England team for game vs Ireland

England team:
15 Ben Foden (Northampton Saints),
14 Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints),
13 Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers),
12 Mike Tindall (Gloucester Rugby, captain),
11 Mark Cueto (Sale Sharks),
10 Jonny Wilkinson (Toulon),
9 Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens),
1 Andrew Sheridan (Sale Sharks),
2 Steve Thompson (London Wasps),
3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers),
4 Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers),
5 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints),
6 Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers),
7 James Haskell (Ricoh Black Rams),
8 Nick Easter (Harlequins).

Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints), 17 Matt Stevens (Saracens), 18 Simon Shaw (Unattached), 19 Tom Wood (Northampton Saints), 20 Joe Simpson (London Wasps), 21 Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers), 22 Delon Armitage (London Irish).

very happy with the team - especially the centre pairing. Would like to see simpson and armitage (wing) given some decent game time.

Looking forward to the game now!!

Good team, I feel that we can do some damage come Saturday and feel sure that this team would have put Wales to the sword last week! I wouldn't be suprised to see England run out winners by 10/15 points.

Given the squad, about the best team we could put out. Bet Flood's miffed though.

Hape isn't 12, that is good news. Tindall is at 12, um, I'll reserve judgement until after the game I guess.

I like the bench - players that can actually add something to the game.

wrfc1980 wrote:Good team, I feel that we can do some damage come Saturday and feel sure that this team would have put Wales to the sword last week! I wouldn't be suprised to see England run out winners by 10/15 points.

I would be surprised (pleasantly) by that result. Ireland haven't played well in any more than brief patches, but they are our bogie team and I wouldn't be shocked if they really turned it on for this game. I would hope for a win though.

screamingaddabs wrote:Hape isn't 12, that is good news. Tindall is at 12, um, I'll reserve judgement until after the game I guess.

I like the bench - players that can actually add something to the game.

Yes, but the important thing is that there is now balance in the midfield and a bit of pace. Tindall will be solid, if unspectacular, at 12 and allow Manu, Ashton & foden to run - thats the plan anyway!

Thats a strong looking front row, how do people think Ireland's will compare?

No excuses for this game, (apart from the dodgy decisions by the Ref which is bound to happen at some stage ), that team looks ok.

No Hape Happy Days.

Intresting to see who wood comes on for.
I'd like to see Easter come off, Haskell moving to 8 and have croft and Wood on the flanks.

Glad to see Thompson start, strong carrier and scrummager to hopefully soften up the Irish with Hartley coming on at about the 50 minute mark.

I'll be interested to see if Flood replaces Wilko or Tuilagi in the second half.

rugbyfan wrote:

Yes, but the important thing is that there is now balance in the midfield and a bit of pace. Tindall will be solid, if unspectacular, at 12 and allow Manu, Ashton & foden to run - thats the plan anyway!

Hence my reservation of judgement until after the game. It could go either way - either an inspired selection or a terrible mistake.

Liking the look of the tight five, very powerful and should compete for the set piece rather well. Backrow is lacking a little bit of breakdown savvy which is a shame as the Irish are excellent at breakdown 'gamesmanship' (that's a good thing by the way) so that could be awkward. Pace and power on the flanks with a good workhorse at 8.

Must take points on offer and keep the scoreboard ticking over this week, can't afford to be sloppy.

Was just looking at the player profiles on RFU.com and Chris Ashtons height is stated as 5'12"! Made me chuckle.

On the topic - I think this could well be the intended starting team for the RWC and it will be good to see how they go. In no way would I expect Ireland to be beaten by anything close to 10/15 points. This will be a full on test regardless of what Ireland team comes out.

wrfc1980 wrote:Good team, I feel that we can do some damage come Saturday and feel sure that this team would have put Wales to the sword last week! I wouldn't be suprised to see England run out winners by 10/15 points.

Have you watched our last 2 games, (plus the last 6N match)

Good team, well as good as we can get with the squad limitations. I am actually pretty happy to see most of the selections.

