Barritt to make Test debut
2 Feb 2012
Former Sharks centre Brad Barritt will start in England’s Six Nations opener against Scotland on Saturday.
England will field a new-look team, that sees a total of nine changes to the starting line-up that faced France in the World Cup quarter-final.
Barritt, who will receive his first Test cap, will form a new midfield combination with Saracens team-mate Owen Farrell. Interim head coach Stuart Lancaster has interestingly named the 25-year-old at outside centre. For Saracens, Farrell features in the No 13 jersey while Barritt starts on his inside.
‘To pull on a Test jersey is the ultimate for a player, it is something you dream about as a kid. It will be an immensely proud moment for me and my family to represent England,’ Barritt told reporters.
‘We are blessed in the squad with 32 really talented individuals and Owen and I are going to make our debuts together. I am sure he [Owen] will take to it like a duck to water. You have seen in the past 18 months that any obstacle that has come his way, he has embraced it and taken on the challenge.
‘Having Charlie [Hodgson] and Strets [David Strettle] in the backs means it is a great day for Sarries. But if were to be playing with anybody else I would be just as proud and just as content going into the game.’
Eighthman Phil Dowson also makes his Test debut at the age of 30 while Saffa Mouritz Botha is picked in the second row. On the bench, there are five more uncapped players in hooker Rob Webber, lock Geoff Parling, flanker Ben Morgan, scrumhalf Lee Dickson and centre Jordan Turner-Hall.
England – 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Brad Barritt, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 David Strettle, 10 Charlie Hodgson, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Phil Dowson, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 Tom Croft, 5 Tom Palmer, 4 Mouritz Botha, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Alex Corbisiero.
Subs: 16 Rob Webber, 17 Matt Stevens, 18 Geoff Parling, 19 Ben Morgan, 20 Lee Dickson, 21 Jordan Turner-Hall, 22 Mike Brown.
49 Comments
2 Feb 2012, 12:21 pm
At 13?
Congratulations to him… and Mouritz with another run…
Saracens Saffa recruitment paying dividends…
2 Feb 2012, 12:25 pm
@bryce_in_arse-1: yeah, 4 years later
2 Feb 2012, 12:33 pm
Congrats Barrit
2 Feb 2012, 12:34 pm
Scraping the bottom of the barell. England are rubbish.
2 Feb 2012, 12:38 pm
Well done.
Surprised it’s at 13 but wouldn’t be surprised to see him and Owen interchange during the match. Good distributor in the mould of **** Muir.
2 Feb 2012, 12:38 pm
Congrats and well deserved…
I don’t see the logic in playing him at 13 though (mind games I hope as Brad is a specialist inside centre).
2 Feb 2012, 12:47 pm
@NicG-6: “no pace” barritt will find the going hard at 13 vs france…if saint andre selects rougerie, he might embarrass him but defensively barritt has always been decent.
going to be fun
2 Feb 2012, 12:57 pm
Well done Brad, just a pity you’ll make a losing debut….
2 Feb 2012, 13:03 pm
13?
Its a pity he never got a look in at the Boks instead of that try machine Meisiekind.
2 Feb 2012, 13:05 pm
@JockBok-8: hey Jocky
2 Feb 2012, 13:10 pm
@JockBok-8: Ah, the Scots talk a good talk, don’t they?
2 Feb 2012, 13:23 pm
Do tests against Scotland count as a Cap?
2 Feb 2012, 13:28 pm
Who was the dumb toss here who said Barritt would never play for England. Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to own up but you know who you are.
2 Feb 2012, 13:44 pm
Matt Stephens on the bench – a third Saffa! None of them would make the Boks 3rd team!
12 – gunther – Umm….didn’t the Boks lose to Scotland just over a year ago?!
2 Feb 2012, 13:53 pm
Well done boet.
Have a feeling that this Owen Farrell will be the future England 10 with Barrit at 12 and Tuilagi at 13. Certainly an improvement on recent Pom backlines.
2 Feb 2012, 14:09 pm
Two home grown Kearsney College old boys featuring for England. A feauture of the modern game, I guess. One I find just a little bit sad. I have always wondered how the likes of Clyde Rathbone, Matt Stevens, Brad Barrit, Mouritz Botha, Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott – born and bred Saffas – must feel representing a foreign nation. I can’t imagine it feels anything like representing your true country.
On another note, I wonder how many more snide comments from Transformation we will have to endure on this thread – he never has like Barrit, has he?
2 Feb 2012, 14:15 pm
Wow.
Now that is a real overhaul.
Don’t know a good bunch of those players.
2 Feb 2012, 14:27 pm
Spare a thought for young Tobias Botes making his debut at scrumhalf for Italy too.
2 Feb 2012, 14:45 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther-12:
Fair point. I’m pretty sure most of the Boks who played in the last test against Scotland would rather hide their cap and forget it took place.
2 Feb 2012, 14:49 pm
@>^..^< katman-18: yeah go Tobias
2 Feb 2012, 14:49 pm
@>^..^< katman-11:
Nah, not really Katters. We expect a PK pretty much every game, but we have a hard coded DNA strand that promotes optimism around about this time every year.
A bit like the Stormers in fact.
But anyway, Scotland will win on Saturday
2 Feb 2012, 14:51 pm
@Transformation-10:
Howzit ;fatboy’
I see you’ve been keeping Dr Feelgood on his toes during my absence
2 Feb 2012, 14:52 pm
@Forseti-16: very sensitive are we?
this is not a contest of who likes who…whether i’ve ever liked barritt is immaterial.
