Ireland v England. Saturday, February 2nd.

[suisse]

If I were an England fan, I'd be all over the +9 handicap Paddy is generously offering.

1. Healy 2. Best 3. Furlong
Ryan and Toner in the second row.
POM and Josh VDF on the flanks. CJ at #8.
Murray and Sexton
Stockdale and Earls on the wings.
Aki and Ringrose in the centre (think Aki has it on merit right now)
Kearney holding the fort.

McGrath Porter Cronin Roux SOB (too soon?) Marmion Carbery and......Larmour on the bench.

[suisse]

England's backline will be really interesting. The quality they possess is scary. Hope Jones gets the centres wrong.

I'd take a 3-0 right now.

[betty swallocks]

Suspect Cooney rather than Blade will cover 21 as Marmion out injured. Otherwise agree with your 23.

[neiliog93]

England's backline will be really interesting. The quality they possess is scary. Hope Jones gets the centres wrong.

I'd take a 3-0 right now.

I don't think their back three is particularly good as overall players. Overrated in my view. May is probably the fastest player in the competition but doesn't have much else - not great in the air and dodgy in one-on-one tackle situations. Ashton scores tries but can't defend. Cokanasiga is a good athlete but very headless at times. Mike Brown is over the hill and while solid, also quite average. Should never have been player of the tournament in 2014. Jack Nowell is a good Premiership player, scrappy, determined, etc, but doesn't make the same impact at international level (won't let you down either).

Their centre options are very good though, that I will say.

[ronk]

Team is fairly locked in other than 7 and 12. Even then only because of uncertain fitness of SOB and the rare situation of 4 fit centres at once. Aki in a good position at the moment and Henshaw is recently returned from injury.

Rotation may happen later but this is a big game.

Bench SOB and let him grow into the tournament.

[Oldschool]

If I were an England fan, I'd be all over the +9 handicap Paddy is generously offering.

1. Healy 2. Best 3. Furlong
Ryan and Toner in the second row.
POM and Josh VDF on the flanks. CJ at #8.
Murray and Sexton
Stockdale and Earls on the wings.
Aki and Ringrose in the centre (think Aki has it on merit right now)
Kearney holding the fort.

McGrath Porter Cronin Roux SOB (too soon?) Marmion Carbery and......Larmour on the bench.

Re the +9 it's a good bet tbh but until we know the teams I'd be reluctant to go there.
The England team selection is less predictable than usual and are we carrying any undeclared injuries.
We have at least three "known" uncertainties.
Rob, Murray and Pom.

[Oldschool]

England's backline will be really interesting. The quality they possess is scary. Hope Jones gets the centres wrong.

I'd take a 3-0 right now.

I don't think their back three is particularly good as overall players. Overrated in my view. May is probably the fastest player in the competition but doesn't have much else - not great in the air and dodgy in one-on-one tackle situations. Ashton scores tries but can't defend. Cokanasiga is a good athlete but very headless at times. Mike Brown is over the hill and while solid, also quite average. Should never have been player of the tournament in 2014. Jack Nowell is a good Premiership player, scrappy, determined, etc, but doesn't make the same impact at international level (won't let you down either).

Their centre options are very good though, that I will say.

Daly is class tho and Eddie will pick a good defender to counter Stockdale, he'd be mad not to.

[Logorrhea]

Daly is class tho and Eddie will pick a good defender to counter Stockdale, he'd be mad not to.

Is he though? Don't want to get into an argument over it but for me he reminds me of another Gavin Henson. A lot of hype but as the years go by, you're left with very little substance.

I get that BOD loves him. I wanted to rate him too but he isn't being selected at 13, he not good enough to play at 15 and hes a pretty average winger. So far (and he has plenty of time) its all hype but maybe the move to Sarries will put him in the centre and let him show what he can be.

[Ruckedtobits]

The mid-field I hope they don't pick is Farrell, Tuilagi and Slade which combines physique, aggression and intelligence. The one they may pick is Ford, Farrell and T'eo which combines Kicking, High-Tackling and Bullocking. Joe would be happy with the latter.

[Peg Leg]

I could see it being Farrell, Tuillagi and Joseph. They have to know now that Farrell is The 10 for England.

[Oldschool]

Daly is class tho and Eddie will pick a good defender to counter Stockdale, he'd be mad not to.

Is he though? Don't want to get into an argument over it but for me he reminds me of another Gavin Henson. A lot of hype but as the years go by, you're left with very little substance.

