Paid Members Up Chuck Posted January 11, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted January 11, 2012 Right. The old rugby thread and the Rugby World Cup thread slipped off the radar ages ago so I'm starting a new one, which I'll keep updated with a "latest" sub-heading like with the football threads.First up, of course, has to be today's England squad announcement, and the news that after NINE SODDING YEARS we've finally got rid of everyone who played in the 2003 World Cup. Surprise exclusions are Nick Easter, Mark Cueto and Delon Armitage, while Joe Marler and Jordan Turner-Hall were quite unexpected inclusions. I'm chuffed to bits to see Owen Farrell and Mike Brown in there, and I think bringing Brad Barritt in will be great for settling Farrell's game - I've spoken at length before about the benefits of picking familiar club partnerships.Anyway. The squad in full: Forwards (18)Mouritz Botha (Saracens)Callum Clark (Northampton Saints)Alex Corbisiero (London Irish)Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers)Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers)Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints)Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)Joe Marler (Harlequins)Lee Mears (Bath Rugby)Ben Morgan (Scarlets)Tom Palmer (Stade Francais)Chris Robshaw (Harlequins)Matt Stevens (Saracens)Rob Webber (London Wasps)David Wilson (Bath Rugby)Tom Wood (Northampton Saints)Backs (14)Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints)Brad Barritt (Saracens)Mike Brown (Harlequins)Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints)Owen Farrell (Saracens)Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers)Ben Foden (Northampton Saints)Charlie Hodgson (Saracens)Joe Simpson (London Wasps)Charlie Sharples (Gloucester Rugby)David Strettle (Saracens)Maunsamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers)Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins)Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)Thoughts? And does anyone know when the other squads are being announced? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wideload Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Scotland's squad was announced on the 5th.2012 RBS 6 Nations opening two matches:Backs: Joe Ansbro (London Irish)Mike Blair (Edinburgh Rugby)Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors)Simon Danielli (Ulster)Nick De Luca (Edinburgh Rugby)Max Evans (Castres)Stuart Hogg, Ruaridh Jackson (both Glasgow Warriors)Lee Jones, Greig Laidlaw (both Edinburgh Rugby)Rory Lamont (Glasgow Warriors)Sean Lamont (Scarlets)Rory Lawson (Gloucester)Graeme Morrison (Glasgow Warriors)Dan Parks (Cardiff Blues)Steven Shingler (London Irish) Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors)Forwards: John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors)Kelly Brown (Saracens) Geoff Cross, David Denton (both Edinburgh Rugby)Alasdair Dickinson (Sale Sharks)Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby)Richie Gray, Dougie Hall (both Glasgow Warriors)Jim Hamilton (Gloucester)Robert Harley (Glasgow Warriors)Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh Rugby)Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors)Scott Lawson (Gloucester)Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors)Fraser McKenzie (Sale Sharks)Euan Murray (Newcastle Falcons)Ross Rennie (Edinburgh Rugby)Alasdair Strokosch (Gloucester)Richie Vernon (Sale Sharks). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Up Chuck Posted January 11, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 11, 2012 Course it was. Totally forgot about that. What kind of side do you see them putting out against England? I'm trying to pick a 15 from the English 32 but there are quite a few question mark positions given who's been excluded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators PowerButchi Posted January 11, 2012 Moderators Share Posted January 11, 2012 Not half as bothered as I thought I would be that Morgan chose England, I am wondering why Twelvetrees isn't in the England squad though. I'd have rather have taken a punt on him rather than taken Charlie Hodgson. May as well have taken Andy Goode and Alex King if you're going to bother with Hodgson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Up Chuck Posted January 11, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 11, 2012 Twelvetrees has turned in some great performances for Tigers but I'm not quite convinced he's the finished article yet. He's made the Saxons squad though, along with Anthony Allen. Tell you what, with George Ford getting better all the time, 10 and 12 looks both bright and crowded for Tigers. We'll always have cover during the internationals.As for England, I'm hoping Hodgson's just there as cover, and that Farrell will get a shot at 10 while Flood's hurt (out for the first 2 games, apparently).Also, I forgot to mention, Louis Deacon is apparently injured for the rest of the season, so god knows why he's been included. The excellent Geoff Parling is in the Saxons squad as direct cover, finally looking like getting a shot after being hampered by a ridiculous number of injuries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators PowerButchi Posted January 11, 2012 Moderators Share Posted January 11, 2012 I'd have taken the punt on Twelvetrees to be honest. New Coach, New Regime, New Four Year Cycle. It's time to start the players like him, I'd argue.Personally I'm hoping that while Stephen Jones says he's got no plans to retire for Internationals, it's time we retire him ourselves. While he'd still do a great job for us (and I'd still have him at 10 over Hook), and has been a wonderful servant to Welsh Rugby, it's time to look forward for us. I'd have said the same for Lee Bryne and have Leigh Halfpenny as our #1 Full Back, but the mixture of Morgan Stoddart still being crocked and the prospect of having Aled Brew regularly starting games on the wing has made me hold fire on Lee Byrne. With our 2nd row injury problems it might be worth asking Paul Tito if he wants to play for Wales in the short term as well now he's qualified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Up Chuck Posted January 11, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 11, 2012 It'd be a bold move to leave Jones out, PR-wise, but I get the feeling that it'd be fairly well-received. Much like it would've been if Wilkinson hadn't retired and Lancaster had left him out. Wales were exciting as hell in the World Cup because it was so obvious they were looking forwards, so it's a golden opportunity to do anything that hints at progress and avoid the public backlash that