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What England A expect from 'let me do my thing' Alfie Barbeary
England A skipper Charlie Ewels can’t wait to see what Alfie Barbeary, his Bath teammate, has to offer at international level. The 23-year-old was initially set to miss this Sunday’s fixture versus Portugal at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
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A citing for dangerously tackling Max Spring in the sixth minute of his club’s Investec Champions Cup win over Racing at The Rec on January 14 resulted in a three-game suspension.
However, he was offered the opportunity to attend tackle school and successful completion struck the final game off his ban, freeing him to be selected for George Skivington’s England A team.
He comes into the match not having played in six weeks, but Ewels insisted the No8 is ready to impress. “He is good to go,” he said when asked by RugbyPass about a player that Bath picked up last season when Wasps went out of business.
“I can’t give you any insights into his hairstyle at the moment but in terms of his style of play, he is going to want the ball as much as possible and he is going to want to carry as much as possible. He is a powerful carrier so that will be him.”
The England Men's A team are back ??
And here's the line-up to face Portugal in Leicester on Sunday.
Watch live on England Rugby YouTube and Facebook from 12:50pm.#ENGvPOR
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) February 23, 2024
Bath were riddled with inconsistencies when Barbeary arrived in the 2022/23 season. However, they are a far more powerful unit this season.
They currently occupy third place in the Gallagher Premiership with seven wins from 12 games and have reached the last 16 in Europe with three wins in four. What has this collective improvement done for the promising back-rower?
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“He has brought what he did at Wasps, to be honest,” reckoned Ewels. “He probably did it a little under the radar at Wasps and he is probably doing it now and there is a bit more talk around him and everyone is just seeing how good a player he is.
“He is a brilliant ball carrier. His fundamentals are good. He is one of those lads who, no matter what is going on in the game, on the scoreboard, he just wants the ball. ‘Give me the ball, give me the ball early, give me time on the ball and let me do my thing’.
“Yeah, he’s confident and I’m looking forward to seeing him step up into international rugby. I’m looking forward to seeing if he can transfer it to this level.”
Aside from Barbeary, Max Ojomoh and Will Muir have also been chosen to start versus the Portuguese. Along with Ewels, that gives Bath four representatives in the starting XV – the biggest of any contributing club.
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“It’s four guys who have been playing very well in the league who have now got their opportunity to put their hand up internationally,” explained Ewels.
“You can be comfortable in your club environment: it’s people you know, it’s people you have been with for a long period, so let’s see how quickly those guys can come into a new environment with new players around them and see if they can still deliver the performances they have been delivering in a club shirt.”
Comments on RugbyPass
If Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
69 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
2 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
69 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
2 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
9 Go to commentsBest thing the Welsh clubs could do is apply to join Gallagher prem surely be more exciting matches for there support than they have now.
2 Go to commentsRugbyPass writers are useless! you guys should get a real job because you all suck at writing about rugby!!!
9 Go to commentslooking forward to RWC2027 …. Boks on mission impossible for the Three-in-a-row, ABs to prove they being on par, France wishing to crown the “DuPont-era”, Ireland knocking on the Semi-Door ….. until then we’ll probably have to deal with Weird Ben’s fantasy-RWC23 (fun fact is, the drivel always creates a flooding of comments) …..
222 Go to commentsBen Smith you really make some good points in this article, the Springboks were not close to perfect and good still beat the All Blacks, imagine if they were as good as they were against France what a hiding the All Blacks would have gotten… maybe another Twickenham drubbing
222 Go to commentsIt is a good argument to keep the Rebels for one more year but also isnt this just opening the door as well for keeping them beyond 2025. If they can create some sort of financial stability in the next year and if their performances lift as they have this season then how would RA even cull them after that? It might be the most cost effective decision at this stage and perhaps many people are guilty of keeping relationships going because of the cost to decouple but then again when does that ever work out well?
29 Go to commentsDear Ben Smith you are a genius! God please become the next all blacks coach that can take on the mighty BOKS. Your rugby acumen is second to none - imagine your dads sperm bounced as unfortunately as that oval ball did….we would not be blessed with your presence. Just as the all blacks were missing a man you too are missing a chromosome for 80% of your life, so your insights are not only profound but ring true from your own experiences. Just as the TMO interfered with citing an illegal pass I am sure your local authorities interfere with your illegal passes you make on women - How dare they!!! God forbid that rugby be officiated fairly. You are the right man for the job. Next all blacks coach is here ladies and gentlemen Miss Ben Smith (He/She/They/IT)
222 Go to comments