EPS & Saxons

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Senior EPS Squad:

FORWARDS (18)
Mouritz Botha (Saracens)
Calum Clark (Northampton Saints)
Alex Corbisiero (London Irish)
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers)
Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers)
Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints)
Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)
Joe Marler (Harlequins)
Lee Mears (Bath Rugby)
Ben Morgan (Scarlets)
Tom Palmer (Stade Francais)
Chris Robshaw (Harlequins)
Matt Stevens (Saracens)
Rob Webber (London Wasps)
David Wilson (Bath Rugby)
Tom Wood (Northampton Saints)

BACKS (14)
Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints)
Brad Barritt (Saracens)
Mike Brown (Harlequins)
Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints)
Owen Farrell (Saracens)
Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers)
Ben Foden (Northampton Saints)
Charlie Hodgson (Saracens)
Joe Simpson (London Wasps)
Charlie Sharples (Gloucester Rugby)
David Strettle (Saracens)
Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers)
Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)

Saxons Squad:

FORWARDS (18)
David Attwood (Bath Rugby)
Chris Brooker (Harlequins)
Paul Doran Jones (Northampton Saints)
Matt Garvey (London Irish)
James Gaskell (Sale Sharks)
Jamie Gibson (London Irish)
Joe Gray (Harlequins)
Tom Johnson (Exeter Chiefs)
Joe Launchbury (London Wasps)
Matt Mullan (Worcester Warriors)
Luke Narraway (Gloucester Rugby)
David Paice (London Irish)
Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers)
George Robson (Harlequins)
Andrew Saull (Saracens)
Henry Thomas (Sale Sharks)
Thomas Waldrom (Leicester Tigers)
Nick Wood (Gloucester Rugby)

BACKS (14)
Nick Abendanon (Bath Rugby)
Anthony Allen (Leicester Tigers)
Delon Armitage (London Irish)
Matt Banahan (Bath Rugby)
Freddie Burns (Gloucester Rugby)
Karl Dickson (Harlequins)
Alex Goode (Saracens)
Jonathan Joseph (London Irish)
Ryan Lamb (Northampton Saints)
Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby)
Ugo Monye (Harlequins)
Henry Trinder (Gloucester Rugby)
Billy Twelvetrees (Leicester Tigers)
Micky Young (Leicester Tigers)

Cumbrian wrote:Fair enough. Although I've never been his greatest fan, I agree with you to be honest, we could really do with his bulk and nous at the moment.

GeordieFalcon wrote:The question is though PDL....why dont we have them...?

It just seems to be the way it is going at the moment. There seems to be a move in English rugby towards the lighter/ more athletic forwards and larger more bludgeon-ly backs! You can see it in the likes of Matt Mullan, Courtney Lawes, Tom Croft, Tom Guest.

They are great around the pitch, but I do sometimes do get tired of seeing English forwards like these crashing on defences and rucks like waves on stone

P.s. One name I'd like to mischievously throw in is Joe Launchbury. I wonder if he hadn't been injured when he was, how many people would want him included. He was playing VERY well if I recall correctly.

I thought Lawes was quite powerful and hits contact (both as tackler, tackled and rucker) with dynamism that it what you want in a forward?

ChequeredJersey wrote:

Cumbrian wrote:Fair enough. Although I've never been his greatest fan, I agree with you to be honest, we could really do with his bulk and nous at the moment.

GeordieFalcon wrote:The question is though PDL....why dont we have them...?

It just seems to be the way it is going at the moment. There seems to be a move in English rugby towards the lighter/ more athletic forwards and larger more bludgeon-ly backs! You can see it in the likes of Matt Mullan, Courtney Lawes, Tom Croft, Tom Guest.

They are great around the pitch, but I do sometimes do get tired of seeing English forwards like these crashing on defences and rucks like waves on stone

P.s. One name I'd like to mischievously throw in is Joe Launchbury. I wonder if he hadn't been injured when he was, how many people would want him included. He was playing VERY well if I recall correctly.

I thought Lawes was quite powerful and hits contact (both as tackler, tackled and rucker) with dynamism that it what you want in a forward?

The way I see it, he is fantastic around the field (tackling) and can be good with ball in hand (makes decent runs and has got good hands). But he doesn't always make the hard yards and isn't always as effective at the breakdown. In an ideal world I'd like him to develop into a very good lineout operator/ leader (he has the athleticism) and pair him with somebody in the Simon Shaw mould who will really support Lawes game and let it flourish.

It just seems to be the way it is going at the moment. There seems to be a move in English rugby towards the lighter/ more athletic forwards and larger more bludgeon-ly backs! You can see it in the likes of Matt Mullan, Courtney Lawes, Tom Croft, Tom Guest.

Except Matt Mullan does the business in the scrum. Very impressed with him in the tight and the loose. Only issues are the on going shoulder injuries which must be a concern to a prop.

Matt Mullan has looked excellent at times, gone well in the scrum and the loose, but as you say shoulders are the last thing you want to have on your mind as a prop.

Marler as we know will be great one day when he improves his scrum technique and Henry Thomas has also looked excellent at times for Sale. These are all young guys, and it's going to take a while before they start developing into real pros. I know we're all concerned with carriers and physicality at the moment, but the future looks good, with young Joe Launchbury being another superb young prospect in the Shaw mould for Wasps. It almost seems like we've lost a generation who should now be in 25-28 of really superb hard running forwards.

Chjw131 wrote: It almost seems like we've lost a generation who should now be in 25-28 of really superb hard running forwards.

Is there any position you couldnt say that about?

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

Chjw131 wrote: It almost seems like we've lost a generation who should now be in 25-28 of really superb hard running forwards.

Is there any position you couldnt say that about?

Full back and er... Yeah.

Why do we have this massive gap in players ages? Poor coaching/mNging by the prl/rfu etc?