Where have all the good centres gone?

The 6N is almost upon us and reading posts on the make-up of various squads, there seemed to be a common theme for selection headaches: who to put as the centre pairing. The halfback and flyhalf pairing seem to be more or less resolved with the exception of Scotland and whilst the back three don´t have settled combinations in many Home Nations sides, there are plenty of players who can do the job.

But one thing I´ve noticed as a common theme is the conundrum of who to put in the centres.

Ireland has the twin problem of BOD out for the whole 6N and the incumbent D'Arcy being in poor form. It'll require putting in together two new test players which no coach likes to do. So will Kidney opt for the experience of D'Arcy and put in a new player outside him or will he go for two new players who have at least played together at club level? Or a third option of putting in two new players who are new to each other at any level but are the two best centres in form? With a first up game against Wales, they need someone defensively strong to contain the likes of Jamie Roberts crashing through the middle but not so robust that when it comes to attacking, the same tactic is repeated. Who can link well with the danger men like Bowe outside and who can take the pressure off Sexton by adding enough cut and thrust to make keeping the ball in hand an attractive proposition.

Wales seemingly have less concerns in this position. But Gatland has a few players in doubt where they are best served playing. Is Jamie Roberts better at 13 or 12? Is Hook still in contention or is he like Stephen Jones, a player that is best led out to pasture and dealt with definitively? Is the Fanta Menace able to make a heroic comeback or is he merely a shadow of his former self and relying only on past reputation? There are calls like in Ireland to bring in a player who has been successful on the wing (North and Bowe) to fix the problem but is this just a case of moving the problem elsewhere and potentially causing two new areas of concern?

Then England with Tindall out of the equation has a number of options available to them. But sometimes an abundance of choice is not necessarily a good thing. Tuilagi seemed to tick a lot of boxes in the World Cup but Flutey and Hape and a host of others have been out of the equation for different reasons.

Scotland have their own set of problems but one of them seems to be an outside centre who can link up well with the players outside him. De Luca, Ansbro and even Sean Lamont have been touted to join Morrison in attack. But none has been able to hold down this position.

Even France have their difficulties. Rougerie performed for France in the RWC alongside Dusatoir as a consistent player for France. But a guy with the class of Jauzion couldn´t even get a game. Is his time up and is it time to find a new face? Will Phillipe Saint-André bring back some consistency to selection and select a team with a more dynamic approach in the centres?

It seems to varying degrees a problem that all the sides face. Poor old Italy seem to have a problem with the backs in general. But my question is which side seems to best profit from this situation? To me the Wales and Ireland first match up is an unfortunate meeting for Ireland. They won´t have time to have a few games under their belt for their centres and they´ll be up against a centre pairing (whoever will be alongside Jamie Roberts and wherever he goes) who looked very incisive on attack in the World Cup.

England seem to be blessed with plenty of options but need to pick a settled pairing early on and keep playing them. If the new caretaker coach foolishly decides to chop and change selection then they´re going to find that area will be a problem other teams can exploit. Which makes who plays in that area a tough decision to make early on as it needs to be the right one.

AR has a new assistant coach with his own ideas but he won´t come in until after the 6N. Which means probably AR will stick with what he thinks is the best pairing which to my mind doesn´t bode well for Scotland.

I should point out it´s not just a northern thing. With the exception of NZ (who have a halfback problem), there isn´t a settled centre pairing for SA or Australia. AAC showed to me that his best position is at OC and when he plays wing or fullback, the balance of the backline is thrown off centre if you´ll excuse the pun. Inside centre seems to be the problem. McAbe, Faianga, haven´t impressed since the departure of Giteau.

Fran Steyn seemed to answer De Villier´s shortcomings for SA until he went out injured. Fourie has been the rock for SA and their most underrated player but he has gone off to Japan to make his millions (literally) so again whilst there is no problem with coming up with names, there seems to be a similar problem of a lack of settled combinations. It used to be a problem only for England but now it seems like an epidemic running through world rugby. I just find it interesting. These things always come in cycles but it seems to be afflicting almost everyone at the same time, albeit to varying degrees.

