EPS Watch / Player Form Thread

[Mellsblue]

Thirded. Been very impressed with him. Never seen/remember seeing his name before. Was he Eng age grade?

[Puja]

Thirded. Been very impressed with him. Never seen/remember seeing his name before. Was he Eng age grade?

Doesn't look like it. One that's crept up on the ropes slightly.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/im-actua ... arlequins/
Interesting to read that his teammates plan for his chop tackles and see them as an opportunity to absolutely munch someone in a double tackle. You'd've thought that was a tactic that a few other teams might look to adopt in defence - designate one player as the chop and tell everyone else to go for the double tackle when you see he's inside you.

Mind, he has only made 7 starts for Quins, so we're not even in first season syndrome yet, let alone second, but I do like the cut of his jib. Apparently was a huge fan of Robshaw growing up (watching the Quins Prem victory at the Stoop as a boy), which explains the workrate and attitude.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

Yeah. He was always impressive in Quins junior sides, but I didn’t expect him to step up quite as well as he has so soon.

As you say, it’s very early days but all 7 of his experiences to date have been very good and given his strengths are nuts and bolts areas of the game rather than being an ‘x factor’ type player, I’m not really worried about ‘second season syndrome’.

In other words, you can be prepared to shut down a guy who you’ve learned is dangerous ball-in-hand (as teams did with Dombrandt for example), but it’s much harder to neutralise a guy whose strengths are mostly without the ball. If it’s a jackal, you can make them tackle and take them out of the breakdown equation, but how do you stop someone being an effective tackler who just keeps coming?

He reminds me a bit of Dan Lydiate (when he was good).

[FKAS]

Promising young player. If he can develop into a good tail jumper at the lineout and offer a little more ball in hand he'll go far. Round out that skill set to go with his mobility and workrate and there's no reason he won't be in the conversation. I'd be interested to see if he could go to 6 with Evans at 7 as that would pose a lot of problems to an attack in terms of generating quick ball.

[Mikey Brown]

Lineout definitely seems to be a focus for him and I just love how accurate and aggressive he is in clearing out. So many players only manage one of the two at a time.

[fivepointer]

As we head in to the play-offs, I just wanted to draw attention to Jack Kenningham.

With the plethora of back row players at England’s disposal, I’m not necessarily tipping him for international honours, but he has stepped up so impressively over the last few weeks that I wanted to show him some love.

When Evans went down injured, I genuinely thought Quins were screwed but Kenningham has proved to be a superb deputy. He’s a different type of player to Evans and maybe more of a 6.5 but his chop tackling is a thing of beauty, he punches well above his body weight on the carry (helped by nice footwork), runs good support lines and is decent over the ball. A hell of a lot to like and the find of the season for Quins.

Liked him when i first saw him play. Everything since has cemented my high opinion of him. I mentioned him as an England squad member (with the A game in mind) a couple of weeks back.
I'd have him lining up against Scotland next weekend.

[Raggs]

Seeing the effectiveness of Dante at 12, it really does make me wonder why we can't repurpose some of our nippy skillful flankers at 12. Hell, grant Barbeary his wish and put him there .

[Mikey Brown]

Is Dante a nickname that I should be recognising?

[Raggs]

Is Dante a nickname that I should be recognising?

He's the French 12 (might have the spelling wrong to be fair). Slimmer version of Basteraud. Very effective on the ground, powerful carrier.

EDIT - Looks like it's Danty.

[Digby]

Seeing the effectiveness of Dante at 12, it really does make me wonder why we can't repurpose some of our nippy skillful flankers at 12. Hell, grant Barbeary his wish and put him there .

Is that what Barbeary wants?

[Raggs]

Seeing the effectiveness of Dante at 12, it really does make me wonder why we can't repurpose some of our nippy skillful flankers at 12. Hell, grant Barbeary his wish and put him there .

Is that what Barbeary wants?

Yeah. There was an interview with Blackett/Barbeary, where Blackett has basically told him to shut up about playing centre, but Barbeary would still love to give it a go.

Get the feeling he's not actually upset with playing hooker (or backrow), but would like to have fun in the centres again.

[Digby]

Seeing the effectiveness of Dante at 12, it really does make me wonder why we can't repurpose some of our nippy skillful flankers at 12. Hell, grant Barbeary his wish and put him there .

Is that what Barbeary wants?

Yeah. There was an interview with Blackett/Barbeary, where Blackett has basically told him to shut up about playing centre, but Barbeary would still love to give it a go.

Get the feeling he's not actually upset with playing hooker (or backrow), but would like to have fun in the centres again.

Was that banter, a clear view of career progression, or bit of both if perhaps more one than the other?

[Raggs]

Is that what Barbeary wants?

Yeah. There was an interview with Blackett/Barbeary, where Blackett has basically told him to shut up about playing centre, but Barbeary would still love to give it a go.

Get the feeling he's not actually upset with playing hooker (or backrow), but would like to have fun in the centres again.