leaving out established guys might otherwise attract. Side note on this subject - I'm loving that nobody, but nobody, is weeping over the exclusion of Mike Tindall.Speaking of moving forwards, I'm really hoping England capture some of that same spirit, and I'm actually pretty confident that we can. The match with Wales could be a fucking cracker if our new guys step it up.EDIT: And yeah, fair point on Twelvetrees. He's a shoe-in to be involved at some point before the next World Cup IMO, especially if he keeps his kicking as good as it was against Wasps last week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Up Chuck Posted January 13, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 13, 2012 Sorry to double post, but tonight's Ulster vs Tigers game was a perfect illustration of why Twelvetrees isn't ready for the full England squad. Absolutely went to pieces under pressure. Couple more years, maybe. Â Depressing stuff all round for Leicester tonight, actually. Childlike discipline and no fluency whatsoever. It's silly how much we miss Manu Tuilagi when we face high-quality teams without him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Up Chuck Posted January 18, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 18, 2012 Wales have announced the 35-man training squad they're taking to Poland (same place they trained for the World Cup?). Can't c&p it on my phone, but it's up here. Big news story will be the inclusion of Gavin Henson. Haven't seen how he's been doing for Cardiff, but that's still a surprise in my book. Â EDIT: Ireland squad up too. Tigers get to hang on to Geordan Murphy, which sucks for him but is great for us, especially as we've got Saracens away during the 6 Nations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matbro1984 Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Very pleased to see Gatland's selection. I once wondered how on earth we'd cope in the post-Shane era but now I think Wales can build upon such an exciting World Cup performance. And of course, beating England - in Mordor no less - would be a great treat. We ought to be able to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Up Chuck Posted January 19, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 19, 2012 With the squads each of us have got, we should be able to beat each other. Easily looking forward to the Wales game more than any other. Â Couple of newsworthy bits today. Chris Ashton is all set to complete his move to Saracens after walking out of a Northampton training session, which makes the whole thing sound a lot more dramatic than it probably was. Â Also, Manu Tuilagi has apparently been told that he needs to play a match for Tigers to prove his fitness before playing for England (source). If the same gets applied to Flood, we could end up with a Saracens-dominated backline against Scotland and Italy. Ashton might actually have to do the same, as he won't be playing for Northampton at the weekend, meaning he won't get another top-level match befofe the 6 Nations. Some of these England lineups might be even more experimental than we were expecting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nate diggity Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 As a (half-arsed) Saints fan, I'm not too fussed about Ashton leaving. His wages can be better spent elsewhere. I don't think many fans will hold it against him, except with the way it's going down that may change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Up Chuck Posted February 2, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted February 2, 2012 Okay, I've fucking DONE my latest essay, so now I can start getting properly excited about this. Teams for England vs Scotland are both up now! Â England first: Â 15 Ben Foden (Northampton Saints) 14 Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints) 13 Brad Barritt (Saracens) 12 Owen Farrell (Saracens) 11 David Strettle (Saracens) 10 Charlie Hodgson (Saracens) 9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers) 1 Alex Corbisiero (London Irish) 2 Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints) 3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers) 4 Mouritz Botha (Saracens) 5 Tom Palmer (Stade Francais) 6 Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers) 7 Chris Robshaw (Harlequins) 8 Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints) Â Replacements: 16 Rob Webber (London Wasps) 17 Matt Stevens (Saracens) 18 Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers) 19 Ben Morgan (Scarlets) 20 Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints) 21 Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins) 22 Mike Brown (Harlequins) Â Pretty much as expected in terms of the starting 15, with the most notable thing being Farrell at 12 with Barritt at 13, given that it's usually the other way round at Saracens. To me, that suggests that Farrell is being looked at as the long-term option at 12, which is fucking great. Farrell and Tuilagi in the midfield is a really exciting prospect, and having a second tactical kicking option out there is always good. Farrell's kicking out of hand was a huge part of Saracens winning the 2011 Premiership final. Â Outside of that, I'm chuffed to see Parling on the bench. He'd have been there a long time ago if it wasn't for his utterly ridiculous luck with injuries (missed the first 2 months of the 2010-11 season with a neck injury, then went down with an ACL injury 2 minutes into his first match back and missed the rest of the season, THEN injured his knee again this season and missed another month). He's an absolute demon in the lineout, so having him there to bring on late is a real asset. Hope he gets a good 15 minutes or so. Â In fact, that bench in general is pretty great. Parling, Morgan, Turner-Hall and Brown are all exciting guys who could make a real impact coming on at 60-70 minutes. Â Scotland team: Â 15. Rory Lamont Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikey Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 I'm probably going to steer clear of both the Six Nations and this thread. I've just had enough of it for a while. I can't just watch it, I have to endure it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patiirc Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 I'm probably going to steer clear of both the Six Nations and this thread. I've just had enough of it for a while. I can't just watch it, I have to endure it. Â Â This exactly this, Ive lost so much love for it Ive not even bothered to check when its on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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