As expected, Toby Flood will line up at fly-half against Ireland this weekend – the full team selection is below.
Other than that, it’s the same side that lost to Wales, except that Danny Care replaces Paul Hodgson on the bench.
Once again, man for man, Ireland appear to be stronger in every area. What do you think?
England: D Armitage (London Irish); P Sackey (Wasps), M Tindall (Gloucester), R Flutey (Wasps), M Cueto (Sale Sharks); T Flood (Leicester), H Ellis (Leicester); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), L Mears (Bath), P Vickery (Wasps), S Borthwick (Saracens, capt), N Kennedy (London Irish), J Haskell (Wasps), J Worsley (Wasps), N Easter (Harlequins).
Replacements: D Hartley (Northampton), J White (Leicester), T Croft (Leicester), L Narraway (Gloucester), D Care (Harlequins), A Goode (Brive), M Tait (Sale Sharks).
The missed kick from Flood during the last quarter of the Wales game could’ve (and should’ve) made all the difference to the final outcome. He fluffed it (and let’s face it, it wasn’t a difficult kick). I think that says everything about Flood. I hate to say it, but I’d rather have seen Goode starting, in the absence of any other 10. God knows what this is doing to Cipriani’s confidence – especially as he has been playing pretty well for Wasps in the last couple of games; to be cast aside in favour of Flood and Goode at this stage is pretty grim. I hope Croft and Tait get an early shout this week, instead of a five minute outing, and that Danny Care gets at least 40 minutes of play!!! But I won’t hold my breath………
Any bets on the yellow card count???
As an Ireland fan I was pleased with the England selection.
1) David Wallace is going to chew Flood up
2) Easter shouldn’t be in the England team anymore – why not put Haskell at 8 and put Croft at 6? They’re both in form, whereas Easter isn’t even the best back row at Quins!
3) Tindall is a bosh merchant, and having him in the side rather than the livewire of Tait is something that BOD won’t lose sleep over.
Ireland by at least 10 points – especially as the game’s at Croke Park.
John, agreed, apart from on Tindall. I would give him a lot of credit for the fact that England at least had a semblance of shape against Wales. Without him we’re rudderless.
Not only will Flood get eaten but his kicking game is going to have to be a hell of a lot better than we’ve ever seen before from him because Kearney, Bowe and Fitzgerald won’t let him get away with his usual stuff.
The back row and the lineout is where Ireland will win it though
Agree with the above. I’m so bored of this constant disappointment when i see an England line-up and watch them play. When has Flood ever shown a glimpse of being able to get to world class standards? Easter doesn’t even try to pretend he’s bothered anymore, why are they picking him?
The ONE thing we can give the management credit for is consistency of selection but it was the wrong team to put faith in at the start of the tournament and that is still the case.
Why? Why? Why? Flood shouldn’t even be in the squad, let alone starting. Hoping I’ll be proved wrong, but doubting it
Flood has stuck in my mind only when he’s been up against James Hook just because Hook appeared to have everything that Flood wished he had and Hook can only get on to the bench . Well nobody loves them at the moment even their own supporters and I don’t see England winning but probably it’ll be closer than expected.
p.s if Flood had kicked that kick against Wales I think there would have been more fingers bitten down my way perhaps but to say it “should” have made the difference is stretching it , it seemed to me that we closed the game out nicely , there was one score in it last year (albeit a converted try ) and Wales did the same thing .
Wales did close it out nicely but it’s easier to do that when you are a score clear. Also the previous year england had completely collapsed by the end of the game whereas this year they had a bit of momentum when they won that penalty. Top players seize those moments, players like Flood don’t.
I believe England played their best game for this 6N against Wales. They were pumped up for that game by the press outcry after the Italy game, but I doubt players like Worsley in particular will maintain the momentum. And Flood will be targeted from the kick-off and put under all kinds of pressure – not the player I would have chosen for that kind of situation.
I was disappointed to read the crap from the England camp about how we have to start getting equal treatment from the ref. Kaplan was poor, but in previous games we really deserved what we got. And why air that stuff in public – do we really think the refs will change their perception because of it? Have those discussions with the officials directly, and if you think some level of inconsistency is inevitable, deal with it, adapt your gameplan. Whining about how unfair it is just gives everyone more reason to hate the arrogant English.