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.
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
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.
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?
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 (?)
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?
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.
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.
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.
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