Autumn Internationals 2018 Other Teams

neill_m · Post by **neill_m** » October 24th, 2018, 2:14 pm

Italian 23 for the Chicago Game:

15 Luca SPERANDIO (Benetton Rugby), 14 Mattia BELLINI (Zebre Rugby Club), 13 Michele CAMPAGNARO (C) (Exeter Chiefs...or is it Coventry), 12 Luca MORISI (Benetton Rugby), 11 Giulio BISEGNI (Zebre Rugby Club), 10 Carlo CANNA (Zebre Rugby Club), 9 Tito TEBALDI (Benetton Rugby), 8 Renato GIAMMARIOLI (Zebre Rugby Club), 7 Abraham STEYN (Benetton Rugby), 6 Johan MEYER (Zebre Rugby Club), 5 George Fabio BIAGI (Zebre Rugby Club), 4 Marco FUSER (Benetton Rugby), 3 Tiziano PASQUALI (Benetton Rugby), 2 Luca BIGI (Benetton Rugby), 1 Nicola QUAGLIO (Benetton Rugby)

16 Oliviero FABIANI (Zebre Rugby Club), 17 Cherif TRAORE’ (Benetton Rugby), 18 Giosuè ZILOCCHI (Zebre Rugby Club), 19 Marco LAZZARONI (Benetton Rugby), 20 Federico RUZZA (Benetton Rugby), 21 Jimmy TUIVAITI (Zebre Rugby Club), 22 Guglielmo PALAZZANI (Zebre Rugby Club), 23 Ian MCKINLEY (Benetton Rugby)

12 Treviso, 10 Zebre and 1 Other.

neill_m · Post by **neill_m** » October 30th, 2018, 10:41 am

26 October
Japan 28-31 World XV

27 October 2018
New Zealand 37-20 Australia
Portugal 29-29 Germany

29 October 2018
Dragons 28-24 Hong Kong

31 October 2018
19:15 Oxford University 20-26 Canada

2 November
19:30 Crawshays RFC 24-35 Hong Kong

3 November 2018
14:45 Wales v Scotland BBC 1
15:00 England v South Africa Sky Sports

05:45 Japan 31-69 New Zealand
12:00 Romania A v Kenya
22:15 USA v Māori All Blacks

Ruckedtobits · Post by **Ruckedtobits** » November 3rd, 2018, 3:57 pm

The 'Boks are giving the English team a roasting everywhere except the scoreboars. They have butchered two 5m line-outs against 7 forward, with overthrows and then knocked on in successive driving mauls within 7 mts of English line. It could be 6-20 but it's only 6-8.

BRILLIANT WIN FOR ENGLAND WITH FOUR MAGNIFICENT KICKS.

The main thing is they believe it..............

FLIP · Post by **FLIP** » November 3rd, 2018, 4:15 pm

Meanwhile Wales are getting away with murder and Scotland are playing like a rugby league team. But badly.

LeRouxIsPHat · Post by **LeRouxIsPHat** » November 3rd, 2018, 5:01 pm

That last decision by Gardner was absolutely unbelievable...I thought the only decision to make was whether it was red or yellow.

SA incredibly frustrating with the chances they blew, should have been well ahead in the first half. Hard to believe their lineout was so poor with the players they have.

England may be missing some big players but they have huge problems. Just one simple thing, at one stage in the second half there was slow ball and they had plenty of time to get organised, and the ball went to someone who had 4/5 team mates ahead of him, sums up their attack for the last year for me, they just don't know what they're doing.

Dave Cahill · Post by **Dave Cahill** » November 3rd, 2018, 5:09 pm

The IRFU always gets its revenge. Well done Agent Hodges. Wales and Scotland, you're next.

Dave Cahill · Post by **Dave Cahill** » November 3rd, 2018, 5:09 pm

On a more serious note, neither team are anything to write home about.

Ruckedtobits · Post by **Ruckedtobits** » November 3rd, 2018, 6:25 pm

Dave Cahill wrote:On a more serious note, neither team are anything to write home about.

