My England Captain 2016

There has been lots of pundits saying who should or shouldn’t be England Captain so I thought I’d give you my answer. Eddie Jones has said that the most important thing to be chosen is that you must be a guaranteed starter and play every game, injuries permitting.

So I think it is incredibly simple, Chris Robshaw should stay as captain. Let me explain why by discussing two things, “Why Chris Robshaw” and “if not Robshaw  who else”. Let’s start with the second of those first. So who are the other contenders?

Mike Brown

Going on the guaranteed starter base’s I think that there is only one guaranteed starter for England at the minute, Mike Brown, and some pundits are even questioning him to start. In my book because Mike Brown is the only guaranteed starter that would mean Eddie Jones he should be Captain. But let me ask you a question. “Would you have Mike Brown as your England Captain?” I didn’t think so and me neither. He may be a leader by example and a inspiration to watch play but their is a reason he is known as “Mr Angry” on the pitch which means he is not right for the armband. Yes maybe he would chill out on the pitch if he was given the armband, but do you really want him to do that, I want and like that angry side of him, it’s what I think gives him the edge. Brown will always be my Full back for club and country but sorry Mike I don’t want you to lose that angry side so you don’t fit the captains role.

Dylan Hartley

There has been a lot talk that Hartley is going to be given the Captains armband this week. For me this a monumental error, if Hartley is given the armband then I would have lost all respect for Jones before he has even played a game. I won’t be able to trust Jones to do the right thing because he wouldn’t have started with a huge mistake.

Jones said that everyone has a clean slate from when he started which is great but you can not over look their pasts as if they weren’t ever there. Hartley have over a years worth of suspensions in his career and he is only 28 years old. He has had three great honours taken away from him because of his discipline and behavior is so bad. He was removed from the Lions squad to tour Australia, not considered for the home World Cup and had the Saints captaincy all taken off him because of his discipline and the way you deal with that is make him Captain. No, no, no. What message does this give to every kid at grass roots growing up wanting to play for England. It gives the message that if you don’t play by the rules and treat the game/players/refs with respect, then you have a shot at being England Captain. I don’t care if he may be right for the role, his discipline trumps that. All of that is said with the assumption that he will be a guaranteed starter which at the moment his far from. At the moment I would start Tom Youngs at Hooker. Rant over.

Mario Itoje

I am huge fan of Itoje and think that he is a future England captain, just not yet. He isn’t currently an England starter in my estimate and even though he may become that over the next few years he still has to much to learn. I would like him to gain more experience and be around the England camp to understand the way it works and get stuck into the international set up before being given the armband. Maybe after Japan 2019.

Joe Launchbury

I think Joe is a contender. He needs to cement his place and become a guaranteed starter with his work ethic and power play being used as a weapon for England. There are rumors that a lot of opposing players across Europe really don’t like playing against him. He has the experience and gaining more day by day, he has the skills and he has the bright future without being to young to captain. The thing is that I never see him take charge, he always seems quite and just one of the team not being a leader. He never takes in huddles or at the end of the game. He also seems to have become a bit injury prone over the past year so that could be an issue. I think that the best he can hope for is vice captain but is definitely worth a consideration.

Ben Youngs

Youngs has been in terrific form for the past year and seems to be getting better as the months pass. He is clearly a leader for Tigers and almost seems to run both the backs and the forwards. He controls the game and has a eye for open space that he can fly through and he has game changing ability. All this shows he is a man that can lead through example. The way he has up’d his game over the last year shows his hunger and gives inspiration to others and grass roots kids because he was already a England international with  over 30 caps before 2015 so could have just settle with that. But no himself back up to the level need to be the best scrum half in the country.

He will be pushed by Care and Simpson for his place but I think the 9 shirt is his to lose and he is close to being a guaranteed starter. I think that the scrum half is a good position to be a captain from, as you see both sides of the game and call the shots between the back and forwards. With the way that his commands at Leicester Tigers you can certainly see him being England captain. Youngs is the only one that I think is right to replace Robshaw.

Chris Robshaw

Now onto “why Robshaw”. Ok so I will address the World Cup first. Yes he did make one huge mistake against Wales. At the time of the kick for the corner, I was sat in my lounge on my own and shouted at the screen “big call, big call, come lads drive it over”, at the time I was 100% behind the decision. I wanted to beat Wales, I wasn’t interested in a draw. In hind sight both him and I were wrong, in hind sight he should of gone for the posts, even I admit that. But we are all human, aren’t we, mistakes happen, so no need to grill him to death about it.

Robshaw has been knocked down by the whole country and his dog, but at Quins he has quietly got back to business, got back to doing what he does best. Robshaw is the best flanker in the country, yes play him at Blindside, his work rate and tackles are always higher than anyone else. He can carry and he is always encouraging and organizing the team, in particular the defence when we are under the cosh. An England captain needs to be able to take the hits, stand up take it, admit your mistake and get back to work, doing everything possible to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Robshaw does all of this.

Is he a guaranteed starter? I hear you say, What do you think? Who would you have instead, a flanker has to do a lot of the unseen work and he does. If you look back over all the games since the World Cup and tell me there is an English flanker that has been better than him then I’ll listen but you’ve never convince me that Fraser, Haskell, Wood, O’Connor, Gibson, Kvesic and even Wallace or Clifford have been better than Robshaw. If you think they have been then we must not have been watching different games. Robshaw and Youngs are the only ones that I think could probably join Brown on the guaranteed starters list so are the only contenders

Robshaw to retain the captains armband.

Did we learn anything in the RWC England Warms ups

Now that England have finished their warm up games for the Rugby World Cup and there is only 5 days to go till the Rugby World Cup kicks off it is time to reflect on the Englands Warms Up games and their are lots of talking points. So what do we think differently now that we didn’t a month ago.

