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Sam Simmonds' England exile is starting to feel like it's personal - Andy Goode
George Martin is a brilliant prospect but the continuing omission of Sam Simmonds by England boss Eddie Jones is starting to feel like it’s personal. One thing is for sure, there is nothing more the European player of the year can do to impress the England head coach after scoring eleven tries in nine Premiership games from No8 since the start of this season.
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It’s an amazing honour to get your first international call-up and it will hopefully be the first of many for Martin, so you don’t want to detract from that and it’s certainly no slight on him but Simmonds has more tries this campaign than Martin has senior career appearances and it is hard to see the logic behind the selection.
People will say that Martin was in England’s shadow squad so he was simply the next cab off the rank but Kyle Sinckler wasn’t named on that list of reserves and he was still parachuted straight into the fold so there is no reason why the same couldn’t have been done here, especially with Jack Willis’ injury happening two weeks before the next game.
Jones says he wants to put smiles on people’s faces and Simmonds does just that. He has everything that England are crying out for right now. Pace, power, the ability to beat someone at close quarters. He ticks every single box.
It feels like stubbornness is preventing Jones from picking him at the moment because there has been much clamour for him to do so in the media and perhaps it would feel like an admission that he was wrong. That is just cutting off your nose to spite your face though and, while it is absolutely his prerogative to pick who he sees fit, I hope it isn’t the case that he is overlooking such a talent for that reason.
All this is putting some people who are avid fans of the club game off international rugby and a lot of people who only watch international rugby are bored with how England are playing. The issue of Simmonds’ size is always raised but Ben Earl is not dissimilar in stature to him so I don’t think that is the reason and neither Martin nor Simmonds are a like-for-like replacement for Willis.
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There are also plenty of players in the squad already who can cover second row and blindside in terms of Courtney Lawes and Maro Itoje and then the likes of Mark Wilson, who is a more traditional No6. This feels very different from some of the other high-profile cases of players being consistently left out by Jones as well.
Alex Goode won the European player of the year award too but Jones has been open about the fact he likes a rapid, counter-attacking full-back so you can see why he might not fit into his plans.
Danny Cipriani was given a very brief opportunity but he is a very different type of fly-half to George Ford and Owen Farrell and there were always question marks around his demeanour and his personal qualities in a team environment. Nobody has a bad word to say about Simmonds.
Jones is a master at handling the media, sending out messages and keeping players on their toes, but this isn’t a great message to send to a guy who has been tearing it up in club rugby for the past 18 months and others like him.
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The reason for Simmonds being overlooked yet again has to be something completely outside of rugby matters and we need to hear why.
Sam Simmonds has scored 52 tries in 76 Test, Premiership and Champions Cup games compared to Billy Vunipola's 32 tries in 208…
– Yet Simmonds is playing on Saturday at Sandy Park while Vunipola runs out at Twickenham with England ?#SixNations #ENGvITAhttps://t.co/VjIpqY4UpY
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 13, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments