England v France, 15 August

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ENGLAND v FRANCE
15 August 2015
KO: 20:00 local
Twickenham, London

Live on telly

Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: George Clancy (Ireland) & Leighton Hodges (Wales)
Television match official: Simon McDowell (Ireland)

A. Head to Head

99 Played 99
54 Won 38
7 Drawn 7
38 Lost 54
1,553 Points 1,230

B. Recent Form

21 March 2015
Twickenham, London
55 – 35 to England

1 February 2014
Stade de France, Saint-Denis
26 – 24 to France

23 February 2013
Twickenham, London
23 – 13 to England

11 March 2012
Stade de France, Saint-Denis
22 – 24 to England

8 October 2011
Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand
19 – 12 to France

C. Teams

ENGLAND

Alex Goode; Anthony Watson, Henry Slade, Sam Burgess, Jonny May; Owen Farrell, Richard Wigglesworth; Mako Vunipola, Rob Webber, Kieran Brookes, George Kruis, Geoff Parling, Tom Wood, Calum Clark, Ben Morgan

Replacements: Luke Cowan-Dickie, Alex Corbisiero, David Wilson, Dave Attwood, James Haskell, Danny Care, Danny Cipriani, Billy Twelvetrees

FRANCE

Scott Spedding; Sofiane Guitoune, Remi Lamerat, Alexandre Dumoulin, Brice Dulin; Francois Trinh-Duc, Morgan Parra; Louis Picamoles, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Yannick Nyanga; Yoann Maestri, Alexandre Flanquart; Nicolas Mas, Dimitri Szarzewski, Vincent Debaty

Replacements: Guilhem Guirado, Xavier Chiocci, Uini Atonio, Sebastien Vahaamahina, Loann Goujon, Rory Kockott, Remi Tales, Gael Fickou

Poorfour

Happy to let Saturday pass in terms of Wood's form, but there's a general feeling that he's become underpowered and overly reliant on his lineout role to justify selection. In the 2012 autumn series when he earnt his place back from Tom Johnson and then was MOTM vs NZ he was outstanding- agressive and effective at rucks and breakdowns, pacy with good hands. I thought he should have gone with the Lions certainly. Haven't seen that from him for a while now.

Im not criticsing Lawes....I think he's a fantastic athlete and our key lineout jumper.
Some of his cover tackles are Croft esque as mentioned above and is vital to the team.

Yes I have seen him put some thunderous hits on backs...ive yet to see one on a forward.

Im saying he has very different attributes of someone like Martin Johnson. Ones an great athlete...one was a bruising and brutal force. As a lock partnership they would be perfect.

Now Launchbury is also a great player in my eyes but with those two there...I would like to see a little more oomph in the back row...especially at 6. Maybe Haskell missed the boat with no consistency. He is ideal as a more powerful player...
Maybe Burgess or Itoje next season can make that spot their own??

Itoje I think. A real talent.

Scottrf wrote:Itoje I think. A real talent.

Well he looks like he might have all the attributes but we shall see next season.....he may end up at lock...

If Burgess can develop some form of lineout ability, which you would assume he will at Bath....then he could be a monster at 6. He might be Haskell with the consistency he lacked....

Don't know where to put this, but a significant point if the Guardian has this right:

There is still the theoretical possibility of Dylan Hartley, suspended for butting George at the end of last season, rejoining the squad but Lancaster emphasised that could happen only through injury to one of the incumbents.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/aug/17/brad-barritt-injury-stuart-lancaster-england-world-cup

There's no question of Hartley making the World Cup squad, but it sounds like Lancaster would be open to the idea of calling him up as a replacement.

If he gets called up, the temptation to start him, or have him in the match day 23, would be strong regardless of which hooker went home injured.

Lancaster's template has always been for an athletic pack which is commendable up to point, but it would be nice to have a bit more muscle should the need arise.  Interesting to see how the pack will go on Saturday.  Perhaps wrong to totally judge some of the players just on one game?