England - Tuilagi and Barritt will start...and give most other backlines a headache in attack and defence....

Throw in Trinder, Lowe, Joseph as just a few of the youngsters who could very easily make the step up this year and do it well.....we are looking better than we have for an aweful long time at centre.

I think Wales have a strong centre partnership with Davies and Roberts and Ireland have good youngsters coming through.....

Just think Scotland have a headache....

Wales are looking pretty healthy in the center... Would say that the lads from the RWC team are likely the front runners Roberts and Davies with Scott Williams as back up, Hook and Henson young enough to do another RWC and Lions tour so in contention depends on their playing form, but if on form are obviously seriously good players.

Beyond that Ashley Beck, Adam Hughes, Adam Warren, Daff Hewitt and Gareth Maule have caught my eye with some great bits and pieces. These players plus Hook or Henson if they show good form in the build up are contention for Scott Williams place.

I think the verdict on North is that Wales would be unlikely to move him from wing until he has a bit more experience in center.

France look very exciting with Jauzion having looked good, Mermoz too, Fofana is the young exciting guy who could really change things. Fabrice Estebanez looked good in bits last year and during the RWC but picked up a knee injury. Not sure what the score is there.

GeordieFalcon wrote:England - Tuilagi and Barritt will start...and give most other backlines a headache in attack and defence....

Throw in Trinder, Lowe, Joseph as just a few of the youngsters who could very easily make the step up this year and do it well.....we are looking better than we have for an aweful long time at centre.

I think Wales have a strong centre partnership with Davies and Roberts and Ireland have good youngsters coming through.....

Just think Scotland have a headache....

Jonny May of Gloucester looks the best English center in years.

I agree with the claim that a likely pairing of Tuilagi and Barrit could cause a few headaches similar to England. I´m not so sure that the other youngsters you talk of will be able to make the step up to test rugby so easily and so effectively. It´s a similar problem for Ireland. Club form is no guarantee of test form.

I think England is behind Wales in the pecking order of centres at the moment but above Ireland and Scotland in terms of their selections for the 6N. But that can all change. Certainly there are encouraging signs for England in this area but they´ve got a long way to achieving the solidity of say Nonu and Smith.

England lost a generation of 13's, theres a reason why Tindall got so many caps despite being avergae for so much of his career.
Smith, Hipkiss, Tait and JSD all had the potential to replace him but suffered from career ruining problems.
12's England struggled with never being able to decide betwen playing a fly half type like Geraghty/Flood there or a useless one dimensional numpty like Noon/Erinle/500 other people.

Theres a new generation coming through now though. Obviously Tuilagi has the starting shirt sewn up but the likes of Lowe have been impressing at club level for a few season, Farrels become a regular at 13 for his club and is a sure thing for the 6 nations squad, then theres plenty of other names like Trinder who keeep coming up.
Theres no reason for the Banahan experiemnt to continue.

Plenty of young new options at 12 too. Its one area where England will be masively short of experience in their 6 Ns squad but have bags of options.

I dont think anyone is expecting any side to be able to pick a pair of centers capable of matching Nonu Smith, but the All Blacks are ahead of the game in pretty much every position les face it.

Maesteg....your right he's looking very impressive....

Kia,
Again i totally agree that Roberts and Davies are the best Combo in Europe at the mo....powerful....but maybe just slightly lacking in out and out creativity....but it will improve...

But the ABs haven´t had centres of the class of Nonu and Smith since Bunce and Little. It hasn´t been a strength of our game for a while. In between we´ve had D'Arcy and BOD, Giteau and Mortlock, Greenwood and Tindall, DeVilliers and Fourie etc.

It just seems due to injury or retirements or players coming back from injury that a lot of teams have been struggling in this area. Plenty of names to replace them but test rugby is a step up and not everyone is capable of transferring their club form to the big game. It´s not just in the NH where this club form theory is popular. SBW was touted as the best option for inside centre but Nonu proved to be one of the most destructive players for NZ in the RWC and SBW was largely a liability in the big games getting yellow carded and effectively sent off.

