With just under a year to go, who enhanced their chances of featuring at Rugby World Cup 2015 at the weekend, and who did themselves no favours?
GOING UP
Rhys Ruddock
Leinster, Ireland
The big Leinster flanker was a real nuisance with ball in hand at the weekend, ending with six defenders beaten and 46 metres made. He put in a powerful finish to score an important try and was a consistent source of ball at a flawless Leinster set piece. Looks set for some Ireland game time in the autumn.
Dan Biggar
Ospreys, Wales
Biggar and Rhys Webb have probably been the success story of the season so far. They are clearly on the same wave length and are surely in the driving seat for the Wales half-back shirts this autumn, especially given Priestland’s poor form and Mike Phillips’ lack of game time across the channel. The O’s fly-half controlled the game brilliantly at Thomond, kicking his goals and steering his side to a famous win.
Stuart Hogg
Glasgow Warriors, Scotland
All has not been well with Hogg for a while now – there were rumours of a rift in the Glasgow camp and he was heavily linked with a move to Ulster or Saracens over the summer. It’s great to see him, then, back in the starting line-up and scoring tries/beating defenders for fun again. If Scotland are to make strides before the World Cup they need a happy Stuart Hogg firing on all cylinders.
Morgan Parra
Clermont, France
Parra’s exclusion from the France squad for the upcoming November internationals certainly raised a few eyebrows, and if his performances since have been anything to go by he won’t be out in the cold for too long. At the weekend he steered his side to that rarest of French beasts – an away win. With only two scrum-halves in the 25-man France squad, expect Parra to be called up should there be any injuries.
Dave Ewers
Exeter Chiefs, England
Sam Hill and Henry Slade have been hogging the headlines down in Exeter, meaning the form of man mountain Dave Ewers has gone somewhat under the radar. The Zimbabwean born number-eight-come-blindside possesses blistering physicality, and allied with his monumentally high work rate, he allows the likes of Waldrom and White alongside him in the back row to excel. He’s not all graft, however, as his sleight of hand last week against Gloucester proved. Could be a wildcard for England selection this autumn, especially given his versatility.
Dan Robson
Gloucester, England
Scrum-half is not the position of greatest strength for England, meaning it is perhaps the most open to a bolter coming in before the World Cup next year. Dan Robson could certainly be that man, especially given the slow starts Care, Youngs and Dickson have made to the season. Gloucester played with a noticeably quicker tempo against London Welsh with him in the nine shirt.
Alex Goode
Saracens, England
Goode was surely one of the players of the weekend after his masterclass at the back against Sale. The stats are often a bit skewed for fullbacks given how much space they have to run in sometimes, but 136 metres made from just nine carries would be impressive against even the slowest of defensive lines. He’ll be there or thereabouts come the Autumn Internationals.
GOING DOWN
Freddie Burns
Leicester, England
Burns has had a strong start to the season in a Tigers shirt, but at the weekend against London Irish it looked as if some of the demons of last season had crept back in. There were a couple of regulation kicks at goal missed – which ultimately cost the Tigers the win – and he did not look particularly threatening with ball in hand. It’s likely just a blip, but he needs a big performance this weekend back at his old stomping ground Kingsholm.
Gael Fickou
Toulouse, France
It’s tough not to feel sorry for Fickou. Once hailed as the great saviour of French rugby, he has been messed around by Guy Noves for Toulouse and looks to have lost a lot of his confidence. Shunted out to the wing on occasion and consequently not selected for the France squad this autumn, he’s still young enough to come again but needs some consistency of selection at club level.
Moray Low
Exeter Chiefs, Scotland
In general, life has been rosy on the South Coast so far this season, but Low’s start to his Chiefs career has been in stark contrast. The scrum visibly weakened after he joined the fray against Quins, but fortunately his side were far enough out of sight by then that it didn’t matter. Warming the bench won’t be doing his Scotland chances any good, though.
