'Most consistent loosie in Europe' - All Black backs Sam Simmonds England recall
The clamour to see Sam Simmonds once again involved with England has reached new heights this weekend after another below-par performance from Eddie Jones' men in white.
Despite coming in as favourites, England fell to a record 40 - 24 defeat to Wayne Pivac's Wales in a Six Nations match that delivered with thrills, spills and questionable refereeing decisions.
While Billy Vunipola, Tom Curry and Mark Wilson put in good shifts, they were outshone by their Welsh counterparts; with Josh Navidi, Taulupe Faletau and Justin Tipuric shading their unit battle.
The conversation inevitably led back to maybe England's most egregious omission - Exeter Chiefs back row Sam Simmonds. Simmonds scored again this weekend and has been in remarkable form for the reigning Gallagher Premiership champions.
Now Simmonds has received a heavyweight endorsement from one of the best back rows of the professional era, All Black flanker Jerome Kaino. Kaino took to Twitter to surmise: "I’m never one to critique coaches selections but in my opinion Sam Simmonds should be in the England mix, most consistent loosie in Europe the last 2 years."
The tweet has received well over 1,000 likes. Among those that were in agreement with the
83 cap New Zealander, who is now plying his trade in France with Toulouse, was former England and Exeter Chiefs back row Thomas Waldrom.
"I’m glad you can see that too mate. He definitely needs to be in the mix. Taught him a few tricks but he had got a whole bag full," Tweeted Waldrom, Simmonds' former teammate.
Former England flyhalf Andy Goode, who has been one of the main drivers of the Sam Simmonds bandwagon in recent months, simply tweeted: "Sam Simmonds......". Everyone knew what he was talking about.
Writing in his RugbyPass column recently, Goode said he feels that the non-selection of the inform Chief now feels personal, writing "the continuing omission of Sam Simmonds by England boss Eddie Jones is starting to feel like it’s personal.
"One thing is for sure, there is nothing more the European player of the year can do to impress the England head coach after scoring eleven tries in nine Premiership games from No.8 since the start of this season.
"It feels like stubbornness is preventing Jones from picking him at the moment because there has been much clamour for him to do so in the media and perhaps it would feel like an admission that he was wrong. That is just cutting off your nose to spite your face though and, while it is absolutely his prerogative to pick who he sees fit, I hope it isn’t the case that he is overlooking such a talent for that reason."
While Jones has remained resolute on selection pressure from the press and public in the past (think Cipriani and Alex Goode), Simmonds could be one of the first players force his way back into an England side lacking in attacking creativity.
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Not sure they the article doesn’t hit on TMO this year, that’s were they were putting focus right. The fact the other areas haven’t improved shows just how poor the comp is at focusing on its direction. There should still have been further gains in both those areas this year even it if didn’t have the same focus as others. The whistle to restart time, like touch finders of 26 seconds, surely has to be a key focus area next year. Why should a side be given so much time to kick for touch? Cut that down to 5 or 10 seconds, penalties both become less of key stalling/defensive strategy, and become more ‘live’ with tap kicks becoming much more favourable quick actions. Theres absolutely no reason we have to wait over 10 secs for the preferred kicker to walk up and try and take maximum advantage, especially when half the time its just a delay tactic to give the forwards time to plan, as the kicker hardly even trys to find the corner with his kick, anyone could have kicked it straight out for the lineout.
Go to commentsShame. Hope something else can be arranged.
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