There's a few players who need big games in competative ares though:

Sheridan- Is he better then any of the others? Has a lot to prove after being gifted his seat on the back of zero game time.
Easter- Pressure coming from Haskell, he went missing in Cardiff
Lawes/Deacon- Both need to show the form and experience (Deacon) to be first choice over Palmer and/or Shaw.
Wigglesworth- His third chance to show he can run a game well, Wilkinson should help this though this time.
Cueto- Needs to show he is threat still or I expect Armitage to be on post haste.

Yappysnap I absolutely agree with you. It's as good a selection you are going to get with the squad picked.

No Hape and Banahan are of course the plus points.

The bench will look to up the tempo.

yappysnap wrote:Good team, well as good as we can get with the squad limitations. I am actually pretty happy to see most of the selections.

There's a few players who need big games in competative ares though:

Sheridan- Is he better then any of the others? Has a lot to prove after being gifted his seat on the back of zero game time.
Easter- Pressure coming from Haskell, he went missing in Cardiff
Lawes/Deacon- Both need to show the form and experience (Deacon) to be first choice over Palmer and/or Shaw.
Wigglesworth- His third chance to show he can run a game well, Wilkinson should help this though this time.
Cueto- Needs to show he is threat still or I expect Armitage to be on post haste.

I'd add Tuilagi needs a big game to force himself into the first 15 ahead of Hape. In fact, given MJ's loyalty and conservatism, he's gonna need to have a stormer.

Reasonably happy with the selection given that we are limited at SH and presumably Moody is still not fit enough to play. Perhaps would have preferred Wood to Haskell, but it's a close call.

Interesting that Thommo has got the nod over Hartley - sign of a change in the hierarchy? Wilkinson over Flood is less of a surprise given their form in the games against Wales.

Presumably Palmer is injured, otherwise I'd have expected him to start with Lawes and Deacon to be on the bench.

Hope that Simpson gets some good game time, to show what he can do as an impact sub. In fact, other than Shaw, there is a lot of pace and impact on the bench - glad Delon has been picked in preference to Bananaman.

Let's hope the centres can work as a solid combination - at least with Manu there's a bit of pace as well as power.

Not sure whether the half backs can keep the irish back row interested enough defensively, to give the likes of Tuilagi and Ashton the space needed.

Have no problem with Wilko being selected, but with Wigglesworth being an out and out distributor and Wilko not standing as flat as Flood. Will the irish just ignore the pair? Simpson and Wilko would have been my choice of halfbacks personally.

Also is Thompson now ahead of Hartley, Deacon ahead of Palmer, Tuilagi ahead of Hape and Wilko ahead of Flood? Would be surprised if all are the case.

Thought MJ would have given Flood one more game to prove himself as he is normally pretty loyal.

I never realised Ireland has been so dominant over england over the past number of years, must I assume the same will happen over the weekend?

It's not like Flood has been dropped completely. I expect them to be fair interchangable based on current form and opposition.

Thompson needs some game time, as does Deacon.

Think of the half backs this way. If they're no threat running the Irish defence will get used to pushing wide and then Simpson can come on and exploit it......maybe.

biltong, probably. It's similar with us and the French and the French with Ireland. A win would be great for me and great for moral/confidence in the team. Even if it's against a weaker side.

The trouble is you just know even if Manu plays well Hape will be starting against Arg come what may, MJ will play it safe in the first RWC game.

Interesting yet pleasing selection.

Sheridan needs to show he can come through unscathed as I cannot remember when he last completed 80 minutes.

I think Deacon and Lawes are in as a shootout as to who will be the first choice partner for Palmer, who I think is our first choice lock now.

Back row I agree witht he person above who said about seeing Wood replace Easter in the second half with Haskell going to 8. That could be a very mobile and dynamic back row and I think is an exciting prospect.

First choice back three on show which is excellent, and going to be very intereting indeed to see how Manu goes outside Iron Mike in the midfield. Tins has been a great servant and still does a good job for England. He will run good lines and get over the gainline and be a focal point, but my one reservation with him is his hands at times. His distribution will need to be very good to get the best out of the talented players outside him. Here's hoping.

