How good is David Strettle? What are his strengths?

Foden is approaching form. He is a stepper who invariably beats the first man. Also though he is pacey and his support line off Morgan to take that try against France was excellent. He would have had 2 if Croft had felt generous.

Ashton in top form is an out and out try predator and is seriously quick.

What does David Strettle bring to the party? Does he make us a balanced back 3?

He's quick...

his tap tackle on mr north was excellent.

Strettle had an excellent game vs Wales, in 2008 (yes THAT year) until he stumbled and broke a foot bone. He had stepped and carved and accelerated through the entire Welsh midfield to within 10 mtrs of the tryline. His failure to turn and look for the support / pass near the line is a criticism you could make. So: step, speed, acceleration, agility were / remain his (potential) strengths.

He has had a few injury spells since then, and Jonno did not seem to want to pick him. Been a little anonymous this 6N, but I'd hang on to him for few more starts. As a Glos nut, I would like to see Charlie S in there, but maybe he is not quite ready. SL described Paris as a learning experience (approx) for CS, so I think he will be back.

Works hard defensively, good footwork and can generally pick a good line.

Flanker, agreed, forgot to mention good feet (when he does not injure them that is) Hope he holds out for a decent spell on the England wing to show us.

Strettle is the best of the lot. I worried more about playing against him than Foden or Ashton.

Tri, not sure why you commend Ashton so highly he has had a poor season so far for saints and England.

Has he scored a try for England yet, its usually a decent indicator. Another nearly man for me is Stretts

I think hes underrated by his countrymen. After watching the England vs Wales game again he was one of your standout players. His work rate is superb, he doesn't give up, hes got pace and runs great lines.
If Ashton gave the same commitment you'd have a feared backline.

At the start of the Eng v Wal game he saved a pretty certain try from being scored with a great tap tackle. At the end of the game he almost won it but just couldn't manage to ground the ball.

Had Foden or Ashton done the same there would be pages claiming they are the best in the world, future lions etc etc. As it's Strettle, not much is made of it all.

Id take Strettle over Ashton for the Lions for sure.

Maes,

Ashton is having a bad season, but theres all sorts of reaosns for that. The difference between hiom and Strettle is that he has previously been a record setting try scoring winger.
Strettle has 1 try in 11 tests, even allowing for the excuses that some of these sides have hated wingers its a poor return. His clubs scoreing record is pretty poor too, something like one in every 5 games.

Shane Williams had a bad season, it didnt stop the Welsh whinging it was insane to leave him out the 2009 Lions test sides.
Now Im not saying that Ashton is Shane Williams, but the difference between him and Strettle is that hes previosuly shown what it takes to be a genuine force at international level. Strettle has ran aorund like a healdess chicken and put in a few tackles.
Its pretty much late career Cueto without the fullback skills from Strettle.

Im far from convinced that he has what it takes to really prosper at this level, if Lancatser really hates scoring tries through wingers as much as he appears to then they may as well pick a flanker there ( but not Tom Croft). Lions level? No way.
Ashton needs to get back in the zone to prove hes worth a place in the england side yes, but the player he was a year ago is a hell of a lot better than Strettle..although they offer very different things to the England side.

Now its not a straight choice between the two of course. Could they form some kind of Mark Jones/Shane Williams partenership where one does all the work and the other score laods of tries against Japan? Maybe but although hes palying fairly well currently Im not really convinced by Strettle long term. On the other hand any coach who gave up on and ignored Ashton would be mental, he needs a hug/rest/kick up the bum/ice cream or something to fix him but thats a coaches job.

I think Strettle is probably the best choice for right now, but isn't a viable long-term option.

Strettle's only a stop gap. I personally think Ugo Monye should be in the side ahead of him, i think he would compliment Ashton well with his power.

Pete

I hear what your saying but wingers have to be multi faceted these days. Look at top wingers in the competition like Bowe, north, cuthbert etc...! They do a lot more than hang around waiting for a try scoring pass.

Ashton does little Strettle does loads. Good rugby brain.

I hear your points about try scoring mate but to be fair Foden is the only one of the three who's scored and he didn't create the try Morgan did.
So I would say Strettle has been the better player, try saving tackles great attacking threat.

Foden was great against the scots and has worked hard to get back in to form, Ashton could easily be dropped for his performances. England should have looked at other options.

Ugo Moyne - not even half the layer Strettle is.

Strettle is a very exciting and dangerous runner who lost a chunk of time with injury and fell out of favour. He looks to be coming good again.

There are better options than Strettle on the wing as far as I'm concerned.

He promised plenty when he first broke onto the scene, but never really delivered and following injuries hasn't ever returned to what he suggested at in those first seasons.

