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Good week, bad week: Jonathan Joseph in A Tweet Too Far

Chris Robshaw

England player chose the wrong moment to tell the Twittersphere all about his footwear – but another international picked the right time to put in a storming performance on his return from injury.

GOOD WEEK

La Rochelle

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Suddenly, everyone loves Top 14 side La Rochelle – and why not? At the weekend, they made sure of a place in the end-of-season playoffs and a Champions Cup spot next season. Along with Pau, the team they beat, La Rochelle are threatening to bust open the monopoly of the Top 14’s all-important top six places, while big-spending behemoths like Racing 92 and Toulouse continue to struggle. What makes this season all the more remarkable is the fact that their win at Grenoble way back in the second week of the season was their first victory on the road in 518 days. It clearly started something. They have since won six more times away from their Stade Marcel Deflandre fortress – and haven’t lost in the league since November 19.

Jersey

Speaking of surprise packages, the English Championship side on an island just off the French coast did what no other team in the competition has managed to do this season: beat runaway leaders London Irish. The result probably won’t affect the race for promotion to the Aviva Premiership – London Irish are 17 points clear at the top of the table, and have already beaten likely playoff opponent Yorkshire Carnegie three times (twice in the league and once in the British and Irish Cup) – but, for now, Championship bragging rights belong to the Channel Islanders.

British and Irish Lions fans

Up to 20,000 rugby fans are expected to head to New Zealand for the scratch team’s 10-match tour. With accommodation scarce and prices for what’s left sky-high, one generous All Blacks‘ fan decided to do something. So, he started the ‘Adopt a Lions fan’ Facebook page to encourage other New Zealand rugby fans to offer spare rooms, sofas, floor space accommodation – for free.

Chris Robshaw

After 12 weeks out with a shoulder injury, you could be forgiven for thinking Chris Robshaw would want a nice, warm seat on the bench and a relatively gentle 20-minute return to match rugby. But that’s not the Robshaw way. He played the full 80 minutes of Harlequins win over Newcastle. If we didn’t know all about Robshaw’s engine, we do now – and it may well be he has the Lions on his mind. He certainly left those journalists watching the game from the confines of the press box wondering if he could get the nod from Warren Gatland.

Leigh Halfpenny

Got to love a slice of speculation. Bath are reportedly putting together a big-money deal to tempt the Wales and Toulon fullback to the Rec for the 2018 season. The 28-year-old had been in talks to return to Wales on a dual contract with the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) and his former region, Cardiff Blues. That, apparently, fell through, with the WRU said to be unwilling to extend a two-year deal to cover the 2019 World Cup, prompting Halfpenny to sign a year’s extension with the Top 14 side.

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BAD WEEK

Australian rugby

A report suggesting that rugby in Australia was less popular than ballroom dancing caused uproar, and prompted a swift response from the powers that be at the ARU. But, it’s not the first piece of bad rugby news from Oz in the past few days. Western Force issued a strongly worded statement about its future amid speculation it could be axed from next season’s Super Rugby competition, following suggestions the tournament could be reduced from 18 sides to 15. The ARU, too, said that no decision had been made about the future of the Perth-based franchise. But that speculation just isn’t going away.

Ospreys

Every side has a bad day at the office – just ask Bath about their away day at Saracens last weekend. Few, however, would have predicted Welsh outfit Ospreys, third in the Pro 12, to come unstuck at 11th-placed Treviso. But that’s what happened. Worse, they returned home with not even a losing bonus point, which leaves them four points behind Munster in the race for a top-two spot and home advantage in the play-offs. Treviso has now won three, and will probably finish higher than the league’s other Italian side, Zebre, to qualify for next season’s Champions Cup.

Fabien Gengenbacher

The Grenoble fullback had already announced he would retire at the end of the season after spending the past 11 years with the Isere side – but instead his career came to an early end midway through the opening half of the Top 14 strugglers’ must-win match at Stade des Alpes against Castres at the weekend.

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Anyone who has any doubt about what a club can mean to a player should watch this:

Gengenbacher’s pain will have been eased as he watched Grenoble win, courtesy of David Mele’s third drop goal two minutes from time. And, to prove what a player can mean to a club, this happened next:

Jonathan Joseph

The England winger returned to domestic duties at Premiership side Bath this week. The match against Saracens did not go well, but his ill-judged post-match tweet made everything much worse.

Way to win over the fans, JJ. Some of their replies were … scathing.

 

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O
Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 3 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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