From your Tasmanian correspondent and resident Soap Dodger.
Good morrow, fellow G&GRians. Unfortunately, RAWF is tied up on urgent matters for the next few Tuesdays so it’s been left to others to fill his new boots, and I drew the one and only straw for today’s piece.
The weekend has come and gone and we’ve seen Auckland Blues crowned as worthy Super Rugby champions. National teams are flying south for the winter and the Soap Dodgers kicked off their southern campaign with a warm up against Eddie Jones Brave Blossoms in a hot and humid Tokyo over the weekend.
The team has certainly moved on from the dark days of EJ. After some strong initial criticism of Steve Borthwick’s plans from the English media and fans, I would hasten to suggest that the team is moving forward with slow but positive steps. There have been some significant changes in personal, Farrell, the Vunipolas, Care, Youngs, Tuilagi, May have either retired or moved on and with a number of injuries, the southbound squad is a mixture of experience and youthful potential.
Forwards – Fin Baxter (Harlequins, uncapped) Dan Cole, Alex Coles, Chandler Cunningham-South, Ben Curry, Tom Curry, Theo Dan, Alex Dombrandt Ben Earl, Charlie Ewels, Jamie George (c), Joe Heyes, Maro Itoje, Joe Marler, George Martin, Gabriel Oghre (Bristol Bears, uncapped), Bevan Rodd, Ethan Roots, Will Stuart, Sam Underhill
Backs – Joe Carpenter (Sale Sharks, uncapped) Fraser Dingwall, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Tommy Freeman, George Furbank, Ollie Lawrence, Alex Mitchell, Luke Northmore (Harlequins, uncapped) Harry Randall, Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks, uncapped) Henry Slade, Ollie Sleightholme (Northampton Saints, uncapped) Fin Smith, Marcus Smith, Ben Spencer, Freddie Steward.
With George Ford ruled out through injury Borthwick had a clear choice to make on his starting 10, was it to be the mercurial Marcus Smith of the Quins or the up and coming Fin Smith of the championship winning Northampton Saints. Instead of waiting until the end of last week to name his team, Borthers stole a march on Eddie and named the team last Tuesday, the Quins 10 got the nod and the opportunity to stake his claim claim before the two-Test series in New Zealand next month. Mind you until injury struck in January, MS had been been poised to be England’s first choice flyhalf in the Six Nations but it was Ford who eventually took the reins. After a couple of ordinary games in that competition the SDs started to show a commitment to the quicker, more attacking brand of rugby that is fast becoming their preferred style. A bit of work is still needed on their new defensive system and a continuing emphasis is required on getting the basics right at the breakdown and at the set pieces. Signs are positive though.
The Smiths -great band
Which brings us to the main event.
The starting XV shows a total of four changes from the team’s last game against France in Lyon that resulted in a 32-31 loss. Cunningham‑South, a powerful ball carrier with a big future, replaces the injured Ollie Chessum at blindside flanker while Sale’s Bevan Rodd fills the front row hole left by another pre-tour casualty, Ellis Genge. In addition to Smith’s return at fly‑half, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso is back on the wing having missed the France game. There’s been some concern that Itoje was close to breaching the game time protocols but he is in the starting XV.
Manny will be a handful.
England XV v Japan on Saturday: 1 B Rodd, 2 J George (capt), 3 D Cole, 4 M Itoje, 5 G Martin, 6 C Cunningham-South, 7 S Underhill, 8 B Earl, 9 A Mitchell, 10 M Smith, 11 T Freeman, 12 O Lawrence, 13 H Slade, 14 I Feyi-Waboso, 15 G Furbank.
Replacements: 16 T Dan, 17 J Marler, 18 W Stuart, 19 C Ewels, 20 T Curry, 21 H Randall, 22 F Smith, 23 T Roebuck.
A nice balance between experience and youth.
Master and Apprentice
Jones has decided to go with youth with eight uncapped players in the squad, four in the starting line up and four on the bench. The front five have amassed a massive 16 caps between them. However, Eddie has kept on the vastly experienced Michael Leitch, who is captain. The backs have a few more caps under their collective belts but Yazaki is the most interesting selection. Plucked from the relative obscurity of university rugby he has no professional playing experience.
