Squads announced

[Browner]

England Squads announced, who's in the wrong squad in your opinion ?
Forwards
Dave Attwood (Bath Rugby)
Calum Clark (Northampton Saints)
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
Alex Corbisiero (Northampton Saints)
Nick Easter (Harlequins)
Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
James Haskell (Wasps)
Graham Kitchener (Leicester Tigers)
George Kruis (Saracens)
Joe Marler (Harlequins)
Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers)
Chris Robshaw (Harlequins, captain)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens)
Billy Vunipola (Saracens)
David Wilson (Bath Rugby)
Tom Wood (Northampton Saints)
Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
Backs
Brad Barritt (Saracens)
Mike Brown (Harlequins)
Luther Burrell (Northampton Saints)
Danny Care (Harlequins)
Danny Cipriani (Sale Sharks)
Kyle Eastmond (Bath Rugby)
Owen Farrell (Saracens)
George Ford (Bath Rugby)
Alex Goode (Saracens)
Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby)
Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby)
Stephen Myler (Northampton Saints)
Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs)
Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester Rugby)
Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby)
Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)


[h=3]England Saxons squad[/h]Forwards
Kieran Brookes (Newcastle Falcons)
Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers)
Christian Day (Northampton Saints)
Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs)
Dave Ewers (Exeter Chiefs)
Matt Garvey (Bath Rugby)
Ross Harrison (Sale Sharks)
Maro Itoje (Saracens)
Matt Kvesic (Gloucester Rugby)
Matt Mullan (Wasps)
Henry Thomas (Bath Rugby)
Thomas Waldrom (Exeter Chiefs)
Alex Waller (Northampton Saints)
Rob Webber (Bath Rugby)
Backs
Chris Ashton (Saracens)
Sam Burgess (Bath Rugby)
Elliot Daly (Wasps)
Ollie Devoto (Bath Rugby)
Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints, captain)
Chris Pennell (Worcester Warriors)
Joe Simpson (Wasps)
Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)
Marland Yarde (Harlequins)
Christian Wade (Wasps)
????

 

[Daftmedic]

Hartley?
really?

 

[winchesterref]

Billy 12T is in the wrong squad!!

 

[TheBFG]

36, shouldn't be there, end of!

 

[Dickie E]

I hope Burgess stays out of England squad

 

[crossref]

I hope Burgess stays out of England squad

so do i

 

[TheBFG]

why? If he's good enough, he should play. Stefan Armitage should be there too, stuff the "overseas" thing, it's a world cup year, got to have our best 15 on the pitch simples!

 

[crossref]

well for Burgess I am not convinced he is good enough (at this particualr sport) But hopeful I will be proved wrong. No problem with him being eligible.

Armitage is very tricky. Short term we'd be best off picking him, but long term the example of NZ would suggest that a policy of keeping your players under your control in Englad is a better way to build a team long term. Relaxing the policy is not without consequences, I think that if we pick him certainly we'd see more english players moving abroad.

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

I hope Burgess stays out of England squad

I'll be you do.

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

Webber

 

[SimonSmith]

Scotland on the other hand have selected a New Zealander who played for the NZ U20s in the Junior WC.

He's been in Scotland for about a minute. I voiced my disappointment with this selection on Facebook; my disappointment was not well received. (As a side note, the question of "all the other countries do it - look at NZ" was raised. Ian's article was most handy in rebutting those arguments)

 

[didds]

M. Vunipola. Why? He plays prop like a #8.

Ditto his brother. 'Though he plays #8 like a prop.

didds

 

[Dixie]

Armitage is very tricky. Short term we'd be best off picking him, but long term the example of NZ would suggest that a policy of keeping your players under your control in Englad is a better way to build a team long term. Relaxing the policy is not without consequences, I think that if we pick him certainly we'd see more english players moving abroad.

Interesting to use the NZ approach as evidence that things are better if you keep your national squad local. I'm not aware that NZ can point to a period when they adopted a different policy and it all went tits up, to be improved when they bought it back in house - though Ian will no doubt correct me. I'd play Steffon as the exception, letting it be known that it was just that. His game has improved as a result of being abroad, so having others play away may not be such a disaster as people think.

jack Nowell is in the wrong squad, as is Christian Wade. Swap 'em.

 

[Dickie E]

Do England and Saxons play each other?

 

[TheBFG]

No! can you imagine having to try and ref that :swet:

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

Do England and Saxons play each other?

There used to be Probables v Possibles selection games up to the late Seventies (maybe into the Eighties). I recall in Bill Beaumont's autobiography his tale of driving down to the hotel on Friday night before his Possibles debut in 1974/5 ish. Because they were not in the Probable squad - no tracksuit (horrendous purple nylon jobs) for you old boy - WBB and John Pullin were out in the hotel carpark on Friday night in their jeans rehersing the lineout moves for the next day.

This was of course the era when the England Selectors (made up of Divisional representatives) would select the team (eg second row Ralston, Utley, Beaumont etc) on the premise of "I say - isn't it about time our chap had a go?"

Cue the careers of Jan Webster and Mike Lampkowski etc etc etc

 

[OB..]

There used to be Probables v Possibles selection games up to the late Seventies (maybe into the Eighties).

I found one from 1981 in the Times archives.

 

[Browner]

Do England and Saxons play each other?

Imagine if the Saxons won !!

Do any nations have 'internal' fixtures of such similarity?

 

[winchesterref]

NZ did in recent times I believe? As did Wales, maybe last year.

 

[BikingBud]

Seems like a good idea and would be great to watch but imagine the niggle, and the injuries.

There have been a few great match ups recently but in individual positions, such as back row, Quins v Wasps where Haskell outplayed Robshaw and Easter.