Lawes in, Botha dropped
28 Nov 2012
Lock Courtney Lawes replaces South African-born Mouritz Botha in England’s match-day squad for the Test against the All Blacks on Saturday.
Head coach Stuart Lancaster announced a 23-man squad, which saw two changes made.
Lawes is called up after recovering from a serious knee injury, and will make his Test return this weekend. Botha, who failed to make a solid impact off the bench against the Springboks and lost the ball into touch from the final kick-off in the 16-15 loss at Twickenham, is dropped.
Gloucester flyhalf Freddie Burns also comes in for the injured Toby Flood. Saracens pivot Owen Farrell is set to start against the All Blacks.
England 23-man squad:
Forwards – Alex Corbisiero (London Irish), Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), James Haskell (London Wasps), Joe Launchbury (London Wasps), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Ben Morgan (Gloucester), David Paice (London Irish), Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers), Chris Robshaw (Harlequins, c), Mako Vunipola (Saracens), David Wilson (Bath), Tom Wood (Northampton Saints), Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers),
Backs - Chris Ashton (Saracens), Brad Barritt (Saracens), Mike Brown (Harlequins), Freddie Burns (Gloucester), Danny Care (Harlequins), Owen Farrell (Saracens), Alex Goode (Saracens), Jonathan Joseph (London Irish), Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers).
71 Comments
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28 Nov 2012, 11:31 am
@Atreides-49:
At least she’s better than the one on Toks & chops
28 Nov 2012, 11:32 am
@Tacitus-9: “Cook the man some eggs”
28 Nov 2012, 11:34 am
@nortierd-48: It’s G and T’s for Blades mate…. Whisky is for alkies
28 Nov 2012, 11:34 am
@nortierd-51: Have;t seen her.
Just to be clear, I don”t have any problem with the gender, like some of the ‘oubaas’ f arts on here, but her role is annoying and pretty patronising to women generally
Reunion have got the format of a female presenter right, i think (though not much else haha)
28 Nov 2012, 11:35 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-53:
Ha ha, too true
He is a connoisseur after all
28 Nov 2012, 11:37 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-53: He drinks G&T’s like other people drink red bulls….to sober up after a hard night!
28 Nov 2012, 11:39 am
@Atreides-54:
Yes, the one on Reunion at least anchors in Tony’s absence.
Elma or Elna, well it was a gimmick drummed up for WC 2011, joanita on T& C is a presenter on Jacaranda FM.
28 Nov 2012, 11:40 am
@Atreides-54: Agree with you. I cringe at times……
@Atreides-56:
28 Nov 2012, 11:46 am
@Atreides-50: I think so too. Won’t get past three rounds.
28 Nov 2012, 12:13 pm
Will these boxing matches be on tv and when ?
This is a must see, 2 anzacs getting moered and no yellow or red card
am loving it.
28 Nov 2012, 12:14 pm
Not going to help. Poms to be absolutely blasted off the park this weekend. ABs playing for Ritchie !!
28 Nov 2012, 12:28 pm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/20515959
I seem to remember one or two Scottish saying that the AB’s were “beatable’.
That might technically be true, but they have such a potent blend at the moment of swagger, game-awareness, calmness and belief etc etc. Ain’t gonna get rolled over by the huffing and puffing English.
28 Nov 2012, 12:29 pm
I must also note, that I watched the Pom game again yesterday and at not time did I get the feeling that the poms were ‘on top’.
I thought their momentum was very much given to them by the ref and touch judges who basically 1) let England do what they want in the set pieces – English scrum was clearly in the wrong against Jannie, amongst other infringements. 2) Line outs throwing was so skew it was a joke – pom touch judge was NEVER going to call anything skew and it took the ref to actually do it for him the one time with Adriaan Strauss screaming in disbelief!
Poms go on about Flood missing x2 penalties, but justice was done, as both penalties were ‘wrong’ and absolute shockers by ref. Should have been other way around.
Poms going on and on about ‘lucky’ and ‘fluke’ try. Unbelievable. You make your luck, by kicking for the corner and taking the line out and by creating pressure. Talking about luck, the boks were on there way to scoring a 2nd try – but the ‘lucky’ intercept by Tiguali ON the English 5m line put an end to that. No one mentioned how ‘lucky’ that was!!
28 Nov 2012, 12:36 pm
@umfolozi-62:
Hear what you say about the huffing and puffing English!!