2 Feb 2012, 14:54 pm
@JockBok-22: yeah Jocky…he’s restorted to LIES now, he who worships at the “alter of truth”
gotta love it
2 Feb 2012, 15:01 pm
@Transformation-24:
Not surprising. He’s never been slow to bend the truth when he’s been shown up as being a fool. I guess it’s a natural progression to just start off with outright lies.
Movin’ on……..
2 Feb 2012, 15:24 pm
Forseti,
Its can’t be the same, I agree, I also think it must be hard playing against a saffa team if you are born and bred in SA.
Good luck to Brad though, with frans steyn 23 only, and lanbie, jantjies and a host of others here, he could never be sure of a test cap in SA.
2 Feb 2012, 17:35 pm
Nobody said Barritt wouldn’t play for england,he just took 4years to do it behind likes of Flutey!Tindall,Flood,Tuilagi,Hape etc only a matter of time he would get his chance.Mike Catt also wud hav never played for Boks.
It’s ok
Good luck tho
2 Feb 2012, 18:26 pm
Transformation doesn’t give credit to the pale ones.
2 Feb 2012, 23:24 pm
@Great White Sharks gonna get ya-28: kak talk from you, what’s new?
barritt is the 4th non-English player to be selected at cenyre by Pom coaches at some point one of their random picks will stick, hopefully it will be brad
2 Feb 2012, 23:32 pm
A pity this young man was lost to the green and gold.
Always rated him.
Better than Donkey De Villiers…. maybe not better than Francois Steyn though.
3 Feb 2012, 07:39 am
How come Barritt is eligible to play for England?
According to IRB regulations A Player who has played for the senior fifteen-a-side NationalRepresentative Team or the next senior fifteen-a-side National
Representative Team or the senior National Representative Sevens Team
of a Union is not eligible to play for the senior fifteen-a-side National
Representative Team or the next senior fifteen-a-side National
Representative Team or the senior National Representative Sevens Team
of another Union.
For the purposes of this Regulation, a Player is deemed to have played for
the senior fifteen-a-side National Representative Team or the next senior
fifteen-a-side National Representative Team of a Union if:
(a) He is selected for such team to play in an International Match against
the senior fifteen-a-side National Representative Team or the next
senior fifteen-a-side National Representative Team of another Union
(or in a fifteen-a-side international Match against another Union’s
senior or next senior Touring Squad during an IRB approved
International Tour) and is present at the Match played by that team
either as a replacement, substitute or a playing member of that team
and has, at the time of the Match, reached the age of majority;
Surely the Emerging Boks is our next senior side.
3 Feb 2012, 08:16 am
@Vundu-4: so are we vundu…England are getting their act together and I hope we can too!
3 Feb 2012, 08:20 am
@John Galt-15: Totally agree…
3 Feb 2012, 09:18 am
@Transformation-29: If his Mum is English, why is he non English? Half English half Saffa. Botha is a different story….
3 Feb 2012, 09:30 am
@Forseti-16:
Read Kevin Pietersens book. His a d*ck of note.
Farking tatooed the 3 Lions on his arm. Says that proving the cricket loving public in SA wrong is the driving force in his career.
He hasn’t had a decent knock for the Poms in 2 years and will soon get the chop.
Trott on the other hand is cocky but is a freakishly talented.
3 Feb 2012, 09:48 am
Looking forward to seeing how Brad gets on, and at 13.. At least some more Rugga to watch in wait of the Super 15.
3 Feb 2012, 10:16 am
@HongKongSlong-34: is his mum english? wel i didn’t know that but as stormer said, barritt in 2007 played for Emerging Boks which is our equivalen to Saxons or New Zealand A.
but hey who cares.
3 Feb 2012, 11:48 am
@37… South Africa A and not the Emerging Boks is the 2nd team?
3 Feb 2012, 14:40 pm
so quotas claims another victim!! another Kevin P, Trott, etc etc in the making! so glad heyneke (rugby) and gary K (Cricket) were appointed! This k@k will stop now!
3 Feb 2012, 14:41 pm
SA has no second string side. SARU disbanded SA A side, started Emerging Boks but never registered it with IRB as SA second string side. Spectacular own goal.
3 Feb 2012, 14:46 pm
@gecko-40: how did the Emerging Boks compete in the Nations Cup in Romania without being registered with the IRB?
3 Feb 2012, 14:48 pm
sad to think how many players that FAT Wakefield will chase away @ WP … WP will be the new EP … and EP kings will be the pride and Joy of the Eastern & Western Cape !! – no politics ….
3 Feb 2012, 14:57 pm
@Great White Sharks gonna get ya-28:
Aaaah shurrrup
3 Feb 2012, 15:03 pm
Transformation = Chris Mahlangu
3 Feb 2012, 15:13 pm
@Koning_Rassie-39: Yes quotas claim another victim, barritt was never good enough to usurp jean de villiers, francois steyn, meyer bosman – who have all played 12 for the Boks since he left for the UK…bloody useless quotas
3 Feb 2012, 15:23 pm
Did Thelo chase him away!
3 Feb 2012, 15:23 pm
Trans – Emerging Boks is not registered as the official SA second team. Still a team, but the union has to nominate an official second team. SARU did not. If you followed the recent tug between Wales and Scotland over a player it was same thing. Did Wales nominate their u20s as their officials second team in 2010. Turns out they did.
3 Feb 2012, 15:27 pm
Who can blame him.
I would run away from Thelo as well.
Far.
3 Feb 2012, 15:42 pm
Prawn he also avoids you! you mos a big hoochie girl in the Cape!
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