England’s leadership is another problem that has been cited too often to mention, so what should be done about it? Change the captain perhaps.
We’ve been debating this one for some time, and there are lots of different opinions – we will be watching the results very closely, so please do cast your vote.
Feel free to leave your rationale in the comments box below.
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Paul Hodgson would make a terrific skipper. He’s the best scrum half we’ve got and he is a feisty character, always chivvying his pack. He fills in for Bob Casey at London Irish when Bob isn’t available, so he has experience of the job. At 27 he is the right age as well.
Fellas,
Simon Shaw extremely well against NZ. Most of the team raised their games except Borthwick! He appears to have np passion for the game as well as not firing up the team as said (penalties etc). My vote is give the captaincy to Lewis Moody. His discipline may be iffy but he has the passion and desire to win these games. He is currently on a par with Richie McCall when you look at how much time he spent in Dan Carters face!
The captaincy will either be too much for Moody or he will grow with it and flourish. Either way, he deserves a chance.
Steve Borthwick should remain captain of England for the six nations.
He is Martin Johnson’s selection and we should have a bit more faith in Jonno and Borthwick – after all, England did come second in last year’s tournament, ahead of both Wales and France and only second-best to an on-form, grand-slam-winning Ireland. Borthwick was captain then and he should be captain again this time round. He is a good leader and respected by the team.
As always, it is easy for people to make off the cuff choices when, frankly, they haven’t a clue. As it stands, we do not know how the injured players will perform when (if?) they return. Therefore, judgement is probably best if based on the current squad .. of whom no-one really stands out. But then, even Martin Johnson who is now an icon took some time to grow into the job. Reality is that Borthwick will be given that time.
I can see the idea of Lewis Moody as captain for his commitment and “follow me” style (and I am a big fan of his), but I do not think his role in the team lends itself to the armband job .. he probably would not see enough of the overall picture.
From what we have seen in the AIs and, to some extent his performance and attitude at Irish, I have selected Paul Hodgson. Not only has he quickly started to up his game to the required level and therefore likely to be first choice selection, but he also shows some leadership potential and communications skills. I have some sympathy with the idea that the skipper should be a forward .. scrum half is probably close to that in the role of bridging forwards and backs. I do not think Hodgson will be reticent in talking to the Ref. either.
Paul Hodgson is the only choice. He’s the best player we have in that position, he has the character and is in ideal position to talk to ref.
We should then have Shaw as pack leader, clear leader of men by example but wouldn’t have the head or the words for captaincy.
Borthwick doesn’t deserve to start never mind captain the side, he stands off watching too much and makes no attempt to galvanise the side.
Moody plays too much on the edge so needs to stay out of the refs sight as much as possible.
Jonny already has enough responsibility.
Croft and Haskell need to be allowed to grow and expand their game. Due to injury Jonno has been forced to play the best back row we have, now let them get on with it.
Hartley and Tindall aren’t guaranteed selection and both Easter and Vickery, like Borthwick, shouldn’t be first choice.
Now where do we play Tait?
Going back a few posts to Zooski – I’m a big fan of Haskell’s and when you’ve got someone with his raw pace, strength and fitness you should give him an extended run in the team and mould other players around him.
The ruling he seems to get pinged for more than any other world-class back-rower is offside at the breakdown. He may have improved this since leaving Wasps but he used to give an average of two or three penalties a game for going in from the side, breaking away from the breakdown before the ball was out and handling in the ruck. When a world-class team is trying to keep the penalty count in single figures you can’t afford to have one man giving three penalties away.
However, those are things he can (and may have already) improve on whereas you can’t make an immaculate, non-offending back-rower into a huge, rapid monster if he isn’t born that way.
I’m glad he’s been brought back into the England fold but i don’t think he’s captain material…although he clearly thinks he is if the rumours about why he left Wasps are true!
As has already been mentioned, hardly any of the above are decent options to captain England. However, Hartley has shown for the Saints that he can be responsible and leads from the front in a manner that all players should strive for. Once Tom Croft gets a decent number of games under his belt, he could be a contender…. as for Borthwick, he shouldn’t even be in the side, let alone captain. Lawes or Kennedy should partner Shaw in the 2nd row. The sooner Borthwick goes, the better, and you never know, we might win some games!!!
I may be in the minority but, despite his age I would go for Shaw. He is the one player who is fervent in wearing the England shirt and his experience would bring out the best from lesser players
How about none of the above :(
Borthwick – not good enough player proven to be anonymous as a leader
Wilkinson – is to be fair pretty busy already
Moody – One of the few standouts in the team, but lets be honest he is not a thinker so the captaincy would get in the way of him making a nuisance of himself.
Hartley – Has the passion, though presently not a cert of the team sheet and prone to the red mist (that said so was Jonno)
Haskell – Finally playing at 8 (though still learning), but a penalty machine!
Hodgson – nope
Easter – Lacks any sort of presence for england, i know he has a lot of fans but I like to see an aggressive carrying 8 more in the mold of Laurence D
Tindall – Clearly fragile, other wise would probably be a good shout.
Vickery – needs to focus on his scrumaging and staying in one piece.
Croft – along with Moody the only other thing we can currently be pleased about in the forwards.
Oh dear it appears that we have run out of options.
Bring in Kennedy and Shaw (I would like to see Attwood get a run from the bench, but have no issue with Lawes),
Give Shaw the captaincy, an old head in form with the passion and determination that is missing, I agree with Mike T on this one!
to be perfectly frank it’s not the captain that’s the problem.
it’s the lack of leaders through the team. Look at SA, they have a cpatian at prop/hooker, how can he watch and observe the game?
Answer he can’t, he relies on Botha and Matfield, Du Preez, and a spine of other players to feed him the info he needs and so on..where is that in the england team. Nobody talks to anybody else, there is little or no communication so how can you expect anyone to lead that team.