Dan and Gabe on Eddie Duty

[Neils]

Apparently- excellent nobody else.

[Rossm]

FORWARDS
Jamie Blamire (Newcastle Falcons, 2 caps)
Callum Chick (Newcastle Falcons, 2 caps)
Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 31 caps)
Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 33 caps)
Trevor Davison (Newcastle Falcons, 1 cap)
Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins, 1 cap)
Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby, 23 caps)
Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers, 30 caps)
Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers, 2 caps)
Jonny Hill (Exeter Chiefs, 9 caps)
Ted Hill (Worcester Warriors, 2 caps)
Maro Itoje (Saracens, 48 caps)
Jack Kenningham (Harlequins, uncapped)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 87 caps)
Lewis Ludlam (Northampton Saints, 10 caps)
Lewis Ludlow (Gloucester Rugby, 2 caps)
Joe Marler (Harlequins, 72 caps)
George Martin (Leicester Tigers, 1 cap)
Beno Obano (Bath Rugby, 3 caps)
Gabriel Oghre (Wasps, uncapped)
Sam Riley (Harlequins, uncapped)
Bevan Rodd (Sale Sharks, uncapped)
Sam Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs, 7 caps)
Kyle Sinckler (Bristol Bears, 44 caps)
Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 12 caps)
Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby, 24 caps)

BACKS
Mark Atkinson (Gloucester Rugby, uncapped)
Owen Farrell (Saracens, 93 caps)
George Furbank (Northampton Saints, 4 caps)
Ollie Lawrence (Worcester Warriors, 7 caps)
Louis Lynagh (Harlequins, uncapped)
Max Malins (Saracens, 8 caps)
Joe Marchant (Harlequins, 6 caps)
Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 66 caps)
Raffi Quirke (Sale Sharks, uncapped)
Adam Radwan (Newcastle Falcons, 1 cap)
Harry Randall (Bristol Bears, 2 caps)
Dan Robson (Wasps, 14 caps)
Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 40 caps)
Ollie Sleightholme (Northampton Saints, uncapped)
Marcus Smith (Harlequins, 2 caps)
Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers, 2 caps)
Manu Tuilagi (Sale Sharks, 43 caps)
Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, 51 caps)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 109 caps)

Marler back

[hopwood]

The inclusion of Ben Youngs diminishes the otherwise timely ambition.

The problem is...because Eddie hasn't given an opportunity to anyone else, he's without the necessary experience at scrum half in the squad.
He's backed himself into a corner.

And how can you play a more adventurous and quicker version of the game with Youngs at 9??

He should have excluded Youngs from this particular squad and backed the likes of Robson and Randall to stand up and make it their own.
With Youngs there, as an Eddie favourite, I don't see how another scrum half can fill the void.

[Raggs]

Youngs fits a fast pace game very well. He was good in the 6N when we started going faster. It's when you expect him to think about the game and slow down that he struggles and ends up being awful.

[COYW15]

Obligatory 'hope they come back in one piece'.

[Horusthewasp]

Great news for both - I really hope Robson is given the opportunity he deserves but agree with earlier comments on Youngs. Surprised at West’s omission and Oghre’s inclusion given the latter only just got back to training.

On a side note when I first read the announcement about the two, the first thought that came to mind was Eddie was picking over the bones. Bar West & to a lesser extent Bassett, all his other obvious options are out injured; Launchbury, J Willis, Odogwu, Barbeary & Atkinson.

[JonnyD]

Eddie actually drives me mad. For years and years he only picks two SHs in Youngs and Care and eventhough Robson was the emerging young talent forever he doesn’t get a look in - now he is in he is now likely to lose his place soon for the younger models coming through. Exactly the same with Hooker - Eddie only picking two and now includes all the young player options.

Nothing against youth coming through and good luck to them but Eddie just doesn’t seem all there with his consistency... ever.

Love the guy but Mark Atkinson’s inclusion is an interesting one, has Dan Kelly been jettisoned after picking up caps recently or injured.
A younger option at 12 needs to be discovered soon.

The cynic in me also thinks Lynagh is in after his Dad moaned about lack of contact from the RFU and to keep him from heading to Aus. For a young player he makes very few mistakes and scored some important tries but I’m not seeing international quality just yet

[MarleyWasp]

I was astonished to learn that a total of 18 Wasps players have been called up by Eddie during his time as England Head Coach. Only 11 of them have won caps however.

[JonnyD]

Not if this is anything final for Eddie but there are some huge omissions here with Daly, George, Mako, Billy and Ford all missing - well overdue with some of them but strange nevertheless

Edit - Daly has had an operation and will be out until Christmas

[Rossm]

Great news for both - I really hope Robson is given the opportunity he deserves but agree with earlier comments on Youngs. Surprised at West’s omission and Oghre’s inclusion given the latter only just got back to training.

On a side note when I first read the announcement about the two, the first thought that came to mind was Eddie was picking over the bones. Bar West & to a lesser extent Bassett, all his other obvious options are out injured; Launchbury, J Willis, Odogwu, Barbeary & Atkinson.

Bobby Bridge sums up:

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/rugby/england-rugby-squad-announcement-21627538