Assessing the Northern Hemisphere teams: England

@ Ben.S: Possible England XV: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Marland Yarde, 13 Joel Tomkins, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Chris Ashton, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 Tom Wood, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Mako Vunipola.

How are England and Wales UNDEATED? Are their current rankings ot indicative of thr recent on field preformances? If England s underate at No 3 does that imply the team above them are overated and un deserving of their current rankigs of NO1 and No2.?

ABs have effectively two squads for their EOYT. The Japan test will feature all their newcomers and their older veterans will rest up in France waiting for the kids to catch up. Worth noting that Wales had originally asked to play the ABs but NZ said no.

I am an Englishman. That's why I said I thought England had been poor under Lancaster. I can only think of around 3 good performances over the past 2 seasons. I don't know. Depends on the sides selected. As things stand I'm not confident. I could see them routing us potentially.

We will disagree about Lancaster.Mediocre or not,other than the Welsh game in the last 6N,he has still got the results.Call it gut instinct,but I truly believe he is on the right track. With Woodward,I always felt that England team almost coached itself,with Martin Johnson the real force behind the England team's success.It seemed to me that sheer longevity enabled Woodward to get his selections (and coaching) right. I'm curious,as an Englishman,how do you see the England-AB game panning out.As I have already said,it's a 50-50 game at best.Definitely the hardest game for the AB's on their EOYT..

Apart from the NZ game last season nearly every single good/great attacking game we've seen from England has come with Toby Flood at 10.

Your not wrong, Burns just looks like a 12 year old! Where wuld you see Flood fitting in? (except as third string flyu half) He'll be 30 come the WC and although his form took Tigers to the championship he has never seemed quite up to international standard, especially when the pressure is on.

I haven't seen any real tactical variety from game to game. England have looked very mediocre under Lancaster. At times they've looked horrific. Woodward was overrated, but he generally tailored his selections for the opposition, which contradicts what you're saying.

Second only to perhaps NZ, I think England has the best depth of any pro Rugby nation. SA is starting to wear thin with the issue of the availability of players in Europe. Even with Barrit and Tuilagi out, they're excellently placed, with Tomkins, Burrell, 12trees, Joseph all in line. They've got 3 scrum halves fighting for the shirt, 5 or more fly halves in the picture, lots of forwards including the captain Robshaw in the running for a spot. In my opinion there will be a lot of experimentation with combinations this November. Don't expect the same pairings for any consecutive matches. Stuart Lancaster is all about development and this is pretty much the last chance for him to see his possibles in action before nailing down his RWC team

Tane,what am I missing? That people consistently under-estimate this English team beggars belief. For mine,this is the best coached England team I have seen.And that includes the England team of 2001-3.Woodward was vastly over-rated,he just had a team of great players around him.Lancaster,on the other hand,devises tactics for each team he faces.The sure sign of a good coach.

People label Goode pedestrian because he doesn't have searing pace, but he's an accomplished runner, and he generally beats defenders when he returns kicks whilst carrying the ball.

Brown has been the best fullback in England over the last few seasons, but he's never had a run of games there for England. I hope Lancaster plays him there for the autumn internationals and not on the wing, where he has struggled, which isn't surprising because he isn't a winger. I wouldn't be too unhappy if Foden played but I still don't think that he's quite back to his best form. Goode is pretty pedestrian at international level and I don't think his skillet is quite so necessary to have at 15 when Twelvetrees is playing at 12.

Well I thought quite highly of him, saw a few matches last year when he played Club matches

I think he injured his hand, hence his pathetic attempt at a tackle on JdV (?) that SA scored from. From memory Goode went to 15 and Foden to 11. Brown is an out and out 15 (never really played wing at club level), but Lancaster played him at 11 (he's left footed) just for the aerial game. He was found out defensively a few times, and lacks the pace to be a Test wing, but he did have some good games tbf. Brown is generally always one of the best players in the Aviva Premiership but I think he suffers from being stereotyped as the conservative option despite the fact he actually has a strong counter attacking game. It comes down to what style of play England want to go with. Foden is an out and out ball runner and is very safe under the high ball, but his kicking game is erratic. Alex Goode is a converted 10 who is also a good ball runner, but has a much better kicking game and is more of a playmaker than Foden. He steps in at first and second receiver on occasion, although IMO Lancaster misused him last season. Brown is probably the more rounded 15 given that Foden was first capped by England at scrum half, and Goode was a 10. I'm a big fan of Brown, but I'd select Foden on the basis of his relationship with Ashton (they used to play together at Northampton). Ashton really needs others to bring out the best in him because the Lancaster style of play hasn't really suited him. England don't really have any natural 11s ATM, so we may well see Brown shifted to the wing again.

