6 Nations Squad Announcement - 11:30am

[Mr Mwenda]

Do we know when the team is actually supposed to be announced or is that also just going to be a list of random times that could be right?

I predict tonight at 10:37.

[Freddo]

I don't watch anywhere near enough club rugby to know but I see the Slade/Lawrence centre combination isn't very popular. Who are the form centres or who would you replace them with?

[Mikey Brown]

There's a bunch of centres in great Premiership/European form at the moment - Seb Atkinson, Fraser Dingwall, Oscar Beard, Will Butt/Max Ojomoh etc. - but they're all virtually untested.

Slade and Lawrence hasn't been clicking, but in theory it has most things you would want from a centre pairing - power, pace, handling, kicking etc. so it's not particularly clear at this point how much it is down to those two players, the coaching/tactics or just Marcus Smith being too much of a maverick for his centres to deal with.

[Banquo]

There's a bunch of centres in great Premiership/European form at the moment - Seb Atkinson, Fraser Dingwall, Oscar Beard, Will Butt/Max Ojomoh etc. - but they're all virtually untested.

Slade and Lawrence hasn't been clicking, but in theory it has most things you would want from a centre pairing - power, pace, handling, kicking etc. so it's not particularly clear at this point how much it is down to those two players, the coaching/tactics or just Marcus Smith being too much of a maverick for his centres to deal with.

spot on

[jngf]

There's a bunch of centres in great Premiership/European form at the moment - Seb Atkinson, Fraser Dingwall, Oscar Beard, Will Butt/Max Ojomoh etc. - but they're all virtually untested.

Slade and Lawrence hasn't been clicking, but in theory it has most things you would want from a centre pairing - power, pace, handling, kicking etc. so it's not particularly clear at this point how much it is down to those two players, the coaching/tactics or just Marcus Smith being too much of a maverick for his centres to deal with.

I’d question the power and pace capabilies of both Slade and Lawrence for test level rugby ( regardless of which shirt numbers they wear )

[Mikey Brown]

I’m sure you would.

[Stom]

There's a bunch of centres in great Premiership/European form at the moment - Seb Atkinson, Fraser Dingwall, Oscar Beard, Will Butt/Max Ojomoh etc. - but they're all virtually untested.

Slade and Lawrence hasn't been clicking, but in theory it has most things you would want from a centre pairing - power, pace, handling, kicking etc. so it's not particularly clear at this point how much it is down to those two players, the coaching/tactics or just Marcus Smith being too much of a maverick for his centres to deal with.

spot on

Except for the handling bit for Laurence… Or the kicking. Or the power after contact for that matter. Or the ball presentation…

[Mikey Brown]

I thought it was fairly clear I was saying between them they have a lot of the desired skills.

[Mellsblue]

Another who hasn’t learnt their lesson from this morning.

[TheDasher]

There's a bunch of centres in great Premiership/European form at the moment - Seb Atkinson, Fraser Dingwall, Oscar Beard, Will Butt/Max Ojomoh etc. - but they're all virtually untested.

Slade and Lawrence hasn't been clicking, but in theory it has most things you would want from a centre pairing - power, pace, handling, kicking etc. so it's not particularly clear at this point how much it is down to those two players, the coaching/tactics or just Marcus Smith being too much of a maverick for his centres to deal with.

I’d question the power and pace capabilies of both Slade and Lawrence for test level rugby ( regardless of which shirt numbers they wear )

jngf my dear fellow, how can you possibly question Lawrence's power and pace?

[Freddo]

There's a bunch of centres in great Premiership/European form at the moment - Seb Atkinson, Fraser Dingwall, Oscar Beard, Will Butt/Max Ojomoh etc. - but they're all virtually untested.

Slade and Lawrence hasn't been clicking, but in theory it has most things you would want from a centre pairing - power, pace, handling, kicking etc. so it's not particularly clear at this point how much it is down to those two players, the coaching/tactics or just Marcus Smith being too much of a maverick for his centres to deal with.

Cheers. I remember a bit of hype around Olly Hartley until he got a bad knee injury.

[Puja]

There's a bunch of centres in great Premiership/European form at the moment - Seb Atkinson, Fraser Dingwall, Oscar Beard, Will Butt/Max Ojomoh etc. - but they're all virtually untested.