I'm not sure Dave. Although they lost and butchered wholesale chances, the 'Boks improvement in performance in 12 months is startling and I hope it doesn't continue.

Despite missing at least five key players thenselves (15, 12, 11, 9, 1, 3, & 7) they mullered the English mid-field, maul and scrum and their back three turned the English box-kicking game into a supply of attacking ball.

I hope they hold onto Jones because that looked the worst coached English teams for a decade. Stuart Lancaster must quietly weep when he watches them.

neiliog93 · Post by **neiliog93** » November 3rd, 2018, 7:15 pm

Dave Cahill wrote:On a more serious note, neither team are anything to write home about.

If we played at our best, we would beat both of those teams on that showing. The risk areas would be their physical intensity (both sides) forcing us into more errors than usual, and their physical attributes (strength, speed) and kicking slowly strangling the life out of us.

If we were our usual disciplined and low error selves, and continue on the path of adding at least a bit more sparkle to our game, we would beat both of them by at least a score, possibly more.

paddyor · Post by **paddyor** » November 3rd, 2018, 7:23 pm

Ruckedtobits wrote:
Dave Cahill wrote:On a more serious note, neither team are anything to write home about.

I'm not sure Dave. Although they lost and butchered wholesale chances, the 'Boks improvement in performance in 12 months is startling and I hope it doesn't continue.

Despite missing at least five key players thenselves (15, 12, 11, 9, 1, 3, & 7) they mullered the English mid-field, maul and scrum and their back three turned the English box-kicking game into a supply of attacking ball.

I hope they hold onto Jones because that looked the worst coached English teams for a decade. Stuart Lancaster must quietly weep when he watches them.

A bit one eyed there RTB? Throw in Vunipola x 2, Launchbury, Lawes maybe one or 2 others and it's a better team. I don't either of them are much tow rite home abut but they're not full strength.

Logorrhea · Post by **Logorrhea** » November 3rd, 2018, 7:24 pm

Ruckedtobits wrote:Despite missing at least five key players thenselves (15, 12, 11, 9, 1, 3, & 7) they mullered the English mid-field, maul and scrum and their back three turned the English box-kicking game into a supply of attacking ball.

South Africa have improved but those things above are more a reflection of Englands performance rather than South African excellence.

LeRouxIsPHat · Post by **LeRouxIsPHat** » November 3rd, 2018, 8:03 pm

paddyor wrote:
A bit one eyed there RTB? Throw in Vunipola x 2, Launchbury, Lawes maybe one or 2 others and it's a better team. I don't either of them are much tow rite home abut but they're not full strength.

Of course they'd be better but I don't think they were that far off full strength when you really look at it. Itoje and Kruis is still a really strong second row and I'm sure a lot of people would have them as first choice. Shields was brought over for a reason and could well be first choice, although personally I don't think he's up to it. Tuilagi a loss from the backs but they're well used to being without him and he was only supposed to bench anyway. Billy Vunipola in particular has a massive impact on how Sarries and England play but his replacement got MOTM and Mercer (who I rate very highly) was really good when he came on.

They have big big problems IMO.

paddyor · Post by **paddyor** » November 4th, 2018, 11:25 pm

LeRouxIsPHat wrote:
paddyor wrote:
A bit one eyed there RTB? Throw in Vunipola x 2, Launchbury, Lawes maybe one or 2 others and it's a better team. I don't either of them are much tow rite home abut but they're not full strength.
Of course they'd be better but I don't think they were that far off full strength when you really look at it. Itoje and Kruis is still a really strong second row and I'm sure a lot of people would have them as first choice. Shields was brought over for a reason and could well be first choice, although personally I don't think he's up to it. Tuilagi a loss from the backs but they're well used to being without him and he was only supposed to bench anyway. Billy Vunipola in particular has a massive impact on how Sarries and England play but his replacement got MOTM and Mercer (who I rate very highly) was really good when he came on.

They have big big problems IMO.