I got a clear incite into the England psych this weekend and comments after match. They talk themselves up UNBELIEVABLY!
But the net is that what they say is actually the opposite in reality. They do not ACTUALLY believe they are than the Boks, Blacks and Aussies. This is the root cause of their problems.
The go on and on about ‘how they matched the boks physically’ and ‘how the boks only won by a lucky try’ etc etc.
But if they watched the tape again – they were actually pretty lucky in keeping up with the boks. Ref was clearly wrong at scrum, their lineout was a mess, and ‘physically’ they may have matched a ‘tired’ bok team, but I felt it was more ‘bluster’ from them than anything else … e.g. trying ‘so hard’ to be ‘tough’ with Etsabeth incident it was actually a joke with 6 Poms around Etsabeth and not much happening!! LOL!! And then the ref once again gives penalty to Poms – taking momentum away from boks – when it was the Pom 9 who started it and the whole pom team jumping in to get busy! Ludicrous penalty.
28 Nov 2012, 12:50 pm
The AB swagger is what really sets them apart. They play like a great basketball team, moving the ball all over the park and yet keeping things so simple with quick hands. It’s similar in a way to what the Barcelona football team does. When I see the Boks play the AB’s it’s like we are George Foreman and they are Muhammad Ali ! That’s why we need more guys who can step and create space.
28 Nov 2012, 13:16 pm
@umfolozi-65:
But that swagger comes from years in the making and very experienced players in key positions who know each other very well. The swagger is also REAL – backed up by on field performance and humility and sportsmanship off the field. Something the English have NO CLUE about.
I think HM should be given 8 years with this team that he is building. Like Graham Henry was. Then have a succession plan all mapped out.
Imagine: backs Goosen, Lambie, Serfontein, Rhule, and forwards: Etsabeth, Steph- Du Toit, Coetzee, Kohlisi, Malherbe, Kitshoff together for the next 8 years!!??
They will be unbelievable.
Meyer has done what he needed to in the last year. He will now bring in the best conditioning team and the best attack team and build this over a few years meticulously.
Watch this space.
28 Nov 2012, 13:29 pm
@The Analyst-63: Well said. I completely agree.
The reffing in the England match was atrocious. Nigel Owens is particularly bad when it comes to the whole anti-saffa sentiment that plagues the rugby reffing industry.
Scrums – penalties given to england when they should have been given to SA.
Lineouts – constant skew throws not awarded. Blank face from the assistant ref when every player threw their hands up in disbelief. Disgraceful,.
Eben Etzebeth penalty – Assistant advised the ref that the Bok number 4 had “gone into the face of the English number 9″.. False. Replays showed Ben Youngs grabbing Eben’s face first. False information from the assistant and incorrect call.
Try from South Africa – has now been discussed on the rugby 365 website and conclusion is that it was a legitimate try… I completely agree, you make your own luck. And yes, no one mentioned how lucky the Poms were to have the intercept gifted to them.
Nigel Owens has a history of very poor reffing against the Boks. I remember a few years back he penalised us on our 5m line because Pierre Spies kicked the ball. We were under pressure and Spies (of all people) kicked the ball. The whistle immediately went off and Owens called penalty against us stating that there were players in front of the kicker so it was offside. Our players rightly protested because Spies was not given a chance to run and get in front of the offside players but Owens was having none of it. Penalty against us on our 5m line.
Really frustrating that refs dont get analysed and reviewed more stringently. It’s open season at the moment and until there is a more professional approach to dealing with refs and making sure their performances meet certain standards, they will be allowed to do as they please.
Until then, we will have repeats of the following situations:
- Bryce Lawrence Quarter final
- “Smit have a word with your players”
- Teach the Japies a lesson
- Piet Van Zyl tackling the ref for cheating
- Paddy O’Brien
28 Nov 2012, 15:35 pm
@Kaizan-67: agree with all you said. I watched the game at Twikenham, then after on tv. One thing that you could see sitting behind the poles is how much obstruction Eng were running, especially Tialagi. SA defence was excellent considereing.
28 Nov 2012, 16:01 pm
@gunther-28: “Dodgier than a three wheeled Cortina!”, absolute pearler, where do you find these daubles Gunther?!
29 Nov 2012, 07:36 am
@7 Tacitus
What did Campo say now?
29 Nov 2012, 09:26 am
Lawes is a quality player. Lawes and Launchbury should be the future pairing.
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