He's capable of some nice runs, but he produces just as much aimless rubbish. And his defence remains unconvincing, he's missed 1 in 4 tackles so far this 6N. He made a nice tap tackle in the Wales game, but most tackles are front on and he habitually goes too high and gets barrelled over.

maestegmafia wrote:Pete

I hear what your saying but wingers have to be multi faceted these days. Look at top wingers in the competition like Bowe, north, cuthbert etc...! They do a lot more than hang around waiting for a try scoring pass.

Ashton does little Strettle does loads. Good rugby brain.

I hear your points about try scoring mate but to be fair Foden is the only one of the three who's scored and he didn't create the try Morgan did.
So I would say Strettle has been the better player, try saving tackles great attacking threat.

Foden was great against the scots and has worked hard to get back in to form, Ashton could easily be dropped for his performances. England should have looked at other options.

Maes,

I agree on all the points you make, aside form noting that Foden has done far more work than the other two so far so his overall contribution has been greater if somewhat unspectacular for the most part.
The point is though that Strettle isnt that great an all round player. Its not like hes putting in killer passes and offloads. His breaks tend to be solo efforts that end up with him isolated ( OK maybe you can partly blame his teammates for that but he twice ran the ball back away from his support and got turned over against Wales, a waste) and he doesnt really have much of a kicking game ( something Ashton has improved hugely on the last year)
Foden and Ashton are simply better players. Although Ashtons form has been off it would be nuts to ditch him altogether, although had Sharples not been a complete waste of space last weekend then there may have been a strong case to give him another go at Ashtons expense.
I agree England need to look at widening their options,. The problem is the theoreticaly weakest and least likely to be a long term player of the three is the one whos performing the bets right now.
Monye is a quality player, and another whos done it before at the highest level. He seems to get a lot of stick (partly down to one game at fullback), but someone thought he was good enough to play for the Lions and end up top scorer on the tour. For all that people are getting excited about various teenage prospects England still have people like him knocking about ....just at 28 (nearly 29) is he too old for Lancaster?

Ashton needs a good kick up the backside, there is no one fighting for his place.

England do seem to be a bit short on wingers, centers and fullbacks. Maybe Brown is a better option than one of them...


Too late now.. Good luck for this afternoon against Ireland. Could be a really good game. Big learning curve for England they still have a hell of a long way to go.

England have plenty of other fantastic options at wing/centre/fullback, they just either aren't in the EPS or haven't been experimented with this tournament.

Not very.

He 'looks' very fast.



Yours,
Hersh

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Maes,

Ashton is having a bad season, but theres all sorts of reaosns for that. The difference between hiom and Strettle is that he has previously been a record setting try scoring winger.
Strettle has 1 try in 11 tests, even allowing for the excuses that some of these sides have hated wingers its a poor return. His clubs scoreing record is pretty poor too, something like one in every 5 games.

Shane Williams had a bad season, it didnt stop the Welsh whinging it was insane to leave him out the 2009 Lions test sides.
Now Im not saying that Ashton is Shane Williams, but the difference between him and Strettle is that hes previosuly shown what it takes to be a genuine force at international level. Strettle has ran aorund like a healdess chicken and put in a few tackles.
Its pretty much late career Cueto without the fullback skills from Strettle.

Im far from convinced that he has what it takes to really prosper at this level, if Lancatser really hates scoring tries through wingers as much as he appears to then they may as well pick a flanker there ( but not Tom Croft). Lions level? No way.
Ashton needs to get back in the zone to prove hes worth a place in the england side yes, but the player he was a year ago is a hell of a lot better than Strettle..although they offer very different things to the England side.

Now its not a straight choice between the two of course. Could they form some kind of Mark Jones/Shane Williams partenership where one does all the work and the other score laods of tries against Japan? Maybe but although hes palying fairly well currently Im not really convinced by Strettle long term. On the other hand any coach who gave up on and ignored Ashton would be mental, he needs a hug/rest/kick up the bum/ice cream or something to fix him but thats a coaches job.

Huh? Shane wWilliams was IRB world player of the year in 09 scored in the two matches i the six nations he played in and was lions man of teh match in teh third test.

Tycroes,

Shane had a bad run of form before the Lions and through most of the tour. He didnt get picked for first two tests because of that ( behind the likes of Ugo Monye). There were people ( Welsh included) questioning if he was shot at that point. ( see this example form the old 606 http://news.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A53624504) My point was that even the best players dont always play well.

He was awarded the IRB player of the year 2008 for his performances dating back to the previous winter, not for his bad form in 2009. Like Ashton he had an awesome 6 nations one year, then followed it up with a quiet one the year after. That didnt suddenly mean Wales should get rid of him and that he was bad player.

When has David Strettle ever really produced for England?