The first thing for is that even though I still have belief that we can win the Webb Ellis trophy, I use to never also have doubt. The performance against France in Paris was so poor by our first team that it has brought that element of doubt in. We showed that when we needed to in the last 10 minutes, we had another gear to go up and I still feel we could have gone another gear even further we could have gone up.

Overall throughout the three games what we have learnt is that we have got a very good squad capable of going very deep in the competition. Yes I know we already knew didn’t we. But the added extra is we now know the style that we are going to be playing and that the whole squad is capable of playing the new style. Before I wasn’t sure which way were going to play. But we have found a way to play power upfront, direct, territory games as well as giving the backs creative freedom and doing all of this while having a good defence.

Personally I feel that there is a long way to go defensively. We are a very good defensive side and with the back row, Barritt and Burgess performing at the highest standard in defence we are strong but I do think there are cracks. The wings weren’t really tested in the warms ups because they were an area of weakness in the Six Nations and I have not seen anything that has suggested that that area is fixed. Brown is probably the best last ditch defender in the game but none of this is the problem. The problem is earlier in the play when we let teams get into those positions. It is the first line of defence that isn’t great. I have noticed holes in the lines where opposing players are finding. Our backs are often drawn into the middle of the pitch to much leaving gaps out wide. The front 5 I think need to work harder on them being the first line of defence and stop the on-slaught before it even happens and where are the massive hits from Lawes I didn’t see him even do a half big hit. I want them and the world to feel them. These hits are important not just for the fans but for the confidence and the mental effect it can have on both teams.

The next thing we learnt was that the lineout might and I mean might be coming together. Against France is was atrocious both times but against Ireland even though it was far from perfect we did what we had to to win it and it worked. There has never been any doubt with Tom Youngs in the loose and he was great against Ireland but the set piece is what he is selected to do and that is much improved and I hope it stays that way.

Funnily one thing that I think we have come more to expect than learn this time round and that is when it comes to the World the French know how to step it up and turn up with affect no matter how bad they have been for the years in between. Ireland have cracks appearing after looking brilliant over last two years so I think Pool D is going to be more interesting now.

The last big thing that I feel we have finally got is a decided 1st XV with no questions asked. Hmmm I hear you say. What is that XV? and I beat you’ll disagree. Well you’ll have to wait and see who I select next week as my team to start the World Cup.

England put the dream back on the cards

England beat Ireland with a much more comprehensive performance. A performance that can once again make us believe that the dream is possible. We were a team that looked good and we did everything much much better. Yes the scrum still needs work but the lineout was back to being a strength and the penalty count was low.

The win was the most important thing but they also built confidence and we were lucky that the performance just happened to come with it. This whole game has given me that belief that we are again capable of going very deep in the World especially as Ireland are potential Semi Final opponents. I was very pleased overall and everything was so much better but we will still need to up it again for the World Cup as we are in the toughest Pool in the history of the competition.

We mixed our traditional style of being direct and territorial and our new style of creative backs and an offloading game. This worked really well and showed that we can play both styles well together. The offloading game still needs to be cleaned up but, hey, I am feeling good about the way the team is going, which seemed a far cry two weeks ago.

England started very positively and put a lot of early pressure on the Irish defensive before May bosched his way through Bowe for a third minute try in the corner. Ford then converted from the touchline to give England a 7-0 lead and great opening 5 minutes.

May then gave Ireland their first kick at goal because he took Sexton out in the air. Sexton duly converted the kick, just with the ball bouncing off the bar. This game started on a high tempo and it was great to see England with a much better start than two weeks ago.

England then continue to take control and play the direct and territory game. Breaking gain line after gain line which lead to a cross field kick by Ford and Watson out jumping Zebo to score England’s 2nd try. Ford couldn’t add the extras though.

I loved and had to rewind the TV when Marler broke the line and had a short run. I was very impressed with our opening 20 minutes. We were evening winning out line out, just. The arm wrestle in the middle half of the pitch then started. The end of the half was tight and it showed that one score for Ireland could change the whole dynamics of the game. However England stayed strong and we went into the break 12-3 up.

The first points of the 2nd half was when Ford copied Sexton by getting a penalty over after bouncing off the bar. This is when Ireland started to flex their muscles and showed us why they are third in the world. Sexton got three points back before O’Connell scored with a close range drive and Sexton again kicked between the uprights.

Morgan, Marler, both Youngs brothers, Ford and Barritt were all sub off with in a few minutes off each other. They should all be pleased with their performance with Morgan and the Youngs brothers in particular strengthening their cases for starting places against Fiji in 2 weeks. The second half was much slower and because the first half was played at such a high pace a lot of players were picking up cramp which I’ll be honest should really be a worry this close to the World Cup.

Wigglesworth looked lively when he came on so it could look like with have 3 top class scrum half’s for the World Cup. England did miss a couple of clear opportunities with numbers on the outside and poor decision making cost them more tries. Farrell continued his high international kicking success rate with two penalties that gives England a 8 point cushion being 21-13. Just before the end Burgess managed to squeeze in what is become a trademark of his by smashing Madigan with a big hit.

Wood was given man of the match and I think that is fair even though it could have been given to half a dozen players. I thought Robshaw might have snuck it over Wood in the forwards but then again I am bias. However overall I probably would have given it to May because of the devastating affect he had out wide.

This performance has really lifted me and my belief in what this team can achieve in the next two months. This is a belief that I have had for a couple of years now and the only time it worried me and that was in Paris. So that will be in the back of my mind but now England can grow and fingers cross progress through the stages.