Six Nations Squad Announcement

[Scrumhead]

I think you're all underrating Murley. He's like a fast Jack Nowell - powerful and strong through tackles, while still being regularly name-checked as one of the fastest players across 50m in the Premiership. Ridiculously good player and being our 3rd/4th choice "evasive winger" reflect on our riches, not his ability.

Puja

100%. On paper, he’s not had a good season so far in terms of tries etc. but that is mostly due to Quins being mostly crap rather than his individual form.

[Beasties]

Fasogbon losing out is baffling. He’s already a better player than Davison. Sela playing well so fair enough he’s included. I just don’t see how being experienced but meh trumps inexperience but solid performance. He was quality tonight.

[FKAS]

Fasogbon losing out is baffling. He’s already a better player than Davison. Sela playing well so fair enough he’s included. I just don’t see how being experienced but meh trumps inexperience but solid performance. He was quality tonight.

Because experience knows how to limit the damage against an experienced loosehead that has then on toast, Fasogbon tends to go all in and either it works or it doesn't. I'd have taken Fasogbon over Sela as I think Fasogbon would have been at least a good impact sub whereas Sela is not likely to make the 23. I really only want Davison to feature if Heyes can't play.

[fivepointer]

I think you're all underrating Murley. He's like a fast Jack Nowell - powerful and strong through tackles, while still being regularly name-checked as one of the fastest players across 50m in the Premiership. Ridiculously good player and being our 3rd/4th choice "evasive winger" reflect on our riches, not his ability.

Puja

Thats my view.

Quite why he cops some flak is beyond me. He's a quality player.

[Mikey Brown]

From the squad, assuming full fitness I'd go for:

Genge
LCD
Sela
Itoje
Chessum
Pepper
Underhill
Earl

Mitchell
Ford
Roebuck
Atkinson
Freeman
IFW
Furbank

Baxter
George
Heyes
Coles
Curry
Pollock
Spencer
[Lawrence / Daly / MSmith - depending on how confident the coaches are on certain players filling in unconventional positions]

CCS and Arundell unlucky to miss out.

Back row I'd be happy with pretty much any combo of starters / bench from my 23. Props wise, I wouldn't want Sela and Baxter coming off the bench in big games so have Genge babysitting him, with the Baxter / Heyes combo that has worked well coming off the bench.

Surprised by the lack of enthusiasm for Roebuck - I think he's been one of our best players since he came into the team, and suits our playing style very well.

Roebuck and Baxter are both injured. I know they’re in the group to rehab but I don’t think either have played for a little while now. I think most would have them in the 23 if fit and on form.

I’m a massive Murley fanboy but I’d have Roebuck ahead of him. I totally agree he’s taken his chance, suits the gameplan but is much more than just a good kick chaser.

The question is whether Borthwick is willing to go without the aerially dominant wing option (being Freeman) and take a chance on two pure runners.

Baxter has become a really solid player and allowed the option of Genge on the bench, so it’s a shame if he’s not going to be fit either. I don’t think we have ETAs on their fitness?

[Mikey Brown]

From the squad, assuming full fitness I'd go for:

Genge
LCD
Sela
Itoje
Chessum
Pepper
Underhill
Earl

Mitchell
Ford
Roebuck
Atkinson
Freeman
IFW
Furbank

Baxter
George
Heyes
Coles
Curry
Pollock
Spencer
[Lawrence / Daly / MSmith - depending on how confident the coaches are on certain players filling in unconventional positions]

CCS and Arundell unlucky to miss out.

Back row I'd be happy with pretty much any combo of starters / bench from my 23. Props wise, I wouldn't want Sela and Baxter coming off the bench in big games so have Genge babysitting him, with the Baxter / Heyes combo that has worked well coming off the bench.

Surprised by the lack of enthusiasm for Roebuck - I think he's been one of our best players since he came into the team, and suits our playing style very well.

Roebuck and Baxter are both injured. I know they’re in the group to rehab but I don’t think either have played for a little while now. I think most would have them in the 23 if fit and on form.

I’m a massive Murley fanboy and think he can be international quality but I’d have Roebuck ahead of him. I totally agree he’s taken his chances and suits the gameplan, but is much more than just a good kick chaser.

The question is whether Borthwick is willing to go without the aerially dominant wing option (being Freeman) and take a chance on two pure runners.

Baxter has become a really solid player and allowed the option of Genge on the bench, so it’s a shame if he’s not going to be fit either. I don’t think we have ETAs on their fitness?

[Puja]

Baxter has become a really solid player and allowed the option of Genge on the bench, so it’s a shame if he’s not going to be fit either. I don’t think we have ETAs on their fitness?

