Rugby A Game For Gentlemen

He’s injured at the moment, just had a wrist operation. He’s decided to go to Uni (hooray!!) and is off to Loughborough, so will be playing 15s at Loughborough Students in Nat1 hopefully. He had a few offers from Championship sides, but they weren’t compelling. Sensible long term decision I think.

England 7s will become GB7s after next season, so all up in the air.

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Just watched the England U20s being demolished by the Baby Blacks, Strange selections by England for me, Randall I just don’t get, he’s waaaay too small and his tackling is pants, he takes three steps each time and the oppo can read him like a book. Michell I have seen play since he was about 7 in Lymm, he is so much better. Should have had Odogwu as starting winger and that Bayliss should have started.

17 - 64, hmmm.

England did have injuries and they did lose 5 players to Eddie Jones in Argentina, but no excuses.

Sad to read, a giant of the game in every sense.

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British and Irish Lions: 15 Liam Williams, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Ben Te’o, 11 Elliot Daly, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Conor Murray, 1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Jamie George, 3 Tadhg Furlong,4 Alun Wyn Jones,5 George Kruis, 6 Peter O’Mahony ©, 7 Sean O’Brien, 8 Taulupe Faletau.

Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Jack McGrath, 18 Kyle Sinckler, 19 Maro Itoje, 20 Sam Warburton, 21 Rhys Webb, 22 Jonathan Sexton, 23 Leigh Halfpenny

My take, WTF Alun Wyn-Jones, WTF. Otoje should have started with Lawes on the bench.

Also Sam Warburton, not good enough for the bench, should have been Stander. I presume Halfpenny is sub in case Farrell’s leg doesn’t hold out.

Glad to see North not there, he shouldn’t have even been on the tour, if he was English he wouldn’t have been picked for England at the moment. Joseph should have been on the bench instead of 1/2p,

New Zealand: 15 Ben Smith, 14 Israel Dagg , 13 Ryan Crotty, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Rieko Ioane, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Aaron Smith, 1 Joe Moody, 2 Codie Taylor, 3 Owen Franks, 4. Brodie Retallick, 5 Samuel Whitelock, 6 Jerome Kaino, 7 Sam Cane, 8 Kieran Read ©.

Replacements: 16 Nathan Harris, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Charlie Faumuina, 19 Scott Barrett, 20. Ardie Savea , 21 TJ Perenara, 22 Aaron Cruden / Lima Sopoaga, 23 Anton Lienert-Brown.

Itoje is a shock. I’d have kept the two English lads in there.
Daly is a good shout.

Picked for ‘experience’, pfffft what Gatland means is I have to go back to Wales, so get as many Welsh boyo’s in there as I can. Jones form has been shocking on this tour, he is a busted flush and has been for the last year.

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What other options are there? North’s form and speed are poor, Nowell can’t defend and doesn’t have the pace or anything like the pace needed, Seymour is possible, but Daly is leagues better at the moment.

What this highlights is that Gatland took the wrong wingers. I still think Wade should have gone.

So why doesn’t Eddie Jones pick Wade then?

AWJ aside, the XV looks pretty good to me.

Looking forward to the game. Bring it on!

Because he made a decision not to pick players who are not in the national squads, and as Wade is not in the England squad bingo. The question should be why doesn’t Eddie Jones pick Wade, the guy who has scored more tries and beaten more defenses than any other player in the Premiership over the last 4 seasons, every season.

Um, that was my question :grinning:

Eddie Jones doesn’t like Wade’s lateness for training, the fact that he doesn’t go flat out in training and the fact that he is 5ft 8inches tall.

The first two points are valid reasons not to pick a player. If EJ is ignoring Wade because of his size, then that is ridiculous.

Wade never goes flat out in training. I remember speaking to a performance guy at Wasps and he said they don’t know how fast he actually is, as he refuses to run flat out in training, he just does enough to be the fastest.

A LOT of coaches in the premiership pick on size.

Ignoring the size question, if Wade is a late and lazy trainer then it is understandable that an international coach wouch be reluctant to select him.

Edit: maybe the stupid and cringeworthy Wasps try celebration with Cipriani didn’t help matters either. I’d have dropped them both for that :rage:

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Matches are not won in training, it’s on the fucking pitch that matters. This ‘great trainer’ bullshit really annoys me as I have seen lots of ‘great trainers’ be shit on the pitch. Wade has the balls to back himself against any player, I know of no other Northern Hemisphere winger who does that. You have to go to NZ, Fiji or SA to see such players.

He’s a mercurial talent who suits Wasps style of play perfectly but wouldn’t work so well in a highly drilled/structured environment.

I’m a big fan of Wade, but it seems he cannot be arsed to tick the boxes necessary, as determined by EJ, to play test rugby. Shame really, as he would probably be successful at that level.

I don’t see how is down the pecking order from players like Yarde, Nowell and May.

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Thinking about this I don’t agree. the reason i don’t agree is at international level the players are fitter, faster and you get less space to create something. This would suit Wade, who can make space where there is no space, the fact that he is unpredictable is even more powerful at international level, it will mean that the opposing winger will either get their hit in early (penalty maybe) or stand off 3m, thus giving Wade the space he needs.