Wilkinson dropped

Ashton has just made the biggest decision of his career by dropping Wilkinson to the bench. A lot of pressure is now placed on Cipriani as he makes his first start for England in the most important position on the pitch. He’ll be up against Irish captain Ronan O’Gara, someone I consider to be one of the best fly-halves in the world on his good days. O’Gara and Cipriani have met before though- when Wasps got knocked out of the Heineken cup by Munster. Despite the result, Cipriani had a terrific game that day. I’m hoping he will on Saturday.

If Cipriani plays well on Saturday, he’ll be a real contender if not the holder of the 10 shirt. So what does this mean for our beloved Johnny? A switch to 12 or 15? No. Even if he doesn’t regain a starting spot, I think that Johnny will remain in the setup for some time now. I can foresee him being used to close a game out. Be it defending a 6 point lead and playing the territorial game or dropping a goal to win a close one. Of coure that’s assuming wonder boy Danny lives up to the hype.

Cipriani plays a new breed of rugby. I hope he’ll define the way England start to play rugby for many years now. The sort of ‘attacking space’ style that Ashton wants England to play is similar to the way that Cipriani plays. The annual rugby watcher is really going to enjoy Saturday, if Cipriani has a good game. I can see the sport sucking in new fans with his floating passes and little chips into space.

Good luck Danny!

Scotland 15-9 England

Oh dear, what a shocking performance. All I can really say is that I agree whole-heartedly with what the pundits have said at the BBC.

England didn’t use route one enough during the game and couldn’t go through the phases, this meant that Scotland’s defence stayed strong throughout the whole game. The Scottish pack were not pushed at all. They should have been. But the team didn’t do this and Wilkinson kicked balls straight to the Scottish back three, who weren’t pressurised enough- those are the two simple reasons why England lost the game. If these simple things were done then the rest would have followed.

Defensively Balshaw had his best game yet for England, but he didn’t pose much of a threat in attack, which is what he’s been picked for. His defence is still generally poor and he’s simply not good enough to play for England.

Sackey, I thought, was England’s best player, his defence was solid, as usual. He made good decisions in  attack as well, despite being smashed by Jason White when he came on in the second half.

The threat of Vainikolo was neutralised efficiently by the Scots. However, I feel that he needs more players supporting him as he likes to offload in the tackle, and off the floor. His hands and offloading were poor yesterday, most probably due to the conditions.  I would still pick him for the Ireland game, though. Flood played fairly well, but wasn’t used enough. Noon didn’t have his best day defensively and wasn’t an attacking threat.

Scotland lost two players, to injury, in the first 25 minutes and England failed to take advantage of this. Nothing else went England’s way. The weather made it very difficult to play proper rugby. Having said that, we’ve all played in rain and wind. I do think that the game of rugby is due to change as a result of the change in weather we are experiencing. But that is a post for another time.

One can’t help but think that the team is disjointed at the moment. I think that this is due to Ashton’s incapabability of managing people. It was highlighted by Catt and Dallaglio after the World Cup. And his handling of the Cipriani issue, which has been criticised by many, has highlighted it further. The players have re-realised this now, they need to front up in the next game and put in a performance similar to the ones they did after the 36-0 defeat to South Africa in the World Cup. Dallaglio, Barkley, Catt, Robinson and others were responsible for the bounce back. Let’s hope that there are some similar players within the current England side. England played without a leader on Saturday. You can criticise Ashton for taking off Vickery and Wilkinson with 10 minutes to go, like I did at the time. But their lack of leadership, in the Scotland game, showed as England’s game didn’t change when they went off. That also shows that Stevens and Hodgson made no impact.

I don’t think Ashton should be sacked. He is a good coach. He just needs a manager to handle certain aspects of his job. Dropping Wilkinson is a big decision, I think it might not have a positive effect on the team. Especially if Hodgson is the replacement. If Wilkinson has to go, Cipriani should start. I’m glad I don’t have to make that decision.

