I really don’t fancy Italy’s chances in this one.
Eddie Jones has picked an experimental team, giving opportunities to some of the guys pushing for selection, and there won’t be any incentive to take things a bit easy if they pull away from Italy. They were told to be more clinical after their easy win over Fiji in November, and Eddie Jones won’t accept anything but full commitment.
The only way it can possibly be close is if Italy somehow strangle the life out of the game, keeping things tight in defence, not missing any tackles, slowing England’s ball down, pinching a few lineouts – but I just don’t think they have the ability to do that against a highly-motivated England side.
It’s just about the margin and by how many England will win, and I can see it getting ugly.
My prediction: England by 58
Average Superbru Prediction: England by 27.9
Paddy Power: England by 42
What is your prediction for the match?
Please click here to join our Six Nations predictor league on Superbru: Join predictor league
Follow Hutch on Twitter: @Hutch_James
I wished EJ had been more experimental and discarded Hartley and Brown. We know what they bring, which diminishes by the game, but to see George start, and another full back for me would have really a) put a message out for the future and b) would have guaranteed a cricket score.
13? Why so low? Genuinely curious.
Ireland ran in nine tries against Italy. There’s a new 10 in for Italy. Wales managed to score 33 unanswered points in the second half. Our last two games against Italy have been big scores.
I’m expecting a win by at least 30.
Italys set piece has not been mind blowing and englands scrum should dominate. We have a tried axis of Ford and Farrell. I’m somewhat surprised May is in ahead of Watson. I thought it would be Watson, Nowell and Daly as the back three.
Haha oops! I copied that bottom section from the Ireland article and forgot to update all of it – I’ve edited it now with the correct prediction, and the correct Superbru pie chart.
England by 58…
A tad more like it.
Out of curiosity if Manu was fit do you think Teo would be in the squad and do you think Farrell would still be at 12? Or would he be moved to 10?
I actually wouldn’t pick Manu if he were available. He’s hardly played for so long, and you can’t trust him to stay fit, so he’s not worth disrupting the team for.
I’m with those that say we should be keeping Ford and Farrell together and giving the partnership as long as possible to develop. I believe that Ford/Farrell combination is our best bet for winning the World Cup, and better than Anyone/Manu at 10/12.
I’ve been impressed with Te’o off the bench so far, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he goes in his first start.
I would have liked to have seen Daly at 15, but I like what EJ is doing with selection – a few changes here and there, but nothing too major or disruptive, and before you know it, all of the backup players will have 30-40 caps.
The All Blacks have been so good at doing that – Sam Cane, McCaw’s understudy, had 40 caps by the time McCaw retired.
Whilst I agree with you about the All Blacks, I think your point falls down slightly with the fact that we don’t currently have an apparent understudy for Brown. We have plenty of players who could play at 15, Eddie doesn’t seem to want to give any of them a chance.
I’m hoping that will change this weekend when Nowell comes on by moving Daly to 15 and taking Brown off.
Thoughts?
Dazza
Sound thinking.
I’d love to see Daly play there what with his footballing skills and speed off the mark. He has to be faster than Brown which would give him a distinct advantage. The only other player capable of converting to 15 would be Watson but i would hazard an educated guess that his kicking skills would fail him. Anyone know about his kicking ability or lack of?
England will absolutely smoke Italy here I think. Italy are a very poor side this year. I think England by over 50 points. The record 6 Nations winning margin is 57 points (Eng v Ita 2001) that is in danger for me.