[www.theguardian.com]

Nice article, thanks. Another one in the Telegraph but it's behind the paywall.

And the Times. Nice tie in with him watching Jones in SA.

Interesting pick up that 26 of his 28 appearances for us last season came from the bench. Exemplifies the quite astounding rise to England and Lions prominence.

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Cookie
And the Times. Nice tie in with him watching Jones in SA.
Interesting pick up that 26 of his 28 appearances for us last season came from the bench. Exemplifies the quite astounding rise to England and Lions prominence.

Indeed, he is essentially M Vunipola ver. 2. Fingers crossed he gets the same opportunity on the upcoming tour!

Nice Guardian article , great to see his passion enthusiasm and clear desire to learn and improve - Jones , Marler and Rowntree have done a good job of mentoring , I hope he has a great tour

Kyle's rise has been pretty incredible and delighted for him. Was very surporised to hear he can hit 100 Quins caps if he plays next two games.

I do think Joe should get more credit than he's getting though. Not that much older, 50ish England caps, every chance of playing himself into starting loosehead.

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T-Bone
Kyle's rise has been pretty incredible and delighted for him. Was very surporised to hear he can hit 100 Quins caps if he plays next two games.
I do think Joe should get more credit than he's getting though. Not that much older, 50ish England caps, every chance of playing himself into starting loosehead.

That's a good point T-Bone , because Kyle has come from 'nowhere' internationally he is grabbing the headlines , but Joe is certainly deserving of his place , be great to see them both start a test .

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T-Bone
Kyle's rise has been pretty incredible and delighted for him. Was very surporised to hear he can hit 100 Quins caps if he plays next two games.
I do think Joe should get more credit than he's getting though. Not that much older, 50ish England caps, every chance of playing himself into starting loosehead.

I'm not sure "incredible" is the word - meteoric, certainly, but I think his potential was apparent from the moment he started playing. Don't forget he toured NZ with England two years ago, albeit only playing against Christchurch.

Wholeheartedly agree with you about Marler. Pundits and fans tend to have this assumption that Mako will be the first choice in any given situation - when in six out of eight games when they've both been full fit Eddie has started Joe (and one of the others was against Italy). It's been clear to me from his first senior season that he had the potential to rival the Funbus in the appearances stakes, and he still looks on track to do that.

All of which said, I think Kyle might one day surpass them both. If his scrummaging continues to improve, and he stays fit, he's got every chance of being an England fixture for years to come.

He's yet to start an international and has played something like 95 minutes of international rugby in total, and he's going on a Lions tour. That's incredible!

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O Fortuna, velut luna statu variabilis,
semper crescis aut decrescis

Under some circumstances, yes. But both Gats and Eddie subscribe to the "bench as finishers" idea and let's face it, Kyle is a bloody brilliant player to bring off the bench and finish the opposition.

He's helped by the fact that TH isn't exactly the British Isles' strongest position right now. There's Cole and Furlong... and then Kyle. Hill might have been in contention had Eddie stuck with him, Nel might have been in contention but is crocked, and I don't really rate any of the others.

I'd like to reserve "incredible" for the idea that Robshaw has been among the most consistently excellent players in an excellent England team over the last 15 months, showed his value by his absence in the 6N and returned a week too late but bang in form... and is overlooked in favour of Moriarty (had a couple of good games) and Faletau (worthy of his place at his best but has shown no signs of being anywhere near that level). Then I remember Gatland's running selection and it seems all too credible.

Don't get the Moriarty shout at all. Talk about horses for courses and grit and warriors and all those buzz words. But the bare facts are that on the Welsh tour to NZ in the summer, in the 3rd Test he missed 8 tackles. EIGHT!! That's more than the rest of the starting pack PUT TOGETHER!! Faletau made 13, didn't miss one.

In the series he made a credible 38 tackles, but missed 16!!!!

Absurd that he went ahead of Robshaw.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 24/04/2017 17:39 by Cookie.

Brodie can't wait to face Michael Moriarty again.

Quote:

poorfour
Under some circumstances, yes. But both Gats and Eddie subscribe to the "bench as finishers" idea and let's face it, Kyle is a bloody brilliant player to bring off the bench and finish the opposition.
He's helped by the fact that TH isn't exactly the British Isles' strongest position right now. There's Cole and Furlong... and then Kyle. Hill might have been in contention had Eddie stuck with him, Nel might have been in contention but is crocked, and I don't really rate any of the others.

I'd like to reserve "incredible" for the idea that Robshaw has been among the most consistently excellent players in an excellent England team over the last 15 months, showed his value by his absence in the 6N and returned a week too late but bang in form... and is overlooked in favour of Moriarty (had a couple of good games) and Faletau (worthy of his place at his best but has shown no signs of being anywhere near that level). Then I remember Gatland's running selection and it seems all too credible.

A TH prop going on the Lions having 95mins of international rugby and never having started is incredible, yeah. None of this circumstances stuff. We all know he's good but considering he's not a monster scrummager it's a genuinely meteoric rise.

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O Fortuna, velut luna statu variabilis,
semper crescis aut decrescis