England JWC Campaign

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Squad

Forwards

Ralph Adams-Hale (Saracens) - Prop
Josh Bayliss (Bath Rugby) - Back Row
Jamie Blamire (Newcastle Falcons) - Hooker
Josh Caulfield (Exeter Chiefs) - Lock/Back Row
Justin Clegg (Worcester Warriors) - Lock
Max Davies (Newcastle Falcons) - Lock
Ollie Dawe (Bristol Rugby) - Prop
Ben Earl (Saracens) - Back Row
Will Evans (Leicester Tigers) - Back Row
Ciaran Knight (Gloucester Rugby) - Prop
Zach Mercer (Bath Rugby) - Back Row
Joe Mullis (Gloucester Rugby) - Hooker
Jack Nay (Saracens) - Back Row
Alex Seville (Gloucester Rugby) - Prop
Marcus Street (Exeter Chiefs) - Prop
Henry Walker (Gloucester Rugby) - Hooker

Backs
Sam Aspland-Robinson (Harlequins) - Wing
Theo Brophy Clews (London Irish) - Fly Half
Will Butler (Worcester Warriors) - Centre
Ali Crossdale (Saracens) - Wing/Full Back
Gabriel Ibitoye (Harlequins) - Wing
Max Malins (Saracens) - Full Back
Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints) - Scrum Half
Dominic Morris (Saracens) - Centre
Tom Parton (London Irish) - Full Back
Harry Randall (Gloucester Rugby) - Scrum Half
Jacob Umaga (Wasps) - Fly Half/Centre
Max Wright (Yorkshire Carnegie) - Centre



Fixtures (all live on ITV)

England v Samoa: Wednesday 31 May – Avchala Stadium (10am KO BST)
England v Wales: Sunday 4 June - Avchala Stadium (5pm KO BST)
England v Australia: Thursday 8 June -  Avchala Stadium (5pm KO BST)
Semi-finals and knock-out matches (Tuesday 13 June) Details TBC
Final and knock-out matches (Sunday 18 June) Details TBC

Couple of shock results so far but to be fair to Ireland they can't claim residency on any SH players yet

IRE 21 - 22 ITA
RSA 23 - 23 FRA
ENG 74 - 17 SAM
NZL 42 - 20 SCO

munkian wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

munkian wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:In other words, no, they're just on the world rugby site? Surely our games are on S4C?

Alright helmet chops, only trying to help ffs

Well give an actual answer then you part-timer.

Look it up yourself FW

Why the hell would I do that when I can't be bothered FW?

Take note:

zombiesurvivalman wrote:The wales v Australia game is live on s4c tonight (Kick-off 5.30) and the Wales v England game is live on Sunday also at 5.30pm

Thanks for succeeding where Munkian failed miserably.

SA look really good for this tournament, bit of a surprise

Ireland obviously have had a shocker there, but think they are suffering with injuries

BamBam wrote:SA look really good for this tournament, bit of a surprise

Ireland obviously have had a shocker there, but think they are suffering with injuries

I think credit should go to Italy - they look like they have their best young crop ever to me.

A bit off the record here. but does any one think we will any of the England JWC squad in next years 6ns? For the senior side i mean.

Mercer if anyone, but still unlikely

Well that was pretty impressive, but the injuries in the backs are already mounting up.

Thought that early yellow for Samoa could easily have been a red with the new guidance. Swinging arm to the head. Probably lucky that it was early in the game.

England impressive and some nicely worked tries, but Samoa looked disorganised with some big gaps in defence (and typically weak at the set piece).

Saw that Ireland lost to Italy. A bit of a surprise there.

I suspect that if they had TMOs that early yellow would have been a red. On a separate note that player looked closer to 30 than 20!

LondonTiger wrote:I suspect that if they had TMOs that early yellow would have been a red. On a separate note that player looked closer to 30 than 20!

