USA v England, Sat 19/07. 8.00pm Rugbypass

[Which Tyler]

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Northmore went off with an HIA and didn't return. He didn't look like he knew what was going on afterwards either. I don't think he or Dan will be available next week.

I'd pick:

1. Rodd
2. Langdon
3. AOF (overplayed this season, but at this point...)
4. Ewels
5. Coles
6. Hill
7. Pepper
8. Willis

09. JvP
10. Ford (c)
11. Muir
12. SAtkinson
13. Ojomoh
14. Murley
15. Steward

16. Tuipulotu*, 17. Baxter, 18. Heyes, 19, CCS, 20. BCurry
21. Randall, 22. CAtkinson 23. Beard/Roebuck



* Not because he's next cab off the rank, but because any other option would have spent the last 4 weeks on a beach and just starting to think about ore-season in a couple of weeks time. KP is match fit and played as recently as Wednesday.

[Slater582]

Would also be nice to tie Tuipulotu as he's such an obvious talent and Wales remain interested.

I assume they still took Feyi-Waboso on tour to play in this fixture.

[Stom]

If IFW is fit, he surely comes in, no?

[SixAndAHalf]

Hard to know how Borthwick goes with this one. Wouldn’t surprise me to see him pick a fairly strong side. But I hope he uses it to rest some of the established players who have played the last two tests and goes for something like this:

1. Baxter
2. Langdon
3. Fasogbon
4. Ewels
5. Clark
6. Hill
7. Pepper
8. CCS

9. JvP
10. Ford (is there anyone else?!)
11. Murphy
12. Ojomoh
13. Beard
14. iFW
15. Carpenter

KP (love that shout); AOF; Rodd; Isiekwe; BCurry; Willis; Randall; Muir

[Oakboy]

Hard to know how Borthwick goes with this one. Wouldn’t surprise me to see him pick a fairly strong side. But I hope he uses it to rest some of the established players who have played the last two tests and goes for something like this:

1. Baxter
2. Langdon
3. Fasogbon
4. Ewels
5. Clark
6. Hill
7. Pepper
8. CCS

9. JvP
10. Ford (is there anyone else?!)
11. Murphy
12. Ojomoh
13. Beard
14. iFW
15. Carpenter

KP (love that shout); AOF; Rodd; Isiekwe; BCurry; Willis; Randall; Muir

That's the back row to look at.

[Which Tyler]

I assume they still took Feyi-Waboso on tour to play in this fixture.

TBH, I thought he was banned until pre-season.
If fit, then yeah, probably. I was mostly trying to give all of Muir, Roebuck and Surely decent game time over the 3 matches

1. Baxter
2. Langdon
3. Fasogbon
4. Ewels
5. Clark
6. Hill
7. Pepper
8. CCS

9. JvP
10. Ford (is there anyone else?!)
11. Murphy
12. Ojomoh
13. Beard
14. iFW
15. Carpenter

KP (love that shout); AOF; Rodd; Isiekwe; BCurry; Willis; Randall; Muir

Obviously also a couple I'd straight up forgotten were on tour.
Clark and Carpenter should absolutely start.
CCS at 8 is a great call - I was more thinking Hill ahead of him at 6, and for the love of your choice of god, don't start him at lock!

[Stom]

Yeah, I can get behind that.

Baxter
Langdon
Fasogban
Clark
Coles
Hill
Pepper
CCS
JvP
Ford
Murley
Atkinson
Ojomah
IFW
Carpenter

KP, AOF, Rodd, Ewels, BCuzza, Willis, Randall, Beard/Muir/Roebuck.

Only question I have is over the 23 shirt. Where do we sacrifice cover?

[R3dders]

Rodd
Langdon
Aof
Clark
Ccs
Hill
Pepper
Dommers

Randall
Atkinson
Murley
Northmore
Ojomoh
Roebuck
Carpenter

Dan
Baxter
Davison
Coles
Curry
JVP
Beard
Muir

[Puja]

Let's be honest - we will learn absolutely nothing from this game. The USA are not at a level where they will provide a challenge to any sensible side that we can select and any starring performances will mean next to nothing in the context of our future competitive matches.