No exact ETAs, but

Promising comment from Bigtalk in his press conference: "Players coming to Girona are not too far away from being back on the grass." Would be good to have those five available for the second game at least.

Ooh, and I've just read this from a Charlie Morgan article (and he's normally pretty well plugged in):

All five members of a rehabilitation group – Fin Baxter (foot), Ben Curry (hamstring), Fin Smith (calf), Lawrence (knee), Tom Roebuck (foot) – were said to have a chance of facing Wales in a fortnight.

Puja

[FKAS]

I think you're all underrating Murley. He's like a fast Jack Nowell - powerful and strong through tackles, while still being regularly name-checked as one of the fastest players across 50m in the Premiership. Ridiculously good player and being our 3rd/4th choice "evasive winger" reflect on our riches, not his ability.

Puja

Thats my view.

Quite why he cops some flak is beyond me. He's a quality player.

Top class going forward, lots of question marks about him defensively, particularly under the high ball where he's easy to target and poor positionally.

[Beasties]

Fasogbon losing out is baffling. He’s already a better player than Davison. Sela playing well so fair enough he’s included. I just don’t see how being experienced but meh trumps inexperience but solid performance. He was quality tonight.

Because experience knows how to limit the damage against an experienced loosehead that has then on toast, Fasogbon tends to go all in and either it works or it doesn't. I'd have taken Fasogbon over Sela as I think Fasogbon would have been at least a good impact sub whereas Sela is not likely to make the 23. I really only want Davison to feature if Heyes can't play.

I just watch how both of them perform against the more difficult LHs. And Fasogbon’s superior in that regard.
I do have sympathy with the view that the squad selection might be different if Stuart was fit though.
I just don’t like the weary selection of experience over ability. And he could’ve been worked on in camp over the coming weeks.

But then, injuries. So he might still feature.

[Scrumhead]

Borthwick’s been talking about expecting 50+ box kicks from Wales. Strange as I don’t regard them as box kicking team? Might be a bit of subterfuge in trying to encourage them to play in a way that exposes their weaknesses?

I’d actually have said that the high ball is a big weakness for them and it wouldn’t surprise me to see LRZ at 15 instead of Murray (who is very vulnerable aerially).

I’d have said this game is the one where a big winger is least required. Not sure if that encourages moving Freeman to 13 and bringing Murley in but that may suit this game. If Roebuck’s back, it’s perhaps a moot point as he is the most likely to replace Freeman on the wing.

[Stom]

From the squad, assuming full fitness I'd go for:

Genge
LCD
Sela
Itoje
Chessum
Pepper
Underhill
Earl

Mitchell
Ford
Roebuck
Atkinson
Freeman
IFW
Furbank

Baxter
George
Heyes
Coles
Curry
Pollock
Spencer
[Lawrence / Daly / MSmith - depending on how confident the coaches are on certain players filling in unconventional positions]

CCS and Arundell unlucky to miss out.

Back row I'd be happy with pretty much any combo of starters / bench from my 23. Props wise, I wouldn't want Sela and Baxter coming off the bench in big games so have Genge babysitting him, with the Baxter / Heyes combo that has worked well coming off the bench.

Surprised by the lack of enthusiasm for Roebuck - I think he's been one of our best players since he came into the team, and suits our playing style very well.

Roebuck and Baxter are both injured. I know they’re in the group to rehab but I don’t think either have played for a little while now. I think most would have them in the 23 if fit and on form.

I’m a massive Murley fanboy and think he can be international quality but I’d have Roebuck ahead of him. I totally agree he’s taken his chances and suits the gameplan, but is much more than just a good kick chaser.

The question is whether Borthwick is willing to go without the aerially dominant wing option (being Freeman) and take a chance on two pure runners.

Baxter has become a really solid player and allowed the option of Genge on the bench, so it’s a shame if he’s not going to be fit either. I don’t think we have ETAs on their fitness?

I had Murley ahead of roebuck until last year, but then roebuck’s performances were really good, and I got sold on him.

[FKAS]

I think Roebuck's performances last year were brilliant, very much deserved his run in the side. I'd be tempted to go Arundell over Murley, I think Arundell has worked hard in his work rate and kick chase game. He's better defensively and not exactly a slouch in attack.

[twitchy]

They were talking up VRR on the glos v bath commentary last night. If you want a prop for just one tournament he could be great. Has he strung a load of games together?

[Mikey Brown]

I think Roebuck's performances last year were brilliant, very much deserved his run in the side. I'd be tempted to go Arundell over Murley, I think Arundell has worked hard in his work rate and kick chase game. He's better defensively and not exactly a slouch in attack.

