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Cipriani, Armand & Goode omissions harder than ever to explain – Andy Goode
You could name a good England team with the players unavailable to Eddie Jones for the upcoming autumn internationals so the absence of Danny Cipriani, Don Armand and Alex Goode is harder than ever to fathom.
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The first two games in November against South Africa and New Zealand are mammoth tasks for us now. If you go back 18 months people couldn’t wait for us to face the All Blacks but now I’m looking at that squad and thinking they could put 30 points on us.
There are other players who will feel unlucky or hard done by too but that trio are glaring omissions for me. They’re tearing it up for their clubs and they’re not getting a look in internationally.
I think the more the media talk up Cipriani and Armand, the less Jones is inclined to pick them.
It has been a bit like the Jose Mourinho effect with Eddie in terms of having a great ride for a couple of years and then things starting to unravel. We were warned about that before he was appointed and that’s what’s happened.
It can’t be anything other than a personal thing or off-field reasons with Cipriani because he was man of the match in the opening couple of games of the Premiership season, has been on fire for Gloucester and England won with him starting in the third Test against South Africa. They lost six games in a row before that.
He’s said that he only wants two fly halves in the squad and he’s picked Owen Farrell and George Ford. We have to take him at his word that Farrell is being picked as a fly half and if that’s the case, he has to start in the number 10 jersey going forwards.
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But he has changed his mind on the number of players he wants in each position. He’s only wanted two scrum halves for most of his tenure but now he’s got three in there and now he’s only got two hookers as well so Luke Cowan-Dickie misses out.
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Watch: Eddie Jones talks to RugbyPass about November Test squad
With the likes of Billy Vunipola, Nathan Hughes, Sam Simmonds, Chris Robshaw and Jack Clifford all missing in the back row, I’m not sure what Armand has to do to get a call-up, or his team-mate Dave Ewers for that matter.
Ben Morgan’s back for the first time since the 2015 World Cup and that’s a good story but he’s not renowned as being one of the most physical players in the game. In the nicest possible sense, Armand and Ewers are absolute animals when they play for Exeter and if you wanted physicality, you’d pick them.
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When Armand hasn’t been picked previously, Eddie’s said it’s because he plays in the wide channels and doesn’t do enough close-quarter carrying but he is definitely doing that on a regular basis for the Chiefs now.
Eddie’s said that he wants to go away on the training camp in Portugal and produce a team that’s “absolutely brutal in the physical contest” and Armand is one of the most physical and brutal players in the Premiership week in, week out so there are a lot of mixed messages from him.
The list of absentees is a long one, I think there are as many as 15 key players out for one reason or another and the squad’s starting to look a bit thin, especially in a couple of positions.
The injuries to Mako Vunipola and Ellis Genge, as well as others like Beno Obano and Matt Mullan and the international retirement of Joe Marler, mean the Exeter duo of Alec Hepburn and Ben Moon with two caps and no starts between them are the only options at loosehead.
And Harry Williams, Kyle Sinckler and Nic Schonert only have six Test starts between them as well at tighthead so we could be under the pump in the front row, an area that has traditionally been a major strength for England.
It’s great to see Manu Tuilagi back in the squad and he’s played in 13 of Leicester’s 16 Premiership games in 2018, so he’s had a run of games now and is getting back to his best. He was massive in the win over New Zealand six years ago in 2012 and can be a point of difference.
He attracts defenders whether he’s actually getting the ball or running decoy lines and is a great weapon to have when you’ve got good ball players in your side. I’d probably have him on the bench as an impact player at this stage though.
Chris Ashton and Ben Te’o haven’t played at all yet this season and Brad Shields has only played one and a half games. I don’t have any issue with their inclusion at all, particularly with all of the injuries but it’d be churlish to say that this squad has been picked on form.
Eddie’s the man in charge until the end of the 2019 World Cup regardless of the results this autumn. I think his time’s up after that whether we win it or crash out early or something in between but he’s the boss until then.
Everyone else can have an opinion but he’s the one who’ll be judged on the results. He’s been pretty clever in telling people to judge him on the World Cup because he’s probably going to be leaving after that anyway but that is considered the be all and end all now.
This squad is one that could lose three of the four Tests, only getting over the line against Japan, but it’s also within the realms of possibility that we could win three games this autumn because there is still talent there and the Twickenham factor is a big one.
One thing is for sure, though. We’ve waited four years to get New Zealand back at Twickenham to have another shot at them and there’s no way this side is beating the All Blacks.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Dagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
37 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to comments