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Owen Farrell and George Kruis sit out Saracens local derby with Harlequins, but nine of the England match squad beaten by Grand Slam winners Ireland will be on duty in front of a sell-out 57,000 crowd at the London Stadium tomorrow.
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Farrell and Kruis were injured on test duty last weekend which means an enforced rest at a time when the pressure on England’s top players has been pinpointed as a major problem following the woeful fifth place finish in the Six Nations. The fact that so many England players are thrown straight back onto the rugby treadmill is a worrying scenario with Sarries also facing a European Champions Cup quarter-final with Leinster in Dublin on April 1.
Sarries hope Farrell and Kruis will be back for the quarter-final while Billy Vunipola, who missed the Six Nations with a broken arm, is struggling to be ready to help keep alive the club’s bid for a third successive Champions Cup triumph.
Maro Itoje, highlighted as a player struggling to recapture his best form, is named in the Saracens side along with fellow England internationals Richard Wigglesworth and Jamie George with Mako Vunipola on the bench while Quins feature five England players – four in team Chris Robshaw, Danny Care, Mike Brown, Kyle Sinckler – and Joe Marler on the bench.
However, Quins captain James Horwill, the former Wallaby skipper, believes a massive Premiership clash with their local rivals, who are chasing leaders Exeter, can help his England players get over the bitter disappointment of the Six Nations and insists the players are looked after by the clubs.
Horwill said: “You need to be aware of the work load being put on certain guys which is being managed. We have players who have had a lot of rugby and others who are coming back from injury and it is all about individual training loads. It is also about assimilating the international guys back into the squad a soon as possible.”
“It is a challenging time for everyone. When players have been at a club for a long time there is a feeling of “the comfort of home” when you get back from test duty and that can be refreshing for them. The international set up , particularly during the Six Nations, can be very intense and there is no time to relax. From my test experience, it can be a nice change to get back to the club game.”
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Horwill is also confident Quins, ten points adrift of the European Champions Cup qualification places, can make up for lost ground with their test players back and England flanker Jack Clifford now fit to join the match squad tomorrow.
He added; “We will soon see if we can close the gap and we need to start winning. We have five games to go at the back end of the season which is a bit disjointed with different competitions taking place with a week on, week off situation. We are getting players back from injury and maybe the break between Premiership matches could be a help.”
“The last couple of games with Saracens has been a Wembley and they were great occasions at such an historic stadium. Now we get to play at another fantastic stadium with a sell-out crowd and this is a big weekend for club rugby in rugby with Newcastle taking their match to St James’s Park as well.”
“It is always a big game for us being a derby game and you always like to perform against them. We know they are a quality side packed with international and being able to bring more off the bench.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Well 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..
2 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.
2 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.)
2 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.
28 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?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
28 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
3 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to comments