ENGLAND
15. Mike Brown: 6
Such a relief to see him back out on the pitch after sustaining what looked a horrible head injury in the first 15 minutes. Didn’t have the chance to influence the game while on.
14. Anthony Watson: 7.5
His feet are so quick they almost take you back to the days of Jason Robinson. Can’t be mentioned in the same breath yet in terms of sustained quality, but that is how dangerous he can be. Beat more defenders than everyone but Joseph, and coped well with the move to fullback.
13. Jonathan Joseph: 9
The answer for England’s attacking malaise in the midfield. His first try was an unfeasibly good solo effort, effortlessly jinking round the defender in the line before turning on the afterburners, keeping the ball in two hands (his childhood coach will be proud) to bamboozle the fullback and ghost over the line.
12. Luther Burrell: 6
Solid if unspectacular, it is always going to be tough to impress when you have Joseph performing so outrageously well alongside you. Coped well with the shift to 13 and generally did everything asked of him – although his spot will be under threat from Twelvetrees, who has one of his better games in an England shirt after coming on.
11. Jonny May: 5
His stats read well but there was more bad than good about May’s performance. Too often he made the wrong decision, eating up space when there was an overlap or kicking the ball away. Yes, he showed how dangerous his pace is when he set up Cipriani, but that was about his only positive contribution to the game.
10. George Ford: 7.5
Has taken some flak for standing too deep this week, but it gave him more time to put the likes of Joseph in space. The delay of his pass, which opened up a huge gap, for Joseph’s second try was one of the moments of the game, and meant the centre-come-winger could score untouched.
9. Ben Youngs: 7.5
Youngs was the only person on the pitch who seemingly didn’t want another scrum effort in the 55th minute. His presence of mind was too quick for the Italians, who should have known better than to allow a scrum-half that kind of opportunity.
1. Joe Marler: 8
Seems to get better with every game. Comfortably had Castrogiovanni’s number in the scrum, and was so physical in the tackle that I’m not sure anyone running near him ever made it over the gainline. Only black mark is the dogleg that led to Morisi’s first try, but Attwood takes a share of that blame too.
2. Dylan Hartley: 6
A couple of lineout wobbles early on, but they were ironed out over the course of the game. Didn’t have any great effect in the loose, but didn’t let anyone down either.
3. Dan Cole: 6.5
Another solid step on the road to full fitness for Cole, whose scrummaging was strong. There were a couple of glimpses of the nuisance he can bring at the breakdown, but his influence there should increase as he gets more gametime.
4. George Kruis: 7
Four missed tackles isn’t a brilliant stat, but Kruis still had a decent game. Comes across as the kind of niggly player that would be a nightmare to play against, which is a quality England have perhaps lacked in recent times.
5. Dave Attwood: 7
Superb at the lineout, where he disrupted early Italian ball, there was one barnstorming carry that sticks in the memory also. Missed a few tackles, including an important one that led to Morisi’s first try.
6. James Haskell: 7
Like Kruis, Haskell is making it very difficult for Lancaster to drop him when other options become available again. He seems to be everywhere, and there were several strong carries again at the weekend. Docked half a point for a couple of silly penalties conceded.
7. Chris Robshaw: 7.5
Couldn’t quite hit the mark of 26 tackles he set last week, but wasn’t too far away, again ending as the top tackler on the pitch with 19. Seems to finally believe in himself and is flourishing as a leader as a result.
8. Billy Vunipola: 8
Made 17 tackles, which again shows an immense appetite for work for someone his side. Was also more effective in the carry that last week, barrelling defenders out of the way at will. If he was lucky to have his try awarded, he showed an impressive willpower to make sure he grounded the ball when everyone else assumed he had been bundled into touch. Play to the whistle etc.
Replacements: 8
Had an overwhelmingly positive influence on the game, with Danny Cipriani and Nick Easter making scoring returns from the wilderness. Billy Twelvetrees pulled the strings well from 12 after he came on, while Tom Youngs, Kieron Brookes and Mako Vunipola have to be the most mobile set of front row replacements for quite some time. It allowed England to keep the tempo up and keep scoring tries well into the final ten minutes of the game.
ITALY
15. Luke McLean: 6
Was used as the main kicker when Italy were pinned inside their own half, which wasn’t actually that often. Still, his left boot was an effective territorial weapon, but he wasn’t as elusive in attack as he has been in the past.
