england v wales under20

First topic message reminder :

Always enjoy watching the under 20's, england started strongly but wales certainly getting involved and dominating the scrum early on.

I would love Harry Thacker to make it, but pretty sure he will be too small, because the thought of John Inverdale going orgasmic over his dad's name tickles me.

Conlon's played most of his rugby at 7, though he has been used at 8 for Pirates and Exe's A team occasionally this season. He's noticeably bulked up since last year but I still see his future at openside - he'll be doing very well if he's competing with Kvesic and Wallace for Robshaw's place in a couple of years. though.

The other Exeter lad, Stu Townsend, had a useful little cameo, and he's got another 2 years at 20's level. High hopes for him.

I could see Conlon getting game time as a flanker rather than an 8. He's not powerful enough for 8 but what I liked was the timing of his runs which meant he was always at full tilt when he chose the angle which made it very difficult for the Welsh defence and very easy for the Loughborough 9 Taylor (surely Tigers academy will be keeping an eye on him). That's something our flankers at first team and Saxon level aren't doing. Lines at pace one out from the ruck. Sucked in a lot of defenders and when you can offload as well then happy days.

Hood83 wrote:Wales have fallen off way too many tackles. Their scrum is far better than ours, everything else, less so. Wales are far better than this, but the encouraging thing for me is that I think there is plenty of room for us to improve still. Our backs are very deep and only the SH and Tomkins look that incisive.

getting shivers down my spine...i see a black cat walk by, shortly followed by another that looks EXACTLY like it...

Just catching up on the game now, how bad are Wales????

Thacker will never make it as a hooker, he's way too small.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Just catching up on the game now, how bad are Wales????

Thacker will never make it as a hooker, he's way too small.

If he is too small is there an alternative position he could move to? 7? 9?

He's a converted 10 apparenty.

Scrum looked massivley underpowered with him on, he's way too small for the front row.

He had no such problems when hooking for Tigers in the first team. From memory the ref didn't ping him at the scrum either.He's made his debut in the AP this season at 19, he made his LV debut a couple of years ago when we won at the Stoop aged 17. Tigers only blood exceptional talents that early, the likes of Ford, Manu and Ben Youngs recently and Moody, Ollie Smith and Ellis previously. I think he will make it and his size will be something he has to work round but let's remember Mears wasn't the biggest and neither is Tom Youngs and they were good enough for international representation. He's already surprisingly strong and he's young enough to bulk out a little more.

Let's also remember that the Welsh picked a huge front five presumably to negate England's scrum and maul. They took the England scrum to the cleaners and we were fortunate that Thacker can actually hook the ball so we could smuggle the thing out before conceding more penalties. The Welsh got noticeably lower on the engagement and had the strength to push us back.

I just can't see it Sam, he's very small and not really well built. I don't think he'll ever make a regular AP player.

quinsforever wrote:

Hood83 wrote:Wales have fallen off way too many tackles. Their scrum is far better than ours, everything else, less so. Wales are far better than this, but the encouraging thing for me is that I think there is plenty of room for us to improve still. Our backs are very deep and only the SH and Tomkins look that incisive.

getting shivers down my spine...i see a black cat walk by, shortly followed by another that looks EXACTLY like it...

...sarcasm?

quinsforever wrote:

Hood83 wrote:Wales have fallen off way too many tackles. Their scrum is far better than ours, everything else, less so. Wales are far better than this, but the encouraging thing for me is that I think there is plenty of room for us to improve still. Our backs are very deep and only the SH and Tomkins look that incisive.

getting shivers down my spine...i see a black cat walk by, shortly followed by another that looks EXACTLY like it...

SHoite, the 2nd one just got flattened the Welsh team bus. sorry quins.    

I've never seen an England side at any level with basics that good. Yes Wales were rubbish, but the number of mistakes England made was tiny. I've been saying for while that the academeis are producing a higher ands higher quality of player, and I think we saw that on Friday.

Apart from the passing, catching and off-loading and angles taken, I thought England's breakdown work was also brilliant. And yes England were the stronger side, but it was 'athletic' strong rather than just 'big' strong.

I agree that Thacker is so small that he's having a negative impact on the scrum. It's a shame because he played very well. Maybe he'll convert back to flanker at some point. Good as Emgland are, if they can't sort the scrum by the summer they won't retain the JWC.

Scratch wrote:

quinsforever wrote:

Hood83 wrote:Wales have fallen off way too many tackles. Their scrum is far better than ours, everything else, less so. Wales are far better than this, but the encouraging thing for me is that I think there is plenty of room for us to improve still. Our backs are very deep and only the SH and Tomkins look that incisive.

getting shivers down my spine...i see a black cat walk by, shortly followed by another that looks EXACTLY like it...

SHoite, the 2nd one just got flattened the Welsh team bus. sorry quins.    

LOL. Good one!  

I thought the second rows were excellent. Itoje i've seen before and carried on from a stormer in the Ireland game. Tom Ellis though looked very good in the tight and put in a superb performance. Wasn't it his debut?

formerly known as Sam wrote:Itoje looks to be another athletic lock in the Lawes mold but with a better skill set (or a skill set).

Wow fkaS, I know that you don't necessarily think Wood is the best player for England at 6 (when Robshaw is at 7) but now you imply that Lawes doesn't have a skill set? Are you sure your not letting your Tigers glasses cloud your judgement just a little? .