Martin Johnson has just announced his side to travel to Murrayfield on Saturday, and here it is in full.
Joe Worsley will make his first start of the 2010 RBS 6 Nations campaign against Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday, replacing Lewis Moody at openside flanker.
Johnno has made one other change to the starting team, with Louis Deacon starting in the second row instead of the injured Simon Shaw.
On the bench, scrum-half Ben Youngs replaces Paul Hodgson and Courtney Lawes comes in as the second row cover.
ENGLAND TEAM
15 Delon Armitage (London Irish)
14 Mark Cueto (Sale Sharks)
13 Mathew Tait (Sale Sharks)
12 Riki Flutey (CA Brive)
11 Ugo Monye (Harlequins)
10 Jonny Wilkinson (Toulon)
9 Danny Care (Harlequins)
1 Tim Payne (London Wasps)
2 Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
4 Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers)
5 Steve Borthwick (Saracens, Captain)
6 James Haskell (Stade Francais)
7 Joe Worsley (London Wasps)
8 Nick Easter (Harlequins)
REPLACEMENTS
16 Steve Thompson (CA Brive)
17 David Wilson (Bath Rugby)
18 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)
19 Lewis Moody (Leicester Tigers)
20 Ben Youngs* (Leicester Tigers)
21 Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers)
22 Ben Foden (Northampton Saints)
Another bottle-job from Johnno. No vision whatsoever. Moody dropped after being player of the autumn and replaced by Worsley the tree-cutter, Armitage in after showing dire form and despite Foden showing good promise and Deacon somehow being named in the second row. Is Johnson the most stubborn man in England?
Needless to say, the second row is a disappointment for me, and I thought Foden would definitely start this one. The pack is fairly uninspiring, but let’s hope Worsley has one of his stormers.
Good to see Ben Youngs in there, and will be interested to see if he gets on.
Big selection error from Johnson.
Worsley is obviously in to stop Scotland’s big ball carriers but Moody could have scared the hell out of Parks, forced him to stay deep and cut off the supply line to their ball carriers.
Instead it is a negative ploy – England should be looking to dictate the terms of the game more rather than reacting.
Good to see Youngs in though.
For the love of Christ is this a joke. After all the claims of ‘expanding the game’ which were trotted out at theb start of the championship, we have picked possibly the slowest pack ever to besmirch an international rugby field. What’s Worsley in for? To counter the well-oiled attacking machine that is the Scottish midfield?
And just how badly do Monye and Armitage have to play to be dropped?
It could be one of the dullest games of rugby in history.
If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it.
Oh hang on…
Pathetic. Again.
The Grand Slam is gone (not that I really believed it was on after two poor victories) so why not try something different for once? So what if we scrape a win with this side on Saturday? Does that mean we’ll win in Paris or against any of the Tri Nations sides? Not a prayer.
I’m not sure I can even be bothered to watch live this weekend – if I Sky+ it I can just whizz through the highlights (which will probably amount to about 3 minutes) and spare myself a lot of misery.
The end of the 6 Nations is nigh, by which time Johnno will have presided over two autumns and two 6 Nations, and barring any miracles in the next two games, we won’t have moved forward, and we won’t have had many performances that are up to the required standard (a heavy win over an imploding French team last year has been the only real highlight).
Also, he still doesn’t have a clue what his best 15 is and there is very little time for the likes of Foden, Youngs, Lawes et al to get any significant amount of test experience before RWC 2011, no serious back up plan if Wilkinson is injured (hardly unthinkable) with Flood and Geraghty given little chance and Andy Goode being….well, Andy Goode.
And I can’t have a rant without talking about Deacon and Worsley can I?
Worsley wasn’t even in the EPS so how has he gone from that to the starting XV? This, combined with players who come in and have one indifferent game and are dropped completely, just backs up what I’ve said above about not knowing his best XV.
And just what has Deacon got to do on Saturday to get dropped? In any of the SH countries, Lawes would have 10 – 20 caps by now.
I, like many on here it seems, cannot understand the logic in picking Dynamic Deacon over Lawes: 1) We now have absolutely NO speed or flair in the pack and 2) How is Lawes EVER going to get the experience needed??
