Skipper: Jordan Crane
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Leicester number eight Jordan Crane has been handed the captaincy duties for the England Saxons in Friday's clash with the Ireland Wolfhounds.
He's one of six internationals in the XV along with Matt Mullan, Paul Doran-Jones, Joe Simpson, Jordan Turner-Hall and Richard Wigglesworth.
Elliot Daly and Joel Tomkins are in the backline of a young Saxons outfit while Saracens pair George Kruis and Will Fraser will start in the back-row.
Four more replacements are also set to make their first appearances at this level with former England U20 trio Rob Buchanan, Shaun Knight and George Lowe joined by ex-Rugby League international Kyle Eastmond.
"This is a dynamic young side with an average age of less than 24 and the players have a chance to show that they can play a major part of the future of England Rugby over the coming years. The blend of forward power and pace in the back line makes it an exciting one to be involved with," said head coach Jon Callard.
"We're facing an experienced Irish side in this opening game and the challenge is to step up and deliver a high quality performance in front of a passionate crowd in Galway."
England Saxons: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Christian Wade, 13 Joel Tomkins, 12 Jordan Turner-Hall, 11 Tom Biggs, 10 George Ford, 9 Richard Wigglesworth, 8 Jordan Crane (capt), 7 Will Fraser, 6 George Kruis, 5 George Robson, 4 Graham Kitchener, 3 Paul Doran-Jones, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Rob Buchanan, 17 Matt Mullan, 18 Shaun Knight, 19 Ed Slater, 20 Jamie Gibson, 21 Joe Simpson, 22 George Lowe, 23 Kyle Eastmond.
Date: Friday, January 25
Kick-off: 19:35
Venue: The Sportsground
Referee: Ian Davies (Wales)
Assistant referees: Sean Brickell (Wales), Chris Williams (Wales)
Television match official: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Assessor: Tim Aplin (Ireland)
Comments
simojukes says...
@TVAddict, as i said, we are blessed with plenty of 4's. there is not doubt that we have lots of good 2nd rows. However, other than Parling and Robson, the only other "international class lineout operators" are Borthwick and Kennedy. Kendo is playing in france, therefore ruling him out. Borthwick offered very little other than his lineout at this level, hence why he lost his place with england previously. Also, the age factor seems to have taken both out of the running.
yes Garvey may be doing alright in the lineout at the moment, but even you had to qualify that statement with "for someone so young". unfortunately at test level that wont cut the mustard.
England need to develop one of these young locks into a good lineout operator. because as i say, we have plenty of good young 2nd rows. to extend your list further, there is Slater, Kruis, Charlie Matthews and even Keiran Low (the later 3 all recently England U20 2nd rows). But none of these lads are lineout kings of the quality shown by Parling and Robson.
Posted 13:40 26th January 2013
expattrussy says...
I may be wrong here, but hasn't Wigglesworth played some time at 10 in the Premiership? A real stretch to say that he could manage it at this level, but maybe they consider him as another for injury cover....?
Posted 18:04 25th January 2013
ArmchairGeneral says...
One way to address the Saxons 10 issue is to say the best two 10s and a future talent join the EPS and our 3rd and 4th 10s go in to Saxons squad. IE get Freddie Burns playing for Saxons rather than training with EPS. (Or who ever is 3rd in Lancasters mind) IE EPS 3rd fly half is England's 5th best 10. Ciprianni?
Posted 09:04 25th January 2013
gnlr says...
Thanks kiwi but that is only available in Eire.
Posted 07:29 25th January 2013
SUFTUM says...
@BMakka8- Steenson is Irish, he is from Belfast.
Posted 20:15 24th January 2013
lawynd says...
@BMakka8 - Steenson's from Ulster, correct on Botica though.
Posted 18:32 24th January 2013
kiwieire02 says...
@ Rugby_Rockstar
Ireland's RTE are covering the game, and they should have on RTE player on their website. It's http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/
Posted 17:55 24th January 2013
simojukes says...
@BMakka8 i am a saints fan, so pretty bad i forgot those two, there is also geraghty at london irish :S although i say his name equally as tongue in cheek as you said lamb and myler! those 3 can hardly find form to keep the 10 shirts at their clubs. but i agree, i did forget them! regarding Steenson, he is irish, last i heard anyway. when he was on top form in the first season in the AP there were whispers of an irish call-up... thats why i didnt consider him
interesting news on botica, i did not know that, in that case we should be getting him in the saxons! again though, it seems like our saxon's 10s will just end up being understudies at club level... apart from the 3 in the EPS (and i may conceed Ford, although he has been a bit off recently) there does seem to be a real dirth of english 10s.
Posted 17:50 24th January 2013
melkdave says...
I really like this team,it has a great mix of power and pace imo,Cant understand why J.Cane is playing tbh,i would have preffered T.Guest myself,and asother posters have pointed out England atm has alot of great potential players like M.Gavey ect that arnt even in the squad.Should be one hell of a cracking game ,loking forward to seing how BOD ect perform,against what is a very good Saxons team,which wil cause them all sorts of problems .
Posted 17:44 24th January 2013
TVaddict says...
@simojukes
I disagree, I feel we have loads of quality second rows and that it's one of our strongest positions (with fullback being our strongest probably). As you said we have Parling and Robson who are both fantastic operators and relatively young, but we also have the likes of Kennedy and even Borthwick who are both international class lineout operators. Plus Garvey is running the lineout at London Irish and doing a pretty good job for someone so young.
