Lee Dickson - Ben Youngs! !

Ben Youngs as been England scrum half since last year, although he has lost a bit of form since the Rugby World Cup. The first 2 games in the 6ns, he seemed a bit lost in my opinion.

Lee Dickson as had 2 starts from the bench, each time he as come on as an impact sub, the game livened up a lot. but today although most of his game was good reliable. Is it just me or does he have a kind of fear about picking the ball up from the back of a ruk?

John Inverdle even said the if Dickson does not get the ball away quicker in ther rucks, he was going to go down their and steel the ball inself.

Dickson does not seemed to have got the ball away any quicker in my opinion.

What i am saying is should SL keep with Dickson or revert back to Youngs for the next game?

England were much worse when Youngs came on imho. His timewasting tactics were only used in the 22 from what I remember trying to keep pressure off and allow a small breather to level his head. Not saying I like it, only that I can understand why.

Personally I think Youngs has lost some of his zip, everyone knows he cant work off the back foot and its easy to get under his skin. The teams come a long way since he and Flood really controlled things.

Thing is Dickson is at best third choice, probably fourth choice scrum halff. If Care hadnt been such a nobber ( and Lancaster so keen to pander to the media) then England wouldnt have this problem, theyd have another experienced attack minded scrun half ready to step in,.

However in defence of both Youngs and Dickson Englands forwards are still not secureing enough quick ball, and their backs not organising well in attack quickly enough to really offer safe options.
When dickson came on against Italy he did try and chuck the ball out quickly but got caught badly twice doing so, maybe its a bit mopre nmature to take your time when the options arent there. But he has seemed to stray too far the other way ...like the worst of Youngs.
How much is the coaching affecting this? who knows.

Its a serious concern that England have not yet scored a try from anything other than a hodgson charge down under Lancaster. They managed two proper tries against France when playing abysmally.
They have the basic limited gameplan and too some extent the defence going but they need to up that to beat teams like Wales who were always going to score at least one try against them.

Not losing by a lot...not a disaster but not good enough. Dickson/Youngs, needs more than that. Maybe one of the halfbacks to be willing/able to run would help make some space and keep the defences guessing. Between then Dickson, youngs, farrell, flood put in 5 runs. Its not enough.

Both rubbish SHs and neither will feature for the Lions thank god !

majesticimperialman wrote:Is it just me or does he have a kind of fear about picking the ball up from the back of a ruk?

John Inverdle even said the if Dickson does not get the ball away quicker in ther rucks, he was going to go down their and steel the ball inself.

That was the case when he was trying to run the clock down at the end of the first half, but not for the times when we were in attack and the forwards gave him something to work with.

In general, if you find yourself agreeing with Inverdale or The Times' Stephen Jones, you know you're almost certainly wrong.