I think that Mike Brown should be given a chance to show what he can do. Based on his form this season he deserves it

He'll get his chance in SA.

I know Foden is not a wing but why not try him on the wing, Ashton is lacking confidence and not playing well, and play Brown at full back

If Ashton was dropped why not replace him with a specialist winger?

There are other wingers lining up to take Ashton's place if he is dropped. Foden won't be moved there to accommodate Mike. MB will get his chance. Patience.

......."I know Foden is not a wing"....
You answer your own question.
It's like someone wanting Wood to play in the back row against Ireland saying "I know Croft is not a centre,but can't we try him there?" in order to get Wood in the side.

It's either Foden or Brown, not both I'm afraid.

I think Foden played well last time out,the try wasn't easy to score and he took his chance well.

I am as big a Mike Brown fan as you will find but I can't see Foden being dropped at the moment, I'd love to see Brown given the chance to prove how good he is though. For someone who tends to play every minute of every game for us he must be very frustrated sitting on the bench so much.

If he does get brought on again I hope it's for more than two minutes

I agree, give him 10 - 15 minutes and lets see what happens

When you are looking at building a squad why would you not try out all the playing options especially those that are top of the stats and performing well in the prem?

I'd give him some real game time 20 or 30 minutes, you will never see what you have otherwise and if he is just back up what happens if Foden gets injured and can't play, you will want someone coming in with some experience of playing with the squad.

I wish he would get some good game time. But given amount of time he has had so far he would would probably be glad to get 10 minutes.

I agree MB needs game experience to be ready if anything does happen to Foden

He has experience... He was capped long before Foden. But that was when Foden insisted he would only play scrum-half

At the moment Foden has earned his spot. My fear is that even if he has a run of poor form, he will continue to be picked, as seems to be the case with some players...

Foden played well last match and therefore shouldn't be dropped or moved. However, as someone pointed out after the Italy game, Rodney Regis I think, I'd imagine that Mike would have got a more meaningful run out there had things gone to plan and we were not chasing the game. The reason we were chasing the game is that Foden gave away one try and was partly responsible, though admittedly the ricochets/bouncing ball were very unlucky, for the other. So really Foden's mistakes peversely meant that Mike didn't get a go. Of course I have no idea if Lancaster was planning to bring him on and it's pure guess work but I think it's a fairly reasonable suggestion

I don't agree with moving players from a specialist position just to accomodate another player. It's a straight shoot out between foden and mike. foden's in possession so mike will have to wait. Having said that, I don't think Foden's had a great tournament by his standards, though he hasn't done much wrong apart from the italy game. I do agree though that if Foden gets injured after 5 mins against Ireland then mike will come in having played very little rugby recently. Thankfully he is excellent so it won't be a problem!

This reminds me of a chat I had with some Tiggers during the World Cup.

The view was that in specialist positions, would a side be better picking utility backs a'la Ugo, on the bench who can cover all positions rather than a player like Mike missing game time with their club, to keep them sharp. If Foden was to get injured in training then Mike comes in regardless.

It was a split view but the amount of times a Fullback get's injured in a game is minimal so probably better in the long run.

Just seems very strange to put Mike on the bench if he isn't definitely coming on for a good half hour. Just a waste of a bench spot. He's basically there as injury cover, and covering one spot. Obscure.

Could it be that Lancaster's current priority is securing the England job and will not risk that by experimenting with different combinations, especially when the current team are doing OK?

Given the amount of inexperienced players featuring I don't think that holds water.

You all seem to think MB will get a chance, I am not convinced we are lucky in England at the moment we have 4 or 5 full backs who could comfortably wear the 15 shirt and not let the country down, and if Mike gets an injury or has a poor end to the season he might not get that chance.

You have
Foden
Brown
May
Goode
Abebendenon
Armitage (?)

Quote:

HSBC
if Mike gets an injury or has a poor end to the season he might not get that chance

Lucky you are there to work these things out HSBC. You forgot "he might get hit by a bus".

As long as the selection is based on form and not on previous performances, then that will be fine

He States Backs Choices

---

The game's afoot;
Follow your spirit: and upon this charge,
Cry — God for Harry! England and Saint George

He looked OK today - I'd like to see him get longer than 10 minutes to show what he can do, though.

I thought he looked good today and certainly merits more time.

Ten minutes is ridiculous. In the game Goden could have been subbed with 30mins to go!

Prime opportunity to try players in this ame.

I thought he looked good when he came on, here's hoping he gets more chances over the summer

I thought he had a very good 10 minutes on the field

Let's get him back to the Stoop on Saturday, where he can strut his stuff and show Lancaster how wrong he was.

yep he had a very good 10 minutes, tidied up very well at the back and brought the ball out strongly when under pressure. He deserves more game time.

Some of the substitutions were not well considered and may cost us the welsh game. What is the point of bringing on a player with less than 20 minutes unless there is an injury?

Ask COS and any other coach - it happens all the time!

Not consistently with the same player, unless you're talking about roundball.

Quote:

RodneyRegis
Not consistently with the same player, unless you're talking about roundball.

COS generally swaps Brooker and Grey around on about 50/55 minutes. Virtually every game. Prolateball...

Sorry, are you agreeing or disagreeing? Pretty standard to bring subs on between 50 & 60 mins. Consistently bringing a player on with less than 10 left is pretty rare.

Perhaps he's being over-cautious with Brown due to his inexperience at test level. I'm very confident that should both Foden and Brown be fit in June they will get roughly equal time in the 3 tests.

Sorry, why are you so confident?

Several on here were confident that Mike would start against Ireland.

Because I think Lancaster would place more importance on the 6N and would only take certain risks. I feel he will give some more players chances in SA.

Assuming he's got the job!

Bringing Brownie on though with 20 or even 30 minutes left wouldn't have been a risk since we had Ireland on the ropes. Brownie is also more confident under the high ball than Foden.

Lets hope Mike has a really good last few games of the season and so enure he books his place for the tour to SA

He's in the EPS so he'd have to have some real shockers not to tour.