manu Tuilagi out for 4 weeks

On radio 5 reporting Manu out for 4 weeks with hamstring injury.
So he will miss Scotland game but should be back for Wales.

So who will the centres be?

Barritt & Trinder would be a good combo for me.

I'd go for Farrell and trinder ...

I´d love to know the different centre combinations for England in recent years. A lot of those can be put down to injury. It really is bad luck. Tuilagi was looking ominous. I hope he makes a speedy recovery and then stays injury free. Hamstrings have an annoying tendency of being recurring injuries.

Barritt
Trinder
wil be fine.....and bring Johnny May into the squad....

I'd go with Barritt and Trinder too I think. Personally, I feel Farrell and Trinder would be too undersized and young for a starting combo.

Hopefully Trinder will do brilliantly and Tigers will be allowed to have Tuillagi back. Theres a dream.

Farrell at 13 is an option, but may require a major rethink since youd assume Lancaster had been planning around having Tuilagi at 13 so more likely a similar running player would be picked

Its worrying for England though, in all probability we will be looking at 2 uncapped centers. Care arguably would have been first choice SH and is the most expereinced available. Lawes was a dead cert, now out. The only experienced 8 is left out, the next most experienced in Japan.

Scotland will really be relishing this , especially if if its a battle in the mud and the can keep Ashton/Foden out the game.

Boy, England just cant take a trick can they. Its almost as if the rugby gods are against them.

Trinder would be my choice for replacement.

"Its worrying for England though, in all probability we will be looking at 2 uncapped centers. Care arguably would have been first choice SH and is the most expereinced available. Lawes was a dead cert, now out. The only experienced 8 is left out, the next most experienced in Japan."

I think this is the key thing Peter and ive been thinking aswell....

We could be in the position of having a young and talented but rediculously inexperience team....

I would go for Barritt (deserves his chance) and Trinder seems to be everyones favourite!
Tuilagi was a cert for most people at either 12 or 13.
What about this Jonny May (also at Glouces)?
Owen Farrell I suspect has just been bumped further up the list.
JTH is a bosh center (although I dont think he is there yet).

I'm sorry guys, but maybe we will see a barritt-banahan combo! (awful)

God Banahans still alive isnt he :o/

Id just assumed hed be first out the door with some of the other names that aare rumoured to have been dropped (Armitage). Whilst it cant be ruled out the sacrifice of Easter suggests to me that Lancaster is more likely to roll the dice on an unproven kid and turn him into the new Tait.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:I´d love to know the different centre combinations for England in recent years. A lot of those can be put down to injury. It really is bad luck. Tuilagi was looking ominous. I hope he makes a speedy recovery and then stays injury free. Hamstrings have an annoying tendency of being recurring injuries.

Tuilagi has a history of hamstring problems. Interestingly, I heard it commented that his problems all stem from a poorly done filling in his mouth which somehow caused tension in one side of his body and as a result, his hamstrings were vulnerable.

Sounds like his acupuncturist spread that rumour round!

No, apparently, it was causing a misalignment in the jaw which in turn was causing muscular tension in the leg. I can quite believe it, I damaged my sholder blade in 2003 and have had recurring problems in my lower back ever since as muscles attempt to compensate for the original injury.

Are you his acupuncturist?

Barritt and Trinder would be the right choice and a logical combination. I'd have Owen Farrell on the England bench.

I believe that comment was made by Austin Healy when commentating for ESPN - I would take most things that austin says with a pinch of salt - still made me chuckle though.

Banahan and Farrell

My starters and bench would be the same as funnyExiledScot: 12. Barritt 13. Trinder 21. Farrell

Barritt certainly deserves his chance, excellent defence and genuinely good hands when given a chance. Trinder has real pace, vision and importantly offers a left boot into the bargain as well. Not as quick as Jonny May and maybe not as talented but May needs more time with his club I feel.

My only concern with Trinder is his defence, which wasn't great in the Barbarians game. The other is that whilst Farrell is a talent, he's not a go forward centre and i'd rather see him paired with Tuilagi, also I don't see him as an international FH yet and would be concerned about having him as cover for it, particularly with Charlie so injury prone.

Banahan will I believe remain with the EPS as he does offer something different, and importantly Lancaster does like him a lot. A repeat of the Baa Baa's experiment wouldn't be out of the question with Lancaster in the driving seat at the moment and it could be effective I feel.

As a quick aside, the other thing I like about Barritt and Trinder is they both have an edge to them. Not in the same sort of irritating way as Farrell does, but an arrogance and determination which has been lacking in a lot of England players in the past few years. Indeed, I would put a lot of the blame down to the lack of steel for England's recent failures in big games (Ireland 6N - France WC etc...) something that before they had in spades (Johnson, Dayglo, Hill, Greenwood etc...)

propdavid_london wrote:I believe that comment was made by Austin Healy when commentating for ESPN - I would take most things that austin says with a pinch of salt - still made me chuckle though.

I would normally agree, but taking what he said into context, he appeared to be paraphrasing someone 'in the know'. Apart from that, compensatory injuries are a known phenomenon, not speculation. I would not be suprised to learn that it was true.

On radio 5 reporting Manu out for 4 weeks with hamstring injury

Sounds like that was taken from local media in Leicestershire. That was however, after the Worcester game. He looks likely to miss the game vs Ulster but should be ok for the 6N. There's been no further updates than that so I'd assume it was still good.

Barritt and Trinder would be the right choice and a logical combination. I'd have Owen Farrell on the England bench.

He's not a competent enough 10 to play there at international level and as he only covers the centres it would leave us with issues should a winger or the full back go down injured. Hodgson should be the 10 cover and then we need a utility back.

eirebilly wrote:Boy, England just cant take a trick can they. Its almost as if the rugby gods are against them.

As long as Rob Andrew is with England..........

Perhaps a phone call to the big red dude with the pitchfork who lives down below might help?

Definitely want Barritt, but not sure with whom he should be paired. Hopefully not Banahan, I don't think that combo would work.

I said after the World Cup that if Banahan and Tindal are in the squad, for the first time ever I may purposefully miss an England match. Wonder what else is going on in February?

This is quite a blow! Tuilagi was looking the real deal, but at least hes due to be back soon, although i know from experience how bad a hamstring injury can be as a recurring problem.

For those of you who are interested, I came across this video when I was looking for a way to sort my hamstring problem. It runs along the same lines as what Austin Healy was saying about Manu's filling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xs8BDcQW8Y&feature=channel_video_title

This talk of body imbalance is really true. It happened to me though I´m a little ashamed to talk about it.

I was out with the boys on the lash one night and I noticed at the end of the night I had an imbalance in the lower part of my body which later travelled up to my head.

As I woke up in this strange woman´s bed the following morning, I realised that the problem with my head had its root problem in my lower body. And as I was climbing out her window to escape before she woke up, that´s when I tore my hamstring.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:God Banahans still alive isnt he :o/

Id just assumed hed be first out the door with some of the other names that aare rumoured to have been dropped (Armitage). Whilst it cant be ruled out the sacrifice of Easter suggests to me that Lancaster is more likely to roll the dice on an unproven kid and turn him into the new Tait.

To be fair to Banaman, he did play well in the centres against Irish....!

Barritt and Trinder has my vote as well, seems to have a nice balance about it, albeit inexperienced. Would love to see May introduced off the bench, but feel that may be one longshot too far.

bathmad I agree he did do well against Irish, and has caused problems at 12 for a few teams. He may have a future there but he'll have to displace Barkley I guess, unless he's injured again? Any idea on Mears?

No news on Mears at the mo, although I would say at 32 his England days are behind him.

Jamie Noon still playing rugby down in Brive

No news on Mears at the mo, although I would say at 32 his England days are behind him..

We thought that about Chuter but at 35 he is still getting called up. Not sure why other than he offers a reliable set piece but he was in the RWC training squad.

Chuter I suppose is like a comfort blanket for the youngsters... He has always impressed me with his work rate at his age, similar to a certain Simon Shaw. I wonder what the oldest team of former internationals still playing would be that England could put out?

1.Freshwater
2.Chuter
3.White
4.Shaw
5.Schofiel
6.Sanderson
7.Moody
8.Easter
9.Perry
10.Wilkinson
11.Sackey
12.Flutey
13.Tindall
14.Vainikolo
15.Balshaw

They're all over 30 not sure if that's the oldest all round but the front row probably is at 38, 35, 38.

Sam, Dean Schofield would be the other capped but long forgeotten option for lock. 33 in a couple of weeks.

Sackey in for Cueto.

Isnt Andy Goode only like 27 or something.
I remember reading about him a while ago and was really surprised at how young he was.

Kia

There's a simple cure for your imbalance - a drink in each hand...

Surely you realise that the repetetive action of raising a moderate and constantly varying wieght from the table / bar to mouth and returning has to be balanced between the two hands so as to prevent the later imbalances you experienced

propdavid_london wrote:Isnt Andy Goode only like 27 or something.
I remember reading about him a while ago and was really surprised at how young he was.

31, but younger than youd think yes. Slightly younger than Hodgson..Wilkos the oldest so he makes the team?

Amended with the sugested changes. There must be an older IC kicking around than Flutey.

That's a scary looking team formerly known as Sam. Odd on winning 2012 6N (100 - 1?). Is Jason Robinson still playing at Fylde? He must be getting on a bit now.

What about moving Wilko to 12 and putting Tom Beim at 10? He's 37.

Or Dave Walder at FH he's 33

Wow Beim is a great one well done Sir.
With Walder at 12 Wilko and Flutey can go back to the youth team.

there are/were quite a few old boys playing in the help for heros games? Or those Legends games that were put on at the Stoop.

Can we even count the Bermuda Classics?

I think we have to be sensible and limit this to those playing proper club rugby. Which rules out Newcatsle players

Fantastic, that gives us an average age of around 34? And they thought the '03 team was old! Would be interesting to see how long they'd last in a conventional international, I think you'd need a 22 man bench to go with it mind.

France apparently have struck back by recalling "le coq de spring" Nallet , the pacy youngster at 35 had previously been considered too raw for France.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:I think we have to be sensible and limit this to those playing proper club rugby. Which rules out Newcatsle players