England and Wales best backs after the 2 games?

I doubt most England fans could believe what happened today. In the 6 Nations England smashed most teams with amazing attacking rugby, for some reason they have regressed back to the 90's. crash ball rugby with bigger forwards and kick penalties.

15) Armitage
Amazing counter attacking full back, loves to run, deadly in space.

14) Ashton
England missed him badly today, England really have no idea how to score when he's not there.

13) Matt Banahan
Huge bloke, but isn't a winger, he's never going to be a winger and not Jonah Lomu. However in the centre he could be special. It's first phase possesion, Banahan takes the ball up, and the opposition backs scramble to tackle him, he ties in both centers, Quick possetion is recycled and England backs are running at opposition forwards who have plugged the gaps.

12) No one has cemented this space.

11) No one has cemented this space.
Cueto is not the player he was, England need a better player frankly.

10) Johnny Wilkinson
Keeps the score board ticking over, Flood doesnt. England have a huge pack that can dominate most teams, but they need to score points.

09) Danny Care
Split the Welsh defence, by far the best England have by a mile.


Wales

15) Up in the air to be honest.

14) George North
Learning every game, deadly with ball in hand. huge bloke and hard to bring down.

13) James Hook
So creative but has to play somewhere. Wales need him where he can be at his best.

12) Jamie Roberts
Hitting form at the right time for me. Getitng over the gain line and tackling like a beast.

11) Shane Williams
Last week England fans were licking their lips at Banahan, who is 1 foot taller and 7 stone heavier going 1 on 1 with shane. Well we saw it several times today, with Shane on his own try line and Banahan was held up. Wales had no chance to attack today, so we didnt see Shane, but no problems in defence.

10) Rhys Priestland
Wales have looked so creative when he's in the team, he spent 60 minutes tackling today and did brilliantly. Looks ready to take over from Wellies for Region and country.

9) Mike Phillips
Looks like the weight of Wales has been taken off his shoulders since he;s left Ospreys, away from that enviroment he appears to be a new man. Getting back to his best.

Rhys Priestland was taken off at half time, so it wasnt really 60 minutes tackling :p

Hook should get another run at 10 for the Argentina game. Once again though I think our bench has been weak, we've made replacements that force players to play out of position, Shane Williams at full back?

IronMike wrote:Rhys Priestland was taken off at half time, so it wasnt really 60 minutes tackling :p

Hook should get another run at 10 for the Argentina game. Once again though I think our bench has been weak, we've made replacements that force players to play out of position, Shane Williams at full back?

Quite right it was 40 minutes But he still did well

I'm all for trying players out of position in these warm-up games at some point during the world cup it will be forced upon us either through injury or yellow cards.

tbf i am glad priestland has had gametime at 10 he is an excellent player, tbf henson played well for the time he was on and i feel gutted for stoddart as i really feel he had cemented the 15 jersey- halfpenny, henson, hook, shane, brew, byrne can all be contenders

Hook has cemented his place as first-choice fly half for me. We're lucky to have Priestland on the sidelines or to soften up opposition before Hook knocks them down as was the case today.

You begin to wonder if Gatland has been holding some players back who needed a kick up the backide.
Bryne, Ryan Jones, Adam Jones and Gethin Jenkins must surely be chomping at the bit to get a game now, hopefully they will explode on Argentina.

Wales should be so much sharper, Argentina running up 70-80 points against a South American select team isnt preparation for a Wales game.