The question then remains how do we intend to get value out of the fixture? I can see three options - 1) pick the strongest side and use it as an opposed training session to encourage cohesion between pairings like Spencer/Ford, SAtkinson/Northmore, which might be used in future in competitive games, 2) pick the unplayed players and give a reward to those who have valiantly held tackle bags for 6 weeks, 3) Pick as many dual-qualified players as we can to annoy the Celts.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

I didn’t realise the USA have just lost to Spain at home!

[fivepointer]

This was always seen as a development fixture tacked on after the Argentinian tests. I'd treat it like that and select accordingly.

Might be useful to keep one or two combinations together but i'd be inclined to mostly give those who havent featured much or at all so far a run out. certainly be interested in seeing Hill and Pepper in the back row, Ojomoh in the centre and Carpenter at FB.

[FKAS]

Let's be honest - we will learn absolutely nothing from this game. The USA are not at a level where they will provide a challenge to any sensible side that we can select and any starring performances will mean next to nothing in the context of our future competitive matches.

The question then remains how do we intend to get value out of the fixture? I can see three options - 1) pick the strongest side and use it as an opposed training session to encourage cohesion between pairings like Spencer/Ford, SAtkinson/Northmore, which might be used in future in competitive games, 2) pick the unplayed players and give a reward to those who have valiantly held tackle bags for 6 weeks, 3) Pick as many dual-qualified players as we can to annoy the Celts.

Puja

Mixture of two and three for me. Heavy rotation so those who haven't played get a chance though with four THs on tour that won't work quite so well. I'd leave a couple in for the purpose of cohesion. Like maybe the props and the centres if Northmore is ok. Ensuring as many are capped as possible is probably a good idea given how poachy we know our neighbours can be.

[Scrumhead]

Apart from Tuipolotu who isn’t currently with the squad and not guaranteed a call-up, who else is dual-qualified?

IIRC, the uncapped players with the squad are: Fasogbon, Clark, C. Atkinson, Ojomoh, Beard and Carpenter. AFAIK, none of them are dual qualified. Shame we didn’t take Donoghue.

7 uncapped players in a 23 is a significant number. Particularly given there are several players in our last couple of match day squads with <5 caps. However, without wanting to be disrespectful to the USA, it’s probably at a similar level or possibly lower to the recent A games against Australia and Ireland.

In the spirit of wanting to give everyone a game and give those with the least game time some more time on the field, my lineup would be:

1. Rodd
2. Langdon
3. Opoku-Fordjour
4. Isiekwe
5. Clark*
6. Hill
7. Pepper
8. Cunningham-South
9. van Poortvliet
10. Ford (c)
11. Murley
12. S. Atkinson
13. Ojomoh*
14. Feyi-Waboso
15. Carpenter*

16. TBC 17. Davison 18. Fasogbon* 19. Coles 20. Dombrandt 21. Randall 22. C.Atkinson* 23. Beard*

*uncapped

**I know Davison never plays loosehead anymore but it’s the only way I can see to give him and Fasogbon some minutes.

[Banquo]

Rodd
Langdon
Aof
Clark
Ccs
Hill
Pepper
Dommers

Randall
Atkinson
Murley
Northmore
Ojomoh
Roebuck
Carpenter

Dan
Baxter
Davison
Coles
Curry
JVP
Beard
Muir

Maximum quinnage

[fivepointer]

Not one but two hookers called up.

Bristol's Gabriel Oghre and Leicester's Jamie Blamire will link up with England to solve a hooker shortage before Saturday's Test against the United States.

[R3dders]

Rodd
Langdon
Aof
Clark
Ccs
Hill
Pepper
Dommers

Randall
Atkinson
Murley
Northmore
Ojomoh
Roebuck
Carpenter

Dan
Baxter
Davison
Coles
Curry
JVP
Beard
Muir

Maximum quinnage

Wasnt my intention

Lots of quins subs/non players in the first 2 games.

Everyone in the squad gets a run-out.

Knowing Steve i suspect there won't be anywhere near as many changes as most are anticipating.

[Captainhaircut]

Not one but two hookers called up.

