Video credit: Premiership Rugby
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Aviva Premiership Try of the Week: Round 12 Contenders
Watch the best tries from round 12 of the Aviva Premiership, with an outrageously strong selection this week
Watch the best tries from round 12 of the Aviva Premiership, with an outrageously strong selection this week
Video credit: Premiership Rugby
11 replies on “Aviva Premiership Try of the Week: Round 12 Contenders”
The Alex Tait try is awful defending from Burrell! Why has he gone that high!?
Probably go for the Myler try or the Haskell try. Myler’s is probably a better team try but Wade is electric and a great watch.
Haskell’s try aside, there is one thing abundantly clear in all the others. Some truly awful tackling/defending. And as Jacob pointed out, Burrell’s is probably the most shocking. After that defensive display, Barritt will still be on the England team sheet then!!
God I hope not. I’ll take Burrell’s attacking ability and sharp lines over Barritt’s defensive skill any day – even if it does mean a missed tackle or two per game
Besides, being bored last night I looked at Burrell’s tackle stats for his 6 starts for England in comparison to Barritt’s last 6 starts.
Burrell made 35, missed 9
Barritt made 58, missed 5
So 4 missed tackles is the difference between them
On the other hand though, Burrell has scored 3 tries in 6 starts and Barritt 2 tries in 19 starts
Hope Lancaster goes for a positive, attacking mindset for the 6 Nations rather than the conservative approach he seemed to favour in the autumn internationals. We will not beat Wales at home with the centre partnerships we played over the autumn
The same goes for selecting Wade as well. It’s not just the tries he scores, it’s the breaks he makes, the tries he sets up (unlike many england players he seems to understand the idea of drawing the defender and then passing the ball) and the panic he causes in opposition defences.
I did type it with my tongue firmly in my cheek! But it’s interesting you say that the difference in their defensive records is only 4 missed tackles, but have ignored the extra 23 tackles that Barritt has made.
Personally I would rather have at least one out and out attacking centre and let the other pick up the defensive stance, but I think I would still rather have Eastmond at 12. I just think he has a little more to offer as an all round game than Burrell.
True Dazza, but that’s the key stat if the argument is that Burrell is a bad tackler.
The extra tackles for Barritt could be down to any number of reasons
Personally I’d like my centres to be good defensively and very good on attack. I’d love to see a combo of Burrell and Slade, which to my mind would be the closest thing we’ve got to the Nonu / Smith partnership (I have accepted that we won’t see Tuilagi for the 6 Nations)
However, that may be a step too far for Lancaster right now
I think the 10/12 axis is probably more important. And although a lot of people didn’t like it, I suspect that’s why SL wanted to play Ford/Farrell in those positions together. Unfortunately with Barritt outside them it was never really going to work. With someone like Burrell or Joseph outside Farrell, you could see the combination working much better.
It seems that these younger players (early 20’s say) that have come up from the U20’s in the last couple of years (for instance Slade, Nowell, Watson, Ford, Farrell, Tomkins etc), all seem to be better defensively than a lot of the older back three players. If they’re playing in Premiership matches now, then get them in the set-up and let them put a marker down. I suspect that a lot of these younger players could do the job if given the opportunity.
Nowell was hard to bring down all game. I was impressed by him. Might be forcing his way back into the reckoning. Still can’t believe that Charlie Sharples is still being overlooked. He made Nowell look slow!
Nowell does seem to have the Mike Brown-esque ability to break tackles
I suspect Sharples overlook is something to do with his defensive frailties? It’s the main reason Ashton was dropped, and the reason Wade was not in the AIs. May, Roko, Nowell and Watson have all proved to be better defensively that their previous counterparts, and Yarde has improved enough to be considered again. We all know how SL likes players who can defend first!
Dazza, Sharples is actually playing at FB at present. He wouldn’t be there if he couldn’t tackle or position himself. I think the defensive frailty thing with him is a bit of a fantasy really. Ashton has proved his defensive frailties. Wade we really don’t know. I’d like to see him given a go in the 6n.
Wade is amazing going forward, and we don’t have another player like him, but his defensive positioning is still pretty bad. I don’t know if it’s a communication breakdown, or a lack of organisation? Saying that I would definitely play him in the 6N. I would like to see a back three of May, Wade and Watson, but I can’t see Brown being overlooked.
I think Sharples probably has as much chance as Strettle of getting picked. Too many better options, and playing at FB is probably not going to help his cause.