Can Tindall play 12? That will be the most important lesson gained from this experiment. I'm sure he'll be fine on defence, but he has been so bad with ball in hand, its embarasing how bad he has looked at trying to draw a man in tests gone by. If his job is simply to crash it up and set a platform fine, because Jonny can miss him and go straight to Manu, but you really expect a bit more handling skill from an international 12 and a slightly more sophisticated game plan then crash or miss.
I don't really understand why tindall hasn't moved to 12 and worked on his game at club level to lengthen his career and improve his game.

No BOD. Ye have a chance !

I like it. Shame Youngs won't have game time before the pool games though. I actually think that centre partnership will work nicely, mainly because I don't think Tindall is that bad. He is what he is and Hape isn't what he should be. Some blame has to go to the poor passes they received in the last game though, so hopefully implementing Wiggs and Jonny will sort that problem out for now.

btw its the most "english" team i can remember in a long time.

Biltong
Ireland have been our bogey team for a long time, even back to the Woodward team - the only consolation is that when we do beat them it tends to be a comprehensive thrashing (2003 slam decider and Cipriani's match).

As for the comments about Tindall's handling, look back at how we played in the 6Ns - the ball quite rarely went through the hands of the centres when the intention was to go wide, but instead Foden came into the attacking line behind Hape and threw a wide pass to either Tindall or the winger. I expect to see something similar again, although it will be interesting to see whether Ashton can work as well of Wilkinson's half breaks as he does with Flood.

I don't expect Wilkinson to play excessively deep, as he knows that he will need to provide some running threat to hold the defence - he can do this, but has either chosen or been told not to in the games before Flood replaced him.

I think that's a pretty decent England side, and it's encouraging for England fans to see MJ making an effort to fix the midfield.

Moody aside, that's a first choice pack.

Islingtonv2 wrote:btw its the most "english" team i can remember in a long time.

14 of the starting 15 English born, with the other one having been here since age 12.

The bench is rather more cosmopolitan though, with only Flood and Wood being English by birth. Otherwise we have NZ, SA, Kenya, Australia (? was Simpson born there, or just raised there?) and Trinidad.

As I've said before though, I have no real issue with the elligibility of any of these players, it's only really the likes of Hape and Flutey that don't 'feel' correct.

For all the stick England get about the selection of non-nationals, it was interesting when someone pointed out that England in 03 were the only RWC winners to have a team of entirely home-born players.

Hmmmm. Tindall at 12. You move a 13 whose distribution skills aren't even that of a NZ prop inside a position which has more emphasis on passing?

What the hell is Johnson thinking?

Gents,

As a neutral observer I have said for some time that Englands problems lie in the midfield.

As much as I like the look of Tuilagi I just can't see how he is going to get any ball of Tindall.

The bloke can't pass and again I think this will be your achilies heel.

dummy_half wrote:

Islingtonv2 wrote:btw its the most "english" team i can remember in a long time.

14 of the starting 15 English born, with the other one having been here since age 12.

The bench is rather more cosmopolitan though, with only Flood and Wood being English by birth. Otherwise we have NZ, SA, Kenya, Australia (? was Simpson born there, or just raised there?) and Trinidad.

As I've said before though, I have no real issue with the elligibility of any of these players, it's only really the likes of Hape and Flutey that don't 'feel' correct.

For all the stick England get about the selection of non-nationals, it was interesting when someone pointed out that England in 03 were the only RWC winners to have a team of entirely home-born players.

i concur with everything you said

Australia (? was Simpson born there, or just raised there?)

Born there to an English father and Kiwi mother I think, though I think he was raised in England despite being born and spending some early years in Australia.

Considering Shaw was born to English parents in Kenya but spent most of his young life in a bording school in Spain (specialist English speaking school) before moving back to England and taking up rugby I think he's English enough.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

Australia (? was Simpson born there, or just raised there?)