Has Arundel improved his defence a lot? I wouldn’t have said he’s a better defender than Murley in general.

Sadly we’re seeing in the Quins/Leicester game even when Murley is getting in a decent position under a kick he’s struggling to disrupt a clean catch from the team going forward. Arundell at least has a few inches on him, though not generally in the class of the others aerially.

[Captainhaircut]

Is there a world where Borthers may play Steward on the right wing to play the Roebuck role?

[Danno]

So, Furbank IS fit?

I mean, he's not my type, but I suppose I can see how the Wing-Commander moustache might do it for you.

Both Willis brothers included?! Wow.

Seriously though, when is this supposed to be happening?

I am the most gullible person alive, cause I went, "Wow, really?!" before realising.

Anyway, Im back bitches.

Wooo! Welcome back!

Genge, Iyogun, Rodd
George, LCD, Dan
Davison, Sela, Heyes
Chessum, Clark
Itoje, Coles
Curry, CCS, Pepper
Pollock, Underhill
Earl, Fisilau

Mitchell, Spencer, JvP
Ford, MSmith
Dingwall, Atkinson, Ojomah
Freeman, Slade
IFW, Arundell, Daly, Murley
Furbank, Steward

Thank you for the public service.

Overall, pretty happy with that. A bit disappointed at no Fasogbon, but he's not been hammering the door down and I'm hopeful that Badwicket is doing with him what he did with Heyes of refusing to gift him a squad space on "potential" and challenging him to kick on before he'll pick him ahead of the old guy. Clark seems in favour with the camp - hopefully will get to see a bit more of what he's about and just glad it's not more wasted time with Isiekwe.

Would've been happier without Spencer, Slade, and Daly, as I don't rate the first two and the latter surely won't keep his place all the way to the RWC with the cavalcade of superb wingers available. No Muir or Caluori is a surprise given Bigjump's liking for a kick-chaser - hopefully that's a sign Roebuck's expected to be fit for Wales and not that we'll have Freeman on the wing and Slade at 13. Spencer is better than he was, but still such a step down from Mitchell and is always so torpid at international level. I'd rather have had a young apprentice in camp (and would've been okay with dropping JVP for that if we wanted to keep Spencer's experience, cause he's not been brilliant this year and still coming back from injury) and shown Friday or Bracken what the step up looked like.

Other than that though, generally pretty pleasing. No surprises or shocks, which is good this close to a RWC.

Puja

Cheers dude, I've been in detox/rehab for 2 weeks but I'm here to shit up the EMB once again. And where's my mod status? This is an outrage.

[Captainhaircut]

JVP limped off yesterday. Curry also off worryingly early which suggests a problem.

[FKAS]

JvP went for a scan but Parling said it was precautionary and that they thought it was just a dead leg. Fingers crossed because it was a much better JvP performance, getting back towards his best form.

[Oakboy]

JVP limped off yesterday. Curry also off worryingly early which suggests a problem.

Yes, his hip per DT. Was that not his major injury issue previously?

[Puja]

JVP limped off yesterday. Curry also off worryingly early which suggests a problem.

Yes, his hip per DT. Was that not his major injury issue previously?

The hip was the big one indeed. Hopefully he's just hyper aware of any issues with it and has come off at the slightest twinge to avoid aggravating.

Would be an absolute contrast to Ilione, who appears to be dumbest medical student ever if he did do what it really looked like he did yesterday. When Cracknell went off with an HIA, he came back on (having just been subbed off) and was immediately carrying his shoulder awkwardly, even as he ran onto the pitch. He then proceeded to play for about 5-10 minutes, very obviously favouring his shoulder and even playing one-handed at times, before the commentary team had a mid-game interview with Anthony Allen on the coaching team and asked why he was on the pitch instead of Moro when he looked injured. Allen's response was basically, "Uuuhhhhhhhh, I don't know anything about that, but I'm sure he would've been checked over by the medical team and is fiiiinnne? I have to go now," and Ilione was hooked for Moro about 2 minutes later.

If it is, as it very much appears, that Ilione has hidden an injury from the coaches so that he can go back on, then he needs shooting, doubly-so if he's ended up causing himself more damage with his pointless 10 minutes of playing one-armed. I hope I have misread that situation and that that is not what has happened, cause I cannot believe a medical student and a sports professional would've been so stupid, especially one who's already had serious injuries before.

Puja

[FKAS]

JVP limped off yesterday. Curry also off worryingly early which suggests a problem.

Yes, his hip per DT. Was that not his major injury issue previously?

The hip was the big one indeed. Hopefully he's just hyper aware of any issues with it and has come off at the slightest twinge to avoid aggravating.

