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Reverting to Ford/Farrell can't be Eddie's Plan A - Andy Goode

By Andy Goode
George Ford and Owen Farrell (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Eddie Jones has named a virtually first choice side to face Ireland, from those in his squad who are fully fit and firing, but starting George Ford and Owen Farrell together again feels like a backward step.

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The bottom line is I don’t think Farrell is suited to playing 12, especially as captain. He should be the fulcrum of the team and steering the ship from fly half rather than one step further away from the action.

He’s the type of character that you want to run everything and dominate a game and he can’t do that from inside centre, where there is a lot more hitting the ball up and making tackles. Farrell loves that but doing it does mean he often isn’t as influential.

They won the Grand Slam starting every game together in 2016 and then won the Six Nations again the following year so it’s clearly a combination that’s had success in the past but I don’t think it’s right for England now.

Ford is a very good fly half but he has gone missing in some of England’s major recent defeats, such as Ireland away in 2017 and then Scotland, France and South Africa away last year.

There’s every chance that he’ll produce an excellent attacking display today if he’s given some good front-foot ball but I think the past few years has told us that Farrell is England’s first choice fly half.

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I hope the only reason they’re going back to starting the two of them together is because Henry Slade is still injured and Jonathan Joseph and Piers Francis have started both of the opening two warm-up games against Wales.

Eddie has said that he’s going to be trying things out this month in preparation for the World Cup but we’ve seen how this partnership works for almost four years between the end of 2014 and the South Africa tour last summer.

I’ve no doubt Farrell and Ford will be on the field in tandem at some point in Japan so it’s another chance for him to see how they go but I just hope it’s more of a plan for towards the end of games rather than something he’s going to revert to from the start.

This same issue has reared its head a few times in the past couple of years with Maro Itoje shunted to blindside flanker as well. It might be ok as a one-off out of necessity but as a general rule you have to pick your star men in their best positions.

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Owen Farrell in South Africa
Owen Farrell

Farrell revels in the responsibility of controlling games from fly half, leading the team from there and being able to be more dominant as a result. That’s where he plays his best rugby and by pushing him out to 12 I don’t think we’ll see the best of him.

It shouldn’t be necessary either with the centres we have and I think Manu Tuilagi and Henry Slade will be the first choice centre combination with Jonathan Joseph knocking on the door as well.

Perhaps today’s selection does show that the squad is a bit light in midfield, with Ben Te’o having been omitted, but that is with Slade missing and Jack Nowell is also out and he’s been utilised at 13 in the past as well.

England’s attack was pretty blunt in Cardiff last week so there is a chance that this is his solution to that but I just can’t see that it’s a World Cup winning formula.

It might be a more minor point as well but in some ways it’s also a bit of a risk to start them both together in the same team against a hugely physical and motivated Ireland side when they’re the only two fly halves named in the 31-man squad. A certain Danny Cipriani might be watching closely from afar, albeit obviously not for one second wishing injury on another player.

Jones Underhill Curry talk
Eddie Jones talks to Sam Underhill (left) and Tom Curry ahead of England’s clash with Ireland (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Away from the 10/12 channel, it’s exciting to see Tom Curry and Sam Underhill, or ‘the Kamikaze Kids’ as Eddie Jones has labelled them, starting alongside one another for the first time after injury meant it didn’t happen against Wales a couple of weeks ago.

He’s got to pick two from Curry, Underhill and Mark Wilson as his first choice flankers and we might see that the work rate and energy of these two youngsters in defence and at the breakdown allows Billy Vunipola to be even more effective than he is already.

All in all, we’ve seen a couple of performances that have lacked a bit of intensity from an understrength England side and an underwhelming performance from a second-string Ireland so far in August but both have gone full noise in this one so we should be in for a much better spectacle.

Today is a warm-up game and Eddie has plans for each one that he isn’t divulging to all of us but reverting to Ford and Farrell from the start in Japan can’t be a Plan A. If England have got any chance of winning the World Cup, it’s imperative Farrell starts at 10.

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Jon 4 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 6 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

30 Go to comments
A
Adrian 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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T
Trevor 11 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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