Is Cuetos injury a blessing in disguise for England?

Cuetos limitations have been well discussed on this forum and others. Do England fans see Armitage on the wing as a positive? Personally I think he showed enough in the warm ups to be considered quite dangerous and back to some decent form.

Armitage can be a dangerous and elusive runner like Foden. But then consider the Eng v Aus game last Autumn, Cueto was the star runner on that day. I guess they're about on a par, but I'd back Armitage to score more tries!

Soem people have been quick to forget how good Cueto was in the autumn internationals - he was making line breaks for fun!

The situation now will at least allow us to have a good look at what Armitage can do. if he plays well he should keep his place, but if not, Cueto comes back in.

mckay1402 wrote:Cuetos limitations have been well discussed on this forum and others. Do England fans see Armitage on the wing as a positive? Personally I think he showed enough in the warm ups to be considered quite dangerous and back to some decent form.

I quite like him, not as elusive as Robinson was, but still looks a very decent player.

Cueto has scored 1 try in his last 25 matches or perhaps even worse.... 3 in last 35, 2 of which were against Italy. I'd pick Steve Thompson to score more tries.

Good kick returner, decent defender but in the end we judge wingers by their try scoring record.

depends on what stats you're looking at.

Cuto has the hunger and experience but can he adjust to the teams hes facing to make an impact on the scoreboard, or like others in the team is he there primarily to hold, defend and let others break the gain line.

Its like the old Lee Mears debate.

Yes he offers a lot but if he can't do his core responsibilities to test level then he shouldn't play IMO.

A player like Armitage can do everything Cueto can do... but he also offers a good kicking option, genuine pace and an eye for the try line.

If Cueto is always going to hold as some say and let Ashton attack down the other wing then England will look very predictable. You need to have options all over the park, keep the opposition guessing where the next attack is.

rugbyfan wrote:Soem people have been quick to forget how good Cueto was in the autumn internationals - he was making line breaks for fun!

The situation now will at least allow us to have a good look at what Armitage can do. if he plays well he should keep his place, but if not, Cueto comes back in.

Hmmm... Not so sure. As I remember it, most of the yards he made were, e.g., returning kicks, rather than getting onto the end of moves. Cueto has good footwork, so he's good in open space. But he doesn't have the pace to take a man on the outside. He makes good yards when returning kicks, but doesn't finish moves off.

If all you want from a winger is the ability to defend hard and make you a few yards when running into space, then just pick an extra flanker.

Cueto broke loads of tackles against the Australians and was a big reason for them being on the backfoot and allowing our backrow to gain dominance at the breakdown. It was just running into space (it was running into Cooper which amounts the same thing)

I do like Cueto and he has been very dangerous in the past. It reminds me of Mark Jones. He was extremely quick and could be a big tackler but I don't actually remember seeing him score a try for Wales.

Id prefer to see a fit and firing Ojo, or Monye on the wing.

I'm very happy to see how Armitage goes. He could be excellent. Cueto has an exceptionally good all-round game but doesn't really excel at any one thing. eg, Varndell is a great finisher with a bit of space but the rest of his game is not up to test rugby standard. Cueto does just about everything you want for a test winger but does lack that little bit of x-factor.

I think it is. It's all good being a good team player blah blah blah...for an international winger, you need to be scoring tries, which he doesnt. I'd be more worried about facing Armitage than Cueto

BridgendBoyo wrote:I think it is. It's all good being a good team player blah blah blah...for an international winger, you need to be scoring tries, which he doesnt. I'd be more worried about facing Armitage than Cueto

Rubbish (the bit about an international winger needed to score tries not your opinion regarding Cueto and Armitage, of course ). The team needs to be scoring tries. Cueto's set up loads of tries from breaks he's made. If the defenders cut across and he offloads to someone else does that make him a worse winger?