France team v England

First topic message reminder :

http://www.espn.co.uk/six-nations-2014/rugby/story/211933.html

23 players picked - only 9 backs, so you can probably work out the backs - Fickou and Doussain on the bench ?

Forwards: Thomas Domingo (Clermont), Yannick Forestier (Castres), Benjamin Kayser (Clermont), Dimitri Szarzewski (Racing-Métro), Nicolas Mas (Montpellier), Rabah Slimani (Stade Français), Alexandre Flanquart (Stade Français), Yoann Maestri (Toulouse), Pascal Papé (Stade Français, captain), Bernard Le Roux (Racing-Métro), Antoine Burban (Stade Français), Yannick Nyanga (Toulouse), Damien Chouly (Clermont), Louis Picamoles (Toulouse).

Backs: Jean-Marc Doussain (Toulouse), Maxime Machenaud (Racing-Métro), Rémi Talès (Castres), Mathieu Bastareaud (Toulon), Gaël Fickou (Toulouse), Wesley Fofana (Clermont), Yoann Huget (Toulouse), Maxime Médard (Toulouse), Brice Dulin (Castres)

Lots of new names in there. Again. Tactic for England to beat this team = knacker Remi tales as early as possible ? Get Big Billy V running over him.

Bit disappointed not to see Michalak play in this years 6 nations. Will miss his comedy value.

Lowe could really be the answer as our back up at 13, but he's so injury prone. And might never come back after the latest one

I rated Lowe very highly CJ...he seemed to give your backline direction and control...and it would have been great to see him tested at this level...but as you say another injured guy.

So working on SL saying there should be a bosher and a creator in the centres and likes to play two of the same number......I'm calling it for the 2019 world cup:

12. Manu
13. Daly

Will he be in charge to make the selections in 2019?

Oh well don't ruin a perfectly good theory with common sense now.

I'd prefer to see Daly/Manu. Daly has good hands and a massive boot with an ability to drift past tacklers. Get him in closer with Manu occupying the attention of the opposition 13 that step and some pace could see holes in the opposition midfield.

ChequeredJersey wrote:Lowe could really be the answer as our back up at 13, but he's so injury prone. And might never come back after the latest one

Also trinder.

England have had appalling luck with centres over recent years ... They have all had bad injury problems or been crap beyond all reason or both.
I can't believe there's any other country that's got through as many in the last 5 years ( quiz of the day... Name them )
The nearest thing to a settled duo Lancaster has had was barrit tuilagi which isn't one that really suits the desired "creator/runner" partnership they want. Even that only really evolved through injuries and reshuffles.


It must actual be quite embarrassing if you're an eq premiership 13 who has neve been capped or selected for a squad then injured.

ChequeredJersey wrote:Lowe could really be the answer as our back up at 13, but he's so injury prone. And might never come back after the latest one

Half right. Lowe's had two serious injuries in 5 years - the ankle injury he picked up touring with England A, which took ages to come back from, and his latest neck injury. I am also worried that he might not come back from that, but to call him injury-prone is just wrong.

Even if he does come back to full fitness, I struggle to see how England would use him. It's a shame, because I think he's a very talented and effective player, but he is small for international rugby and would probably need to play outside a crash ball 12 - when England's current gameplan is based around having the crash ball merchant at 13.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

ChequeredJersey wrote:Lowe could really be the answer as our back up at 13, but he's so injury prone. And might never come back after the latest one

Also trinder.

England have had appalling luck with centres over recent years ... They have all had bad injury problems or been crap beyond all reason or both.
I can't believe there's any other country that's got through as many in the last 5 years ( quiz of the day... Name them )
The nearest thing to a settled duo Lancaster has had was barrit tuilagi which isn't one that really suits the desired "creator/runner" partnership they want. Even that only really evolved through injuries and reshuffles.


It must actual be quite embarrassing if you're an eq premiership 13 who has neve been capped or selected for a squad then injured.

In the last five years?  I've got:

Brad Barritt
Manu Tuilagi x 2 (He's played in both centre positions!)
Billy Twelvetrees
Luther Burrell
Joel Tompkins
Jon Joseph
Kyle Eastmond
Owen Farrell
Shontayne Hape
Mike Tindall
Matt Banahan
Matthew Tait
Dan Hipkiss
Ricky Flutey
Olly Barkley
Shane Geraghty
Jamie Noon
Ayoola Erinle

I've probably missed a couple too...

just heard on radio , ashton been dropped for the first game

Cumbrian wrote:

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

ChequeredJersey wrote:Lowe could really be the answer as our back up at 13, but he's so injury prone. And might never come back after the latest one

Also trinder.

England have had appalling luck with centres over recent years ... They have all had bad injury problems or been crap beyond all reason or both.
I can't believe there's any other country that's got through as many in the last 5 years ( quiz of the day... Name them )
The nearest thing to a settled duo Lancaster has had was barrit tuilagi which isn't one that really suits the desired "creator/runner" partnership they want. Even that only really evolved through injuries and reshuffles.


It must actual be quite embarrassing if you're an eq premiership 13 who has neve been capped or selected for a squad then injured.

In the last five years?  I've got:

Brad Barritt
Manu Tuilagi x 2 (He's played in both centre positions!)
Billy Twelvetrees
Luther Burrell
Joel Tompkins
Jon Joseph
Kyle Eastmond
Owen Farrell
Shontayne Hape
Mike Tindall
Matt Banahan
Matthew Tait
Dan Hipkiss
Ricky Flutey
Olly Barkley
Shane Geraghty
Jamie Noon
Ayoola Erinle

I've probably missed a couple too...

Im trying not to cheat by using statsguru ...but Im pretty sure you can add:
Flood
Tom May
Turner Hall
Armitage (possibly only as a replacement but Im sure hes played center)
Vesty (as a replacement)
Wilkinson (as a replacement)

To be fair erinle may have been 6 years ago?

But when you consider theres also guys like Lowe and Trinder who probably wouldve been capped had it not been for injuries its a pretty long list and likely to go up by at least one this weekend.

If we're counting Burrell (non-cap match so far) then you can also add Lowe, and maybe a couple of others from Barbarians games etc.

Erinle was 2009.

That looks like a ridiculous number, but as a comparison I'd like to see how many wings we've used, and how many centres teams like wales and ireland have.

What would be very interesting is seeing how many were first choice

Wingers - I've got:

Monye
Cueto
Banahan
Ashton
Foden
Ben Youngs (replacement on debut - doesn't really count)
Tuilagi (shifted there by other replacements)
Ashton
Sharples
Armitage?
May
Wade
Yarde
Brown

thomh wrote:Wingers - I've got:

Monye
Cueto
Banahan
Ashton
Foden
Ben Youngs (replacement on debut - doesn't really count)
Tuilagi (shifted there by other replacements)
Ashton
Sharples
Armitage?
May
Wade
Yarde
Brown

Croft   

Armitage definitely has played wing

Full list of england 3/4 players in the last 5 years:
http://www.espn.co.uk/statsguru/rugby/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=matches;position_subcategory=4;spanmin1=27+jan+2009;spanval1=span;team=1;template=results;type=player

Wales
http://www.espn.co.uk/statsguru/rugby/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=matches;position_subcategory=4;spanmin1=27+jan+2009;spanval1=span;team=4;template=results;type=player

To be fair its only 5 more for England, although Wales have played more tests and include the Barbarians games.

What's Manu's E-nitial?