He stripped out the old guard when he came to the job and brought in new, young and exciting players. He got rid of people who were possibly better than the players they replaced because he wanted to build a new team, to build a team where passion, pride in the England shirt and the desire to play was uppermost. He had some great results and he gave us all hope. Then he simply kept playing them regardless of the fact that there were many better options. Just look at the top scorers in the Premiership. Varndell has twelve tries so far this year, Christian Wade has nine. Apparently he didn't pick either of them because their defence is suspect, a statement I found hard to agree with when I saw Ashton let in try after try throughout the tournament.
Pick wingers that score tries, show them how to defend the way you want them to, but set them free to score tries. Varndell specifically is only four tries short of the all time record and still has a good five or six years at his peak. The man is a try scoring machine. Teams don't win by liking each other more than the other side, the win by scoring more points. Even if a winger like Varndell or Wade isn't scoring they are tying the opposition defence up because they know the danger of letting them past. If you remove that fear from the opposition then all they have to concentrate on is scoring tries themselves, much as Wales did. Playing Ashton didn't just stop us from scoring, it gifted Wales with the opportunity to score. Playing a lightning fast winger who is on form and scoring every week wouldn't have done either.
Of course I'm a Wasps fan so I might just be being too loyal, but that's not a bad thing is it?
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Watch out for some more sour grapes reactions from Fezland.
Our defence isn't the best, but would you rate Ashton's try as better than Wade's?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:03:31:15:39:54 by Vespulavulgaris.
Whether Wade or Varndell are the next in line to be tried will divide opinions rather more. Apart from the well-executed interception try, and another that was thwarted a bit later, they did not get much change out of Sarries on Saturday. Wade's defence against Saints was dreadful last week - he was out of defensive position for at least two of the scores and left too much space for the others to cover. That's just not permissible at international level.
I expect that Wade at least will get a chance in Argentina this summer. Certainly, it is necessary now for other possibilities to be considered, as the opportunities to experiment are running out before RWC 2015.Any other England qualified wing hitting form in the last weeks of the season should fancy his chances too.
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Quote:but would you rate Ashton's try as better than Wade's?
Leaving aside my massive dislike of Ashton - yes. I still havent seen if he scored it legitimately but it was a very well worked try. Wade simply intercepted and put on the afterburners.
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I for one would be happy with an England team that let in two or three tries if we were scoring three or four. The best form of defence is attack.