14. Leonardo Sarto: 6.5
Lovely soft hands to set Parisse up in the opening stages, and a gloriously weighted chip and collect at the beginning of the second half that set things in motion for Morisi’s first try. In the negative column, he shouldn’t have drifted off Joseph as he galloped in for his first try.
13. Luca Morisi: 8
Two genuinely superb finishes saved his side from even further ignominy. If the defence was a bit soft for the second, the first was a masterpiece in assessing the situation in the defensive line, and making the most of a mismatch.
12. Andrea Masi: 6
The Wasps man was kept pretty quiet as his centre partner unquestionably stole the limelight. Didn’t have the same effect with his carrying that he does so regularly in the Premiership.
11. Giovambattista Venditti: 5
Brought into the team thanks to Campagnaro’s injury, it was easy to forget he was on the pitch at times. Only managed three carries – a poor return for any player.
10. Kelly Haimona: 4
Surely this man is not the answer for Italy’s number ten woes. There was no little endeavour but he doesn’t appear to have the speed of thought or accuracy of execution to be an international fly-half. Also missed six tackles.
9. Edoardo Gori: 5
To be fair to Gori, it must be tough playing behind a pack that was comfortably second best and with the world’s least creative fly-half outside him. Still, he couldn’t manage to spark anything himself, which was a shame.
1. Alberto di Marchi: 6
The Sale man didn’t suffer too badly in the scrums, but couldn’t really make any positive headway either. Good shift in the loose to make nine tackles.
2. Leonardo Ghiraldini: 5.5
Loads of endeavour, carrying the ball on plenty of occasions, but sadly went backwards more often than forwards. Add to that the lineout struggles early on, and it wasn’t a great day at the office.
3. Martin Castrogiovanni: 5
Put in a hell of a lot of work to finish as his side’s top tackler, despite only playing 58 minutes, but conceded three penalties as he was badly beaten up in the scrums by Marler.
4. George Biagi: 6.5
The loping strides of Biagi threatened to hurt England at times, but he never quite managed to break away. Still, he was one of Italy’s more successful ball-carriers.
5. Marco Bortolami: 5
As the lineout general, he will take some of the flak for its failures in the early stages. One of a handful of Italian forwards who are starting to look dangerously past their best.
6. Francesco Minto: 6
Doesn’t seem to have lived up to much of the potential that he showed a couple of years ago. Anonymous for most of the game.
7. Mauro Bergamasco: 5
Went off looking like he’d just run a marathon. You can’t doubt his workrate, but you have to question whether it translates into effective play anymore.
8. Sergio Parisse: 7.5
Captain fantastic once again, Parisse was the pick of the Italian forwards. Glorious dummy in the first five minutes for his try.
Replacements: 6.5
Tommaso Allan and Samuele Vunisa simply have to start in future – they both looked far more effective than the men they replaced. Other than that it was much of a muchness.
By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
21 replies on “Six Nations 2015: England vs Italy Player Ratings”
Would mark Youngs up a point – thought he was really good again. Making the 9 shirt his own.
I’d also mark Burrell down a point. For me England were shouting out for someone to run hard from centre and make yards. He should have offered that and didn’t.
Simplistially, there are three obvious channels to attack with ball in hand. 1)carries in the tight (normally forwards) 2)carries though the middle (typically a centre) 3)wide channels
On Saturday England did 1 and 3 extremely well – haven’t seen the stats but I’m sure all wingers would have plenty of good yards chalked up. Forward carries, particularly Haskell and Vunipola, were very good too. But that’s all we had, meaning it was either carry it in tight, or whip it straight to a winger. Fairly easy to defend with a half decent drift defense which meant it took moments of brilliance to score, when really playing an extra phase with Burrell straightening in the centre and drawing extra men would have meant our wingers would have had more space to play with.
If you watch the 2nd Joseph try, you will see Burrell run a nice decoy line off Twelvetrees to set the defence and leave the space for Ford and Joseph to attack the line. Remember that he was shifted out to 13, with Twelvetrees inside him for the majority of the game, so giving him a slightly different role. I’m sure they trained with Twelvetrees and Joseph in the centre, less sure that they would have trained with the set up they ended up with. In addition, Joseph is in hot form, so the default is to try and shift the ball to him. Whilst I’m not arguing Burrell was a stand out performer, I think he’s coming in for some stick unfairly despite some solid performances and no obviously better alternative.
