Minor Changes for the Team v Italy?

First topic message reminder :

So after the trench warfare against Italy and France and in particular a few players having poor games against the French, should Lancaster be looking to experiment a little against Italy to find that cutting edge?

If he is going to make changes and use more of the squad then this is the team that i'd like to see start:

Team to face Italy:
1. Marler
2. Youngs - Just adds a tonne more agression to the Eng pack, gets through a heck of a lot of work too
3. Cole
4. Parling
5. Launchberry
6. Wood - Probably one of our best players but must be at 6!
7. Robshaw
8. Morgan - Like Wood but must be in at 8, we miss his power and line breaking massively
9. Care - Has been one of the stand out players of the Prem, needs to get a start to reward all of his work
10. Farrel
11. Brown
12. Twelvetrees - Needs to show that he can take over BB's tackling duties AND add a wider game to Englands attack, I think he'll be great TBH
13. Tuilangi
14. Wade - If we're going to have a distributer like 36 in there then we need to have some real danger out wide, Wade has a lot of hype so a lot to prove but he's in great form at the moment
15. Foden - England's lack of pace in the backs has been highlighted this tournament, Foden adds heaps of that along with experience and very good defence, he loves scoring for Eng too

16, Vunipola 17, Hartley 18, Wilson 19, Lawes 20, Haskell 21, Youngs 22, Flood 23, Goode

Who would you have on bench,strettle and barritt/burns?

While Stuart Lancaster is not limited to selecting only those in the EPS - we know already that he is unlikely to go outside that squad - and when he is thinking about it he adds the to the EPS.

So with the players released to their clubs this weekend (Hartley, Lawes, Haskell, Waldrom, Kvesic, Wilson, dickson, Tomkins, Strettle, foden) and with the injury updates (Farrell recovering but will not train this week, Morgan and Billy V to continue rehab at Pennyhill) we can start to see what changes there may be.

Retention of Mako V and Care suggests they will start. Release of Hartley and Lawes suggests they will be dropped to the bench at least. Release of Strettle and Foden suggests that Ashton may be safe despite today's press reports. Non-release of 36 may indicate he will play.

Thus the starting XV may well resemble:

Goode
Ashton
Manu
36
Brown
Flood
Care
Morgan
Robshaw
Wood
Parling
Launchbury
Cole
Youngs
Mako


In total that would be 6 personnel changes and one positional. If Farrell is deemed unready to start Iwonder who would be on the bench? Has burns played for Glaws since his injury?

LT
Possibly Barritt on the bench with 12trees earmarked to cover 10 in the event of an injury?

Hadn't noticed that Care was also retained - could suggest he's in line to start as well, or perhaps it's just about keeping some options open, as with Mako v Marler - see who goes well in training and make the choice later.

I was about to say maybe 36 or Goode will be seen as 10 cover

You can read being released in different ways. If you're released to your club, it either means:
- You won't be starting
- You will be starting but you need some game time.

If Morgan had recovered, he ought to get some game time surely? He should be released, perhaps with a request that he gets no more than 50 minutes. Same with Freddie Burns.

Care got enough game time last weekend. No need to send him back. You can't read the starter from that.

Hartley should be worried. He got game time, and could hence do with a break. That implies Youngs starting.

36 must get a lot of game time against Italy. Otherwise he'll have gone three weeks with no rugby. I'm surprised he wasn't released (did he play at all against France?).

yappysnap wrote:I was about to say maybe 36 or Goode will be seen as 10 cover

I assume Flood will be on the bench if Farrell is playing. If not, then Goode and 36 are perhaps the next best given they're in the squad and Burns hasn't played for some time.

Alex_Germany wrote:You can read being released in different ways. If you're released to your club, it either means:
- You won't be starting
- You will be starting but you need some game time.

As far as I know 8 of the players released to the clubs started matches this weekend (either for England or their clubs) exceptions being Waldrom and Haskell who clearly need game-time but equally are unlikely to start aginst Italy - unless Morgan and billy V are both not fit enough.

As to bench players not released (Care, Mako, Flood) based on Lancasters past releasing I would argue that this clearly indicates there is a very good chance they will start v Italy.

Or that they or the players ahead of them are carrying minor knocks (as we know is the case for Farrell who may or may not be 100% fit)