England rejig backline for Boks Test
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England have made three personnel changes and two positional for their must-win second Test clash against South Africa at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Saturday.
Jonathan Joseph was called up at outside centre, David Strettle on the left wing and Toby Flood at five-eighth by coach Stuart Lancaster as he seeks to square a three-match series after a 22-15 loss in Durban last weekend.
Ben Foden moves from the left wing to his more accustomed role of fullback while Samoa-born giant Manu Tuilagi switches from outside centre to inside centre.
Only right winger Chris Ashton, who has gone seven Tests without a try, and halfback Ben Youngs among the backs keep the positions they occupied when the first Test kicked off at Kings Park.
A couple of the personnel changes were forced as fullback Mike Brown flew home this week after injuring his thumb in Durban while inside centre Brad Barritt can only resume playing next week after a first-Test eye injury.
Young five-eighth Owen Farrell drops to the replacements bench after several indifferent performances for the Six Nations runners-up while Flood starts for the first time since their 2011 World Cup quarter-final loss to France.
There are no changes to the pack and on the bench prop Alex Corbisiero comes in for Paul Doran Jones while Farrell and fullback Alex Goode fill the places vacated by Joseph and Flood.
Lancaster, who succeeded Martin Johnson this year after the World Cup flop, said he was thrilled to give 21-year-old London Irish centre Joseph a chance.
“I am delighted for JJ. He has trained very well and showed against the Barbarians and in his short time on the field in the first Test that he is ready to make the step up to international rugby,” said the 42-year-old with a record of four victories and two losses at Test level.
“To have two 21-year-old centres is exciting and we are looking forward to seeing this combination in action.
“Owen has had a fantastic season and I am sure he will make a significant impact from the bench. However, Toby has waited patiently for his opportunity and the time is right to allow him the demonstrate his experience and skills.
South Africa, who were playing for the first time under new coach Heyneke Meyer last weekend, have won eight consecutive Tests against England starting with a 25-14 triumph at Twickenham six years ago.
© AFP 2013England:Ben Foden, Chris Ashton, Jonathan Joseph, Manu Tuilagi, David Strettle, Toby Flood, Ben Youngs, Ben Morgan, Chris Robshaw (capt), Tom Johnson, Geoff Parling, Mouritz Botha, Dan Cole, Dylan Hartley, Joe Marler.
Replacements: Lee Mears, Alex Corbisiero, Tom Palmer, Phil Dowson, Lee Dickson, Owen Farrell, Alex Goode
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June 15th 2012 @ 3:53am
The Werewolf said | June 15th 2012 @ 3:53am | Report comment
I am excited by the selection of Jonathan Joseph.
I’ve believed for about a year now that an eventual Tuilagi-Joseph combo in the centres will be the Carling-Guscott pairing of this decade.
England will now have something they’ve been aspiring too for some time. A decent centre pairing.
June 15th 2012 @ 4:21am
Rugby Fan said | June 15th 2012 @ 4:21am | Report comment
On England rugby forums, there’s some approval of Lancaster’s changes to the starting XV but a lot of concern about the bench. We lacked impact players there in the first Test and these reserves look similar.
Dowson is favoured as back row cover over Waldrom or Haskell but he hasn’t shown much in an England shirt to date. Farrell is on the bench but arguably could have been dropped in favour of a more robust centre replacement. Mears doesn’t frighten anyone. Danny Care is probably unluckiest to lose out to Dickson for the reserve scrum half spot. Palmer, Goode and Corbisiero are about as good as we have in the squad to fill the other spots.
Flood is broadly a welcome selection. England have played their best attacking rugby when he controls the game. They also look all at sea when he’s on the back foot so that’s a risk. The young centre pairing is a brave choice but obviously could be found wanting in defence. Strettle on the wing is not a great threat but Monye is injured and Lancaster didn’t want to risk playing Wade given his defensive frailties.
In general, England supporters thought out best chance would be the first Test. Even then, most pundits, including the likes of Will Greenwood and former captain Lewis Moody, still favoured the Boks to win. As a consequence, no-one is talking up this team but there is hope that they can show something different to last weekend.
June 15th 2012 @ 5:19am
Original Ben S said | June 15th 2012 @ 5:19am | Report comment
I’m dubious about Tuilagi at 12. I know he’s new to outside centre, but if his distribution is bad for a 13 then I’m not sure how he will help release Joseph. I assume he’ll be used as a battering ram when the SA pack inevitably starts to dictate the pace of the game. I thought Frans Steyn was very influential in the first Test, so perhaps Tuilagi will help tie him in as he did crunch JdV a few times. I’m still not sold on Joseph, but it’s good to see a bit of pace in the midfield. I’m also looking forward to seeing Youngs and Joseph.
I really can’t see why Dowson is on the bench ahead of Haskell, and I agree re: Mears and Dickson. Ridiculous not to use Care IMO.
June 15th 2012 @ 5:57am
Original Ben S said | June 15th 2012 @ 5:57am | Report comment
* Youngs and Flood, not Youngs and Joseph.