I don't think Kruis is the player who went on the Lions tour and either Launchbury or Lawes is a better option. Agreed on Shields, hasn't shown anything to suggest he's up to it. Fair point re Wilson but he's more a 6 and on form Vunipola walks back in there. Don't rate Mercer tbh, he's still young so maybe that'll change but has seemed under powered whenever I've seen him.

I think the big problem they have is 10, 12 and 13(9 is a problem because they're both so inconsistent).

neiliog93 · Post by **neiliog93** » November 4th, 2018, 11:44 pm

Kruis has always been overrated. He's a very poor athlete by the standard of top-level second rows, and an also-ran in terms of size and power. He works hard, is a good line-out operator and is generally accurate in his play, but that's about it.

I agree that Launchbury has faded badly in recent years. Still young for a second row but he really hasn't lived up to the potential that he showed 2-4 years ago.

Itoje has faded a bit too but a slightly faded Itoje is still a top player. Lawes remains a highly effective international second row, even if I dislike his penchant for late hits on half-backs and general surly demeanour.

LeRouxIsPHat · Post by **LeRouxIsPHat** » November 5th, 2018, 12:44 am

Whatever your opinion is of individual players/selections (personally think Launchbury has been poor for a long time and Mercer reminds me of a young Heaslip), my point was that they aren't so badly off with injuries that a performance like yesterday can be excused. They pretty much had their first choice back line and half their pack.

Like I said, the guys missing are really important players for them and I'm not denying that they'd make a difference, but it's not like yesterday was a once off. Their attack looked awful last November, they were poor in the 6N, and had a horrible trip to SA where a lot of their good play in the first two tests really only came from individual brilliance. They've lost Gustard and brought in a couple of new coaches and yet nothing about their game suggests that those coaches have overseen an improvement. They rarely looked like scoring a try yesterday and their defence was incredibly passive in the first half against a side that really lacked any subtlety and should have been easy to read. Let's not forget how many players SA were missing too. Their discipline has also been shocking since last year and that's always a sure sign that a coach doesn't have the control that he should have or that they have systems that they trust.

I just don't see the volume of players that you do to come in and fix all that (e.g Marler gone, Robshaw and Cole have been criticsed for years). The Vunipolas and Tuilagi in particular will absolutely make a big difference but their problems run very deep.

paddyor · Post by **paddyor** » November 5th, 2018, 3:44 am

I think those few players make a bit of difference to England. I don't think a close loss is all that impressive from a SA perspective even with their missing players.

As an aside, I think Jones is back where Lancaster was at this stage of his tenure with his centres. No idea which is his best option. The Ford-Farrell axis looks finished, Slade looks a bust at test level(so many missed tackles) and T'eo has never impressed as a starter. Is Burgess still playing?

FLIP · Post by **FLIP** » November 5th, 2018, 3:52 am

paddyor wrote:Is Burgess still playing?

Yes, and he played for England this weekend. Just in Anfield, at rugby league.

leinsterforever · Post by **leinsterforever** » November 5th, 2018, 2:27 pm

paddyor wrote:I think those few players make a bit of difference to England. I don't think a close loss is all that impressive from a SA perspective even with their missing players.

As an aside, I think Jones is back where Lancaster was at this stage of his tenure with his centres. No idea which is his best option. The Ford-Farrell axis looks finished, Slade looks a bust at test level(so many missed tackles) and T'eo has never impressed as a starter. Is Burgess still playing?

Te'o got dropped from the Lions because he can't pass. Building towards the future with him as a central player is a bad idea. They'd probably be better off with someone like Twelvetrees

paddyor · Post by **paddyor** » November 6th, 2018, 7:03 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEAuXB7 ... e=youtu.be

Oldschool · Post by **Oldschool** » November 6th, 2018, 9:38 am

paddyor wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEAuXB7 ... e=youtu.be

He needs a more human like shaped tackling bag with a couple of targets on it.
Low tackle, legal high tackle etc

Babbling 'brook