In great form: Mike Brown
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Harlequins director of rugby Conor O'Shea is adamant that Mike Brown is good enough to be England's starting full-back after his effort on Saturday.
Brown was impressive under the high ball as the Aviva Premiership leaders ground out an 18-9 victory at Northampton at Franklin's Gardens.
He started England's last two November Tests at wing and although Brown would play anywhere in an England shirt, he prefers playing at fifteen.
"He liked being back at full-back," said O'Shea.
"He wants to play full-back for England, but he will play anywhere for England, he would play at prop for England. He was outstanding for us today.
"It is a fabulous position for England to be in with Browny, Alex Goode and Ben Foden, they are pretty rich in that position. (Stuart) Lancaster wants to see players putting their hand up for selection.
"It was a great team performance today, Nick (Easter) will keep knocking on the door, and he is in incredible shape.
"I just saw in our senior guys through the week a mentality that they wanted to come here and make a statement. That is 14 wins out of 17 in all competitions and we are playing poorly I am being told."
Comments
heart_of_oak says...
I don't understand what Tom Varndell has to do to get more recognition. Why are people rating Wade and Biggs above Varndell ? As a winger, Varndell has few equals and always scores tries. Using Premiership rugby's own stats page for top try scorers, the first mention of Tom Biggs is in 2007/2008 when he scored 7 tries. In that season Varndell scored 14. In the current season, Varndell has 10 tries to Wade's 5. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Wade. But what do you want from a winger ? If people think wingers must also be sound defensively, then why do we pick the likes of Strettle and Ashton ? Surely the key criteria has to be tries and by that measure, Varndell delivers more reliably than any other winger we have.
Posted 12:59 30th December 2012
TVaddict says...
I'd prefer Brown at 15 with some genuine wingers on the wing. You want players on the wing who are scoring tries for fun for their clubs, not shifting fullbacks around for the added defence. That said I'd prefer wingers who can play fullback when required, like Jonny May.
For me we really need to develop our wingers more as we have a wealth of options. There are stars like Wade and consistent performers in the likes of Biggs so we really need to try and develop some further at international level. I personally think Marland Yarde looks like an excellent player. If he were playing for a team other than London Irish he'd probably be being talked about a lot more. Great pace, great step, consistent in defence (as good as you can with the team's defensive efforts so poor), good finisher and I think it's only Cueto who I have felt is safer under the high ball. Still a bit raw yes, but so much potential. Imagine Cueto with pace and attacking intent.
Of course, it goes without saying that I'd have Ashton no where near the England squad at the moment. Terrible year internationally as well as at club level. Not scoring tries like he used to, defence is suspect, and he seems to gather silly yellow cards like they were sweets.
Posted 09:58 24th December 2012
APV1 says...
Wade, Biggs & Brown. 2 specialist wingers and an awesome, specialist FB.
Posted 09:48 24th December 2012
lawynd says...
@ArmchairGeneral - I disagree, I think we have several very fine wingers, we just stick to what we know too often. Wade and Varndell are scoring for fun in the AP and Amlin, surely at least one of them deserves a reasonable chance? No, their defensive work isn't the greatest but at least Wade is trying to rectify that aspect of his game, and we don't have anyone else in the team with his ability to jink out of tackles, nor his out and out place. There's also Rob Miller at Sale who is at least worth looking at at 15, Seb Stegmann and Sam Smith at Harlequins, James Short at Sarries who I think is easily a better player than Strettle, Jonny May and Charlie Sharples at Gloucester...the list goes on. And providing they can remain fit, I'm backing Adam Thompstone and Miles Benjamin to start troubling the selectors too.
Posted 09:06 24th December 2012
RugbyNut says...
What nonsense! Rugby is a fairly simple game - keep it that way! Brown is the best 15 in the country and in form, therefore play him at 15. Don't insult him and put him on as a winger. Drop Farrell and fasttrack Burns and Ford. In the southern hemisphere talent is allowed to come through, why does the northern hemisphere allow politics to get involved in selection? England also has a number of great wingers, just play them!
Posted 23:53 23rd December 2012
Warrior7 says...
I'de prefer Brown on the bench to come on, and Foden left wing, Ashton right and Goode at fullback because of his likeness to a second 10.
Posted 13:26 23rd December 2012
NHsaints says...
Personally I still think our best bet is Brown on one wing, Ashton on the other and Foden at fullback, we saw how well that worked in the autumn but Foden is a much better broken field runner than Goode and a stronger finisher too, he'll always back himself to score and that would have had us another try vs australia when goode passed the ball to ashton and ashton couldn't quite reach the line, Foden would have just clattered through a couple of players and scored.
Posted 12:18 23rd December 2012
ArmchairGeneral says...
England has five or more top 15s to call on and no wingers of the same class. Lancaster has to have a game plan that builds on three full backs in the back three and a fourth on the bench. rotate who starts at 15 to make it harder for opponents to do player analysis.
Posted 10:32 23rd December 2012