I get that BOD loves him. I wanted to rate him too but he isn't being selected at 13, he not good enough to play at 15 and hes a pretty average winger. So far (and he has plenty of time) its all hype but maybe the move to Sarries will put him in the centre and let him show what he can be.

I'm not BOD tho', I know what I'm talking about, have THE Mirror to guide me and don't have to pander to an English audience.
Apart from that I always feel that Daly is very competent, unlikely to muck up and given any kind of space is dangerous. He needs watching, maybe class was ott but I'd rest easier if he wasn't playing.
You also have a point he needs to be selected in one position and allowed to show what he can do.
Ringer is a better player and would do him so maybe 13 isn't the best position for him.

[Oldschool]

The mid-field I hope they don't pick is Farrell, Tuilagi and Slade which combines physique, aggression and intelligence. The one they may pick is Ford, Farrell and T'eo which combines Kicking, High-Tackling and Bullocking. Joe would be happy with the latter.

Tuilagi might not last 80 mins so that would be a risk.
T'eo was overhyped when he played for us and has done nothing to suggest he's improved, a great selection for us but Eddie is nobody's fool.
Ford, which one could we expect to show up, very unreliable. If Slade wasn't selected I'd be happy.

[Logorrhea]

For a team that lacks forward ball carriers and struggles to get go forward, a Teo / Tuilagi centre pairing would do them a lot of good.

[wixfjord]

T'eo was overhyped when he played for us and has done nothing to suggest he's improved

Except play well at test level and for the Lions.

[Oldschoolsocks]

The mid-field I hope they don't pick is Farrell, Tuilagi and Slade which combines physique, aggression and intelligence. The one they may pick is Ford, Farrell and T'eo which combines Kicking, High-Tackling and Bullocking. Joe would be happy with the latter.

Tuilagi might not last 80 mins so that would be a risk.
T'eo was overhyped when he played for us and has done nothing to suggest he's improved, a great selection for us but Eddie is nobody's fool.
Ford, which one could we expect to show up, very unreliable. If Slade wasn't selected I'd be happy.

I thought Ben T’eo was actually very good for us. For some reason most people wanted to see him as a 12, while I think his best performances for us were always at 13, probably because there was more space for him to move in (?). Some of his lines were really good and above all else he was a warrior.

He joined a shite team in the PRL and Eddie Jones doesn’t really know what to do with him. I guarantee that if Joe had persuaded him to line out for Ireland and had some quality time with him he would be a far better player than he is now.

[Oldschool]

T'eo was overhyped when he played for us and has done nothing to suggest he's improved

Except play well at test level and for the Lions.

Each to his own, this discussion has taken place before, you haven't changed your opinion and I haven't changed mine so let's just leave it at that.

[leinsterforever]

It seems to me that passing is a fairly important part of a centre's game. You could probably break that down into two sub-categories - actual pass execution, and reading of the game to select the right sort of pass. BOD would probably score 7/10 or 8/10 on skill execution. There were some wild ones where he threw a pass too high into touch. He gets 10/10 for reading a situation a selecting the best type of pass though. He was almost unrivalled at that. I'd give Te'o maybe 4 or 5 out of 10 for skill execution, but only about 2/10 for right option selection. He hardly ever passes before contact. It's always an offload after taking contact with him. He's a league backrower. That's what he was asked to do all the time. He can have an impact, but he's certainly not someone I'd look to build a team around, especially at inside centre

[wixfjord]

T'eo was overhyped when he played for us and has done nothing to suggest he's improved

Except play well at test level and for the Lions.

Each to his own, this discussion has taken place before, you haven't changed your opinion and I haven't changed mine so let's just leave it at that.

Yes, he has shown improvement by moving up two tiers of rugby.

[Laighin Break]

Except play well at test level and for the Lions.

Each to his own, this discussion has taken place before, you haven't changed your opinion and I haven't changed mine so let's just leave it at that.

Yes, he has shown improvement by moving up two tiers of rugby.

Doesn't necessarily mean he's improved. He wasn't eligible to play for Ireland and there wasn't a Lions tour when he was with Leinster. Got drafted into England squad pretty much immediately when he moved over.

[wixfjord]

Doesn't necessarily mean he's improved. He wasn't eligible to play for Ireland and there wasn't a Lions tour when he was with Leinster. Got drafted into England squad pretty much immediately when he moved over.

Yep and then got into a Lions test team. I'd say that's an improvement.