England vs Wales

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England vs Wales

Date: Saturday 10th February 2024
Twickenham, London
Kick-off: 4:45pm
Referee: James Doleman (New Zealand)

TV Coverage: Live on ITV and S4C (UK) and RTÉ (ROI)

Teams

England

15-Steward, 14-Freeman, 13-Slade, 12-Dingwall, 11-Daly, 10-Ford, 9-Mitchell; 1-Stuart, 2-Marler, 3-George (capt), 4-Itoje, 5-Chessum, 6-Roots, 7-Underhill, 8-Earl
Replacements: 16-Dan, 17-Genge, 18-Cole, 19-Coles, 20-Cunningham-South, 21-Care, 22-Smith, 23-Feyi-Waboso

Wales

Winnett; Dyer, North, Tompkins, Adams; Lloyd, Williams; G Thomas, Dee, Assiratti, Jenkins (capt), Beard, Mann, Reffell, Wainwright.

Replacements: Elias, Domachowski, Griffin, Rowlands, Basham, Hardy, Evans, Grady.

Steward's perceived lack of pace in defence seems to largely come from an odd expectation that the England fullback should regularly stop chances that fullbacks have little chance to stop. 15s set to cover kicks with how the game is played currently, with being the last man defensively very much a secondary job. If a 15 ends up in a 2 v 1 then the defence has capitulated elsewhere. Which is more often than not the actual issue.

When Daly fails to finish in the corner whilst covered by multiple defenders, the response is, "England need out and out wingers who finish these smalls chances". Yet when Steward fails to stop a 2 v 1 or chase down a winger who clearly has the angle to finish, the problem is our fullbacks lack of pace. If an England winger failed to finish most the tries that Steward has mythically been at fault for then the same fans crying about Steward's pace would want that winger put up against a wall and executed at dawn. It's an odd contrast where some England fans seem to expect their outside backs to routinely score in positions where there is obviously cover from the defence and a try is unlikely. Yet, the same fans expect the England cover defence to routinely prevent easy finishes. Then they can't see the self defeating logic of that.

Ramos and le Roux aren't strong last defenders. Alex Goode has been brilliant in the Prem for years with it being the glaring weakness in his game. Even when he rounded out into the best 15 in NH for a year or two, Hogg was a pretty abject final defender. It's actually a tiny part of the FBs job though and the only time it is needed comes after a significant proportion of the other 14 in the team have f***ed it so badly in defence that you're screwed regardless of who is at fullback.

It doesn't mean fullbacks should be immune from criticism in defence, of course. I just think the times that Steward gets highlighted are so odd. For instance, he was a really poor defender in the wingers channel for a while. If under pressure he regularly wouldn't rush out and force a pass under pressure, or drift and use the touchline as a final defender. He'd get stuck between the two. That has improved significantly with experience though.

I'm not that convinced there are an abundance of 15 options either. Furbank was mostly lost at international level. Not quite at Dombrandt levels, where he could've been wearing a Teletubby costume without being much more out of place. Furbank was still pretty fecking poor though. Malins is anathema to most on here. Hodge is a talent but has obvious work ons in his game. I also think his best position at the top level could be wing. Given his strengths and weaknesses, he profiles more like a Louis Bielle-Barrey or Kurt-Lee Arendse type winger than a FB in the current game. Carpenter would probably be next after those two? I rate him but realistically he's got nowhere near the pace to be a point of difference there compared to Steward at 15, whilst his high ball work and carrying in traffic are worse. Probably a worse kicker too.

If you want to trade Steward's clear strengths for a potential playmaker at 15, then I guess there's the argument of Furbank having improved aspects of his game whilst out of the side? I really don't think he's a strong enough playmaker to make a Ramos/Willemse/Beauden level difference to an attack though. Whilst he's less of a threat as an individual runner, incomparably worse under the high ball and I'm really not convinced he'd improve the defence in the situations where Steward's pace is apparently the reason for conceding tries. If they were to go down that second playmaker route then I'd much prefer Smith to be the gamble at 15 than Furbank.

The king doth protest too much, methinks.

Steward is significantly less agile than most other fullbacks and is caught out of position more regularly. He's also less good at using his positioning to limit the opposition's options.

In his first couple of seasons for England it wasn't so obvious, but opposition coaches have recognised his limitations and it's also clear that they now have tactics that exploit his relative lack of mobility. Teams know that in the red zone if they can move the ball rapdily from one side of the field to the other they can catch Steward out and a number of tries (and cards) have resulted from it.

