England

jontheref says...

melkdave

Sorry, Warburton and Tipuric are ahead of Armitage, let alone all the other nations 7's.

Needs to prove himself at test level, where the gameis harder than H Cup.

Posted 20:52 10th May 2012

melkdave says...

Unfortunatly S.Armitage wont be going to SA because of RFU policy .He is imo the best 7 in world rugby atm and definatly in europe,and would certinally give our pack great ball carrying .His defence has also improved tremendously and he now wins a fair share of turnovers at the breakdown .As to who will play 7 in the tests id like one of the youngsters given a chance either Lawrance or Kvesic i feel could do a good job .This tour to mind is all about delveloping the squad and players and id be very happy if we got a single test win ,which imo isnt beyond the realms of possibilty I would be esstastic with a series win but that might just be beyond us atm .Guess we will just have to wait and see lol

Posted 19:05 03rd May 2012

TVaddict says...

I feel this would be a nice team:

1.Corbisiero

2. Hartley

3.Cole

4. Attwood

5. Parling

6. Robshaw (c)

7. Armitage

8. Morgan

9. Dickson

10. Farrell

11. Benjamin

12. Barrett

13. Tuilagi

14. Ashton (Though would love to have Wade here instead)

15. Foden

16. Paice/Gray

17. Doran-Jones

18. Launchbury

19. Haskell

20. Youngs

21. Flood

22. Joseph

Front row picks itself. While Botha was good in the 6 nations, at the age of 30 I don't feel he'll still be good enough by the next world cup, but I wouldn't be overly disappointed to see him in the team. Attwood has been a great second row for a while now and deserves his chance, though I'd also be happy to see Garvey there. Armitage has to be in, so Robshaw moves to 6 where I think he'll play better. No reason to change 8-10. I don't feel Strettle was potent enough in attack during the 6 nations, and Saracens don't give him a chance to show it a club level, so all he has to show is his defence. Defence is something Benjamin is great at but he's also a good finisher and so deserves his chance. Not much reason to change 12-15, at least for the first game.

Posted 22:49 02nd May 2012

APV1 says...

@ Capedcrusader - Touché sir! Touché!

(Other than your last line...)

;-)

Posted 15:52 02nd May 2012

chubbylugs says...

@tvaddict - is that a bit of a contradiction a great ball carrier and an out and out 7? even the great 7s have been link players rather than big ball carriers. is he suddenly super human?

are we not falling into the trap of expectation again. i dont think this tour should be seen as a must win. it is about developing players and the more that get exposure to top level rugby, surely the better we will become

we are not going to get a hiding, but losing a few games does give a chance to review progress and learn and also let players and coaches know where they need to be. dont forget the boks are on a similar curve to us at the minute

Posted 13:23 02nd May 2012

BokAvenger says...

I can't wait for this series to begin :-)

Posted 12:38 02nd May 2012

Headhunter99 says...

I think Attwood deserves the opportunity, he's been very unlucky regarding England over the last year or so. Launchbury is another player worth taking.

What is the exact situation regarding selecting Stefan Armitage ? is it a definite no no as he plays in France or is there still a special case clause.

I know some on this forum think this tour is a year or so to early, I agree with that but this is a great chance for SL to put the young talent into a really tough situation. If we are to challenge in 2015 these youngsters need to go through this type of wringer.

Posted 09:52 02nd May 2012

Demers says...

Success in SA was always going to be about keeping their score down - hard to do with Morne Steyne around - but without Croft and Lawes to give our forwards some cred we can't hope to win a test. This tour's coming one or two season's too soon.

Posted 20:42 01st May 2012

NHsaints says...

Lawes Croft and Webber will be missed...however we have no shortage of brilliant 6's in England and I should be surprised if Dowson doesn't start at his preferred 7 position and Robshaw starts at his preferred 6 position...Grey (quins) should make adequate cover for (webber) Hartley at hooker and we've got Attwood, Palmer, Kitchener and Day who can all come into the second row. It could also make a nice addittion to the backrow to have steffon armitage to come in at 7 and Dowson resume his full backrow bench cover duties because steffon is playing the best running rugby of any backrower in world rugby at the moment.

Posted 18:07 01st May 2012

APV1 says...

I think we'll miss Lawes, Croft and Webber most out of those.

Posted 17:07 01st May 2012