Polynesians tend to mature young - that's one reason NZ age group rugby is graded by weight

Floodlight failed just before Ht against Wales.

Set piece has been iffy, especially lineout, but ball in hand we are a different class. Leading 24-3.

LondonTiger wrote:Floodlight failed just before Ht against Wales.

Set piece has been iffy, especially lineout, but ball in hand we are a different class. Leading 24-3.

Agreed. Definitely argue that Wales have an edge in the pack, but they don't have anyone of the caliber of our back row. Outside of the pack the gulf is huge.

Early days but despite the U20's being stripped of players to go to Argentina I suspect that they must be amongst the favourites.

Nice set move from Wales but its still rugby players 24 gym monkeys 10

Eng scrum struggles end with a replacement prop getting yellow. Wales power through the reset scrum to score. 24-17

England look to be waking up again though

feck

Aspland Robinson hamstring goes.

OK Wales on England line but can't get over. End up going for chip over the top. Malin takes (just) runs for the 22 drop out and kicks long. Mercer catches the lone welsh defender and strips the ball. England get penalty but Malin proves to be human afterall.

The powercut really broke up England's rhythm, they were looking on for a big win until then. Regained some control going into the final quarter though. Scrum and lineouts were a concern. I don't think there has been a straight lineout all night but we still managed to lose about 4 of them.

34-22 final score

Wales finally got a try through the backs at the end

Wales had a very good 10 and 12 in the 6N. The 12 is particularly exciting and has been likened to Scott Gibbs but is currently injured. Not sure where our 10 is but he was pretty good ball in hand and an accurate goal-kicker. Rhun Williams and Keelan Giles are still eligible but away with the senior team. Add these guys in and our backs are very good. As it is I don't think you'll find many disagreeing with you about the skill levels of the young lads as it's been pretty poor for a while now. Our forwards again look decent but apart from Botham there's no back-row player that stands out. Our performance in the JWC over the last 3 years should set the alarm bells ringing but it doesn't seem like they're doing anything about it.

Team has been named for the Australia match:

15. Tom Parton (London Irish), 14. Paolo Odogwu (Sale Sharks), 13. Will Butler (Worcester Warriors), 12. Theo Brophy Clews (London Irish), 11. Gabriel Ibitoye (Harlequins), 10. Max Malins (Saracens), 9. Harry Randall (Gloucester Rugby), 1. Ollie Dawe (Bristol Rugby), 2. Henry Walker (Gloucester Rugby), 3. Marcus Street (Exeter Chiefs), 4. Josh Caulfield (Exeter Chiefs), 5. Jack Nay (Saracens), 6. Dino Lamb (Harlequins), 7. Ben Earl (Saracens), 8. Zach Mercer (Bath Rugby) captain.

Replacements:

16. Joe Mullis (Gloucester Rugby), 17. Ralph Adams-Hale (Saracens), 18. Ciaran Knight (Gloucester Rugby), 19. Justin Clegg (Worcester Warriors), 20. Max Davies (Newcastle Falcons), 21. Josh Bayliss (Bath Rugby), 22. Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints), 23. Darren Atkins (Bath Rugby).


There is some beef in that pack. They must have seen the way the Aussies out muscled Wales and decided that they can't let it happen to England.

Slightly interesting that Malins and Mercer will have both played all 3 matches and shared captaincy duties.

I thought these games were live on ITV?

Seems not. Just highlights on ITV4 even though the World Rugby site says ITV is showing the games live.

The World Rugby streaming is 'not available in your territory'.

Balls.

Cyril wrote:Seems not. Just highlights on ITV4 even though the World Rugby site says ITV is showing the games live.

The World Rugby streaming is 'not available in your territory'.

Balls.

The streaming is there - just very hard to find. I had to google the specific match and follow the direct link rather than go via WRs own site. ITV are covering the knockout games live though, I believe.

Try for England relieves the constant pressure from Australia.

