England Blindside Options

First topic message reminder :

Please treat this as a fun topic. When looking at the options for England at blindside there are a long list of options.
There is the old guard of Wood, Haskell and even Robshaw if experience is important.

Ewers, Itoje offer untested options.

Then there are a number of flanker/lock possibilities such as Slater/Lawes/Garvey (and even Launcbury and Kruis have played there).

Others might be Wilson, Croft. I probably have missed a few.

Not all options are equally probable.

My choice would be Slater with Itoje as the second option (maybe on the bench). Also I do like the work of Garvey because he will tighten up the pack.

Ewers, being from Zimbabwe, is a bit different because there isn't a decent international side for him to represent instead (though arguably it robs Zimbabwe of that chance when they've lost an international starting backrow in this generation alone) and there are very understandable personal reasons for exiles from Zimbabwe under Mugabe to not want to represent that country

CJ, plus he has English parents, as apparently does Harrison.

But it just gets a bit concerning when almost every player being touted is one brought up overseas.

Even though the grandparent rule is available I would disregard it if I was head coach.
I'd also be vary wary of the 3 year rule...though id put my mortgage on it that Hughes will be an England player.

Yet another reason to keep playing Robshaw

I can cope with Ewers. He has ancestral eligibility plus has only ever played pro rugby in our system (and of course has many more than 3 years residency).

It is the likes of Don Armand (grandparents I think) and Mike Williams (English mother) being Zimbabweans who first played pro rugby in SA that I do not like to see considered.

I accept that my own definitions may be fluid, and prone to accusations of hypocrisy, but I see a major difference between Roku who is Fijian but played his first proper game of rugby (ie not on the beach) in the Army and Hughes who went to Australia on a rugby scholarship and only came to England because Wasps offered him more dosh than the limited Super Rugby that was tabled.

I agree with all that LT

TJ wrote:

cb wrote:Devil's advocate here but if we were playing Scotland away on wet and muddy pitch would any one mind Garvey being the blindside?

We have a new pitch that will not be muddy.

Apologies TJ if Murrayfield is no longer like Grimpen Mire on a bad day.