Slade and Lawrence hasn't been clicking, but in theory it has most things you would want from a centre pairing - power, pace, handling, kicking etc. so it's not particularly clear at this point how much it is down to those two players, the coaching/tactics or just Marcus Smith being too much of a maverick for his centres to deal with.

I’d question the power and pace capabilies of both Slade and Lawrence for test level rugby ( regardless of which shirt numbers they wear )

jngf my dear fellow, how can you possibly question Lawrence's power and pace?

Is he really Rapid though?

Puja

[TheDasher]

I’d question the power and pace capabilies of both Slade and Lawrence for test level rugby ( regardless of which shirt numbers they wear )

jngf my dear fellow, how can you possibly question Lawrence's power and pace?

Is he really Rapid though?

Puja

Jngf is questioning Lawrence's power and pace at test ruby level, I'd say he's quite fast yes and that his power and pace are not a concern. His athletic ability is his strong point. He's not Usain Bolt but he's not slow for a centre at all, he's pretty quick.

[Banquo]

I’d question the power and pace capabilies of both Slade and Lawrence for test level rugby ( regardless of which shirt numbers they wear )

jngf my dear fellow, how can you possibly question Lawrence's power and pace?

Is he really Rapid though?

Puja

RAPID....tm

[Banquo]

There's a bunch of centres in great Premiership/European form at the moment - Seb Atkinson, Fraser Dingwall, Oscar Beard, Will Butt/Max Ojomoh etc. - but they're all virtually untested.

Slade and Lawrence hasn't been clicking, but in theory it has most things you would want from a centre pairing - power, pace, handling, kicking etc. so it's not particularly clear at this point how much it is down to those two players, the coaching/tactics or just Marcus Smith being too much of a maverick for his centres to deal with.

spot on

Except for the handling bit for Laurence… Or the kicking. Or the power after contact for that matter. Or the ball presentation…

....he said pairing, which is fair. I mean of course you would want centres to have those traits/skills indvidually, but....

[TheDasher]

Ah, sorry guessing I missed the joke/reference

[Mikey Brown]

Ah, sorry guessing I missed the joke/reference

It’s definitely not worth understanding. Count yourself lucky.

[Banquo]

Ah, sorry guessing I missed the joke/reference

lots of wires being crossed, but think jngf was being sincere

[Mellsblue]

It’s been a classic crossed wires, pointless arguments EMB RR humdinger of a day. Thank you all.

[Mellsblue]

https://theanalyst.com/2025/01/england- ... eview-2025

An interesting read but I’m not about sure about the analysis on Lawrence.

[Banquo]

https://theanalyst.com/2025/01/england- ... eview-2025

An interesting read but I’m not about sure about the analysis on Lawrence.

So it’s just joining the dots on that evidence- it’s interesting for sure

[jngf]

https://theanalyst.com/2025/01/england- ... eview-2025

An interesting read but I’m not about sure about the analysis on Lawrence.

Yes that analysis on Lawrence looks like it was subcontracted to Blueseek ( or an early version of ChatGPT which may well be one and the same near enough )

[Mikey Brown]

I don’t know where the bit about silky passing skills comes from but what part are we questioning?

Most people who’ve watched him see that’s he’s fast and powerful, and can be very physical in contact. I’m not sure what his stats on ball retention, silly penalties conceded or ignoring players outside would be though.

Interesting to see Chessum beats Martin on dominant tackles, which I thought was kind of a USP of his, but not sure how their minutes compared. Don’t think Chessum played a huge amount and a few games at 6?

[Mikey Brown]

I don’t bet, and I don’t know how 0.5% of a chance at a grand slam translates to odds, but that sounds like it’s worth a punt if it’s seen to be that small a chance?

[Puja]

I don’t bet, and I don’t know how 0.5% of a chance at a grand slam translates to odds, but that sounds like it’s worth a punt if it’s seen to be that small a chance?

I mean the references to "the Opta Supercomputer" are to laugh. There's just some spod with a spreadsheet.

Actual bookies have England 9/2 third favourites to win the comp and 12/1 to win the GS.

Puja