Yeah its fair to say the Welsh have the strongest proven combination in the NH right now, with some decent backups ( and who knows, maybe even Henson for the summer?).
Noone seriously expects the Scotts to ever field two good centers anymore even if they have the pickeing of the English age grade sides.
Sooner or later BOD will get old. We've been holding out for this for a couple of seasons now, but it has to happen eventually.

Kia,

I guess there can ponly be so many world class centers at any one time or they just simply stop being recognised as world class because everyone else has centers just as good. Its a bit unfair to hog SBW as well though.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Kia,
... Its a bit unfair to hog SBW as well though.

Rumour has it SBW's off back to RL in 2013 anyway

maestegmafia wrote:France look very exciting with Jauzion having looked good, Mermoz too, Fofana is the young exciting guy who could really change things. Fabrice Estebanez looked good in bits last year and during the RWC but picked up a knee injury. Not sure what the score is there.

How good did Fofana look in the 2 games against the Tigers? If both Mermoz and him can stay fit then France are going to have a couple of top class 12's to choose from in Feb. Think Rougerie will continue to do a decent job at 13 for this seasons 6N at least.

Kiwireddevil wrote:

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Kia,
... Its a bit unfair to hog SBW as well though.

Rumour has it SBW's off back to RL in 2013 anyway

Does that mean he'll qualify for England?

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:Fran Steyn seemed to answer De Villier´s shortcomings for SA until he went out injured

Never understood why people have an issue with De Villiers. Never really seen him have a bad game for WP or South Africa, would have been happy to have him in the England team. After Nonu & Smith always felt that De Villiers and Fourie were the best pairing in international rugby.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

Kiwireddevil wrote:

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Kia,
... Its a bit unfair to hog SBW as well though.

Rumour has it SBW's off back to RL in 2013 anyway

Does that mean he'll qualify for England?

What the hell would we do with a center who can off-load like that

England - Tuilagi and Barritt will start...and give most other backlines a headache in attack and defence....

Definitely. The question of who plays back up to them is an interesting one though.

at 12; Twelvetrees (not that consistent, needs more game time but best all rounder after Barritt and could be a star), JTH (one trick pony, makes plenty of metres, consistent), Farrell (limited passing, rush of blood moments, defensively sound and great boot though).

at 13; May (struggled to establish himself at centre for Glaws), Lowe (injured), Trinder (pacey, powerful, tends to drift out of games when team is on the back foot), Joseph (injured).

Not an easy selection.

Well we had Nick Evans for a while and a fat lot of good that did us in 2007. We had Slade and Cruden last year and ended up with Beaver kicking the winning goal.

As BOD has shown, you can never plan anything the way you want it. It´s such a physical sport that bad luck with injuries can seriously set you back. Planning for the future and keeping settled combinations is a very difficult process to manage. As has been shown with England, picking too many players and shuffling round players is even more damaging.

As for DeVilliers, he was an outstanding pairing with Fourie and one of world rugby´s best partnerships. But his dalliance at wing was a disaster and ever since he came back to inside centre he was shown to have lost his mojo hence Steyn replacing him in the RWC.

Well we had Nick Evans for a while and a fat lot of good that did us in 2007.

Was that down to Evans or down to the fact that the midfield selected showed almost no cohesion? I still maintain that if NZ had gone with an experienced play making centre like Mauger over the inconsistent youngster McAllister NZ would have beaten France.

Well that´s a fair claim but not the point I was making formerly Sam. My point was you can have all the backup in the world for positions but both Carter and Evans got injured in that quarter final at number 10. There´s no planning for that. BOD got injured and so probably Kidney won´t do anything about getting rid of D'Arcy until he´s back. I´m not saying Evans is the player to blame. I´m saying it´s impossible to fully plan for injuries. We had four flyhalves play for NZ this last World Cup. Who could possibly have planned for that. Beaver was whitebaiting and drinking beers the week before he was called up!

