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Only one member of Saracens' six-strong England contingent will face Richmond

26 Mar 2021

Paolo Odogwu and Jamie George /PA

Hooker Jamie George is the only member of the six-strong England contingent from Saracens who will be involved in this weekend’s Greene King IPA Championship game away to Richmond on Sunday. Much was made during the disappointing Guinness Six Nations about the general lack of form of the Saracens players.

Relegated from the Gallagher Premiership, they had no competitive club action over the winter in between England’s December Autumn Nations Cup final win over France and the February 6 Six Nations loss to Scotland.

Billy Vunipola was the only one to tog out, featuring in a pre-season loss to Ealing, but England skipper Owen Farrell, loosehead Mako Vunipola, hooker George, second row Maro Itoje and full-back Elliot Daly were all inactive and the consensus was this affected them on duty with Eddie Jones.

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Both George and Daly were dropped during the Six Nations while there was also criticism of the form shown by Farrell and the Vunipola brothers. Meanwhile, Itoje came under much scrutiny for his high penalty count.

It all fed into a miserable campaign that ended with a hammering last weekend in Dublin by Ireland and only George is on deck for Saracens this weekend as the club, automatically relegated from the Premiership for repeated salary cap breaches, looks to pick up momentum following an opening day loss at Cornish Pirates and a home win versus Jersey.

Candid admission by the England second row about their Dublin drubbing #SixNations #IREvENG https://t.co/XY54H99Cls
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 26, 2021

Farrell and Billy Vunipola both suffered head knocks at Aviva Stadium last weekend while Mako Vunipola was withdrawn at the interval following a troubled first-half showing. Scotland winger Sean Maitland is on the Saracens bench after he was ruled out of selection for Friday night’s Test re-fixture versus France due to a Premiership Rugby cap on the number of English-based players made available to Gregor Townsend.

SARACENS (vs Richmond, Sunday)
15 Will Hooley
14 Alex Lewington
13 Dom Morris
12 Duncan Taylor
11 Rotimi Segun
10 Manu Vunipola
9 Aled Davies
1 Richard Barrington
2 Jamie George
3 Vincent Koch
4 Callum Hunter-Hill
5 Tim Swinson
6 Mike Rhodes
7 Sean Reffell
8 Jackson Wray (capt)
Replacements
16 Kapeli Pifeleti
17 Ralph Adams-Hale
18 Alec Clarey
19 Joel Kpoku
20 Andy Christie
21 Alex Day
22 Harry Sloan
23 Sean Maitland

'Some of the hotels, especially the one in Dublin, Jesus Christ, honestly like, it was something else. Like there was silverware at the tables'
Witty, charming, unabashed; @Saracens prop & Durham lad @alecclarey is a breath of fresh air, w/ @heagneyl ???https://t.co/x5ePjGRcxz
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 28, 2021

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PT 1 minute ago

Six Nations report card: Each team graded from A to F

Ashes to ashes

Dust to dust

Ireland you're done

Everyone has you sussed

10 Go to comments

Ed the Duck 16 minutes ago

Did innovative England emerge strongest from the Six Nations?

I’m not fully convinced this was any sort of deliberate grand plan by SB, other than perhaps a masterful way (as it transpired) of dealing with injuries to a couple of key players in positions that lack high calibre alternatives in SB’s view. Losing Martin and Lawrence was disruptive to the team England ideally wanted and pretty likely both start if they had been able to. Ted Hill clearly isn’t fully trusted, despite being on the bench vs Scotland and Italy, and Slade may have had his day in light of an winger being drafted in to start as Test centre for the first time. Moving Earl to centre is worthwhile, in the right circumstances, as a proving exercise for future reference but it’s not the way to go against any of the top teams.

So they may well have added another page to their emergency playbook but I’m doubtful it was a genuine attempt at cutting edge innovation. More a case of necessity being the mother of invention that happened to suit the opposition on that given day. I guess we’ll know more in the Autumn but it won’t be until next year in Paris that the first real test of that set up would come against a heavy power team, IF it’s still in use ofc…

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Philou 58 minutes ago

Did innovative England emerge strongest from the Six Nations?

Just a thought on the 7-1: it obviously works best with multi-skilled forwards on the bench. Kwagga, for example, could slot into various positions in the backs thanks to his sevens background, as SK mentions. And you mention Deon Fourie, but in an ideal world the bench replacement at the WC would have been Malcolm Marx (an even better Swiss Army Knife). Looking at Rassie’s selections last year and for the camps this year, he’s as keen as you are not to end up with a Deon Fourie situation again, hence his investment in multi-dimensional players at hooker such as Jan-Hendrik Wessels (also a prop) and Johan Grobbelaar (vastly improving as a BD threat). And hooker is just one example of that progressive thinking. So, love it or hate it, the 7-1 is also evolving, in SA at least. It will be fascinating to see which evolution trumps which.

38 Go to comments

JPM 1 hour ago

Six Nations report card: Each team graded from A to F

I agree that France have a B and not A. Mainly because of the England game that they lost due to themselves. But they still beat the record of tries and pretending that you have to play 5 perfect games to have a A (reference to the Scotland game) is unrealistic. Some time you need to play not such a fantastic rugby to win the game. Then SA would have a B or C.

England with a A is totally biased as even the English fans recognise it in their comments.