Would be an absolute contrast to Ilione, who appears to be dumbest medical student ever if he did do what it really looked like he did yesterday. When Cracknell went off with an HIA, he came back on (having just been subbed off) and was immediately carrying his shoulder awkwardly, even as he ran onto the pitch. He then proceeded to play for about 5-10 minutes, very obviously favouring his shoulder and even playing one-handed at times, before the commentary team had a mid-game interview with Anthony Allen on the coaching team and asked why he was on the pitch instead of Moro when he looked injured. Allen's response was basically, "Uuuhhhhhhhh, I don't know anything about that, but I'm sure he would've been checked over by the medical team and is fiiiinnne? I have to go now," and Ilione was hooked for Moro about 2 minutes later.

If it is, as it very much appears, that Ilione has hidden an injury from the coaches so that he can go back on, then he needs shooting, doubly-so if he's ended up causing himself more damage with his pointless 10 minutes of playing one-armed. I hope I have misread that situation and that that is not what has happened, cause I cannot believe a medical student and a sports professional would've been so stupid, especially one who's already had serious injuries before.

Puja

If that's not the case then someone has told Ilione to suck it up and get back out there and that person needs sacking.

I presume Ilione thought it was just a bang and not anything, he'd run it off and only when back out there realised it was worse but needed a break in play before he could communicate with the medics and organise the substitution.

[Danno]

So, Furbank IS fit?

I mean, he's not my type, but I suppose I can see how the Wing-Commander moustache might do it for you.

Both Willis brothers included?! Wow.

Seriously though, when is this supposed to be happening?

I am the most gullible person alive, cause I went, "Wow, really?!" before realising.

Anyway, Im back bitches.

Wooo! Welcome back!

Genge, Iyogun, Rodd
George, LCD, Dan
Davison, Sela, Heyes
Chessum, Clark
Itoje, Coles
Curry, CCS, Pepper
Pollock, Underhill
Earl, Fisilau

Mitchell, Spencer, JvP
Ford, MSmith
Dingwall, Atkinson, Ojomah
Freeman, Slade
IFW, Arundell, Daly, Murley
Furbank, Steward

Thank you for the public service.

Overall, pretty happy with that. A bit disappointed at no Fasogbon, but he's not been hammering the door down and I'm hopeful that Badwicket is doing with him what he did with Heyes of refusing to gift him a squad space on "potential" and challenging him to kick on before he'll pick him ahead of the old guy. Clark seems in favour with the camp - hopefully will get to see a bit more of what he's about and just glad it's not more wasted time with Isiekwe.

Would've been happier without Spencer, Slade, and Daly, as I don't rate the first two and the latter surely won't keep his place all the way to the RWC with the cavalcade of superb wingers available. No Muir or Caluori is a surprise given Bigjump's liking for a kick-chaser - hopefully that's a sign Roebuck's expected to be fit for Wales and not that we'll have Freeman on the wing and Slade at 13. Spencer is better than he was, but still such a step down from Mitchell and is always so torpid at international level. I'd rather have had a young apprentice in camp (and would've been okay with dropping JVP for that if we wanted to keep Spencer's experience, cause he's not been brilliant this year and still coming back from injury) and shown Friday or Bracken what the step up looked like.

Other than that though, generally pretty pleasing. No surprises or shocks, which is good this close to a RWC.

Puja

Thank you. Long story but im hopefully on the mend now.

[Mikey Brown]

Good on you, either way.

Incidentally, just seeing mention of Callouri’s springy legs there, he dived to score a try at the weekend and it looked like he was going to fly off the end of the pitch. It really is amazing.

[Puja]

Good on you, either way.

Incidentally, just seeing mention of Callouri’s springy legs there, he dived to score a try at the weekend and it looked like he was going to fly off the end of the pitch. It really is amazing.

I thought that too! Was briefly worried about the short dead-ball area. I am very surprised that he hasn't made the squad - not that I think he's a better player than Murley at present, but we'll want him learning his trade as much as possible before the RWC.

Watching Lucas Friday against Leicester and was thinking he probably fits into that category too - would be ideal as an "Apprentice player". Shouldn't be actually in the running for a cap yet, but definitely need him to inculcated into the systems and got up to speed as soon as possible, cause that kid's going places.

Thank you. Long story but im hopefully on the mend now.

Glad to have you back and hope everything keeps getting better. Lean on us if you need, yeah?

Puja

[Epaminondas Pules]

Is there a world where Borthers may play Steward on the right wing to play the Roebuck role?

Oh God I hope not!

I still have nightmares of Mike Brown on the wing.