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I think England do have enough heavy-traffic carriers in Mako, George, Sinclair and Maro, they can make do with a workrate/turnover-heavy backrow so I'm not sure I'd bring Morgan back, who whilst he has had some great games often looks pretty ponderous and probably isn't the future of the increasingly fast-paced international game. I'd definitely have had Dombrandt in, but not unhappy with a backrow picked from Curry, Underhill, Ludlam, Hill, Earl etc... We also have such a glut of locks I don't mind seeing Lawes/Maro at 6 if it means Launchbury gets in, who has been so unlucky and would walk into any other international team...
No idea what Ben Spencer has/hasn't done to miss out.
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No idea what Ben Spencer has/hasn't done to miss out
This is a very good point to which I have no answer other than to nod accordingly.
Controversially, I am not sure of all those ball carriers are up there - Itoje is always brought up as one people rate. A fantastic athlete sure, second to none, but he does get knocked back quite a lot, even for Sarries - he is very upright into contact. Lawes has improved since the Scott Williams incident (aaaargh!), but is still more about lung-busting work-rate. And Ludlam seemed a bit underpowered to me at the RWC. I hope I am wrong. The props are definitely good in this respect though (with Genge to come in and do his thing).
George/LCD is a nice quandary to have.
About my reasons for Morgan - yes, I agree he is not the future, definitely more a stepping stone option. But he seems to have an intelligent rugby brain (moreso than, say, Nathan Hughes, whom I love watching as a Bris supporter. But he doesn't half give away some dopey pens and yellow cards!) - and he looks to hit gaps, rather than the man. I think he offers some of the beef required, along with some soft hands, and has been back to form with the pacey game Ackermann is looking for at Glos - akin to the expansive game Jones applied at RWC. If he can help the other back row develop their game, then I'm for it. There are lots more fixtures before the next WC to develop the full package and find another 8 / get Billy back fit and to form. Simmonds, the other form option for me, is sadly too small when put together with the other options, which is a terrible shame, as he is a class act - and that pace (!!!).
c00ps
I agree. But then he needs a bigger ball carrier at 8, in my inexpert opinion. I thought that would be Dombrandt. But he seems to be oddly out of favour at club level (left out of a couple of Quins fixtures until Saturday). So to be picked for international level might have been seen as a step too far?
(FWIW I'd have picked him and Ben Morgan as options at 8, instead of two of the multitude of locks - and had another scrum half, much as I hated them on the pitch, also)
I like the youth of the squad (and indeed the World Cup squad). But the media obsession with ripping everything up and starting again every 'World Cup cycle' is a strange one. Some experience and continuity must be there, surely? Picking players who will be over 30 by the next tournament seems to be interpreted as the work of the devil.