McAlister got yellow carded and a wise old head like Maguer wouldn´t have made that error. A wiser head would´ve done a better job at a drop goal as well. Cullen was no replacement for Umaga in 2003. Nor was McDonald. Believe me, we´ve had many problems with centres before. But France won on the day and so did Oz and that´s all that matters. No prizes for what ifs.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

Well we had Nick Evans for a while and a fat lot of good that did us in 2007.

Was that down to Evans or down to the fact that the midfield selected showed almost no cohesion? I still maintain that if NZ had gone with an experienced play making centre like Mauger over the inconsistent youngster McAllister NZ would have beaten France.

+1

When they announced the teams pre-match in the stadium my mates and I looked at each other and asked "where the £$^&@ is Mauger?"

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

Kiwireddevil wrote:

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Kia,
... Its a bit unfair to hog SBW as well though.

Rumour has it SBW's off back to RL in 2013 anyway

Does that mean he'll qualify for England?

Not if he's playing in Sydney sorry PSB

Manu Tuilagi hobbled off in the last Tigers game I saw - looked like a torn hammie or something - dont know if he will be fit for the start of the 6N or if he does he may be short of gametime.

It's certainly more of a NH problem, although Wales and France have some tastey options.

South Africa, as well as Fourie and De Villier, also have De Jongh, a very promising player.

Australia have Barnes and AAC with McCabe providing useful cover.

NZ have Nonu, SBW, Smith and Kahui. Hard not to make a useful combination from that lot.

It's really England, Scotland and Ireland that have the big issues. Ireland need to replace their old guard, England are effectively starting from scratch in the midfield and Scotland don't have much to go from.

In Ireland's case, we have plenty of talented options as to who our next 13 will be, and it will be interesting to see who wins the shirt. However, we just don't have any choices at 12. It is annoying, and may require a few of these 13s to be tried at 12 (happening already).

In terms of the Aussies, JOC I think should be playing 12. He has also stated this is his favourite position.

Prop David....

If Tuilagi is injured then i would go with something like
Barritt and Trinder...which in itself would be an interesting Combo...

Fourie has gone for millions to Japan funnyExiledScot. DeVilliers needs to find his mojo again. De Jongh is a good call for replacing Fourie.

France have tasty options no doubt but PSA needs to prove he´s better at picking a stable team than Lièvremont.

Wales are looking the best but there are questions over their linking game. Certainly no questions over their ability to punch holes in defence but do they have other running options to keep the defence second guessing them if that option doesn´t work for them?

That would be a big shame propdavid if Tuilagi went out injured. But only goes to prove it´s very difficult to get stable combinations going in the modern game. Or fixing problem areas. Hopefully he can play as he´s exciting to watch.

Cooper, JOC, AAC, Ioane, Mitchell and Beale is a frightening prospect. Barnes, McAbe et al have failed to shine for me.

My point was you can have all the backup in the world for positions but both Carter and Evans got injured in that quarter final at number 10. There´s no planning for that. BOD got injured and so probably Kidney won´t do anything about getting rid of D'Arcy until he´s back.

Sometimes injuries take apart your carefully laid plans. As a Tigers fan this normally happen for a few weeks every season. You just hope the coaches can patch the side together and blood some promising youngsters during the time. In an RWC you just grin and bear it. Kidney going with recognised internationals will be a mistake. D'Arcy and Earls seem the likely pairing put were picked apart by Tindall and Manu during the RWC warm ups. They will be picked apart again. At least one new/semi new centre needs to be brought in to fill the BOD void. Unless they garner competition for the spot now they'll be in serious trouble when he retires.

B91212 wrote:

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

Kiwireddevil wrote:

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Kia,
... Its a bit unfair to hog SBW as well though.

Rumour has it SBW's off back to RL in 2013 anyway

Does that mean he'll qualify for England?

What the hell would we do with a center who can off-load like that

Easy, pick Tinddall ahead of him

FES Are the Welsh and French options really that good though?

At least England now has plenty of options to choose. Relying on the likes of Tindall,Hape,FLutey and Banahan in the centre is over hopefully.

formerly known as Sam wrote: Kidney going with recognised internationals will be a mistake. D'Arcy and Earls seem the likely pairing put were picked apart by Tindall and Manu during the RWC warm ups. They will be picked apart again.

