England rugby squad announced 13th Jan - who's in/out?

[irocfan]

well as it says EJ announces his 1st England squad tomorrow - who's in out? And once named... what do you think?

[timlongs]

Telegraph has already leaked the squad.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/intern...

[irocfan]

seriously???? I thought all this leaking would have stopped with a new regime in place

[timlongs]

Apparently not.

Shame for Cipriani and a quite a few injuries have changed a few selections I'd imagine. Remember EJ was only allowed to make 11 changes to the EPS so we might see bigger changes come the summer.

[irocfan]

I'll admit that I was hoping for Cips - however I think that Austin Healey nailed it when he said that a 10 who is on a high 60s kick-success rate is not going to get picked and that appears to be the in Cip's armoury. TBH Fazlet strikes me as being a and is slow of thought and leg - that being said he does seem to nail his kicks which is 'money in the bank' and enables you to build up a lead/chip away at an opponent's lead. I think that GF is the fortunate one since he does seem to be in poor form - though as the saying goes "poor form is temporary, class permanent." Surprised he's only going with 2 10s but I guess that's covered by my other complaint next. I'm not happy to see Izno Goode included still - but hey playing for a team doing well will get you noticed.

[Joey Ramone]

Ford was excellent against Toulon. Simple reason. His forwards did their job, and did it well. His bad games come when his pack goes backwards. Farrell would be no different Or Cipriani.

[Challo]

It will be interesting to see who gets the nod as Skipper. It shouldn't be Robshaw as he is not good enough as a player, but who else? Hartley? Could they risk the fact he constantly misses games a season due to being banned?

[dom9]

Interesting squad and good to see some fresh blood.

Feel bad for Cips though. There does seem to be 'a place' for him in the squad.

Roll on the 6 Nations - could be a very close tournament indeed!

[LivingTheDream]

That telegraph leak presumably wasn't accurate as they are now reporting breaking news that Joe Simpson isn't in the squad.

[LivingTheDream]

No Tom Youngs though!!



Forwards

Josh Beaumont (Sale Sharks)

Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)

Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs)

Jack Clifford (Harlequins)

Jamie George (Saracens)

Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)

James Haskell (Wasps)

Paul Hill (Northampton Saints)

Maro Itoje (Saracens)

George Kruis (Saracens)

Matt Kvesic (Gloucester Rugby) *injury replacement for Dave Ewers (Exeter Chiefs)

Joe Launchbury (Wasps)

Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)

Joe Marler (Harlequins)

Matt Mullan (Wasps)

Chris Robshaw (Harlequins)

Henry Thomas (Bath Rugby) *injury replacement for Kieran Brookes (Northampton Saints)

Billy Vunipola (Saracens)

Mako Vunipola (Saracens)

Backs

Chris Ashton (Saracens)

Mike Brown (Harlequins)

Danny Care (Harlequins)

Elliot Daly (Wasps)

Ollie Devoto (Bath Rugby) *injury replacement for Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers)

Owen Farrell (Saracens)

George Ford (Bath Rugby)

Alex Goode (Saracens)

Sam Hill (Exeter Chiefs) *injury replacement for Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)

Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby)

Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs)

Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby)

Marland Yarde (Harlequins)

Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)

[dom9]

http://www.englandrugby.com/news/seven-uncapped-pl...

[Joey Ramone]

I'm surprised Kvesic didn't make it on his own merits. I thought his performance against for Glos against Quins a few weeks ago was phenomenal*

• Phenomenal by England standards. Run of the mill in the SH. But he still blew Clifford off the park.

[Challo]

LivingTheDream said:

No Tom Youngs though!!

I think Eddie want's someone that can actually hook in the scrum.

[rubes78]

Challo said:

I think Eddie want's someone that can actually hook in the scrum.

This, plus someone who can maintain accuracy in the lineout.
Lot of discussion on fan pages on the book of face questioning the decision based on his Premiership stats this season, but time and time again Hartley has gone off when our lineout has been ascendancy only for Youngs to come on and it falls apart. He's great around the park, but his basic skills as a Hooker aren't up to test standard.

[irocfan]

I suspect that Robshaw must be having a quiet chuckle to himself that Woods was canvassing for his job as captain and doesn't even make the squad. It's going to be an interesting few weeks before the 6N (potential injuries) and then the 6N itself

[Matt172]

Ashton's out of the six nations then, just been banned for 10 weeks

[irocfan]

yup - you'd have thought that having worked so hard to get back he'd be a little more careful... or was it just bad luck?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35362589

[DocJock]

Anyone have any idea of the standard of proof required in these tribunals?

If he is guilty of gouging then he should count himself lucky to get only ten weeks.

[London424]

a 10 week ban for that is a joke!

How on earth can that be deemed ban worthy?

There's a video in here, forward to about the 2 min mark.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/intern...

[DocJock]

That's why I asked about standard if proof.

I didn't watch the match. Did the Ulster players complain about eye contact at the time?

The video looks utterly inconclusive.