MAILBOX: England's RWC squad
With England’s 30-man Rugby World Cup squad now finalised, we asked you if this was the right group of men to defend the spoils won four years ago. These are your thoughts on Brian Ashton’s selection…
Yet again Farrell selected. Lets face it the chap is absolutely useless at this level of rugby. He is the original cart horse slow in action slow in thought. I suspect that Ashton was ordered to select him in an effort to justify the huge fee paid to league. Please will someone tell us who made the decision to import him from League? whoever did should be made to repay all the monies involved.
I would also question the omittance of Palmer and the selection of Corry as a sec row, don’t get me wrong I would have selected Corry as back row. What sort of message is being sent-out to aspiring young players when the likes of Palmer is dropped! Corry has never featured as a line-out jumper and at this stage of his career cannot suddenly learn to shove as a sec row. Another players selection I would question is Sackey lets face it he can run in a try if given a pure run-in situation but he doesn’t possess the subtlety of running that equips himself as an international winger plus the fact that he couldn’t tackle his Grandmother.
In summary I do not expect England to progress very far in this World Cup how many tries will the three’s score? Not very many except against the minnows
– Des Egan
Nice squad!
Glad to see Olly get a chance to impress in the RWC.
– Nick
Unbelievable that Ashton has picked Easter over Haskell.
Haskell and Rees were instrumental for Wasps in their Heineken Cup campaign, and easily the two most promising forwards in English rugby. Easter might have had a couple of decent games for England, but he doesn’t offer what Haskell can.
Hopefully Haskell gets a lucky break, and will be used in this tournament.
– Sander Baas
I think both Toby Flood and Danny Cipriani will be sorely missed.
– Jeff
Is there a reason why Richard Hill has not been considered for the RWC squad?
Clearly aware of his recent injury problems but am curious as to why he has not even been mentioned in recent articles when England are clearly look for class and Hill has been one of the pre-eminent performers for England and in world rugby over the past decade.
– Chris
Simple question – “show me the pace”
With the exception of Sackey there is no real pace in the squad at all. Cueto and Lewsey aren’t slow, but don’t have blistering pace – Robinson is quick in bursts with phenomenal acceleration, but without the injured Strettle and now by dropping Abendanon Ashton seems to be looking for a power play game.
Power is fine, but what power does is create space – and to use space you need pace.
– Dave Tooke
Excellent squad. Youth and inexperience have never won world cups and I admire Ashton for his selections. I think Ashton is growing into the coach’s role day by day. He understands what England’s strengths are at this point in time and there is no point in trying something new. His ambition must be to get to the semis and he has selected a squad to do just that. To win the Cup? That is a different matter, and probably not on his mind. If he can guide England to the semis he could arguably deserve more praise than Clive Woodward for winning the cup, given England’s form over the past two years.
– Tom
Good to see Big Lol in the RWC squad. He is still a great player even at 35-years of age.
– Max Brightwell
It is a sad reflection on respect for the younger players in England to pick some of those players to many to mention. It is good news for other teams, England could easily go out early.
It is clear England should now start looking for another coach who can build a team for the future rather than continue with players who are well past their “sell by date”.
– Irish Pensioner