Not even going to start on Foden on the bench again…
Johnno is being stubborn, sticking in his heels to show his ‘character’ and surely is hanging over the precipice… Unfortunately there is NO way that Andrew has the balls to do anything about it, we will limp into the WC, may have a few wins and then the management will claim they were right all along…
People always complain about the lack of quality players in the English game, which I strongly disagree with, the (potential) players are there, just never picked (thinking of Foden, Mullan, Lawes, S. Armitage, Robshaw, Saull, Alex Goode, Youngs etc). We are in danger of losing a great amount of potential talent for the sake of Johnno’s ‘pride’ and illogical policy of selecting his mates. Maybe he was appointed too soon after retiring and still has too many ties.
I will watch on Saturday… but then again I am a quarter Scottish!!
If Deacon didn’t play for Leicester, he would be nowhere near the EPS squad, let alone starting. For the likes of Lawes and Kennedy to be overlooked and Deacon favoured above them is utterly ridiculous. I bet he could literally sit down on the side line for 80 mins and they’d still pick him claiming him did some “great stuff”! Joke!!!
I am a huge fan of Armitage, however he shouldn’t even be in the squad at the mo let alone starting. Since his injury last year his performances have been poor and you can see he is nervous under high balls and scared to take any contact. Foden is the in form player and should be starting!
What is Worsley doing in there? Granted Moody hasn’t been quite as good as he was during the AI’s, but he hasn’t done anything wrong either, and if you are going to drop him, at least replace him with an in form player/someone that plays that position – i.e. Steffon Armitage, not the likes of Worsley who, other than defence, offers nothing to the game.
What has Chris Ashton got to do to be given a chance? I know, stop scoring tries! It seems obvious that the England management have no desire for us to score tries (hence including a very poor Monye) and so maybe if he has a few bad games/rest of season, he may be in with a shout.?
Unlike everyone else, I don’t think (albiet Rome) we have been awful this 6N’s, but our lack of ambition, passion, responsibility and aggression still stems from our inept management and is filtered through the players and onto the pitch. Why is it that we can all see this, but yet the people make the decisions can’t?
This year + RWC 2011 is going to be a complete write off. The best we can hope for is for the following changes to be made asap so we can successfully plan for 2015 :
1. New Director of elite rugby
2. New England manager/head coach
3. New Defence coach
4. New Fowards coach
5. New Attacks coach
6. Certain players drop from squad permanently (Deacon/Worsley/Payne)
7. New captain (Borthwick has to go!!!)
8. New style of rugby (not the 1980′s style which we still play). Even Italy seem to be pushing themselves away from it
I was planning on going to the RWC next year, but have now decided to save myself thousands of pounds and the embarrassment of what will surely be worse than the RWC 2007 display
What must go through the minds of the players? Foden – with Armitage playing badly, he comes on and does well, and so gets dropped. Hodgson – same deal, but dropped from the entire squad!? (he would be my first choice, with Youngs on the bench). Haskell has been mediocre at best, was totally anonymous against Ireland, but retains his place to avoid more acrimony from Stade. Moody has one quiet game (certainly no worse than the other two) and is demoted to make way for the waste of space that is Worsley. Deacon, who apparently forgot to come out for the second half – without anyone noticing – keeps his place while people like Kennedy and Lawes would get the nod from 90% of English rugby supporters.
As others have said, this is a meaningless match – we should have thrown in the likes of Armitage, Dowson, Foden and Lawes.
Given Johnno’s tendency to pick Leicester players, it’s interesting that he’s dropped the best one.
I think Tommy is right, the next 18 months will be a bit of a write-off (not unlike the last 6 years, sadly). We might cause one upset at the World Cup like we did in 07, but we won’t be good enough to win.