10-16 to Australia after 25 minutes

Poorfour wrote:

Cyril wrote:Seems not. Just highlights on ITV4 even though the World Rugby site says ITV is showing the games live.

The World Rugby streaming is 'not available in your territory'.

Balls.

The streaming is there - just very hard to find. I had to google the specific match and follow the direct link rather than go via WRs own site. ITV are covering the knockout games live though, I believe.

Cheers. I've managed to find a live YouTube stream

Australian's have won scrum penalties on our feed.

This is a good Aussie side.

Cyril wrote:This is a good Aussie side.

They're okay, but England are better.

If we could agree to stop dropping the ball, we might have a chance.

17-16 England lead for the first time after a try from a driving maul.

That's a yellow card all day long. Ref just gives a penalty.

17-19 Australia

Six minutes on the clock

20-19 to England with 1 minute left. Australia reclaim the ball.

Mercer steals, and England hold on to win.

Mercer is some player!

Really enjoyed that game.

Australia shaped for a winning drop goal there but kept taking it up instead.

Only switched on when Australia retook the lead. Great composure shown by both teams, England to regain the lead and close out, Australia to go 25+ phases at the end to try and work an opportunity. Should Australia have gone for the drop goal? Perhaps, but Mercer perfectly picked his moment to pounce.

England face South Africa

France take on New Zealand

English players looked knackered, had a hard time dealing with the Aussie physicality (role reversal?!?). The Poopie lineout is going to cost them before long. It is just so unreliable.

Cumbrian wrote:English players looked knackered, had a hard time dealing with the Aussie physicality (role reversal?!?). The Poopie lineout is going to cost them before long. It is just so unreliable.

That was a really intense game though (the ball seems to stay in play at that level a lot more than at the senior level). I'd like to see how many tackles each side had to make. I bet it was a lot. Line-out does need sorting though. You just can't function with a mis-firing one.

Only saw the highlights but that Oz team looked huge.

Mercer... He's the English Parisse. Unless he fills out a lot I don't think he's going to be our no.8 but you feel he's going to find a place in the full team somewhere.

lostinwales wrote:Mercer... He's the English Parisse. Unless he fills out a lot I don't think he's going to be our no.8 but you feel he's going to find a place in the full team somewhere.

I think we're accustomed to having enormous 8s, with Billy and Hughes around 20 stones (and Morgan before that was a larger than average 8). It does depend on the balance of your back row obviously.

Mercer probably has a bit of filling out to do, but currently can't be that much smaller than the likes of Heaslip and Faletau etc. Around 1/2 stone according to stats I've seen (I know they can be untrustworthy). Mercer has a rangy look about him, all arms and legs.

He's got a great offload, is quick and just seems to have a brilliant rugby brain. He always seems to be in the right place with a good engine. A leader too.

It's early days, but I'm hoping for big things.

Remember we said all this about Clifford, and he's not kicked on as much as the hype was expecting.

Mercer may come good but it'll take a while if he does

Clifford who got motm then didn't set the world alight vs wales? I hope he isn't thrown on the scrapheap too soon. Seems to be an 8 in jones' eyes.

Clifford who has been a bit sub par (mainly injuries and moving positions) but was talked about in the same terms as Mercer is now. Just saying lets not get ahead of ourselves, these things can pan out unexpectedly and backrow is hotly contested.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Clifford who got motm then didn't set the world alight vs wales? I hope he isn't thrown on the scrapheap too soon. Seems to be an 8 in jones' eyes.

Clifford's not touring because he's having surgery on a shoulder injury he's been carrying. I expect he will be back next season. By the way, if you watch the replays closely, he creates Youngs' try by shifting in the ruck to create the opening for him to dot down. I think Clifford's got too much skill to be discarded - but he won't do the same job as Billy or Hughes.

Out of curiosity have England ever played a smaller ball playing 8?

I can't think of any....Billy, Morgan, Dallaglio, Rodber, Deano, ...Ripley etc.