England Squad

Here again so soon! Andy Robinson has made a few changes to his squad, these changes have perplexed me so much I thought I should write.

Firstly the easy one, Brown injured and Borthwick in, not much there. Hazell in for Worsley, I still have Rees ahead of him and Sanderson, but would prefer Hazell to Sanderson. For Rees it is tough to be in reserve, but I expect to see him sooner rather than later.

Now a bit trickier, I had said Balshaw should be out and Voyce in, this has now happened but only due to injury. On form Simpson-Daniel has lost out to Ben Cohen. Now I can't disagree about Cohen's fine form, but is it against the best teams and more importantly does it reflect a change in tactics. I see it only as a suggestion of more bash bash bash.

Finally Barkley is brought in for Abbott and Tindall is left in, now I am really scared. I don't know what Robinson was looking at when he's been watching these games but what I saw was a very sad and pathetic Gloucester and Bath midfield and a decent player with touches of class in Abbott. With Barkley, the only form I have seen is with the boot, which makes me think he may get the nod for a starting spot and van Gisbergen will miss misses out. What really annoys me about dropping Abbott is the complete lack of 12s. Robinson has a number of 13 options, so even if he feels he needs Barkley it should be one of the 13s that misses out, this change might suggest he is considering Tindall at 12. Personally Smith and Noon are my preferred centres but neither has the job at 12 ahead of Abbott. Smith had a couple of runs there last season and suggested something where as Noon is not quite right on the inside.

Overall I am very unimpressed with Robinson's thinking, I am not expecting much from them if Robinson decides the play. I just hope the players stand up, but if it is Barkley and Tindall in the midfield we're stuffed.

European Cup

With the European Cup starting I thought I should throw down a few predictions.

The first prediction is that all six pools will be heavily contested and the French will dominate, with few others getting through.

Pool 1
Sale are in outstanding form and will win what could be the closest of the pools.

Pool 2
Perpignan will win this pool relatively easily, I also think this pool will provide one of the best runners up, Cardiff, due to the weakness of Leeds and Calvisano. Again this weakness will be relative and entirely due to current form, Leeds could shake off their current form, but I predict otherwise.

Pool 3
Four of the top ten teams in the tournament are all here, ouch. Sadly I think Leicester will struggle against Stade Francais and the rest of the spoils will be so equally divided that there will be no best runner up from this pool.

Pool 4
Biarritz could be undefeated and take the number one seed in the quarter finals, a big bonus for them. I expect Saracens to be clear of the rest and go through as best runners up.

Pool 5
This pool is perhaps the weakest of the six and could be fairly even. I expect Bourgoin to edge out Leinster.

Pool 6
The second hardest of the pools; with two recent champions. This time I expect Toulose to have the edge over Wasps, with good performances from the others.


My final seeding for the quarter finals will be
1 Biarritz
2 Perpignan
3 Bourgoin
4 Toulose
5 Sale
6 Stade Francais
7 Saracens
8 Cardiff

On this basis I expect an all French turn out for the semi finals and Toulose to win, just.