When i read the team like most i was disappointed but not in the least bit suprised, clearly it is the case even at the highest level that it is who you know not what you know, at county level you need to go to the right school at national level you need to be at the right club, people may say i am being bitter but honestly what has Deacon or even Borthwick done at club level let alone international to warrant selection. Shaw yes has proved himself, Monye though he is a bit poor at the moment has in the past proved himself, what qualities do Borthwick and Deacon have that is better than Kennedy,Lawes,Skivington,Hudson? Nothing in my opinion so why is them who are selected and not others, who should be selected I’m not sure. The fact is that clearly nothing is going to change the coaching teams mind they have their favourites and thats that. Johno will no doubt claim he picked excitement in Youngs, but why was Hodgson dropped what has he done wrong? Now armitage deserved to be dropped and everyone would love to see foden in there but no he drops a player who has done nothing wrong and brings in a lad who in all honesty isn’t going to push for a the starting shirt any time soon. Picking Worsley is boring but what i am more shocked about is why Easter is still there, what has he contributed to any of the six nations games really? Nothing, i know there isnt a stand out 8 at the minute for England but Haskell would do, it is clear that nothing is going to make the management team pick and exciting team, they fail to realise that if they did and said team lost the supporters would still be happy that something was tried, but alas we shall just have to be contented with another boring game and total disappoint for the fans.
At last, Johnno is being forward-looking. Moody will not be a Leicester player next season. He had to go.
How disappointing. I’d have thought Johnno would have been more adventurous. We have a very big lumbering 2nd row and the back row will sorely miss Moody who would have forced issues with the half backs and inside centre. I think the biggest issue is the pairing of Care/Wilkinson it hasn’t worked. Care has caused no end of issues for Wilkinson through his insistence on traversing toward Wilkinson before passing. Each time Hodgeson came on those issue dissipated. It is therefore a great disappointment that Hodgeson has been released. Good for his club but….
But we have to be loyal and give Johnno time to develop his coaching team, which still seems to have polarised game plan strategies.
Good luck England.
The thing that really annoys me is that some of these players have played well for England in the past (Delon, Monye, Flutey) yet are not performing at the moment. Do we really want to pick this players and hope they get back to their best in an England shirt? In an ideal world, this would happen BUT it doesn’t in the real world.
That is what really annoys me, you have the in form players there, most notably in Foden and Ashton, but Johnno is so stubborn he shows ‘faith’ in his players. I don’t think it is faith; no one would argue about dropping a poorly performing player for a player in form. Therefore I literally cannot see the logic in it.
Sorry for the rambling rant, I just hate illogical decisions… which unfortunately sums up this management team (why was Palmer called into the squad from outside both squads??? What is wrong with Kennedy in the Saxons??).
Uncle Matt, love your analysis of the Moody scenerio (moving to Bath) and I actually do think you may be right. Johnno and the coaching team obviously have their favourites, but it strikes me as somewhat weird that THEIR favourites wouldn’t feature anywhere near a team then any supporter would pick. Why is this? As i previously stated, the best we can hope for is devine intravention and everyone from captain upwards being sacked and the rfu appointing someone who knows what they are doing – preferably from the southern hemisphere!
P.s Buddha – how long do you think we should give Johnno and he’s team? He’s already had 2 years (Gatland achieved more in 2 months with Wales!!!)
Johnson is a clown, he has to go. I cant be bothered with anything else its all been said, part of me want Scotland to win so that the whole of English rugby can begin a shake down from top to bottom.
Guys, you are all right. Decisions are there to make and you can argue about them but the extreme obvious things like 2nd row is a real problem. Ashton not in or another fine try scorer like James Simpson-Daniel. I do not care but at least one of the on form killers must be in. 12 tries for Ashton (look at his last one against Sale, pure class!) it is not nothing. Lawes is a fantastick 2nd and backrower, very versatile. I also agree on the number 8. Easter is under pressure in my opinion. It means that Johnno will let him stay for 3 more years I am afraid.
I understand the trust in Delon Armitadge as I am a fan of him to be honest you only get the guy better by giving somebody else the chance now. Ben Foden should have played. Now there is no consequence on playing bad so why should you bother after all.
Good luck this weekend, I will be sleeping on the sofa during the match to copy the impact on the game Deacon will have
Deacon, Borthwick and Payne are the Dark Matter of English rugby. If you add up the combined mass, they should be there. If you look at the theories trotted out by insiders (the management), they should have an effect. But no-one has ever observed their impact or proved their existence in the real world. Therefore they only currently exist in theory and are currently of little or no practical use whatsoever.
Otherwise I agree with pretty much all that has been said above. My optimism remains intact, but then again I’m like this http://www.lechatnoirboutique.com/prodimages/Coffee%20Mug%20-%20Far%20Side%20Just%20Not%20Reaching%20That%20Guy.jpg
Dark Matter?? No I think Deacon is the fecal matter of English rugby!