I agree but Kidney can be a bit slow on the uptake at times. That will more than likely be the pairing in the 6N and it will be a weakness.

Long term there are a lot of extremely talented young Irish centres under the age of 24 but most still need a bit more gametime with their provinces. Come 2015 there will be a lot of depth in the midfield but at the minute we need to find a combination to take over the reigns.

I think between Mermoz, Traille, Bastereud, Rougerie and Fritz France have some very good options. Saint-Andre won't have Parra at 10 either.

Wales have undoubtedly got good options. Roberts, JD2 and Williams are all impressive and Henson and Hook are also possibles.

A number of the above players have shown they can play to a high standard at international level.

England have options, some good ones, but they will essentially be creating a new combination come the 6 Nations as yet untested. Difficult to know how that will pan out, and who Lancaster will go for.

Like the back row, with centres I feel that it's about having the right balance. Tindall looked world-class paired with Greenwood and decent with Catt, but without a playmaker alongside him his limitations became an issue.

BOD has the skills to look good regardless who you pair him with, but D'Arcy not so much.

England actually have a wide range of centre talent at their disposal but it's very hard to guess what the most effective pairing is. Assuming Manu is not going to be back for the 6N, the best bet might even be Barritt/Farrell. They've played well together in that combo, it takes some of the kicking pressure off Flood and there's a decent balance of physicality and skill.

Assuming Manu is not going to be back for the 6N, the best bet might even be Barritt/Farrell

Would leave England with a definite lack of pace in the centres though. Manu will be back before the 6N according to the local media reports in Leicestershire. Poor Louis Deacon won't be so lucky though.

Long term there are a lot of extremely talented young Irish centres under the age of 24 but most still need a bit more gametime with their provinces

Cave is certainly ready for a run out now and I think Spence and one of the two young Leinster centres wouldn't be a bad bet either. If D'Arcy is retained he will know the Leinster options and both will slot in beside him better than Earls. Cave has the experience and talent to step up and play alongside D'Arcy. Spencer would be a bit of a rick though he would inject a bit more pace to the midfield and England gambled successfully with Tuilagi, maybe that will give Kidney confidence to experiment in one position.

I've said elsewhere that I'd like Kidney to go with McFadden at 12 and Cave at 13.

D'arcy is not up to it physically any more imo.

Spence is injured and although O'Malley has played very well at 13 in BOD's absence he might be a bit vulnerable defensively. Eoin Griffin at Connacht is another exciting player and Ian Whitten is playing well for Ulster too.

Luke Marshall is the great white hope at 12 in the long term but has hardly featured this season due to injury.

Long term there are lots of options but most aren't ready for this 6N. I think we are looking at the tried and tested (and failed imo) in D'arcy/Wallace and Earls for the 6N.

Cave, McFadden, O'Malley, Spence, Griffin have all seen HEC gametime and done rather well.

When you consider we also have Luke Marshall coming through but for injury i think Ireland will be well stocked in the centre not to mention Farrell who looks good.

The big issue for me will be how the team copes without BOD's presence and finding the right balance in attack and leader in defence. we have been given the opportunity to see what we can do without the great man and we would be mad not to look at new options. Ealrs will be in the mix as well but i fear it could be like the Luke Fitz experiment at 15 last year.

Long term there are lots of options but most aren't ready for this 6N. I think we are looking at the tried and tested (and failed imo) in D'arcy/Wallace and Earls for the 6N

That midfield would be too vunerable to win a grandslam in my opinion. Would require a lot of defensive work from the backrow to compensate. Shame Ireland won't be a tad more adventurous in the midfield selection as they have a pack that should produce quick ball and decent wingers on the outside that would flourish given the right midfield to provide for them.

Sam you are preaching to the converted here!

Earls is a stop gap at 13, nothing more. If he gets front foot ball he can hurt teams with his pace but he hasn't got the skill set or game reading to play 13 against a top side imo and will be caught out at some stage.

D'arcy is just past it.