Scotland v England

The Calcutta Cup, it’s probably my favourite match in the 6 Nations, with the England France game being a close second. Scotland always seem to play 10 times better than they’re capable of in it. Let’s hope England can do the same.

It’s imperative that England rack up the points against Scotland, a feat they failed to do against Italy as it is a possibility that this year’s tournament will be decided on points difference. However, racking up points against Scotland is not an easy feat this year. After spending the summer in the gym Scotland are solid and it will be like running into a brick wall for the first half hour. England will need to use the pace and power out wide.

Cipriani controversy aside, I would like to see Balshaw bought in to the line so he can cut them up. If he can’t cope under the high ball or position himself correctly, then he can at least join the line in attack where appropriate. It’ll be nice to see the front five taking some crash balls as well- hopefully aimed straight at Patterson. He’s one man England definitely need to put pressure on.

The Calcutta Cup can be one of the most exciting games of the 6 Nations or a stupidly boring one that you would usually turn off if not for fear of the Scots winning! Let’s hope it’s the former.

It’s also a game that some might sing the 6th verse of the National Anthem to, not me, I wouldn’t dare.

Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the Queen!

Here are the teams, courtesy of BBC Sport.

England team:
I Balshaw (Gloucester); P Sackey (Wasps), J Noon (Newcastle), T Flood (Newcastle), L Vainikolo (Gloucester); J Wilkinson (Newcastle), R Wigglesworth (Sale Sharks); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), L Mears (Bath), P Vickery (Wasps, capt), S Shaw (Wasps), S Borthwick (Bath), T Croft (Leicester), M Lipman (Bath), N Easter (Harlequins)
Replacements: G Chuter (Leicester), M Stevens (Bath), B Kay (Leicester), L Narraway (Gloucester), P Hodgson (London Irish), M Tait (Newcastle), C Hodgson (Sale Sharks).

Scotland team: H Southwell (Edinburgh); R Lamont (Sale Sharks), S Webster (Edinburgh), G Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), N Walker (Ospreys); C Paterson (Gloucester), M Blair (Edinburgh, captain); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), E Murray (Northampton Saints), N Hines (Perpignan), S MacLeod (Llanelli Scarlets), A Strokosch (Gloucester), S Taylor (Stade Francais), A Hogg (Edinburgh).

Replacements: F Thomson (Glasgow Warriors), A Dickinson (Gloucester), C Smith (Edinburgh), J White (Sale Sharks), K Brown (Glasgow Warriors), R Lawson (Gloucester), D Parks (Glasgow Warriors).

Cipriani for Balshaw?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/7266410.stm

Dallaglio’s such a legend. I can’t wait till he gets involved in the coaching set up at Wasps with Ibanez. The problem is that Ashton doesn’t like him. Just after Lawrence’s book was published and before he retired, Ashton said he would still consider Lawrence for the 6 Nations as a player. I would have put money on him not being picked for the squad. But how is this all relevant now? I believe, like Dallaglio, that Cipriani would benefit greatly from playing in the same team as Wilko, I mean what player doesn’t? However, the ever unsubtle Dallaglio may have pencilled Balshaw’s name into the starting line-up himself by saying that Cipriani should start at 15. Let’s just hope I’m proved wrong when the team sheet comes out. I’ld like to think that Ashton isn’t that stubborn. It’s never good to have a coach that can’t admit when he’s wrong. The thing is, much to the average fan’s suprise, Ashton has a whole team of coaching staff behind him and wont take much notice of ex-players comments. He’ll be able to decide this one on his own. I doubt very much that he’ll read the article himself but he’ll probably hear about it from someone. What’s good is Lawrence is complimentry of the coaching setup and hopefully that will make the selection critism easier to hear. I look forward to Lawrence’s next interview in the press.

In the meantime- Cipriani for Balshaw- do it!