Born there to an English father and Kiwi mother I think, though I think he was raised in England despite being born and spending some early years in Australia.

Considering Shaw was born to English parents in Kenya but spent most of his young life in a bording school in Spain (specialist English speaking school) before moving back to England and taking up rugby I think he's English enough.

Simpson came to England with his parents when he was four. Could have qualified for England, Australia or New Zealand. Could be a great bench oprion for England if we need to inject some pace into a game late on.

Just noticed no Palmer. Gutted. Deacon has had enough game time to prove that he's 4th in the pecking order....

HURLEY_BURLEY wrote:No BOD. Ye have a chance !

Sure Foden won't be happy to see that, having skinned O'Driscoll at least once in the Heineken Cup final.

Decent side picked by Johnson. Not what I would have gone for, but you can see the thinking behind his decisions. Hoping for a big performance this week with some of the forwards standing up and being counted. A win would be a nice bonus, but a loss wouldn't be the end of the world.

dummy_half wrote:

14 of the starting 15 English born, with the other one having been here since age 12.

since the age of 14, not 12.

You need an unsung work horse in there somewhere, and with Lawes and Croft in the side, I would say Deacon is the better balance, plus Shaw gives you impact from the bench.

Had Shaw been starting, I'd go with Palmer along side him.

Just my views on balance, there's not a lot to choose between the players individually.

Am I the only one bothered about Haskell being at openside? The main problem England have had against Ireland is that they boss the break down against us. I worry that Haskell won't improve this situation.

Regarding the centres, I think we'll see Tindall acting as a decoy runner for a lot of the moves. Tindall at inside centre, it makes me want to shudder...

Turkster wrote:

dummy_half wrote:

14 of the starting 15 English born, with the other one having been here since age 12.

since the age of 14, not 12.

I thought it was 13? But does it really matter?

Manu's Boxing Coach wrote:

Turkster wrote:

dummy_half wrote:

14 of the starting 15 English born, with the other one having been here since age 12.

since the age of 14, not 12.

I thought it was 13? But does it really matter?

yes, he was wrong.

Haskell has been pretty good on the ground in recent seasons..

flankertye wrote:Haskell has been pretty good on the ground in recent seasons..

Well I hope you are right, it still doesn't fill me with any kind of confidence though.

Also, has Cueto got some dirt on Martin Johnson? He's played in all of the warmups despite EVERYBODY and his dog knowing what he is and isn't capable of...

Also, has Cueto got some dirt on Martin Johnson? He's played in all of the warmups despite EVERYBODY and his dog knowing what he is and isn't capable of...

Only back outside of the half backs with a kicking game.

Just noticed no Palmer. Gutted. Deacon has had enough game time to prove that he's 4th in the pecking order.....

Considering how much better the lineout seems to run with Deacs calling it and his great work rate around the park I'd say he was further up than 4th choice. I think Johno might actually be leaning towards the Lawes/Deacon partnership as it is very physical and England have previously been too easily outmuscled by Ireland and South Africa in the last year.

Sure Foden won't be happy to see that, having skinned O'Driscoll at least once in the Heineken Cup final

Manu kept BOD in his pocket for pretty much the entire HEC Quarter as well.

I agree, I thought Haskell has been excellent recently. He was also very good in the 6 nations while playing at openside, Easter is my only slight concern in the backrow and even then i'm not too worried about him.

Like I said. I'll be intrested in how Johnson shuffles the backrow to make room for Wood. I hope he doesn't take off croft, I want to see a croft and wood partnership.

With Sheriden back expect to see every scrum finish with a collapse! Suprised Stevens isn't chosen, he has looked very strong in the warm ups.

Very strong English team against an Irish side missing a few stars, surely England can't lose this one?

'Course we can!

Ireland have only lost one game to England since 2003, this Ireland side is only missing the same number of key players as England, so it's a pretty good match-up.

I think if England play through the forwards and take their points when on offer its feasible that they could win a close game. That said Ireland start as overwhelming favourites.