June 15th 2012 @ 9:16am
nickoldschool said | June 15th 2012 @ 9:16am | Report comment
Agree with you O.B.S regarding Tuilagi at n12. We (rugby world) went from elusive, creative and skilled playmakers to big, strong, straight-running guyz. Dunno if its the solution really and i do prefer to have him at n13 (or wing) than n12.
June 15th 2012 @ 5:22am
King of the Gorgonites said | June 15th 2012 @ 5:22am | Report comment
What was the point of that mid week game? If care can’t get a start after that performance, then what does he have to do?
Haskell should be on the bench at least. The pack lacks punch.
June 15th 2012 @ 5:33am
Rugby Fan said | June 15th 2012 @ 5:33am | Report comment
Haskell has developed a habit of picking up yellow cards. Before, he just gave away penalties. Whatever you think about the merits of the card he got against the SA Barbarians, it wouldn’t have helped his case.
Given that Morgan isn’t expected to be able to last more than a half at number 8, Dowson isn’t really a great replacement option. It’s not fashionable to say this in England rugby circles but Nick Easter would have made for a stronger bench.
June 15th 2012 @ 5:45am
Viscount Crouchback said | June 15th 2012 @ 5:45am | Report comment
Bold and correct decision to drop Farrell.
Youngs is lucky to keep his place, imo, but perhaps he’ll improve alongside his clubmate, Flood.
Tuilagi-Joseph is surely a combination worth trying.
June 15th 2012 @ 5:55am
Original Ben S said | June 15th 2012 @ 5:55am | Report comment
I am assuming that Youngs was kicking under instruction. I also don’t think he is a good foil for Farrell. Youngs drags play across the gainline, and Farrell doesn’t have the ability to play off that. England don’t have the forwards to play off of Youngs like Leicester do either.
Of the current squad Tuilagi-Joseph probably is worth a punt, but 7 Tests in and Lancaster still has no playmaking 12 like he made reference to in his first set of interviews with the media.
June 15th 2012 @ 5:59am
Korngold said | June 15th 2012 @ 5:59am | Report comment
Firstly, Manu is not a giant. At six feet one he’s quite a bit shorter than North, Cuthbert, Traille, de Villiers. And at 110 kg he’s no heavier than Roberts who’s three inches higher. But like all those mentioned, he can’t easily be stopped. Joseph is an exciting addition. Not a big guy at 5 feet 11, 90 kg but fast with a well-deserved rep for knowing where the tryline is. He’ll be a big improvement in a backline that has to work on Saturday or all is lost.
WEREWOLF – you made me sigh for the days back when England could come up with a Carling/Guscott combo. Jeremy was always the fastest man on the field if Underwood gave him a bit of a start. And Carling had a swerve I haven’t seen in an English centre since. How many centre combos since then? Got a calculator? I doubt if Toby can stand up to the attention he’s going to get from the Bok forwards. They’ll barrel him if they can reach him and I don’t know what he’s supposed to do when Alberts or Beast or the du Plessis brothers run at him.
And who is the ORIGINAL BEN S? Is he the one who lives in Bromley or is that the unoriginal Ben S. Please inform.
June 15th 2012 @ 6:08am
Original Ben S said | June 15th 2012 @ 6:08am | Report comment
Original Ben S is the Bromley one. I noticed that another Ben S had written on a thread and so changed accordingly.
June 15th 2012 @ 6:25am
biltongbek said | June 15th 2012 @ 6:25am | Report comment
I am interested to see how the revamped English back line is going to perform, I think the only reason why Flood is selected at 10 is to stand more flat and take the attack to the South Africans, whether he is going to be more successful at getting the line away is to be seen.
I expect England’s plan will be for Flood to take the ball up with Tuilagi coming off his shoulder, hoping to create hesitation in the Sa defense.
Not sure that will work though and chanes are Tuilagi isn’t going to pass much, so the English forwards will have to be sharp to set the ruck up.
With Brussow not there, they are probably thinking with no specialist pilfered it will work.
But then they will need quicker ball to retain momentum for the next phase.
Tuilagi did run over JdV once or twice, Fran’s Steyn is no mug on defense either, so I would expect Tuilagi to run at Morne Steyn, but that would not necessarily work, in the Super XV Morne had the best tackling success rates of all the fly halves in SA.
Other than that, I don’t really expect much more from their attack.
June 15th 2012 @ 7:05am
Original Ben S said | June 15th 2012 @ 7:05am | Report comment
Youngs and Flood play club rugby together. Youngs crabs and looks for gaps in the defence to flick out longer passes or shorter inside balls with players coming in at angles. When on form they are arguably the best two attacking halves in Europe. Ashton plays well off of Flood, and likes to cut inside as you saw last week. I presume that Tuilagi will be used to generate quick ball or for decoys. There’s no way he will be England’s primary attacking weapon.
