Re: Sundays team to face France. : Tue Nov 14, 2017 12:22 am  

moto748 wrote:

Agree with you about the team, though. I thought McM showed up well against France. That's not saying much, admittedly, but still...

I can't imagine Bennett would go with only one dummy-half, though. Mind you, her's been playing Sam Thaiday there!

I don't think he'll go with anything like my line-up... I think Roby can still handle big mins, with Lockers or someone else spelling for the odd 15 mins...

Re: Sundays team to face France. : Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:03 am  

Last Son of Wigan wrote:

For the next game I'd go:
Lockers (Can spell from the bench. He can cover 6/7 and anywhere in the pack)

I think it has been noticeable how the team has suffered when Lockers has gone off. Bennett will be looking for as close to 80 minutes from him as possible.

Re: Sundays team to face France. : Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:09 am  

Aboveusonlypie wrote:

I think it has been noticeable how the team has suffered when Lockers has gone off. Bennett will be looking for as close to 80 minutes from him as possible.

I think in the three games England have played so far in this years World Cup they have only scored one try with O'Loughlin off the field.
I remember being at an end of season dinner and Ryan Hoffman was on our table. He said O'Loughlin would walk into any Australian team.

Re: Sundays team to face France. : Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:10 am  

moto748 wrote:

Agree with you about the team, though. I thought McM showed up well against France. That's not saying much, admittedly, but still...

I can't imagine Bennett would go with only one dummy-half, though. Mind you, her's been playing Sam Thaiday there!

Can't agree with you about McMeeken, what do you think he did well? For me he was noticeably poor in an otherwise dominant side. He seemed to get driven back every time he got the ball, and made a big error near the try line. I would have had him on the bench before that game, but I think he's played his way out of contention. Unusual but I'd use Hill off the bench as a back rower to add some size to our pack and help us control the ruck more, which I think was a big problem v Australia. I'd go:

1. Widdop
2. McGillvarey
3. Watkins
4. Percival
5. Hall
6. Brown
7. Gale
8. Graham
9. Roby
10. Walmsley
11. S.Burgess
12. Whitehead
13. O'Loughlin

14. T.Burgess
15. Hill (in the back row)
16. Hodgson
17. Taylor

Re: Sundays team to face France. : Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:33 am  

Off topic but Leuluai has been dropped from NZ’s team for their QF.

Re: Sundays team to face France. : Tue Nov 14, 2017 1:57 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

I think in the three games England have played so far in this years World Cup they have only scored one try with O'Loughlin off the field.
I remember being at an end of season dinner and Ryan Hoffman was on our table. He said O'Loughlin would walk into any Australian team.

...and I think he is finally starting to get the credit for the great player that he is. The Aussies clearly rate him, and I think Bennett does too. It would have been so easy to give Burgess or Graham the captaincy, and to be fair either of them would have been just fine, but for me Lockers is the stand out player in this England team.

Re: Sundays team to face France. : Tue Nov 14, 2017 1:59 pm  

Wigg'n wrote:

Off topic but Leuluai has been dropped from NZ’s team for their QF.

He picked up an injury in the first half against Tonga, but the lad who replaced him was so much more effective anyway, that it isn't a surprise.