Was that banter, a clear view of career progression, or bit of both if perhaps more one than the other?

I think he'd genuinely be interested in playing in the centres, but has just as much interest in playing in the pack. I suspect it's a running joke between them as well.

[Banquo]

Seeing the effectiveness of Dante at 12, it really does make me wonder why we can't repurpose some of our nippy skillful flankers at 12. Hell, grant Barbeary his wish and put him there .

Isn’t he actually a centre though?

[Spiffy]

Seeing the effectiveness of Dante at 12, it really does make me wonder why we can't repurpose some of our nippy skillful flankers at 12. Hell, grant Barbeary his wish and put him there .

Isn’t he actually a centre though?

That's where he started. Just like England and Lions hooker Tom Youngs.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Seeing the effectiveness of Dante at 12, it really does make me wonder why we can't repurpose some of our nippy skillful flankers at 12. Hell, grant Barbeary his wish and put him there .

Isn’t he actually a centre though?

He played centre (and occasionally backrow) at school, but Wasps academy moved him to hooker, which he started playing from 5th form onwards regularly. He still mixed between centre and hooker at school, but was almost exclusively a hooker for Wasps and England age grades.

[Raggs]

At school he started in the front row. His school master moved him to backrowto develop more skills, then to centre to continue that development and try and push him more since he was physically dominating everyone.

[Banquo]

Seeing the effectiveness of Dante at 12, it really does make me wonder why we can't repurpose some of our nippy skillful flankers at 12. Hell, grant Barbeary his wish and put him there .

Isn’t he actually a centre though?

That's where he started. Just like England and Lions hooker Tom Youngs.

I meant Danty!
Barbeary should focus on hooker.

[Banquo]

Seeing the effectiveness of Dante at 12, it really does make me wonder why we can't repurpose some of our nippy skillful flankers at 12. Hell, grant Barbeary his wish and put him there .

Isn’t he actually a centre though?

He played centre (and occasionally backrow) at school, but Wasps academy moved him to hooker, which he started playing from 5th form onwards regularly. He still mixed between centre and hooker at school, but was almost exclusively a hooker for Wasps and England age grades.

I meant Danty. Apols

[Banquo]

At school he started in the front row. His school master moved him to backrowto develop more skills, then to centre to continue that development and try and push him more since he was physically dominating everyone.

…..again, I meant Danty! I was just wondering why a centre playing well at centre lead to the comment of sticking back rows at 12.

[Digby]

Put Barbeary at 12 and Simmonds at 13, then would Eddie concede the 5:3 bench split?

[Puja]

Ludlow banned for 3 weeks for kneeing Ilnicki in the Canada game. He clearly knew how to play the citing game - pleaded guilty (to doing it accidentally and recklessly, not deliberate kneeing), expressed regret, agreed to go on "World Rugby's head contact process coaching intervention programme" to get the 4th week knocked off his suspension, and he's got two pre-season games counted so he'll only miss one league match for Gloucester.

Compare and contrast to the American Riekert Hattingh, who failed to play the citing game properly and pleaded not guilty for a direct shoulder to the head red card. He got hit with the full 6 weeks, which should have ruled him out of the USA's world cup qualifier with Canada, but the IRB decided that he was likely going to play 3 games at the US national sevens tournament at the Washington Athletic Club, and a game for a local Seattle team that he's not even registered for. Coincidentally, that meant that, if he volunteered to attend the IRB's brand new flagship "head contact process coaching intervention programme" and became an early adopter to legitimise it (and help the IRB look like they're doing things about head injuries in the press), he could play against Canada. What a wild coincidence!

In related news, the disciplinary system is still a shower of shit.

Puja

[Gloskarlos]

Gloucester have managed to squeeze in a third warm up game against Hartpury, following the two already in the calendar against Ealing. This was done before the sanction had hit Ludlow, but now means he is available for the opening game of the season.

Shower of shite it is. There really is no legitimate pleading process, whether you believe you did right or wrong everyone is just trying to minimise the length of the ban. Any with the minerals to stand up for what they believe just have more weeks on the sidelines, so the whole process is a mockery of integrity and honesty.

[Puja]

Gloucester have managed to squeeze in a third warm up game against Hartpury, following the two already in the calendar against Ealing. This was done before the sanction had hit Ludlow, but now means he is available for the opening game of the season.

Comedy. Not that I think he particularly deserved a long ban just for being clumsy (and I don't really know what the learn-to-tackle-lower course is going to teach him about not pointlessly stepping over rucks), but it's ridiculous that he's been found guilty and banned, without any real punishment.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

True. Although it might be that the real punishment is yet to come. I doubt Eddie would have particularly liked seeing such dumb recklessness from the guy he’d backed as captain.

Care, Mercer and Lozowski all became persona non grata following the Japan game where they were guilty of far less, so perhaps that’s the end of Ludlow’s test career?