June 15th 2012 @ 7:11am
mania said | June 15th 2012 @ 7:11am | Report comment
should be a good game and both boks and eng will be beter after last weekend.
i imagine they’ll try and send lots of traffic down mornes channel but think they’ll be surprised with his defence. morne didnt miss a tackle last week. theres no room to step that close to the forwards and all morne has to do is slow them down or get them to deviate away from the shorter straighter route.
flood i like but the times i’ve seen him start he’s been inconsistent in the second half. hope he has a good game though.
tuilagi maybe smaller than north but he’s stronger. anyone going high on him will have to have better strength balance and leverage and anyone going low better not drop their head too soon. tuilagi suits 12 where he can easily hold his own against forwards and backs closer to the action. frans though is no light weight and even though there are tons of kudo’s about frans i still reckon he’s underestimated .
should be a good game. i expect massive improvements from both teams. too close to call an outright winner
June 15th 2012 @ 6:46am
Korngold said | June 15th 2012 @ 6:46am | Report comment
Glad that’s sorted out ORIGINAL BEN. Did you know they named a brand of instant rice after you? Now that Tuilagi’s playing 12 I’m looking forward to seeing how Frans Steyne handles him as Manu flattened de Villiers on one occasion, although Steyne is several ks heavier than Jean. You’re right about still no playmaking 12. The Boks call it the English disease – the inability of English coaches to get a 12-13 combo that can set things up for the quality wings we do have (or the ones we left behind). As a Quins and England supporter it’s hard to be optimistic for the test partly because the Bok forwards will run the ball at us better than we’ll run it at them, unless Ben is feeling his oats, and partly because Morne will hit at least two drop kicks in that thin air.
June 15th 2012 @ 7:02am
Original Ben S said | June 15th 2012 @ 7:02am | Report comment
Really? I’ll have to Google that little nugget.
Tbh, even if Tuilagi-Joseph doesn’t work out it should be a good lesson for Tuliagi to play infield one position.
Since 2003 the midfield really has been a conundrum. I thought Hape was underrated. He was never going to be a great, but he did what he was meant to do reasonably well. Before him Flutey added some real panache when fit, and it is a real shame IMO that he had so many injury problems. Going into the 2009 Lions tour I had him pencilled in as the starting 12. With that in mind I find it odd that Lancaster is yet to alternate players like Barritt and Turner-Hall with a playmaking 12, as he alluded to prior to the 6N.
Re: Harlequins, I thought Lowe looked very good against the SA Barbarians. I know they weren’t exactly stiff opposition, but I think he’s a classy footballer. He isn’t the biggest but has a low centre of gravity like O’Driscoll. He does the simple things so well like carrying the ball in two hands. Always looks like he has time on the ball too. I would have liked to have seen him starting alongside Turner-Hall yesterday. Playing JTH and Allen is another example of Lancaster’s muddled thinking IMO.
SA should be better this week, especially at altitude,, and with Flood-Tuilagi-Joseph there it looks like we’ll be playing a different brand of rugby than last week which means we are basically going into the game cold again instead of building on last week. All things considered I think the backline has better balance with Foden at 15 and Joseph at 13 (not happy about Strettle), but it will come down to how long the pack can maintain the necessary intensity. I thought in the first half our forwards were excellent.
June 15th 2012 @ 8:52am
Rusty said | June 15th 2012 @ 8:52am | Report comment
that backline has for more punch than the previous test and with people back to their preferred positions could be a real threat. I would expect Manu to come in the game more this week as he should recieve better ball. Remains to be seen if the ball moves from him though. As usual, it will come down to the forwards again to make the hard yards and if either sides pack can go up a notch or two. I expect they will
June 15th 2012 @ 9:04am
Bellringer said | June 15th 2012 @ 9:04am | Report comment
Love Joseph. Give Wade a crack!
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June 15th 2012 @ 9:11am
Joshy said | June 15th 2012 @ 9:11am | Report comment
Honestly, I expect a 30 point victory to the Boks. They were unlucky not to win by 20+ in the 1st test thanks to Steyn having an off night with the boot. This will be at altitude, final 20 minutes England will want to go home.
June 15th 2012 @ 9:20am
Original Ben S said | June 15th 2012 @ 9:20am | Report comment
Well… SA won by 5 points and Steyn missed 7 points from the boot and Farrell missed 2 points.
June 15th 2012 @ 3:17pm
Joshy said | June 15th 2012 @ 3:17pm | Report comment
The last English try was only due to a terrible lapse in concentration from the Boks on the 81st minute. Take those 5 points away too.
June 15th 2012 @ 5:41pm
Ivan said | June 15th 2012 @ 5:41pm | Report comment
Dont forget that some of the Boks were totally undercooked. If Hougaard is on form, the Boks should walk england by 20.
I hope Wales can beat the Aussies,
NZ should win by 40.
June 15th 2012 @ 7:35pm
Original Ben S said | June 15th 2012 @ 7:35pm | Report comment
80th minute. And I could say the SA tries came about due to lapses in concentration.
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How were the Boks undercooked? They’d played Super rugby the week previous whereas the majority of England players haven’t played in weeks.
June 16th 2012 @ 4:02pm
Suzy Poison said | June 16th 2012 @ 4:02pm | Report comment
I expect a much closer tussle. Possibly only a penalty kick to decide the outcome.