AP End of Season Awards

Player of the Year: George Ford

Land Rover Discovery: Henry Slade

DoR of the Season: Mike Ford

BT Dream Team:

Anthony Watson - Bath Rugby
Christian Wade - Wasps
Jonathan Joseph - Bath Rugby
Henry Slade - Exeter Chiefs
Sinoti Sinoti - Newcastle Falcons
George Ford - Bath Rugby
Joe Simpson - Wasps
Matt Mullan - Wasps
Jamie George - Saracens
Tomas Francis - Exeter Chiefs
Graham Kitchener - Leicester Tigers
Dean Mumm - Exeter Chiefs - Captain
Dave Ewers - Exeter Chiefs
Francois Louw - Bath Rugby
Nathan Hughes - Wasps

Interesting that to fit Slade in he is selected in a position he did not play.

Pretty decent team there. Maybe Waldrom or Batty could be involved. Mullan's gone off the boil a bit in the later stages for me.

And 5 (out of a possible 11 inc. Francis) are in the wider WC squad

(OK you could have Simpson too but...)

I'd have Ayerza in over Mullan. He's been the rock that's held our pack together. Nice to see Kitch get some recognition after being overlooked by England.

Ayerza due mainly to internationals only started 10 premiership games.

Good point LT.

At this point its prudent to give LT a nudge & a wink to see if the 606v2 selected team will make an appearance

Sorry HKC. Do not really have the desire to do the research needed this season. Any way - now we are in the silly season probably best for me to join the players and take a summer break from rugby goards.

LondonTiger wrote:Sorry HKC. Do not really have the desire to do the research needed this season. Any way - now we are in the silly season probably best for me to join the players and take a summer break from rugby goards.

Sorry mate - we need you to help analyse the England squad once Stewie gets it going. We have a full summer ahead of us debating the pros and cons of Slade, Burgess, Haskell and May. Hours of entertainment in front of us all.

LondonTiger wrote:Sorry HKC. Do not really have the desire to do the research needed this season. Any way - now we are in the silly season probably best for me to join the players and take a summer break from rugby goards.

How am I going to sound knowledgeable now without?! Completely understand, your research was excellent but clearly was time consuming.

Interesting to see the stats for the season:

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/rugby-union/32960817

What does Kitchener have to do?
Also suggests Tom Youngs throwing isn't as bad as many make out!!

And London Irish will want to improve that Yellow card issue next season.

Regarding Kitchener, I wonder how much of Youngs' success is down to have the system working and Kitchener being very good? The hooker is almost always blamed for the throws but what if the jumpers or lifters don't time it quite right or jump high enough, or are simply in the wrong place.

Kitchener, Parling, Croft, Gibson. We have had some very proficient and talented lineout jumpers.

It is an under-rated skill at times. Lawes is developing into a good practitioner - but at times Launchbury seems to struggle - or more often England just do not use him in lineouts.

LondonTiger wrote:It is an under-rated skill at times. Lawes is developing into a good practitioner - but at times Launchbury seems to struggle - or more often England just do not use him in lineouts.

Agree with that about Launchbury. Never see Wasps use him much either and it's probably the only area where he doesn't seem particularly strong. Think this and the likelihood that Billy Vunipola will be the starting 8 for England means I expect Tom Wood to leapfrog over Haskell back into the starting 15 come September (injuries permitting of course) so England have a second competent jumper with Robshaw as another option to keep the opposition guessing a bit.

HammerofThunor wrote:Regarding Kitchener, I wonder how much of Youngs' success is down to have the system working and Kitchener being very good? The hooker is almost always blamed for the throws but what if the jumpers or lifters don't time it quite right or jump high enough, or are simply in the wrong place.

The latter is something i always moan about when people slate hookers on here, as you say it isn't always the hookers fault when a lineout goes wrong.

B91212 wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:It is an under-rated skill at times. Lawes is developing into a good practitioner - but at times Launchbury seems to struggle - or more often England just do not use him in lineouts.

Agree with that about Launchbury. Never see Wasps use him much either and it's probably the only area where he doesn't seem particularly strong. Think this and the likelihood that Billy Vunipola will be the starting 8 for England means I expect Tom Wood to leapfrog over Haskell back into the starting 15 come September (injuries permitting of course) so England have a second competent jumper with Robshaw as another option to keep the opposition guessing a bit.

I think most people would say Wood is a better and importantly a more consistant player than Haskell. If only he had a slightly better carrying game.

Though I find myself saying that about most of the England pack members.

Back on topic...nice to Sinotti up there with breaks.

Is Irishs high cards down to poor technique or more ill discipline.

50/50 I'd say GF.  We've been under pressure a lot at times and given away penalties defending our own line which have earned cards, plus a few at scrum time.  The only card for scrapping that I can recall was Dan Leo's red against Welsh.

Be interesting to see if Slater gets a look in. He's a good line out jumper and fits very much into the athletic type Lancaster favours.

Lancaster seems eager to integrate additional leaders into the team as well. Hence the Burgess fast track.

What is Kitchener lacking that Lancaster obviously sees in the others?

Ozzy, do you think that's an area you'll improve next season?

You'd probably only argue that Kruis is possibly a lesser a player in the squad currently though and I'm not too sure about that as he impressed in the AIs. Maybe Parling is on the way down but he's a very under rated player generally. The stats look great and a great lineout threat, danger of just focusing on numbers and that quote from Thorn?

If Slater had been fit, I reckon our first choice second row would have been him and Kitch by the end of the season. Kitch's problem though is he is an out and out second row. Pretty much everyone else Lancaster selects was a 6 first and moved forward. Perhaps Bomber feels they have a higher defensive work rate?

I watch Kruis though and I struggle to see what he offers. I can see why people are excited by Itoje, even if I think currently he is being overhyped as the second coming, but Kruis just leaves me a bit cold.

Of course i see Kitch week in, week out - and have to accept that the coaches see things differently to me.