Bristol's Gabriel Oghre and Leicester's Jamie Blamire will link up with England to solve a hooker shortage before Saturday's Test against the United States.

Added benefit that both have played back row so could have both on the bench and give Curry, Underhill and Willis the night off.

Something like the below would be a great use of the squad to get everyone a game (presumed Northmore ruled out).

Rodd
Langdon
AOF
Clark
CCS
hill
Pepper
Dombrandt
JVP
Ford
Atkinson
Ojomoh
Murley
IFW
Carpenter

Davison
Blamire
Afo
Isiekwe
Oghre
Randall
Atkinson
Beard

[Scrumhead]

Rodd
Langdon
Aof
Clark
Ccs
Hill
Pepper
Dommers

Randall
Atkinson
Murley
Northmore
Ojomoh
Roebuck
Carpenter

Dan
Baxter
Davison
Coles
Curry
JVP
Beard
Muir

Maximum quinnage

Wasnt my intention

Lots of quins subs/non players in the first 2 games.

Everyone in the squad gets a run-out.

Knowing Steve i suspect there won't be anywhere near as many changes as most are anticipating.

I wasn’t aware we had inside intel?

In fairness, this is an experimental, inexperienced squad to begin with so even if he only makes minor changes, it’s not exactly a seasoned group.

We’re treating players like Baxter, Heyes and Willis like they’re well established when none of them have more than 13 caps.

The lineup that featured last weekend probably had around 300 caps but Ford, Steward, Ewels and van Poortvliet would have accounted for 2/3rds of that and we had several players with 5 or less caps.

[Scrumhead]

Not one but two hookers called up.

Bristol's Gabriel Oghre and Leicester's Jamie Blamire will link up with England to solve a hooker shortage before Saturday's Test against the United States.

I can see Which’s argument for Tuipolotu being match fit, but I think those two are sensible choices. I hope Blamire can improve his throwing as I think he is a good player and possibly in the best position to challenge Dan and Langdon for the third choice spot (I’m basing that upon him being a likely first choice at Tigers and the opportunity for him to build a good understanding with Chessum and Martin).

Blake and Jibulu are the others I’d like to see in the mix. I’m surprised Blake hasn’t even had an a call-up to the A squad yet. To me looks like he has a very good mix of solid set piece skills, size and ability in the loose. Jibulu will have the disadvantage of being behind LCD.

[FKAS]

Blake was in an A squad previously but didn't make the 23.

Two logical call ups at hooker.

Am I the only one who wants to see CCS at lock to give us some more impact there both sides of the ball? Against the USA he should enjoy himself.

[Danno]

I'd go with mostly the same squad as Saturday with a few benches switching to the 15 and maybe giving a couple like Carpenter and Beard a run (drop Dombrandt for pete's sake). Like Scrumhead says, a lot of these players aren't exactly test hardened yet, so I reckon keep instilling that winning mentality

[R3dders]

Falcons would beat USA, not sure how the winning mentality can dwindle. It's an end of term piss about.

[Puja]

Falcons would beat USA, not sure how the winning mentality can dwindle. It's an end of term piss about.

They're not quite that bad! We'll put them away with comfort, but USA would be solid mid-table in the Prem.

Puja

[Puja]

Not one but two hookers called up.

Bristol's Gabriel Oghre and Leicester's Jamie Blamire will link up with England to solve a hooker shortage before Saturday's Test against the United States.

Added benefit that both have played back row so could have both on the bench and give Curry, Underhill and Willis the night off.

Something like the below would be a great use of the squad to get everyone a game (presumed Northmore ruled out).

Rodd
Langdon
AOF
Clark
CCS
hill
Pepper
Dombrandt
JVP
Ford
Atkinson
Ojomoh
Murley
IFW
Carpenter

Davison
Blamire
Afo
Isiekwe
Oghre
Randall
Atkinson
Beard

If we are going to rotate to give everyone a game, then I'd actually be more in favour of playing Fasogbon at tighthead and putting AOF on the bench to cover loosehead. Quite apart from AOF being much more competent at 1 than Davison, he's also been overplayed this season and I don't see the value in starting him against tbe USA and compounding the damage.

Puja