France 13 – England 24

Wow! What a game. The back row had an awesome game, as did the half backs. I suppose so did the front five and back line! What epitomised the game for me was the last 5 minutes, England’s composure and dominance in the pack really showed there. There was no need for Wigglesworth to celebrate like a footballer, but it really showed how pleased the lads were with the win. Looks like Yoda’s plan is coming together after two fairly disappointing games. It was very good to see Vainikolo have a good game and get used more. Clerc’s frustration at being bundled into touch every time he went near big Les showed in a little bit of afters after the Wigglesworth try. Poor guy shouldn’t have switched wings, he didn’t get it as bad as Rougerie though! But that seemed to be the game plan. Don’t give the back three any space and dominate the scrum. Almost every scrum turned into an English penalty. What I liked most about this game is that France didn’t really choke, they just got frustrated because England played better.

Brian Moore had quite a few rants at Balshaw for his positioning and also for letting the ball bounce and then shouting about it to his team mates! Rightly so. Wigglesworth, Wilkinson and Sackey were forever dropping back to help him out and I realy felt that he didnt pull his weight defensively.

Tait came on for Noon and although Noon had a great game, it’s a shame that Tait wasn’t bought on a little earlier to enable him to run those beautiful lines that he runs so well. It seems that Ashton doesn’t see Tait as a full back and will stick with Balshaw, I am not sure if this is because he is being stubborn, or because he believes in him or a bit of both. Maybe he thought he would give him a full last game, but I think that’s being optimistic.

Wilkinson did miss 3 out of 7 kicks and points difference will decide this tournament if Wales are tripped up by France or Ireland. Wilkinson played brilliantly though, and it is easy to see why Cipriani wasn’t used at all during the game. Ashton managed the substitutions very well in this respect. France, on the other hand, used all their subs and gave it everything they had, it just wasnt enough.

England still need to improve on their lineouts and running moves through the backs. It’s no doubt that Balshaw can run a decent line and he needs to come in off Flood more, like Tait does at Newcastle. Vainikolo needs more ball, he always needs a lot to stop him and it takes it out of the defence if nothing else.

Lipman impressed me yesterday, as did Croft, who really rose to the challenge. I doubt he expected to play as much rugby as he did before the game and he handled the pressure well. Conceeding penalties needs to be cut out by the back row but that comes with experience- sort of! Austin Healy mentioned that he would like to see a back row of Croft, Haskell and Lipman. That would be awesome. When Lawrence retires at the end of this season, I really hope that Wasps play Haskell at 8. In the meantime, as I’ve said before, England can still try it out in the last 20 in the next game assuming Haskell is fit to play. I also think that Croft would make a good open-side, but he needs experience there and Lipman is playing well.

So let’s hope Haskell recovers and the camp remains injury free over the next two weeks so that our game can develop further for the Scotland match.

Pre-match nerves for the French game

France v England

The game is just hours away, the two teams who were picked as favourites before the tournament meet in Paris to conclude what should be a bloody good day of rugby. 

The forwards Ashton has picked are brilliant. The only issue I have is at 7, but that is due to injury and it’s not like Lipman isn’t good. However we do need to find a decent No 8. I dont think it’s a bad idea to put Haskell there and move Croft to 6, but that needs to be done in the last 20min of this game to see how it works.

At 9, Wigglesworth really needs to perform like he can this weekend, as when Ellis and Richards come back of injury he’ll be under a lot of pressure. Gomersall was always on his way out. However, he always plays better as an underdog with something to prove, it would have been nice to see him come in off the bench but with Hodgson on such good form there’s no space.

Some pundits are talking about moving Wilkinson to 12. It’s an interesting idea. Cipriani needs to improve his defence. Right now, moving Wilkinson is something that should only be done if injurys hit England mid-game. It would be easier to put Cipriani at 12, but he really covets Wilko’s shirt. Flood is playing so well, with such pace and vision, Barkley’s going to have a bit of a job coming back into the side once he’s finished smashing sky sports producers at weddings. The future for English rugby at 10 and 12 is very promising. This will be a very strong point for England if managed correctly. Overall I am quite happy with the backline, although I don’t think Noon should be a permanant fixture at 13, despite his amazing defence two weeks ago. This position has been a problem since Greenwood retired and I struggle to think of a long term world class outside centre for England bar Tait, which some may say leaves a gap at full-back. But for now, stick with Noon, he’s playing well and his big hits encourage others.