It's a genuine point of weakness and it isn't something that either he's noticeably improved at or England have developed a system to compensate.

Teams are shifting the ball rapidly from one side of the field to the other because England have opted for a very narrow defensive setup. The most obvious way of playing against that is to shift the ball wide. It's going to happen regardless of the fullback.

I'd agree with KC, Steward has previously had a tendency to get stuck between blitzing out and drifting when caught with a 2 on 1 which is less than ideal but hasn't been a problem so far. It was a noticeable problem last 6N on the left side of the pitch where Daly would regularly come off his wing and commit to a big hit leaving Steward to cover a good third of the pitch, as KC says you'd expect international back threes to use that kind of space or a 2vs1 to create a try.

He probably saved England a try Vs Wales by committing to snoting Wynnet in the second half. Wynnet gets the pass away but because he's no longer a support runner England's cover defence can snuff out the danger.

I'm not sure any of our other fullbacks stop Cannone in the build up to the smaller Grabisi's try for Italy. It's a thundering hit that ultimately forces the Italian 8 to leave the field. Had the support defender not dithered we could have stopped that try.

Steward is never going to have top end acceleration but he looks happier in the current attacking system and so we aren't noticing it. He was easily out most effective carrier in the backline Vs Wales, a toss up of him Vs Earl for the whole XV (and Earl is only in there because of the try he scores from the base). Steward puts Freeman through the gap for Daly's try Vs Italy. Opened Wales up with a pass for Daly. He's been playing very well in the first two rounds.

At 23 with 30+ caps he looks right at home internationally. The new systems seem to suit him and he's easily our best viable fullback in terms of positioning, high ball and fielding kicks to a point it's not even a debate.

As KC says the only reason to move him out of the 15 shirt is if you want a specialist playmaker back there which there's no point of doing unless there's a significant change to the midfield.

The playmaker in the back 3 is currently Daly. So it appears a toss up between a back 3 of Freeman then
Furbank and Steward wing or what we have currently.

No 7&1/2 wrote:The playmaker in the back 3 is currently Daly. So it appears a toss up between a back 3 of Freeman then
Furbank and Steward wing or what we have currently.

Not really, both Daly and Steward have come into the line as a passing option. Just as both Slade and Dingwall have stood in at first receiver in the midfield. There's no specific second playmaker though Slade is the closest as we use his left boot as an alternative to Ford.

If we change the middled to something more carrying orientated like Manu and Lawrence then we'd need to adjust the back three but that's unlikely in the short term.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:The playmaker in the back 3 is currently Daly. So it appears a toss up between a back 3 of Freeman then
Furbank and Steward wing or what we have currently.

Not really, both Daly and Steward have come into the line as a passing option. Just as both Slade and Dingwall have stood in at first receiver in the midfield. There's no specific second playmaker though Slade is the closest as we use his left boot as an alternative to Ford.

If we change the middled to something more carrying orientated like Manu and Lawrence then we'd need to adjust the back three but that's unlikely in the short term.

I reckon so. We'll see. Something obviously needs to change and don't thinkntinkering with the back 3 makes much difference. Boshers will which is why I'm surprised Barbeary isn't in thw squad. 2 guys to run and break tackles in midfield will help. Run over Scotland is our best hope.

No 7&1/2 wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:The playmaker in the back 3 is currently Daly. So it appears a toss up between a back 3 of Freeman then
Furbank and Steward wing or what we have currently.

Not really, both Daly and Steward have come into the line as a passing option. Just as both Slade and Dingwall have stood in at first receiver in the midfield. There's no specific second playmaker though Slade is the closest as we use his left boot as an alternative to Ford.

If we change the middled to something more carrying orientated like Manu and Lawrence then we'd need to adjust the back three but that's unlikely in the short term.

I reckon so. We'll see. Something obviously needs to change and don't thinkntinkering with the back 3 makes much difference. Boshers will which is why I'm surprised Barbeary isn't in thw squad. 2 guys to run and break tackles in midfield will help. Run over Scotland is our best hope.

Agreed fight fire with fire and get heavy artillery in. Our attack is no where near as polished as Scotland's so going for sheer size and physicality is our best hope. It will not be pretty. Manu and Lawrence will start imo.

Barbeary was banned initially which probably counted against him.

Lawrence might come in and start at 13 but I reckon Manu will be used as an impact sub.