Along with the fantastic Castro rant nice to see Felon Armitage proving once again that he's just a nice guy unfairly maligned by the press, other players, supporters and anyone else who knows him.........
On a less savoury note, bloodandmud have an excellent discussion on England's midfield conundrum [url= http://www.bloodandmud.com/2014/12/what-exactly-is-stuart-lancasters-thought-process-with-the-midfield.html ]here[/url].
PS I actually typed "Delon" but my spell checker changed it to "Felon". Seemed more appropriate.
We where talking at the weekend about how good Will Greenwood was, you really noticed after he retired when things just generally didn't work so smoothly any more. The piece is right to say we've been searching for a midfield ever since.
Delon seems to have said something to the crowd, hard to imagine he wasn't provoked though. I can't imagine he cares too much about what the British press has to say about him anyway.
Delon seems to have said something to the crowd, hard to imagine he wasn't provoked though.
Why? The bloke is a weapons grade bellend.
Excellent!
He's a professional rugby player. Its not a personality contest, its a contact sport. He wouldn't even feature on a bell-end league table if you included wendy-ballers
He's a professional rugby player.
Exactly the reason he shouldn't be behaving like a bellend. Starting fights with fans? assaulting officials? That's not having a crap personality, it's being a crap professional.
The thing I dont get is in the absence of a passing, kicking, play making 12 why not just stick two hard running lumps in there. Its whay Wales have done since the loss of Henson. Pick players and play to their strengths. Burrel and Manu or Burell and Barritt with some fast wingers and a bit of a game breaker at 15 and 9 and you're sorted. Or give Eastmond a proper run of games but just stop pissing about.
Lydiate signs for ospreys
Agreed AA, but Lancaster is convinced you need a wilkinson and a Catt (to be fair, the fact Catt is one of the coaches may have something to do with this) and a noshing Tindall. That's farrell, ??? and Barrett / Butell / Tuilagi.
Would love to see Burrell and Tuilagi, but it's just not going to happen. Eastmond is too small for a centre, and would only be really good plying off ford (who's too small) and Cips who's too, well I'm not sure what he's doing wrong but it's clearly something bad that nobody else can see. With Farrell there no point playing a good running, carrying 12 as they'll either never get the ball or it'll be another bloody terrible hospital pass.
Is Eastmond really too small? Sure, he's smaller than some of the other contenders but does that matter? Against SA he didn't miss any tackles whilst against NZ he made 9 and missed 1. The much vaunted Barritt made 14 but missed 3. I seem to recall 12T being run over against Australia in a particularly embarrassing way a couple of years ago and he's a big lad.
You can either defend or you can't. I don't recall anyone worrying about whether Shane Williams could tackle. I do recall that RWC warm up game where 6'7" 18st Matt Banahan had the line at his mercy and only SW to beat - he never even looked like scoring.
Fair enough, the 12 channel needs some solid defending but picking a small fly-half like Ford shouldn't then dictate that you have to pick a huge lump at 12 to compensate.
As a_a rightly points out they should:
"....stop pissing about."
I think it's obvious to most except SL:
Attacking game : Burrell/Eastmond
Defensive game : Burrell/Barrit
Subs: In both scenarios Manu on at 60 for impact, the boy wonder covering 10.
IMO SL needs to start & play his rwc15 team in the 6n. The time for testing the back line is over.
Fair enough, the 12 channel needs some solid defending but picking a small fly-half like Ford shouldn't then dictate that you have to pick a huge lump at 12 to compensate.
It does if you play a blitz defence, England would need to switch to drifting more if Ford and Eastmond were at 10 and 12.
Manu will be our RWC centre even if he hardly plays in the 6N. I still think 10 is the key position to watch, I have a bad feeling daddies boy is going to be back as first choice in the 6N. If we don't get 10 right it doesn't matter who is at 12 and 13
If Tuilagi is fit he will play I agree but at 13 he wouldnt have the defensive nous to run a drift defence I wouldnt think. Maybe he is part of the problem?
