Rugby

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owl in reply to @villa-ru

Def worth remembering as well the injuries/absences from the England pack. To miss Genge, George, Williams, Obano, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jack Willis, Joe Launchbury etc through injury, Kruis through early retirement (choosing to play abroad), and Mako apparently being in France and therefore couldn't answer the urgent call when requested (lots of speculation this is him off to play in France and therefore end of his England career now) that is a serious amount of players missing who would otherwise be expected to start and gives at least some explanation for the pack's performance against the Boks in the second half...

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Sam_w in reply to @owl

Yes, I am interested who comes back into the pack, I think it is primarily the front row where we lacked, so adding in Genge and LCD would certainly help, not sure that would put us on an even footing with SA. The interesting question is how close do we need to be to be able to compete.

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owl in reply to @Sam_w

Agreed - although I do think we miss Kruis' heft in the set piece and for all his qualities I'm not sure Hill/Ewells quite bring the same grunt but that is obviously guesswork...