Agree that was a nicely run decoy line, seen it elsewhere commented that Burrell did a lot of good things that aren’t maybe getting as much credit for as JJs performance. As for the change in position after the Brown injury, sure they probably did train with the 36/Burrell centre partnership, would have to to cover a Joseph injury, besides which you’d hope they hadnt forgotten too much how to play with each other having been the centre partnership option for most of last years six nations…
Not at all saying that Burrell was awful, simply that he didn’t have the impact that the game was calling out for. England desperately needed someone in the centre to straighten, carry well through the middle. Burrell is best equipped to do that and didn’t, that’s all.
Playing 12 or 13 isn’t that relevant really, he should still offer that.
A few lines were good, but if that’s all he managed then I stand by knocking him down a point from where they have him above.
The two questions for England are at 11 and 12, although I guess a lot depends on whether Mike Brown is fit to play against Ireland. Personally, I wouldn’t like to see a back 3 of May, Nowell and Watson trying to deal with Ireland’s tactical kicking game.
Assuming Brown is fit, you put Watson back at 14 and Joseph in to 13, and then the questions are over May and Burrell.
With both men, I think England should look for consistency. May isn’t the finished article, but he scored 3 tries in the Autumn series and remains a threat. He does require a bit of polishing at the top level, but you’re not going to get that by dropping him every time he misses a tackle. Just because he hasn’t burst out the blocks and helped himself to a hatful of tries in the early weeks, doesn’t mean he’s useless. There’s no guarantee that the more inexperienced Nowell and Wade will come in and be an improvement, and both Ashton and Strettle have been tried and deemed not good enough in the past.
As for Burrell, it wasn’t that long ago we had Twelvetrees and Barritt in the centres and people were clamoring for him to be in the team. Now he’s in the team and our options to replace him are Twelvetrees and Barritt, and people seem to think he’s now not good enough. Personally I think Burrell offers us a good balance of strong attacking and defensive skills, more so than Barritt (who lacks a little in attack) and Twelvetrees (who missed 4 tackles on Saturday), and I don’t think England will make any considerable gains by dropping him.
Don’t get me wrong, May and Burrell have to perform this series or the questions around their places will continue, but ahead of the Ireland game I don’t see why England shouldn’t try to stick with the same starting line-up for the third consecutive week.
I think Rob is right, a level headed approach of giving this team another shot is something I would like to see. Think May is better than that normally although would like Catt to have a word about his running lines as too often he takes space away from others. Burrell under appreciated due to Joseph excellence, think he has done pretty well so far.
My only worry is what do you do if Brown doesn’t play, personally I would prefer Goode at FB and leave the team otherwise unchanged. He has played well recently and his Ariel ability and kicking game would be a useful asset against Ireland’s kick chase.
Please no Goode. We know he doesn’t cut it at international level. His defence is not good enough for full-back and his running more often that not leads to turnovers at this level.
I think if Brown is out and given how well Joseph did on Sat, it wouldn’t suprise me if they considered sticking with 12T and Burrell with Joseph and May on the wings and Watson at fb. I don’t think they will though. I would think we’d see Watson to fullback and Yarde or Nowell bought in on the wing
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Nowell come onto the wing, 12T and Goode on the bench, and Cips dropped. 12T could cover 10 and centre, and Goode can cover 10 and 15. Not saying they should, I’m just saying I think SL will want Goode in the squad if Brown is out, and he won’t want to drop 12T when he’s playing this well. That only leaves Cips!!
I thought Burrell did reasonably well. Some strong tackles, some nice lines and a couple of nice off-loads. But I agree he should be carrying more – whether that’s down to him or the way they wanted to play, I don’t know
Surprised at your view on Youngs though Jacob. Other than his try which was mostly due to very porr defending, I thought he was quite slow to the rucks – especially when we’d made a break and needed quick ball. Wish we could find someone snappier
Thought the pick of the forwards was Marler – very strong in the scrum and even more so in the tackle. He has come on so much – there can’t be many looseheads better than him world-wide
Can’t say I noticed too much slow ball. I really like the way Youngs varies his game at 9, playing at 100 mph isn’t always the way forward. Hate watching Care get over excited by a couple decent phases and making poor decisions. Youngs is a really good balance between that snappy, sniping option and the kicking/game management game that someone like Wrigglesworth has.
If as you say though he was slow to all post-breaks then that’s a fair criticism and I simply didn’t pick up on it.