So when you take those into account and realise that we're going to have the likes of Lawes, Launchbury, Kitchener and Garvey competing for places for the next 10 years (permitting no injuries) things in the second row department look pretty good!
Posted 17:29 24th January 2013
BMakka8 says...
@simojukes - surely you are forgetting Ryan Lamb and Steven Myler (said with tongue in cheek!). There is also Gareth Steenson (Or is he Welsh?).
I think you will find that Botica is English qualified due to him being schooled in England when his father was playing league.
Posted 16:34 24th January 2013
simojukes says...
replacement 10 will be Wigglesworth. He spent time playing there while at Sale.
Ford is seen as being the man to do a whole 80min job. Also clearly the management feel that no other 10 is up to the job. In fairness, the only other ENGLISH 10 in the premiership (who isnt retired or Andy Goode) is Cipriani, unless i am missing someone glaringly obvious. As for Botica, he is a Kiwi, who until this season was in france, therefore he does not qualify on residency. the lack of english 10's in the premiership is a worry for england, christ, the next best option behind Cirpriani is probably Rory Clegg, on loan at Leeds...
Regarding Attwood, i must admit that i have not seen much of him recently, so i will refrain from commenting too much on it. I think that Robson, and possibly even kitchener to a certain extent, are preferred because of their lineout ability. Keep in mind that if something happens to parling he can only be replaced from the EPS, therefore someone like Robson (who is deemed a like for like replacement) would be likely to rocket into the test XV. The english game is blessed with a lot of 4's (deemed to be the athletic enforcer role) but we are thin on the ground when it comes to 5's (the lineout guru's.)
SA are the nation who seem to understand 2nd row pairings the best, and their past paring of Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha is what all good 2nd row partnerships should be based on.
So so sum up (i know i said i wouldnt comment too much :S) we have plenty of Bakkies Botha's, but we lack Matfields beyond Parling and Robson.
Posted 16:11 24th January 2013
Warrior7 says...
@ArmchairGeneral - Mullan has two crimes, one that he plays for Worcester and the other is that he is injured for about 1-3 months every season, so when he hits form he gets injured. Real shame and he looks to be moving on at the end of this season
Posted 16:02 24th January 2013
BMakka8 says...
@ The editor - It did come through, but it is still the edition rounding up the Autumn Internationals!
The editor says.... We've fixed the error. You are subscribed to the "plain text" version, which had a glitch. Please drop us an email here: http://www.planetrugby.com/contact-us/0,26101,,00.html and we will send you the updated "Html" version. This will be sorted out for next week's version. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Posted 15:25 24th January 2013
BMakka8 says...
@ Armchair General - yes, I had ovelooked that
@Frooschman - I agree Crane isn't as good as he once promised, and his injury set him back a fair bit. I think that his biggest problem is that he isnt dynamic enough to make good ground across the gain line. He also has very good hands, but doesn't make the most of them, rarely off loading.
On a completely different note, my last two copies of "The Crooked Feed" have been the same as the December edition - anyone else having the same problem?!
The editor says.... @BMakka8 - Did today's Crooked Feed come through? Thanks.
Posted 14:33 24th January 2013
lawynd says...
@Frooschman - he's not been the same since he was out long-term with a serious injury. Not sure why but he's turned into a plodder, without even the redeeming feature of an offload or the ability to make yards in the tackle. I'd love it if he could rediscover his previous form but it doesn't look likely.
Posted 14:31 24th January 2013
ArmchairGeneral says...
Suprised to see no comments on Cranes captaincy. I knew Cockers rated him as a captain but didn't think it went further. Not many alternatives in the 15 but i would have chosen Robson. A fall from grace for Dowson?? He'd be in it and captain for me. And Mullans keeps slipping down the pecking order also???
Posted 14:01 24th January 2013
gnlr says...
Hey someone says the match is on ESPN is that correct ?
Posted 13:37 24th January 2013
APV1 says...
It's a good looking team and some real future stars in the making. I must admit to being a little concerned by their youth, considering the likes of BOD are in the Wolfhounds...
I especially like Biggs and Wade on the wings. If those in the EPS don't watch out, these two will usurp the current incumbents.
As for a back-up 10, I think we are short. If we brought in Cips, for example, who would we leave out?
It's a real shame that Botica hasn't made his mind up and that Heathcote went North. Realistically we have Farrell, Burns and Ford, unless Flood ups his game and becomes Peter Pan, or Cipriani plays himself into form and onto the back page of the papers, not the front (in fairness, he's doing pretty well at this so far).
I too am a fan of Attwood - you may have noticed - and I would like to see him fighting Lawes, Launch and Parling for a place in the EPS and matchday squad. But, as has been pointed out, he doesn't get enough starts for Bath yet. I don't know why we insist on Hoops or D-Day in front of him, as I think he and Caldwell should be our starting 2Rs.
Should be a cracking match, but as I don't have ESPN, I'll have to try to get it online. And I'm out at a function, so maybe a bit of sneaky-smartphone-under-the-table-action might be the answer.
Posted 13:25 24th January 2013
ArmchairGeneral says...
@sirtidy and Bmakka: Wigglesworth can move to 10 if Ford is injured.
Posted 12:52 24th January 2013