Japan XV : 15 Yoshitaka Yazaki, 14 Jone Naikabula, 13 Dylan Riley, 12 Tomoki Osada, 11 Koga Nezuka, 10 Seungsin Lee, 9 Naoto Saito, 8 Faulua Makisi, 7 Tiennan Costley, 6 Michael Leitch, 5 Warner Dearns, 4 Sanaila Waqa, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi, 2 Mamoru Harada, 1 Takayoshi Mohara,
Replacements :16 Atsushi Sakate, 17 Shogo Miura, 18 Keijiro Tamefusa, 19 Amanaki Saumaki, 20 Kai Yamamoto, 21 Shinobu Fujiwara, 22 Rikiya Matsuda, 23 Samisoni Tua
Expect a fast and furious running game which will test the SDs’ new defensive system.
Match Report
Japan (3) 17, Pen: Lee Try: Nezuka, Tua Con: Matsuda 2
England (26) 52, Tries: Cunningham-South, M Smith, Feyi-Waboso, Slade, Mitchell, Earl, Randall, Underhill Cons: M Smith 4, Slade 2
A good performance by England against an inexperienced Japan side who looked dangerous in the first 15 minutes playing with speed, offloads and a few trick plays. However, they SDs rode it out and put some points on the board going into the half time break with a 26-3 lead courtesy of tries by Cunningham-Smith and a well taken try by Marcus Smith after a slick back move that opened up the Japanese defence. His cross kick that set up Slade’s try was first class. The Japanese made a bit of a comeback in the second half with Dearns ball skills setting up Nezuka’s try well worth a watch. Not surprisingly, play went off the boil at around the 60 min mark with the raft of substitutes/game changers or whatever they’re called nowadays but in the end the Japanese were outplayed by a better team. Plenty for Eddie to work on.
So what do the SDs take out of the game? The Mitchell/Smith partnership is starting to blossom. Mitchell’s speed at the breakdown is very good but his box kicking is a bit long imo. Smith seems to be shaking off the show pony tag playing a more balanced game, not taking too much on himself but bringing his outside backs into the game. The Lawrence/Slade partnership is developing nicely although Ollie was a bit subdued and Feyi-Waboso continues to show promise. Upfront, Underhill and Cunningham- Smith were the standouts. Martin is providing the grunt that’s been missing at lock and Itoje is starting to show the form of the player he was back in 2019. However, I do have concerns regarding the front row. Bevan Rodd looked under pressure but the scrum was a bit steadier when Marler came on, nothing like experience. The ABs will have taken note and will seek to exploit this apparent weakness. Discipline was also an issue: we cannot afford to give penalties away to the ABs. There were 17 in this game plus a red card for Charlie Ewels, his second in an England game that he will want to forget. The 🍷 was a bit of a no brainer, a dangerous clear out and it was lucky that Leitch wasn’t seriously injured. He received a two match ban and will be replaced by Nick Isiekwe. Not sure I agree with that. Overall, I’m not dissatisfied with the team’s performance but they’ll have to step up a couple of gears to even run the ABs close.
So, the SDs head off to the Land of the Long White Cloud feeling very pleased with themselves. Razor has named his first squad and I’ll leave KARL to pick the nits out of it. Pretty much as expected with BB parachuted in. Plummer can consider himself unlucky imo. Put in a faultless display against the Chiefs. However, one thing is certain. After watching the Blues demolish the Chiefs with an awesome display of forward power, the SDs are about to experience a world of pain.
Ethan de Groot, Tyrel Lomax, Fletcher Newell, Ofa Tu’ungafasi, Pasilio Tosi (uncapped), Tamaiti Williams, Asafo Aumua, George Bell (uncapped), Codie Taylor, Scott Barrett, Patrick Tuipulotu, Tupou Vaa’i, Ethan Blackadder, Samipeni Finau, Luke Jacobson, Dalton Papali’i, Ardie Savea, Wallace Sititi (uncapped) Finlay Christie, TJ Perenara, Cortez Ratima (uncapped), Beauden Barrett, Damian McKenzie, Jordie Barrett, Rieko Ioane, Anton Lienert-Brown, Billy Proctor (uncapped), Caleb Clarke, Emoni Narawa, Stephen Perofeta, Sevu Reece, Mark Tele’a.
I’ll be the first to admit that the article is a bit SD centric, being mostly about the team everyone loves to hate but needs must when the devil (ie, Hoss) drives. Anyway, it’s there so I’ll leave you to chat among yourselves😉.
