Finally a current and just former test player giving us a closer look at the team sheets. If you can give your honnest opinion without a worry for heat of your former teammates this will be a outstanding pre game brief ill be watching every week . Class stuff ben
Hey Ben - AB's Fan - Really great breakdown of this weekends test. Love your unbiased perspective which is very refreshing. Perhapos something for a few of my own country's journos could take note of. Great work mate keep it up. I like England's team and was really impressed with Marcus Smith and Furbank who were both very good in the two tests here in NZ. Very attack minded which is awesome to watch
Interesting hearing this sort of breakdown from a more someone more in tune with the test arena compared to the usual pundits. Feels more on the ground insight especially at how the 9s will be tackled as an example
I don't understand the England bench at all. Agreed with Ben on the reshuffle required if there is an issue in the centres. More than that, with Ford as a Vice captain, you can almost guarantee that he will come on at 50 - 60 minutes, regardless of how Marcus is playing. So that reshuffle will definitely happen. And that will be to control the game, not to loosen it up. The weird part is, those last 20 - 30 minutes are when Marcus is at his most dangerous, but the choice is to decrease his influence. At a similar time, you will bring on Dombrandt, who is best at winning ball out wide, running lines off 10, and linking with backs. He has a special connection with Smith, and yet he will come on when Smith is either off, or shifted to 15 for Ford to play 10. Neither Dombrandt nor Curry will replace the big running down the middle of CCS. If you want Ford tactically kicking and controlling the territory, you want to give him the gainline to work from. Similar issue with Randall, who delivers super fast ball and runs at the fringes really well - but will have Ford 3 yards further back in support than if he had Smith at 10 still. Feels like we aren't maximising our attacking options, nor our tactical kicking options. One of the big failures against NZ in the summer for me was replacing both 9 and 10. In both games (less so the second because Smith coming on as an injury sub at 15 in the second game added attacking continuity) England were outplayed after they replaced 9 and 10. Feels to me like you need to retain one of your two main attacking decision-makers for the whole game if possible. Particularly as both 9s we have available are less experienced internationally. On the other side of things, this looks to me like the best NZ team we have seen under Razor (aside from missing De Groot), with a lot more clarity around how their bench could work.
Far from it. DeGroot didn't meet internal standards, which is code for breaking rules. He would've started, with Tamaiti replacing Tu'ungafasi. Telea is also a defensive liability, and he cannot handle kicks.
@@icefarrow7959 so what. Neither of those are important. We wanted BB at 10, ratima starting, no TJ, Jordan at FB, Caleb starting, Cam on the bench, Dmac on the bench. It is exactly what everyone wanted.
What is interesting is Borthwick's comfortable shifting Smith to fullback during games - doesn't want to keep him at 10 no matter how well he is playing.
Two concerns for me; the scrum (neither Genge or Stewart have performed consistently well in this area at test level to date) and Ford on the bench with the reshuffling required should anyone other than Smith get injured; particularly if we lose Lawrence for example there’ll probably be 4 players out of position to accommodate Ford. Surely the Swiss army knife that is Daly would have been a better choice with Furbank as cover for 10?
Agree re Daly but I think Freeman's ability to play 13 gets us out of a bit of trouble - plus Marcus has a lot of game time at 15 for Quins so I think we have enough cover. If we have more than one injury though... Earl as a crash ball 12?
Weird selection from Borthwick for me, don't see the tactical sense in it. Ford is a Vice Captain - I would bet my house that he will come on at 50 - 60 minutes regardless of how Smith plays. If Finn Smith was getting on in the summer, Ford definitely is. So we will see that reshuffle, or see Randall and Dombrandt, two players who love loose running rugby, coming on and playing with Ford's style which just isn't that. Worse, Smith is at his most dangerous at 10 in the last 30 minutes - particularly if he has Randall and Dombrandt around him. Feels like we have the team that could win, but we've put the parts together wrong.
@ Agree with everything you’re saying however, Mackenzie off the bench is very dangerous and I’d rather have Ford to calm things down if needed. Either way, going to be a good watch!
Why did Joe Marler give the ABs a quote they're gonna pin on the dressing room wall for added motivation?! What an unforced error! Should be Freeman or Lozowski @13 over an under-cooked Slade; and on the bench, should be Hill & Willis over B Curry & Dombrandt and F Smith over Ford. ABs seem like they might be better balanced with Sititi @8, Finau @6 & Ardie @7.
It's Ra-tee-ma. No i in it's pronunciation whatsoever. Ah, eh, e, or, ew - the Maori vowels. Guy just needed to speed up the middle part of the name, and roll the r.