Luke Wallace
Harlequins, England
It’s been an inauspicious start to the season for the Harlequins pack as a whole, and sadly that seems to have rubbed off on Wallace too. He was fairly ineffective against Exeter at the weekend, not offering anything on the couple of occasions that he carried the ball and going missing a bit in defence. Given the good form of other young English back-rowers at the moment, Wallace’s chances of international recognition in the near future seem to be slipping.
Danny Care
Harlequins, England
The Harlequins scrum-half’s form this season hasn’t been terrible – he’s not been doing a great deal wrong – but given the eye-catching nature of the displays we know he is capable of, it’s been a slow start. There have been very few of the sniping breaks we have come to expect from him. One saving grace, and an argument for why his stock arguably isn’t actually dropping, is that his closest contenders for the England shirt are either preforming equally as poorly (Youngs) or warming the bench (Dickson).
What do you make of our list? Who were you impressed/disappointed with over the weekend?
By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43
Tom Waldrom.. mentioned Ewers above allowing rest of the back row to excel. Waldrom has done just that. He’s benefiting from a run in the starting lineup and looking more like the guy who won Prem player of the year a couple of years back.
Whilst I don’t see him moving past Vunipola or Morgan at this late stage, I’d like to think he’d be back on England’s radar if there was an injury to either.
I know you mentioned him along with Biggar but I’d still say that Webb deserves his own nod. Biggar and Webb are, and I’m hoping I don’t jinx it here, displaying that quality which is hard to find in Wales – match control. I know I’m going to be really, really gutted when the Welsh squad is announced and it’s a Priestland/Phillips starting pair…
Webb’s been in the last two instalments of Stock Check Brighty, which is why I went for Biggar this time! Agree he’s untouchable currently, which almost definitely means Gatland won’t pick him.
Anyone just seen apparently Corbs will be out till next year with a shoulder tear?
The poor guy must have walked under a dozen ladders and spent the weekend using a bulldozer to smash up a mirror shop. He can’t catch a break…
Strange that you think scrum half is a weak position for England – I’d argue it is probably one of our more competitive, and certainly one of the most settled in terms of squad selection.
When was the last time that Youngs/Care/Dickson were no in the EPS squad? Must have been years.
Youngs, I thought, was very good in the first two games of the season, particularly against Exeter. I didn’t see Leicesters game this weekend, but against Bath the demolition had nothing to do with him being particularly poor. Care is a strange on for me, I’m personally not a fan. Care looks fantastic when the team is playing well, BUT, always looks dreadful when things aren’t going his way.
With 9′s, they are always going to struggle to a certain extent if the pack/team are not performing, but Care appears to make things worse for himself. It is similar to Phillips in some ways. Behind packs that are dominating, they’re brilliant, but when they are not on top, they force things, making poor decisions and make things worse for themselves. Youngs can do it too occasionally, but he is getting much better for it, and has a very good kicking game which is useful when the packs on the back foot. Care’s kicking game on the other hand is really poor.
Youngs has the best kicking game, Dickson the best passing game, Care I’d say has the best all round game, but that’s not to say it’s all strengths.
For me scrum half is settled simply because everyone else is worse, not that we have great options to choose from. Robson was my pick at the start of last season, and he got benced to justify Cowans wages. He works well behind a beaten pack, has a fantastic kicking game and decent pass off both hands, very rapid, and a mongrel tackler. I just hope he gets a chnace to show it, with Laidlaw there.
See I’d more say that Dickson is the best passer of the ball, but all the while Farrell is our 10, he can not play. Care is great at sniping but lacks an all round game. Youngs for me has the best all round game. I’m a massive fan of his and he is as good as any 9 in the NH on his day. He was brilliant in the year leading up to the Lions tour, and made a huge impact in that first test match. He really struggled post-Lions tour though and didn’t really find form until the end of the season. He’d be my first choice 9 with Care on the bench come the Autumn. I’d be interested to see Robson jump Dickson in the pecking order though if there is injury.
Youngs passing just isn’t very good for me, off his left hand it’s plain poor, and off both hands he pumps the pass, just never seem to see him send it straight off the deck to his flyhalf.
Dickson also has a decent enough kicking game, but I agree, no point in pairing him with Farrell.