That's why I commented he should be the impact sub. He'd be a very good one. And could add points to the board later in the gam by scoring and committing the defense but he is relatively one dimensional.
Eastmond alone isn't a problem. Eastmond alongside ford worries me. Two 13st blokes in the middle of the field? Not for me thanks, and before anyone references bath, they aren't playing test rugby, got torn apart by Glasgow and have leaked a good few tries this season. For all the kudos their back line gets, it's their pack who wins games for them. KE/GF means that you HAVE to play Barritt. Burrell is one of our best centres, of this I'm sure. The other? I'm not even sure we have tried him yet. My gut says slade needs a go.
For me it's Ford along side a Burrell, Tuilagi, Barrit mix. I'd happly have Burrell at 12 as that's where he plays his games for Northampton, and he's a solid defender as well as an attacking threat. 12T should be nowhere near. He has moments of greatness followed by his mind going awol. As I said earlier, Slade looks a really good bet when I see him pay, and I'd love to see him at test level. He also managed to contain Tuilagi very well so I have no doubts on his defence!
^^ I agree with tinybits. Well put.
I think my 10, 12 13 would be Ford Burrell and Manu if they were all fit. Is it too late in his career for Barritt to switch to a 6/8? 🙂
Is it too late in his career for Barritt to switch to a 6/8?
Well it's too late for him to switch to 13 but nobody's told Stuart Lancaster.......
Did anyone else see the nonsense about not singing Deliah at the Millennium ? PC gone mad. Fortunately that daft suggestion will be ignored.
Nsfw Castro T shirt
Return match could be a bit tense
Was in Llanelli last night watching the Scarlets beat Ulster with a comedy try 😆
Had a pie at half time that made an unwelcome reappearance at about 5 o'clock this morning. How did they know I am an Ospreylian 😆 now got the worst stomach cramps. Bastards 😆
12 week ban for Dulon Armitage.
Carter to Racing Metro after the World Cup, rumoured €1.5m per year (possibly less in reality as that seems very high)
Thanks for sharing that story @Pigface !
Your welcome
anagallis_arvensis - Member
12 week ban for Dulon Armitage.
Good. utter twunt.
Sarries & Bath under investigation by Premier Rugby for allegedly breaking the salary cap - now I understand why Sarries chief exec was demanding the removal of the salary cap the other day.
A possible 40 point deduction if they have gone£250'000 over the cap, I understand the rugby in the Championship is of very good quality though!
Don't Sarries players receive most of their 'salary' as property/cars/bags of cash?
Woohoo London Welsh won't be relegated.............. Maybe 😆
Hartley red card, ref was going to go yellow but TMO said red, are to many refs absolving their responsibilities by letting TMO make the big decisions?
I would red card the ****ykiwi every game 😆
Hartley getting a red card?
No way.
Yes way 😆
Which channel? I've for glass v Munster - still a good match
Edit.: ignore you are on bt
Woohoo London Welsh won't be relegated.............. Maybe
It would need to be a record points deduction from either team for them to finish lower than LW. 1 point after 9 games and a -339 point split 😆
Deserved a Red but the Leicester players reaction was disapointing
What did Hartley do? Please tell me the Leicester players reaction was chinning him!!
Watched a bit of Cardiff Scarlets new Cardiff full back from Argentina looks very good.
78-7. Wow. I didn't think scorelines like that were possible in pro rugby these days.
Hartley elbowed a bloke in the face, who went down like a wendyballer.
Welsh would have won if they still had Gav!!
With that knob Burnell coaching they'd need 10 gavs.
If Gav was still there Burnell would be ice cubed out of the changing room!
Ban to end 2 days before start of six nations I expect
Leicester player went down pretty easy, don't like that at all. Had the right to clear him out but not hang on.
Hartley is a 100% idiot, what did he think he was doing?? Cameras everywhere and you just can't swing your elbow around like that.
Don't like TMO making the call on that, just personal opinion.
It looks like he goes down a bit easy from one angle but the other shows he gets a good clock with the elbow. Hartley should get a very long ban indeed given his previous for biting, gouging, punching and verbally abusing a ref..
