Comments on: England team to play Argentina

By: Tommy

Tommy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:40:47 +0000

Good call on Stevens, but do you really think he’ll ever play for England again? Left Shaw and Mears out as they will be retiring very soon, and so i’d rather go with who the future will be as opposed to the old guard. Moody as captain – could happen. He is a Leicester after all and we all know how much Johnno loves Leicester plays. Saying that though, Deacon may be in with a shot lol. All in old, very similiar teams though

By: Kemlo

Kemlo — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:40:55 +0000

Brave call with Moody captain i have to say. Seeing as injuries have forced us to resort to England Fantasy XVs, here’s mine.

1. Sheridan
2. Mears
3. Stevens (14 months to go!)
4. Shaw
5. Kennedy
6. Croft
7. Rees
8. Haskell
9. Hodgson
10. Wilkinson
11. Monye
12. Flutey
13. Tindall (c)
14. Simpson-Daniel
15. Armitage

16. Flatman
17. Harltleey
18. Vickery
19. Lawes
20. Moody
21. Care
22. Cipriani
23. Cueto

By: Tommy

Tommy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:55:30 +0000

Obviously we don’t make the selection decisions (pity, as everyone on here seems to realise what needs to be done, even if those in charge don’t) and we are hampered by injuries at the moment, but who would you field if all players were available?

1. Sheridan
2. Hartley (VC)
3. Wilson
4. Lawes
5. Kennedy
6. Croft
7. Moody (C)
8. Haskell
9. Care
10. Wilkinson (VC)
11. Monye
12. Flutey
13. Turner-Hall
14. Cueto
15. Armitage

16. Thompson
17. Payne
18. Vickery
19. Rees / Armitage
20. Hodgson
21. Cipriani / Geraghty
22. Simpson – Daniel
23. Tait

That said, the first thing I would do is give the coaching team their marching orders and tell the players they’re allowed to play rugby, as opposed to slowing the ball down and trying to grind out (supposed) wins. Please comment.

By: James Mac

James Mac — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:14:53 +0000

Seeing the same locks starting has really annoyed me: apart from possibly 3 (?) line out steals Borthwick did nothing, he never makes any ground (he lets the tacklers come to him, brilliant) and always slows things down. When it got hard in the second half he was completely anonymous.

I genuinely did not notice Deacon at all on Saturday, whilst Lawes made a big hit and took the ball up a few times in only 10 minutes. What does Kennedy have to do to get in the team????

Wonder if Monye and Cueto are going to be swapping between wing and 15 during the game, it is the only explanation I have for having the same back three.

By: Fakey

Fakey — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:11:08 +0000

I pray that Johnno’s picked a team to score a good few tries
And when he talks about them afterwards
Hem won’t tell us no lies.

God bless Mummy, God bless Daddy, Frankie Dettori, AP McCoy, Jonjo O’Neill and the Channel4Racing Team

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:46:20 +0000

Glad that Hartley and Haskell get their chance, but Monye is not a fullback! Why is Martin Johnson scared to play backs such as Strettle, Tait and Foden?

By: Kemlo

Kemlo — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:24:26 +0000

I agree with Uncle Mat comments on Geraghty. Give it time although to be fair most blog contributors seem to agree.

And Proppie, your rugby knowledge seems fine. In fact some of the England coaches would do well to take some of your comments on board!

By: Uncle Mat

Uncle Mat — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:34:42 +0000

Stephen, that’s funny, but I think you are right. Johnno uses himself as the vision for what a 2nd row should be. The game has moved on, and you also have to think about the rest of the pack, and how they complement.

Stunned to see Deacon in the team instead of Lawes. Stunned to see Monye at 15; I would have swapped him for Banahan and played Foden at 15. It’s not that Banahan played badly last week, but the game did illustrate the weaknesses we all knew he had. If he takes the ball at pace, he can run through the first tackle or two in the GP, but playing for England he’s going to get slow ball and he can’t be effective in that scenario (eg Elsom tackle). Even with space he will just get tackled by the first defender at test level. He shouldn’t be in the team.

