Great 4th try from the back of the lineout. T Youngs 7/7 today including plenty of long ones. Just saying. (edit: finished with 10/10) ~ Ooh, Blunder's boy Cowan-Dickie coming on. Faces a tough ask with the Exeter scrum being done in.
Fine consolation score from Exeter with plenty of good carries. Including one from ECD, who looks a player tbh, though the throwing has been shaky
The throws are one part of it. A lineout has call, throw, dummy, lift, catch and service. Some parts are harder than others I grant you. But it's about the partnership between the different players involved and how well coached they are. Blaming everything on the hooker is balls. But it's easy for people to do if they only watch Tests, so that's what happens.
Doesn't Cowan-Dickie prop too, or have I imagined that? Anyway, glad I missed this. Fucking BT should publicise their give aways.
Are you suggesting that the other members of the lineout get deliberately worse when Hartley goes off?
It's all very well Tom Youngs throwing really well in domestic matches but his lineouts haven't been up to the standard that Hartley's have in international matches. It might be that Hartley benefits from playing with Wood and Lawes at club level, but the fact remains that with the same set of players the Hartley lineout is much more successful than Youngs one.
No, I'm suggesting that the England system involving Youngs doesn't work for more subtle reasons than "throws crap" and that permadropping him without trying to find a coaching solution is a criminal waste of potential.
Fair enough. You'd assume it must be something they're working on and I think to be fair he has actually improved recently. From memory there were a few games a while ago where the lineout was horrendous, but I think it's only been a few bad lineouts recently. Obviously he brings other strengths to the team, and I've got no real issues with him being on the bench at the moment, but I wouldn't start him over Hartley until I'm completely convinced that the lineout is going to be strong with him on the pitch. Out of interest, given that you seem to watch a fair amount of Premiership Rugby, who would be next in line after Hartley and Youngs?
He converted to Hooker at the start of last season IIRC. Definitely started out as a prop though. How did he get on?
Not sure if sly dig But I think Rob Webber is next in line. Impressed with the newbie team in Argentina and has been a big part of Bath's strong season. He was pretty effective in the loose and made a contributing carry for the aforementioned consolation try. Don't remember anything of his defending which is probably a good sign. Set piece was pretty much trashed from start to finish so I don't think there's much he could have done about that. Have Exeter asked him to switch to hooker for a reason? Seemed that their starting hooker was one of their top players today.
I heard somewhere it was at the behest of the England setup. I'd prefer him at LH personally. Yeandle (the starting hooker) is only 24. Maybe he wasn't deemed an effective enough scrummager for the seniors.
He seems to me to be little bit too small to be an effective prop. Whenever I've seen him he's pretty good at getting about the field as well, though that may have to do with the size of the Albion pitch. I'm not sure how it measures up to Sandy Park. I think going forward he'll be a better Hooker even if in the short term it may limit his chances. But hell if he can't break through into the Exeter side we'll take him back
If Hartley does cop a ban (and, sadly, he does have previous biting form) and the Tiges make the Premiership final (and they almost invariably do) it'll be interesting to see who plays rake in the first test versus the ABs. TBH I don't even know who our third choice is anymore. Who played in the Argentine last summer?
Cooommme oonn LC-D!! Reading that article it would seem to be harsh if he does get banned. such an idiot if he really did bite him though