Corbs did not look wonderfully at loose head and how would he play at tight head?  I thought Brookes was not that bad, but then how would he play at loose head (I realise he has played both LH and hooker in the past)?

Sounds like Jamie George will defo start on Saturday.

Definitely? All the teams I've seen have Youngs starting.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

beshocked wrote:Sgt Pooly Lancaster could have picked Ewers,Itoje or Burgess as a 6 but didn't.

Londontiger it's about picking the right players to experiment with. It's not easy sometimes but that's SL's job.

None of those players are as good as Haskell/Wood so it's pointless experimenting.

If you don't give players opportunities then of course you can keep saying - they are not as good. Gives you an easy excuse for not trying out other players.





As for Lawes being lightweight? No he isn't. He's got a bit of a reputation for trying to smash the smallest men on the field though. Would be nice if he did those crunching tackles on bigger men.

beshocked wrote:





As for Lawes being lightweight? No he isn't. He's got a bit of a reputation for trying to smash the smallest men on the field though. Would be nice if he did those crunching tackles on bigger men.

..and from the front like an honest gunslinger......

Scottrf wrote:Definitely? All the teams I've seen have Youngs starting.

Just basing that on what Lancaster said in that link. Could be off the bench of course. But he will definitely get a game.

but the lineout clearly didn’t go as well as we hoped. Jamie’s got a great opportunity. We need to throw him in there and see how he gets on.

Interesting. Sorry, didn't read the link.

As for Lawes being lightweight? No he isn't. He's got a bit of a reputation for trying to smash the smallest men on the field though. Would be nice if he did those crunching tackles on bigger men.

He's more athletic than a bruising forward though.

And that's precisely what I mean about his tackles. I would be FAR more impressed if he dished out some of those hits on his opposition forwards.

But again....im not complaining about Lawes...he's a huge compliment to the team...I just want more from him.

GeordieFalcon wrote:

As for Lawes being lightweight? No he isn't. He's got a bit of a reputation for trying to smash the smallest men on the field though. Would be nice if he did those crunching tackles on bigger men.

He's more athletic than a bruising forward though.

And that's precisely what I mean about his tackles. I would be FAR more impressed if he dished out some of those hits on his opposition forwards.

But again....im not complaining about Lawes...he's a huge compliment to the team...I just want more from him.

Geordie, I think you have identified the problems with Lawes right on the money.  People - especially coaches - see this big strong lad and have tried to make him the heavy hitter type.  As you point out, they have been wrong as he is more athletic than just powerful.  Saints have learned this and use him accordingly.  I am not sure (meaning I doubt) the England staff see him the same way.  Many England fans expect the power player, too.  For me, I would put him in some space rather than tie him in all the time. Balance.

I think sometimes Lawes is judged unfairly because he has the speed and power to send the half backs flying, other "enforcers" don't have the speed of foot to get to the halfbacks before the pass gets there, and so it doesn't look like they are just picking on smaller players!

Its not as if Lawes smashes halfbacks then gets knocked backwards by forwards running at him, he still puts them on their backsides but perhaps just without the same violence, which is only to be expected given the size difference between Lawes and most halfbacks

BamBam wrote:I think sometimes Lawes is judged unfairly because he has the speed and power to send the half backs flying, other "enforcers" don't have the speed of foot to get to the halfbacks before the pass gets there, and so it doesn't look like they are just picking on smaller players!

Its not as if Lawes smashes halfbacks then gets knocked backwards by forwards running at him, he still puts them on their backsides but perhaps just without the same violence, which is only to be expected given the size difference between Lawes and most halfbacks

Agreed - it wasn't often you saw Martin Johnson steamroller a fly half (mainly because Neil Back had got there first, flattened him and stolen the ball). I remember seeing Lawes at the Stoop for the first time and feeling that as a physical presence he was different from anyone else on the pitch. He doesn't carry much ballast - but he has a huge power to weight ratio.

My main concern about him is that I think he's a confidence player. It took him a long time to recover his aggression after some time out injured. That said, I think Lancaster made a smart move in making him the lineout caller - the added responsibility seems to have focused and stabilised him.