Some knives are already out but the **** in charge Roger Lewis has signed him up for till after the world cup. Unless Lewis goes Gatland will go nowhere. Having said that with the regions in revolt anything could happen.

Tuilagi back in the 23

England squad for Italy (23)

Forwards (13)

David Attwood (Bath Rugby)
Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
Tom Johnson (Exeter Chiefs)
Joe Launchbury (London Wasps)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)
Joe Marler (Harlequins)
Ben Morgan (Gloucester Rugby)
Chris Robshaw (Harlequins)
Henry Thomas (Sale Sharks)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens)
David Wilson (Bath Rugby)
Tom Wood (Northampton Saints)
Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers)

Backs (10)

Mike Brown (Harlequins)
Luther Burrell (Northampton Saints)
Danny Care (Harlequins)
Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints)
Owen Farrell (Saracens)
George Ford (Bath Rugby)
Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby)
Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs)
Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers)
Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester Rugby)

Returning to Aviva Premiership clubs (9)

Chris Ashton (Saracens)
Brad Barritt (Saracens)
Freddie Burns (Gloucester Rugby)
Alex Goode (Saracens)
Matt Kvesic (Gloucester Rugby)
Ed Slater (Leicester Tigers)
Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby)
Marland Yarde (London Irish)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)

If he could sort out his lineout throws, he’d be the best.

😯

He can’t actually hook which I would say is no small part of his job description. Good around the pitch though.

I think the issues is that they feel the ref went in looking for one thing only and focused on pretty much one thing only during the game rather than taking in to account lots of factors. No reset scrums in kind of positive but you can see their unhappiness without a single scrum being reset and penalties being given so quickly.

I think a_a said it before that Wales scrummaged strongly but not intelligently. Perhaps the approach by the ref could be improved but so could the scrummaging on the day too. The feeling I get from article is not that the Welsh coaches are disagreeing with this statement but more that they want to ensure fair treatment in the future and not have one thing on one player focused on only.

Yep , Gethin did keep saying about binding on the arm. That’s usually the first thing refs ping for as it is the easiest to spot without having to know anything else about what is going on in the scrum. Right or wrong this is what seems to happen normally.

England also did very well to take a yard forwards on the setting of the scrum (on both feeds) which must help in setting everything up for them with more control. Wales needed their tactic from last year of letting themselves being driven back on the setting of the scrum and rack up free kicks 😉

AKA an early shove. AKA a free kick for first infringement, rising with repeated occurrences.

The IRB Refs board need Brian Moore, Sean Fitz, the Raging Potato etc to sit down in a room with all the refs and bang their heads together, for the good of all!

To be fair, there cannot be many current international hookers who have ever had to hook. It’s a new skill for everyone.

I think Hartley is excellent too, and I like him too. In fact I sent him a valentines card.

Just for the Tom Youngs haters out there, I’ve been trying to find some stats about his throwing only thing I could get was some opta stuff tweeted just before the 6 nations started.

Also posted by @OptaJonny, this time Jan 9: 91% – Tom Youngs has thrown the most successful lineouts in the league & Europe this season, at a better success rate than the top 10.

The next tweet says that Hartley’s was 88% at the same stage.

I got this from someone on the tigers forum but i reckon it show’s he’s actually as bad as people are making out.

Oh and yes I am a Leicester fan, so probably a bit on eyed 😉

Maybe we should change our mascot to be a bit pudsey-esq in future!!

Gatland and Hartley….

Two kiwis who hate [to] Hook 😀

Good point Jambalaya; but just for balance,can we have also have five pages in the thread dedicated to it,as we did last year? Lots of Welsh complaining about how Poite has always hated them…Over to you AA!
I am also still waiting for it to be mentioned on the front page of the times sports section as it was last year…

Don’t claim to be any type of expert, but the was the Welsh habit of dropping the ball actually the fault of the Welsh players, or was it the speed & aggressiveness of the English defence?
Before the game there was much talk about hitting the Welsh hard in defence as the Irish had done because that Wales/Ireland game had shown up deficiencies in the Welsh attack when countered with fast, hard hits.

Who knows a bit of both, Wales are a very predictable to defend against but when they get it right and gain momentum it doesnt matter. At times the other day it was done badly as waled were going round the corner and england had more defenders than wales had attackers. Another common move is the 9 making a dart and then passing direct to Roberts. Webb didnt really get the timing right and Roberts always had
several defenders on him. Phillips times this much better and will just keep hold himself if its not on.
The welsh tactic of kicking long and inviting Nowel and May to run it back worked well though the bigger welsh backs out rucked them and it gained at least three pens.

Biggar and Spikey look like starting, apparently.

More to follow!

Replacements: Richard Hibbard (Ospreys), Paul James (Bath Rugby), Adam Jones (Ospreys), Jake Ball (Scarlets), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Rhodri Williams (Scarlets), Rhys Priestland (Scarlets), James Hook (Perpignan).

Strong bench but only because all the shite is starting!!

I’ve been trying to forget!