Glad he left the 10/12 combination intact. Having watched the game again this morning, I think Geraghty did OK – not great, but OK, considering crap ball most of the time. The chips that we all groaned at would have been very effective if they hadn’t been poorly executed. When you get slow ball and the opposition is bearing down on you like the Aussies did, it’s a tactic that can work. I liked the way Geraghty and Wilko flipped positions a few times in the 2nd half, with Wilko taking the 12 spot. It made things look a little less predictable, and as others have said here, there are some good reasons to play Wilko at 12. His tackling was superb. Would be really interesting to watch the whole game on “playercam” focused solely on Wilko. In fact, the other backs should be made to watch that. It annoys the crap out of me to see so many England players standing off the opposition, waiting for them to come to them, rather than aggressively attacking them – SMASH. Shaun Edwards would fix that for us. But following the lead of Wilko would help.

Big game for Hartley. I hope he takes it by the scruff of the neck, and I hope he gets the full 80.

By: Proppie

Proppie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:22:30 +0000

Although I am from Holland and we do not know a thing about rugby, I am a big Saints and England fan, but live is made difficult nowadays.
Apart from the injuries I really think you can come up with a decent team. Just do not try to reshuffle too much. The experiment with Monye was nothing more than a disaster. You lost double. The best wing was gone and for that you received the worst no 15 ever back for it. Start with a 15, it can be Foden (altough I am not a big supporter of him). At least Foden knows he will never play for England anymore as he is not put in the team now. Good to know, he can do his utmost for Northampton and completely forget a bout England.
About the no 4 and 5. Wat can I say? Probably Lawes is too young or something but than at least swap Deacon for any other lock in the premiership, preferably Kennedy. Borthwick will not be replaced, he is the captain so it is useless to talk about that position. Banahan and Geraghty where awfull as well. The changes at least look ok but the most urgent changes are not made (Monye and Deacon)
Goode, Erinle, Doran-Jones…my goodness let’s hope they kep the bench warm and hot the whole match.

Go England!

By: James

James — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:34:34 +0000

Interesting theory on the second row, Stephen!

I think Haskell and Hartley will step up this week. Not sure about the spontaneous combustion, but I’d stick a bet on Haskell to be MOM in a narrow victory.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:29:37 +0000

The same backline?! Which match was Johnno watching last weekend? Did Banahan do something brilliant that no one else in the world happened to notice? Was there some cunning plan whereby Monye deliberately looked dodgy under the high ball so as to encourage the Aussies to kick it? Were he and Cueto told to tackle like sweet, fluffy little kittens to further some secret agenda? Geraghty I’ll overlook: his first touches in an England shirt were a nice little chip-and-chase, and evidently he thought that was all he was there to do. Maybe he really thought that Jonny would appear out of nowhere and pick up every one of those stupid kicks and dot them down. Or maybe he had a bang on the head.

I think there’s something going on with regard to the second row, too: Johnno saw that thing on Planet Rugby that called him the best lock ever, and now he’s trying to make the England second row a sort of shrine to himself. Can there possibly be a reason for Louis Deacon to be an England shirt beyond Johnno’s apparent conviction that any Leicester lock must be good? Nick Kennedy clearly has created some worries by catching every lineout ball he sees. And Johnno must be worried that Simon Shaw will eclipse him by continuing to rampage like a rhino into his 60s?

I really hope that Haskell has benefitted from his time in France, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he spends Saturday afternoon entering rucks from god-knows-where and giving away endless penalties. Ditto Hartley.

Finally: ten quid says that the entire front row literally catches on fire, Simpsons-style, at the first scrum.

By: rico

rico — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:26:51 +0000

haha johno use the word’ dynamic’ after picking someone like jordon crane and nick easter, it may be a turning point indeed. i have to agree on both points, but it is frustrating to see the potential of players like kennedy and lawes being superceeded by borthwick and also in the backs seeing brawn over flare.

i think we also should take into account that players like flutey, armitage, tindall, shaw, and a whole front row would make the team look siginificantly different, but unfortunately behind them is not the international standard (not yet anyway) that we would all hope.