Unfortunately Kidney thinks that Earls is the heir apparant to O'Driscoll and has said as much.

maestegmafia wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:England - Tuilagi and Barritt will start...and give most other backlines a headache in attack and defence....

Throw in Trinder, Lowe, Joseph as just a few of the youngsters who could very easily make the step up this year and do it well.....we are looking better than we have for an aweful long time at centre.

I think Wales have a strong centre partnership with Davies and Roberts and Ireland have good youngsters coming through.....

Just think Scotland have a headache....

Jonny May of Gloucester looks the best English center in years.

Jonny May is a player I like, he is confident without being cocky. He general play has something about it too, he finds gaps where there didn't seem to be any. He also has absolutely blistering pace. The problem is that he has played in every back-line position bar SH and FH. Personally I'd like to see if he has the all-round game to play at inside centre with Henry Trinder outside of him. Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu's contract is up this season, so who knows?

For Ireland, Wallace and Cave could work. The thing with that midfield... is it's defensively sound, a proven combination and both players have very good rugby brains, offloading ability and vision. But not much natural power and pace at all.

We lack a Tuilagi, a Roberts, a Rougerie... will we be exposed? For a midfield like that to work it relies on trying to find ways to put players in space, whereas we've been playing rugby where we try to bludgeon our way through defences for quite some time. It would rely on players picking good lines off the midfield in attack while we've had our backline spread across the pitch standing very flat on the gainline. It would require us to evolve our game.

I don't know if the desire to evolve our game to suit the players we have is there.

We have McFadden, O'Malley, D'Arcy, Earls, Wallace, Cave and Spence. There are more light, skillful, intelligent ball players there than direct runners and bruisers. D'Arcy would fit that bill but is looking quite past his prime. Spence would fit that bill but looks too raw.

Unfortunately Kidney thinks that Earls is the heir apparant to O'Driscoll and has said as much.

Oh well, if we can find a pack to live with the Irish one we might have a red rose celebration on St Paddy's day (I think that's when the 6N game falls this year). Would be nice after last years thrashing that not dented English aspirations but also ruined the confidence of two Tigers and produced a long term injury to a third.

Yes St Patrick´s Day is Italy vs Scotland, Wales vs France and England vs Ireland. As if they needed another excuse...

From the Irish perspective I'm with those who doubt the abilities of Earls to be a top class 13. He's a good back three player and would be a good 13 on the front foot but I don't see him as having the required skill set to play with the big boys in the centre at international level, not without a battering ram at 12 or some big lads helping out from the wing.

Cave looks like a player with strong potential at 13, but I remember him being touted a couple of years back so he seems to have stalled slightly (don't know if that's just down to injury). Spence is another with some punch, I see him as a 13 and not a 12 though.

Bowe could move to 13 and Trimble and Earls could take the wing slots. That could work with Kearney at 15.

12 is the more problematic position. I've never seen McFadden impress at 12, and although Wallace is a good ball player, I don't know if he links up well with Sexton at 10.

There's talent in Ireland, but gelling the right formula is a tricky ask, certainly in time for this 6 Nations.

Cumbrian wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:England - Tuilagi and Barritt will start...and give most other backlines a headache in attack and defence....

Throw in Trinder, Lowe, Joseph as just a few of the youngsters who could very easily make the step up this year and do it well.....we are looking better than we have for an aweful long time at centre.

I think Wales have a strong centre partnership with Davies and Roberts and Ireland have good youngsters coming through.....

Just think Scotland have a headache....

Jonny May of Gloucester looks the best English center in years.

Jonny May is a player I like, he is confident without being cocky. He general play has something about it too, he finds gaps where there didn't seem to be any. He also has absolutely blistering pace. The problem is that he has played in every back-line position bar SH and FH. Personally I'd like to see if he has the all-round game to play at inside centre with Henry Trinder outside of him. Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu's contract is up this season, so who knows?

Its inside Center that England need to find someone to replace, well to be honest, Greenwood/Catt. Its been a contentious selection ever since they retired.