Well I had a few in the rub a dub dub from with an 1130am lunch, so it was all a bit hazy in retro. However, these English ratings ought to be tempered by the fact that it was Italy. Everyone sings when they’re winning. Ford is a competent fly1/2, but when I had prev suggested Cip should be given a run, Banastre I think it was, said SL should stick to his yoof team policy. Well, my reason for Cip is that he’s more exp & has proved that he can carve a team (Ireland funnily enuff), whereas Ford ain’t done that yet. And 2ndly, as also already mentioned, what if Ford gets clobbered? Who then? Myler? A bit of forethought methinks. Another thing, all this stuff about the England line out falling over. Hasn’t really happened has it? Plenty of players to pick from (most on the planet), so if the system is right, relatively speaking, guys should just slot in. Having said that & apart from a few missed early tackles (5 in 8 mins?), it was a decent win on the scoreboard – Billy’s ‘try’ notwithstanding. England @ home with be a bit strong for the Scots, but Ireland @ home will likely be a diff matter. See how the ratings stand then.
What if Ford gets clobbered? Then Cipriani. Then Farrell. Then Myler or Burns. Honestly. a 3rd choice FH of Farrells quality is pretty good going.
McMurphy
Mostly agree, altho I think Farrell should be a last resort… unless the goal kicking goes to pot I suppose.
Teecee
True IMO.
England require stiffening up in concentration at the beginning of the game, Other teams are very fired up playing against us. they all hate us with venom, use that against them by soaking pressure, keeping it simple. The try we lost against wales was from a scrum we were winning, the first try against Italy was lost because of a lineout throw that we lost trying to be clever by throwing to the back when it should have been to the best catcher/jumper front/middle….keeping it simple…..play rugby in the opposition’s half, not our 22….unless JJ has it!….playing on 3 cylinders and winning is good, but you will not get away with it every week, certainly not against the Irish, and then a Scots team that tackle like demons. Cips is a great 10, as is Ford, what a great problem that we have real competition in many places, great Cole is getting back to full fitness, as will one or two others over the next 12 days, for me who ever wins between Ireland England will take the championship. Lets hope the reffing is better than that we have seen so far.
So much good competition for places across the England team
very hopeful
Dazza
Gordon Bennett!
Rob
Surely none of the English centre combos have been together for long enough to make balanced judgements about them – yet. People here (& elsewhere) appear to talk them up far too much (JJ’s ‘the new Guscott’) @) based on far too few games & v mainly NH oppo. E.G., which of the centres stood up in NZ? Who did the ‘wrecking ball’ Tui actually wreck on that tour?
What must concern English fans too is the incoherent selection (‘stumbled upon by accident’) policy of Lancaster (e.g., Joseph only got in due to injury)? And it seems to me that he (& many fans) simply do not trust more naturally skilled individuals, like Cipriani, or (‘dancing feet’) Eastmond, for instance. It make sense that SL sticks to a consistent selection, but also, as he’s already had more injuries than you can shake a stick @ (acc to press & fans alike), shouldn’t he give game time to others (rotation) to forestall being caught with his pants down again? There seems to be no back up plan in this regard.
Additionally, what about more thought to having an all round attacking game plan? And what of specific coaching of individuals to enable them to perform basic rugby when out of their comfort zones (or posi’s). May’s ‘D’, Billy’s unnecc d/tackle v SA, Attwood’s butchered pass & so on. The latter ought to be part of Lanx’ ‘vision’, part of his basic coaching plan.
Time is not England’s friend & it just appears that there’s too much insular talking up of individuals & possible combo fiddling whilst the WC is potentially burning. The 6N is one thing, but the WC is another. The time to act is like it’s yesterday as there so little of it left. Some MANAGED & timed arm chancing (rotation) should be made in the nxt game & then the one after that (likely the acid test). Otherwise it’s going to be too late & chances have already been lost IMO.
PS I am aware that this article is about player rating, but this is my opinion on it’s content/s & I think it is useful input from an England perspective… so there!
Regarding Cipriani,Myler etc,we all know that when The Golden One is fit again he will walk straight back in ,no questions asked. I don’t agree with it but I’m not SL. Any player should have to prove beyond doubt that he is playing better than his replacement consistently.
Unfortunately some number tens are more equal than others!
I’m not so sure. I think Ford is now the preferred number 10 and I think Farrell will have to prove his form over Cipriani when he comes back. If he does then fair enough.
Meanwhile Cipriani has now signed a new 2 year deal to stay at Sale, remaining available for England selection.
twelvestocks
Hope so.