10 Go to comments

JB 1 hour ago

Six Nations report card: Each team graded from A to F

All credit to England. It wasn’t their fault that France treated the ball like a bar of soap. My point was that France would probably have won that game by a large margin if they hadn’t made so many unforced errors.

10 Go to comments

JB 1 hour ago

Six Nations report card: Each team graded from A to F

Did I mention France blaming a referee ?

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Desmond Davidson 1 hour ago

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MichaelT4 1 hour ago

Six Nations report card: Each team graded from A to F

Last year England had 22 handling errors v Scotland and lost the game. I don’t remember any talk of England should have won. Should have is reserved for referee decisions that they get wrong, what actually happened on the pitch by the players cannot have a should have, they either did or didn’t do something.

The England Scotland game England were poor, but its also commonly said that the sign of a good team is winning when you play badly.

England could easily be sitting here with only 2 wins, no argument on that, but England did win both games, and deserved to.

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BP 1 hour ago

Mick Cleary: 'England are back among the heavyweights.'

Don’t bother with him mate…….always thinks he knows better.

9 Go to comments

Tom 1 hour ago

Six Nations report card: Each team graded from A to F

I don't think you can neglect the fact that England really should have lost both Scotland and France games. 99 times out of 100 France aren't dropping the ball over the line 3 or 4 times, that was a freakish run of good fortune. They played well in the second half against France and deserve a lot of credit for hanging in there but if we're judging their performances - they were very good in one half against France and quite poor for the whole Scotland game. The forwards were very impressive throughout the whole campaign but England need to find their attacking identity. If the Wales match was the blueprint sobeit but we need to see them own that performance and for it not to be a blip like last year's Ireland performance.

10 Go to comments

Tom 1 hour ago

Six Nations report card: Each team graded from A to F

An A is pushing it for England. I was pleasantly surprised by the Wales performance but the rest of the matches we were just OK. We did well to hang in there against France and Scotland but could/should have lost both games. You've given England an A but let's be brutally honest, if Fin Russell gets that last kick, you wouldn't be giving England an A. Our forwards deserved an A for the whole tournament. The backs and the attack in general struggled to find their feet for most of the tournament and our defense was iffy at times. Some fantastic work from a group of forwards who are turning into one of the best packs in the world but overall an identity and attacking shape was really lacking for most of the tournament and as well as England played, there will be tougher tests than Wales to judge them on.

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RedWarriors 2 hours ago

Six Nations report card: Each team graded from A to F

France were under pressure all through that match. England played well enough to bring it down to a tight encounter and their plan for a late try worked. No referees for France to blame this time either.

10 Go to comments

MichaelT4 2 hours ago

Mick Cleary: 'England are back among the heavyweights.'

In fairness to Borthwick he has done a good job of blooding youngsters already himself in matches against the top tier teams. Fin Baxter starting against New Zealand last summer, Cunningham-South too. Fin Smith this year. The squad depth is impressive when you also consider Furbank, Underhill, IFW and George Martin can come back in.

If, and its a big if, Borthwicks plan is to create 30 odd test players then he is going about it quite well. Fingers crossed.

9 Go to comments

ZamaZama 2 hours ago

Easterby hits back at France's conduct in the wake of Dupont injury

Once again the whining schoolboy wants to tell everyone how to behave. What a 💩

17 Go to comments

RedWarriors 3 hours ago

Easterby hits back at France's conduct in the wake of Dupont injury

He publicly demanded that the Irish players should be cited and declared their actions reprehensible. The obvious implication is that the referee has made grave errors and that the ‘culprits’ and ‘butchers’ of Dupont were not reprimanded. Of course he publicly stated that he didn’t blame the referee. Ofcourse his meaning was clear and the evidence is collective rage by the French public against the referee. This is dishonest and cowardice by Galthie. The two Irish players he attacked then received threats to their safety by French ‘supporters’.

We know that France have more suspensions for dangerous tackles than all other six nations combined under Galthie.

We know that he publicly lied about the ‘injustice’ of the Ntamack v Ringrose bans. He knew the difference, he acknowledged it in his evidence for Ntamack and he knew that French players had benefitted more than any others over both cases in previous years.

The last thing rugby needs is trial by media by mini Trumps who are only interested in cheating for their own country and disguising their own short comings.

17 Go to comments

MichaelT4 3 hours ago

Six Nations report card: Each team graded from A to F

I definitely watched the game - England did stun them by winning, no one expected that. Not Englands fault that France dropped the ball - figuratively and literally - and it was England who then outscored them and out scrummed them and battered their big forwards back several times. England arent given enough credit for that win. Game of the tournament. Ireland v France wasnt a game by the second half, it was one-way.

For the Scotland game they were lucky Russell missed his kicks, but Scotland should have had a red card for the head contact from the winger on Chessum. No arms, jumped up and first contact was with the head. Evens out on the luck front.

Not sure England deserve an A that this article gives them, should be reserved for the winner, but they won their games by scoring more points. If another team had the same tournament as England, they would be lauded for their character and grit.

10 Go to comments

JB 3 hours ago

Six Nations report card: Each team graded from A to F

Re England … “they stunned France …”

Really? Were we watching the same game? France left at least 3 tries begging, none of which were due to England’s defense - they should have been out of sight by half time.

For me, it was more France losing the game than England winning it.

France were stunned, yes, but by themselves

10 Go to comments

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