Re: Schoey's England 17 : Wed Oct 15, 2014 4:11 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

Whitehead has missed 5X the number of tackles that Farrell has, and Farrell makes more clean breaks than either Whitehead or Ferres.
Whitehead is in the top 10 for tackles missed, can we really afford to have someone so poor defensively playing against Aus or NZ?
Being bigger doesn't mean being better.

Farrell is a brilliant club player but not big enough at international. How many world class players of his size can you remember? We are not going to win the games by trying not to lose them.

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Thu Oct 16, 2014 1:37 pm  

I'd have Ferres in ahead of Joel Tomkins based upon the great showing he made at last year's world cup and Shenton over Sarginson but otherwise Schofield's 17 looks pretty good.

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:00 am  

Tomkins' defence in the line worries me less than his defence at fullback. DCE and Cronk are deadly accurate with both high and cross-field kicks, neither of which Tomkins deals with particularly well.

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Fri Oct 17, 2014 7:21 am  

Both Cronk and Cherry-Evans seem to have so much time when kicking it seems putting pressure on the kicker in the NRL isn't such a high priority. Perhaps if we could exert some pressure on either of these two we might blunt their effectiveness

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Fri Oct 17, 2014 10:21 am  

G1 wrote:

I'd have Ferres in ahead of Joel Tomkins based upon the great showing he made at last year's world cup and Shenton over Sarginson but otherwise Schofield's 17 looks pretty good.

Yep. Agree with that.

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Fri Oct 17, 2014 10:04 pm  

Sal Paradise wrote:

Both Cronk and Cherry-Evans seem to have so much time when kicking it seems putting pressure on the kicker in the NRL isn't such a high priority. Perhaps if we could exert some pressure on either of these two we might blunt their effectiveness

Yep agree with that. I think kick pressure is something we do more of over here. Whether we'll have the energy to do it is another matter, but I think it could be a way of giving ourselves a good chance of beating them.

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Sat Oct 18, 2014 6:04 am  

I think we will struggle defending simple second man plays out wide and I think we will suffer from a lack of creativity/control in the halves. Whether he plays Tomkins or Smith alongside Widdop neither give you real creativity. Watkins needs to up his game otherwise we will have no way of breaking Australia/NZ down out wide.

I am looking forward to seeing if England can build on what was a pretty positive WC

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Sun Oct 19, 2014 11:07 pm  

Widdopp will offer control down the left and has an OK kicking game. The issue with our passing out wide is creating the space. There's no point in getting the ball to Watkins if every time he gets it he's face to face with Inglis.

Pressuring DCE/Cronk when they kick is one thing, but the chances of actually getting to them without giving away penalties are slim.

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:16 pm  

[quote="BrisbaneRhino"]Widdopp will offer control down the left and has an OK kicking game. The issue with our passing out wide is creating the space. There's no point in getting the ball to Watkins if every time he gets it he's face to face with Inglis.

[quote]

I think Watkins needs to run some different angles to be honest. Expecting to get the ball with outside space is just fantasy unless he mixes things up a bit. Needs to offer a threat up the middle as well as on the outside.
However, McNamara has used him very well close to the line where he can be unplayable. If we can get some field position and utilise Tomkins on the right linking with Watkins then the two of them can cause serious problems for anyone.

Re: Schoey's England 17 : Mon Oct 20, 2014 10:10 pm  

DHM wrote:

I think Watkins needs to run some different angles to be honest. Expecting to get the ball with outside space is just fantasy unless he mixes things up a bit. Needs to offer a threat up the middle as well as on the outside.

Yep. It's something Senior was expert at. Changing his line at the last minute.