They can not play Ford as they can not control the game enough for him to be of any use. They have too many discipline problems and don’t secure decent quick ball. Ford crumbles under pressure and makes more errors than Farrell compounding the lack of game control. Ford is or at least wasn’t good defensively as he doesn’t slow down attacking players.
Farrell on the otherhand revels under pressure becomeing madder and madder yet making tackles all over the place (though I don’t think he has the pace for that anymore). With ball in hand under that pressure he kicks hence controls the game much better than Ford under pressure.
As I said England were very good against Argentina however the scenario that led to that should be concerning. Both teams came out to knock ten tonnes of shit out of each other, 2 yellow cards very quickly one turned to red. It’s the red card that changed Englands attitude. They actually showed they can control a game. They dominated the breakdown and set Ford up to control territory, which with a dominant, disciplined England he was capable of doing. Yet there wasn’t any flair in that match it was total game control and Argentina let themselves down continuing with an illdisciplined, hecktic smash em up approach. Even so it showed that England can play in a disciplined fashion and succeed.
The problem is that the England mentality does/can not create the platform for Ford to ‘excell’ so they fall back to Farrell because Farrell looks better in that madness.
Btw I watched the Samoan game and Curry was back getting penalised anytime he got near the ball. Before England debate Fly halves they need to sort their pack out, it’s like they play to their own rules. Under such circumstances you will never be able to rub the ref up the right way and a competent opposition will always manage to put you under pressure so a player like Ford looks out of his depth. Samoa showed the level a team needs to be at to unsettle England!
England have some weird selection problems. Despite having an excellent league structure they can’t put a side on the pitch that should reach the latter stages of any tournament. They should be pushing for a 6 nation’s title every season.
They currently have problems at 8 through to 13 and also 15. The balance of players Vs play style is miles off. It’s a selection and coaching failure over a player one. I look at them and you can’t see what they’re trying to do in attack. There’s no structure.
Farrell, Vunipola, Tuilagi are examples of players where I’m honestly questioning if they are honestly the best players available and why are they picked game after game. They don’t bring anything to the side imo, and certainly don’t fit with the players round them.
This Ireland team seem to have a bit more about them, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Recent results against New Zealand suggest it should be a tight affair, either way.
My head fancies Ireland for it but I have a nagging doubt that the All Blacks will do a few things new, unexpected.
My reasoning is that Ireland have become very good at winning the breakdown. Similarly the way to stop the All Blacks playing is to get to them and disrupt the breakdown. Italy for example gave them a free run there. But I also fully expect New Zealand to be 100% ready for Ireland’s attacking patterns.
I just hope that a sin bin or whatever doesn’t swing it.
They have all been known to do it. Hell, I did an internship back in the day with who Im pretty sure was our first genuine import, Hemi Taylor. But it isnt a big contributor to the Welsh side. While we have a few cross border examples of English raised players with dubious connections to Wales, that is a bit of a different situation. As for legit imports, I’m pretty sure Anscombe is the only genuine one in the World Cup squad
Toby has lived in Wales since he was in primary school. His dad moved there to finish his own career so that’s a situation similar to Thiago playing for Spain.