What happened to Brown, I seem to recall a wing/fullback by the name Brwon that came to SA last year, but by memory he got injured in the first match?

My personal preference: 1. Corbisiero, 2. Hartley, 3. Wilson, 4. Attwood, 5. Parling, 6. Wood (c), 7. Robshaw 8. Morgan; 9. Ben Youngs, 10. Flood, 11. Yarde, 12. Twelvetrees, 13. Tomkins, 14. Ashton, 15. Foden 16. Tom Youngs, 17. Mako Vunipola, 18. Dan Cole, 19. Courtney Lawes, 20. Billy Vunipola; 21. Care, 22. Farrell, 23. Eastmond

I don't know what basis you think Wales 'look the best'? If England beat mediocre teams then so did Wales, and Wales have basically only posted one very good performance in the past 10 Tests.

Again results speaks louder than words when they beat south africa, wallabies, all blacks consistantly then they can be regarded as on equal footing with these teams. Of the northern teams wales look the best, but again I want to see results from wales.

Soooo... If Corbisiero is out England can't rely on Marler. He still has problems controlling his temper and he's an erratic scrummager. Vunipola has awesome potential and is a very good footballer, but he's also an erratic scrummager. However, if England pick a bonafide tighthead lock in Dave Attwood that would aid the scrum. IMHO England cannot go on in selecting 5 locks in tandem, especially with the new scrum laws. Dan Cole wasn't at his best on the Lions tour, and although he's playing well for Leicester I'd be inclined to start David Wilson. Wilson does have a habit of making poor decisions as to when to carry the ball and when not too, but he was in great form in the summer, and he's playing very well ATM. He's a good scrummager and very aggressive. I think that Wilson and Attwood would provide a real hard edge to the pack. No other Test lock compares to Launchbury in terms of footballing ability, but he's still developing physically, and with no Croft and Parling calling the lineout can England afford to play him if Corbisiero isn't there? Tom Wood selects himself at 6, and Robshaw probably does at 7 too. Kvesic played well in Argentina, but is he doing enough to usurp Robshaw? Not IMO. I'd go with Ben Morgan at 8 and Vunipola off the bench. Danny Care and Ben Youngs are both world class, and Lee Dickson has impressed for Northampton, but who plays 10? It always puzzles me when Toby Flood is labelled as safe. He set up a try against Ulster by taking the ball to the line and popping an inside ball behind the back to a support runner. I've never seen Farrell do that. Farrell is a good kicker, great defender and an excellent communicator - he really drives a side, but if England want to play with width - which they need to do IMO he isn't the man for that task. Freddie Burns isn't having a great season to date, so I would start Youngs and Flood. Flood is still occasionally very indecisive and runs into tackles, but I think he has a good passing game and he brings players into the game in a way that Farrell can't. If you have a player like Flood at 10 then it's probably more logical to play a ball runner at 12 as opposed to another distributor. I like Twelvetrees, but I think that Luther Burrell would give go forward (something Barritt is very poor at. Tomkins is the obvious choice at 13 IMO. He's big, a good defender and he has a very good off-loading game. With Youngs, Flood and Tomkins all looking to bring inside runners on to them I'd start Ashton at 14 because of his support play, however, the conundrum at 11 remains. Who starts there? I'm a fan of Yarde, but he's raw. Wade is a right winger and even more raw. Do England play a strike runner like Foden at 15 and Mike Brown on the wing, or a genuine winger? David Strettle has been tried and been found wanting so do you shoe horn a 14 into the 11 jersey? It didn't work when the same was tried with Ashton.