The only decision that makes me cringe is the one that fans have been moaning about since the start of the tournament. When the Welsh say they are going to kick to who they deem to be your worst player and pressurise him AND he crumbles, you’ve got to take a step back and think. I do hope that Ashton knows something that we dont and Balshaw magically becomes good enough to put on Jason’s old shirt, but I am not an idiot. I wont say bring on Lewsey like so many others as he isn’t in the squad in the first place (although he should be) but bring on the guy who played so well in the same French stadium only three games ago slotting in at full back for the injured legendary Jason Robinson.

The England team I selected on Monday night was identical to the one that Ashton has selected with the exception of Gomersall for Hodgson and Tait for Balshaw.

It’s clear from reading Ashton’s interviews that he is fed up with the stick he is getting. So if Balshaw doesnt improve tomorrow then I can see Tait resuming his England career in the form of an early second half substitution.

As for the French team, what a formidable side. I won’t pretend to know the French team as well as I know the English, but it’s clear that Szarzewski is a good replacement for the much missed, awesome Ibanez. And with Mas and Nallet the England pack will have a handful at the breakdown. The inexperienced Parra must be put under pressure through the young Picamoles at the base of the scrum. Picamoles the man mountain has Bonnaire and Dusatoir at his flanks- no pressure Wilko!  I think that the 10 man game that England sometimes revert to is under-rated, especially when you look at the skill and power of the French forwards. Traille has been selected as goal kicker and if it does turn out to be a kicking contest I expect him to choke. However with the infamous demon back three that France currently have and the vision of Trinh-Duc, they wont be thinking about the 2 and 3 points that arent guaranteed.

Four games ago England were underdogs at the Saint Denis Stadium in France and they won. Three games ago Paul Sackey closed down the man everyone was calling the best winger in the world. I think he’ll do it again. One thing is certain, assuming the French dont go into that all so familiar suicidal mode after falling behind, England will have to play a full 80 minutes to win this game and fend off the challenges of the many impact players Lievremont will use off the bench.

Let’s just hope that Vainikolo’s inexperince in union isnt exploited by Rougerie. Let’s hope Balshaw settles and doesn’t make too many errors. And let’s hope the wind blows the right way for Jonny. If England can win tomorrow then the loss against Wales can be put down to good coaching from the Kiwi and Englishman and a post World Cup Final stutter.

The teams, courtesy of BBC sport:

France: Heymans (Toulouse); Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne), Marty (Perpignan), Traille (Biarritz), Clerc (Toulouse); Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Parra (Bourgoin); Faure (Sale), Szarzewski (Stade Francais), Mas (Perpignan), Nallet (Castres, capt), Pape (Stade Francais), Bonnaire (Clermont-Auvergne), Dusautoir (Toulouse), Picamoles (Montpellier).
Replacements: Servat (Toulouse), J-B Poux (Toulouse), Thion (Biarritz), Ouedraogo (Montpellier), Yachvili (Biarritz), Skrela (Stade Francais), Floch (Clermont Auvergne).

England: Balshaw (Gloucester); Sackey (Wasps), Noon (Newcastle), Flood (Newcastle), Vainikolo (Gloucester); Wilkinson (Newcastle), Wigglesworth (Sale); Sheridan (Sale Sharks), Regan (Bristol), Vickery (Wasps, capt), Shaw (Wasps), Borthwick (Bath), Haskell (Wasps), Lipman (Bath), Easter (Harlequins).
Replacements: Mears (Bath), Stevens (Bath), Kay (Leicester), Croft (Leicester), Hodgson (London Irish), Cipriani (Wasps), Tait (Newcastle).

Good Luck boys!