Seven Gloucester players are named in the England and England Saxons elite squads announced by the Rugby Union. England are looking for an improvement from their autumn series when the six Nations kicks off against Italy at Twickenham on February 7, when Glaws don’t have a game.
Backs Olly Morgan and Mike Tindall and back-row Luke Narraway are in the England squad, while prop Nick Wood is joined in the Saxons squad by backs Olly Barkley, Ryan Lamb and James Simpson-Daniel.
The choices are not particularly surprising – Tindall and Morgan have been in good club form this season, while Barkley has taken time to settle at his new club and JSD has been held back by injury and Lamb has also had an in-and-out season.
The selections do not, of course, take account of injuries either at Glaws or anywhere else, so a lot of juggling will be going on between now and the Six Nations kick-off.
The full Six Nations fixtures for England (Glaws games in brackets) is:
Feb 7 – (h) Italy (no game)
Feb 14 – (a) Wales (Sale h)
Feb 28 – (a) Ireland (Bath h)
Mar 15 – (h) France (Wasps h)
Mar 21 – (h) Scotland (Worcester a)
Other Glaws players will, of course, be included in other international squad and the club games in February and March will, as usual, test the strength of squads as well as the injury lists of all clubs. It's going to be a case of survival of the fittest.
Congratulations to all of them. A bit disappointed Brown has not made The Saxons, he is a cracking lineout forward and does his share in the tight and loose. Can understand Allen not getting the call and that is probably a blessing for Glaws. I see Nieto and Marco are in the Italian training squad so Glaws could end up missing three props in the shape of Wood, Nieto and possibly Dickinson with Scotland.
That game could end up with both sides sending out glorified United sides. Yet again highlighting the folly of playing GP games on international weekends.
I believe the additional games would be played over the Xmas period and on weekends used for the now defunct EDF. Personally I think it is a crazy idea, the clubs need more games to generate more money apparently but who is going to be able to pay to watch them? Im pretty sure a large number of ST holders are already wondering about next years cost let alone the possibility of paying more for additional games that may be a weakened quality.
The biggest fault with the idea is that all clubs won't play all other clubs the same number of times home and away. The proposed system would be lopsided and produce an even less worthy champion that the present one does. Basically, it's horse @#$%&. If they want to save money, perhaps they should have smaller squads and pay them a bit less.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:01:16:14:01:44 by Two Sheds.
If they want more games then why not make the GP a 14 team league and bring in Exeter and Leeds? Limit each squad to a maximum of 30 players plus a number of Academy players. That frees up a number of senior pro's to enable the sides coming up to strengthen and be competitive.. Possibly... Maybe
Anything's possible if they put their minds to it. But it's getting like that other game - it costs a club too much to be relegated, so it's survival at any cost.
It is a difficult decision. I have nothing against either The Falcons or Briz but I do believe there should be relegation from the GP otherwise you end up with a farce of a league as demonstrated by our near neighbours with totally meaningless games played in front of a couple of thousand diehard fans. A large part of the attraction of the GP is that it is ferociously competitive and on their day anyone can beat anyone else.
Cooper is in the Welsh squad and Dickinson, Strokosch and Lawson are away with Scotland. With Dave Lewis making the England U20 Elite Squad he is going to have a busy time covering for Cooper and Lawson.
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