England's Summer tour to Argentina

First topic message reminder :

Well i dont know about everyone else but im fed up with "Lions Threads"
Allowing for Lions selections who would you like to see on the summer tour

Possible Lions exclusions:
Dan Cole, Joe Launchbury, Chris Robshaw, Chris Ashton, Owen Farrell, Manu Tuilagi, Dylan Hartley, Alex Corbisieru, Care / Youngs

So how about something like (a 33 man squad):

LH: Marler & Vunipola, Mullan TH: Davy Wilson, PDJ & Shaun Knight
Ho: T.Youngs - Grey
SR: Parling & Kitchener, Slater/Kruis and Lawes
Back Row: 6-Haskell & Wood, 7-Kvesic & Fraser, 8- Morgan & Vunipola
SH: Care / Youngs & Simpson
FH: Burns & Flood
12: Twelvetrees & Barritt
13: Jonathan Joseph & Elliott Daly
Wings: Wade, May, Eastmond, Marlon Yarde
FB: Goode - Brown - Foden (This is a tough one)

Scott Wilson mate...coming along nicely.

Soon we will see some competition...Scott Wilson v Balmain v Brooks v sinkler v knight...hopefully a couple will really make the grade...

Watch Synkler when he is finally unleashed on the prem, along with Marler and Buchanan the Quins front row will be dynamic!

yappysnap wrote:Watch Synkler when he is finally unleashed on the prem, along with Marler and Buchanan the Quins front row will be dynamic!

I already like what Buchanan brings looks to be an excellent prospect. Perhaps we might see Jamie George kick on at Saracens next season given that Smit is leaving?

Yappy

Do you think Synkler will be 1st choice with Johnson leaving...or do you think theyll rotate him and PDJ depending on games/opposition

On a seperate note Yappy...hows Charlie Matthews looking. He seemed to be singled out by Lancs...his stats of 6'8 and 18st suggest a big lad aswell..

Matthews is doing pretty well, but he's still some way off being first choice I think. He doesn't yet have the same physical impact as Kohn, and they preferred Easter at 4 for the Leicester match today.

Only read about half way down the first page, but why do all the comments seem to assume that Wood won't be on the Lions tour? Ferris and Lydiate are both long-term injured, and Wood's form for England this season has been immense.

Geordie: Sinckler is the long term option for Quins style Rugby. He's from the academy and taught from scratch to be a loose/running forward that can srummage.
Thomh: Kohn's injured, other than that he's always Quins first choice, which is why Easter was packing down in the tight 5 today.

Yeh I know that - my point was that Easter was preferred to Matthews in Kohn's absence.

Geordie, Matthews is good but no where near the finished article, he doesn't control the opposition and struggles to impose himself in games. He is a handy bench player but not ready to start for Quins yet.

Synkler is a rough diamond at the mo, much like Marler when he first started. He'll probably be rotated a lot and i'd be surprised if he started many, Marler handily had no one infront of him while Synkler has the potentially very good PDJ. I think the season after next will be his time to shine.

Oh and then there's Trayfoot as well. Very very impressed with his bench cameo yesterday, making Salvi look silly was particularly enjoyable. He could be a quality 8 in the future.

Question is whether Trayfoot will ever hang around long enough to get gametime at Quins. At the moment he's stuck behind a lot of players, as well as competing with Jack Clifford. If he waits fors Fa'asavalu and Easter to leave/retire then he could be very good, but it's just whether he wants to be playing first choice rugby sooner than Quins can offer.

Isn't Mo only signed for another season and there's some talk that he may not stay? To be honest I could see us letting him go as he's hardly been spectacular this season and we have Guest, Clifford and Trayfoot knocking on the door.

Easter could well be playing less games next season and potentially more at lock as well.

So next season we could see a lot more of Guest and Clifford starting with either Wallace or Trayfoot on the bench. That'd be a much better situation.

I'm not sure it would be much better. While Fa'asavalu may be showing signs of slowing down he's still ahead of them in the pecking order. I'd also hope that we never have to play Easter at 4 much, as it would mean that Kohn was not around and/or Matthews wasn't developing as hoped. I would hope that at least one of Clifford and Trayfoot would make it as a starter long term though. Ollie Smith has been very positive about Clifford in particular, and other Quins youngsters.

http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/sport/rugby/10171216.Smith__Quins__Clifford_is_an_England_star_in_the_making/

robbo277 wrote:In 2009 we played two "away" tests, one in Old Trafford and one actually in Argentina. The OT test was televised, the one in Argentina wasn't.

I thought I read somewhere that it was two tests and one midweek game, but I can't remember.

Not sure who will go on the Lions, but there are a few things I'd like to see.

Wilson starting in the tests to see how he fares, with a younger option on the bench for experience.
Billy Vunipola, Freddie Burns, Billy Twelvetrees and Christian Wade getting good gametime on tour.

But basically it's a tour we want to win 2-0, so then bringing some more experienced players like Botha, Palmer, Croft, Johnson, Flood, Barritt, etc wouldn't be bad picks.

I thought it was three test summer tours in the current IRB june tour format? Anyway, regardless of whether it's two or three I really hope the games are shown. I've much more interest in this than the Lions.

My fear is that for 'continuity' the players like Ashton, Goode, etc who are unlikely to go off with the Lions will be retained. Which would be a pain as, barring a massive improvement in club form between now and then, they are precisely the positions where we need to try alternatives.

I wouldn't be surprised if we get to keep our second rows, so doubt we will need Botha and Palmer. Wouldn't be too disappointed if the likes of Croft, Johnson, Flood and Barritt provide the experience for the team though. I expect that we will get to keep one of Youngs and Care as well - both of whom have a respectable number of caps even if they are still fairly young.