Could go with the bosh of Barritt or Tuilagi inside or outside of a skilful player like May, certainly better than playing two similar players. I like the Tuilagi and May, or maybe that young blonde lad from Tigers as an idea. Blood some young guys and give them two RWCs to get their combination really firing.


The contention in Wales is we have a long list of very talented players in contention and it has been working out the ultimate pairing. I think Gats and many others always though Jamie Roberts outside Gavin Henson was the best available, unfortunately Gav lost his way over the last few years and he has little time to catch up to pace, his skill is natural and he is a naturally fit player, too vein to let him self go some say...!

But lets see if Gav gets up to pace, looked very good together in the half an hour prior to Gav breaking his wrist, making selection for the RWC a bit easier for the coaches. Part of my also likes the idea of Hook outside Henson, guaranteed both were in their best form...

For now very happy to see the way that Roberts and Davies are playing with each other... They had a great RWC as a pairing.

The backrow is a similar conundrum. Picking the best players is not the best. Picking the best players who combine the best is the best option. But if they haven´t played together, how do you know if they combine? Kaino was for a long time the junior partner of the NZ backrow. Last year he stepped up and was the leading player in the backrow, albeit often down to injury. Croft well may be England´s best individual athlete in the English backrow but does he combine with the others and is it better having him come off the bench rather than starting the match to make room for someone who combines better?

There are a number of players to pick for each nation in the centre. Some have experience, some have shown very good club form, some show exciting potential. The problem is the test environment is quicker and tougher than the club environment. Players don´t have as much time with the ball to react to the defence. The pace of the game is played quicker. If you plump for the untried and untested, you never know how well they´ll go and if results don´t go your way, everyone calls for their head. Then once the shuffling starts, people go for quick fix solutions which often means choosing an in form player out of position or taking the ultra conservative approach of sticking with players who have a lot of experience. For every Priestland or Dagg selection that comes off, there are countless more conservative selections like Tindall or D'Arcy or more radical calls that don´t come off like Noon, Tait, Wilkinson etc.

For England I see Barritt and Tuilagi as the best bet, with Trinder covering for Tuilagi in the 6 Nations whilst he returns fully from injury.

Owen Farrell should be involved in the squad as well.

funnyExiledScot wrote:From the Irish perspective I'm with those who doubt the abilities of Earls to be a top class 13. He's a good back three player and would be a good 13 on the front foot but I don't see him as having the required skill set to play with the big boys in the centre at international level, not without a battering ram at 12 or some big lads helping out from the wing.

Cave looks like a player with strong potential at 13, but I remember him being touted a couple of years back so he seems to have stalled slightly (don't know if that's just down to injury). Spence is another with some punch, I see him as a 13 and not a 12 though.

Bowe could move to 13 and Trimble and Earls could take the wing slots. That could work with Kearney at 15.

12 is the more problematic position. I've never seen McFadden impress at 12, and although Wallace is a good ball player, I don't know if he links up well with Sexton at 10.

There's talent in Ireland, but gelling the right formula is a tricky ask, certainly in time for this 6 Nations.

The season after Cave broke through he was crippled by injuries. In fact he doesnt have a great injury profile and missed almost a month during the RWC with injury. I cant recall Wallace and Sexton actually playing together for any significant time for Ireland but with Paddy being injured it will most likely not be this 6N

HNY to yall!
although our centres used to be poor in a recent past (having to bring both estebanez and marty in NZ is a classic example) this time it seem there is more decent option.
Rougerie should be paired with either Fofana or Fritz altough the last 2 are the form centres in the T14 at the moment but wont start together as PSA will probably want some experience in the back.
Not sure Mermoz has a big future in the short term as I read he was tempted to join an aussie franchise in the S15.

I'm still not entirely convinced on Barrit yet. I think hes a very solid club player, a lot like Andrew Bishop at the Ospreys in fact. But i don't think he has the ability or speed of thought to be an international centre. He would be a solid choice and he wouldn't let England down but i think Twelvetrees or Anthony Allen are the best long term options.

Robbie Fruean might get a run for NZ this year.
We need a big fast centre who can off load.