Hello Grandad

First up, I hope you're feeling better Grandad.  Well enough to read this at least!

If the hospital offers you omelette for dinner, refuse.  Actually, if the hospital offers you any food whatsoever, ensure it's tested by someone else before you partake.  That information may well save your life.

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In a first for me, I'm leaving the title until the end of the post.  Hopefully I'll have thought of one by then.

If it's still blank, you know I completely forgot about it (hence why I always write it in first).

So I have a cold.  It's an annoyance as it's attacking my throat.  The very thing I need to speak, in order to teach, in order to make money.  It's a shame that it decided to attack me there, as I don't really need this many fingers, or toes.  Then again, I'd much prefer never being able to speak again, than never playing rugby well; which is an interesting segue into the next part of the blog - the Tokyo Gaijin are playing the Japanese national deaf team on Sunday (the segue was disabilities, by the way), and I'll be extremely interested in finding out how they get on.

I won't be playing, instead choosing to rest the unknown ass-muscle that's been causing pain and watching the various rugby matches at the weekend.  I'll be testing the viability of activity on said muscle, as sitting will be the primary orientation for watching said rugby.

In fairness, I was out running last night and it felt stiff, but fine.  It didn't hurt, and although I wasn't up to full speed, it wasn't the hindrance that I encountered last weekend.  I'm not taking any chances however, as there will be a few friends watching me next weekend at the Sano tournament.  Nothing is left to chance when I might look like a prize plum.

Why, you might asking, did I go out running if I have a cold?  Firstly, in my backwards world, everything has a life expectancy.  Whether you're an antelope or a flu virus, you can only live so long.  That said, if you exist in a warmer environment (as a single celled organism) you can expect to grow faster and spread quicker.  If we assume there is a point when the bacteria compete for nutrients and apartment space, getting them to that point quickly will surely cut down on recovery time.

If your body is ready to fight the infection, then speeding that process up can't hurt either, right?  Running around and getting the blood pumping is important.

But not if you've just had a heart-attack, so Grandad, please don't go running around.  Sit in the garden.

Then again, if you see something that needs dead-heading, you're likely to go and do it, which is probably bad for you at this point.  So maybe, just sit inside and look at the garden through the window.  Get one of the grandchildren to do the labor.

Onto some more rugby coverage then: and an interview with MJ that you can find anywhere on the interwebs.

Normally I don't pay much attention to these things, but one radical change to the makeup of the England back line stood out to me; I felt compelled to listen to this particular presser to see if any clues were given as to why.

The change I'm referring to is the placing of two fly-halves onto the pitch.  One at inside centre, in the form of flood, and the other actually playing at fly.  James Haskell has been preferred at number 8 in the scrum, despite not being a number 8.  This time around Johnno put him on the bench, giving a 'real,' 8 the chance to shine.  This would make sense against a team that traditionally likes biting, gouging and de-testicling, as the physical confrontation will require sturdy nerves at the set-piece.

Why, then, throw someone who doesn't know what he's doing at inside centre into the deep end of the blue pool?

He isn't big enough or strong enough.  He cannot tackle at his weight, let alone above it.  Prior to this arrangement, opposition teams needed to bring impact players into the ten channel via moves.  Now they can just plow straight over the top of him without needing to plan anything.  The french twelve will laugh as he leaves flood on his ass.

If they are sensible, they will have flood defending somewhere out on the wing, bringing a forward in to do the actual work.  Either that, or switch tuilagi into 12, and push flood out to 13.  This doesn't solve any problems however, it merely shifts the french focus of attack to 13.  We can only thank the lord that Matthieu Bastareaud isn't playing.  For those who have never heard of him, he's the french equivalent of Tuilagi.  Neither have an ounce of flair about them, but both are massive and relatively quick.  He would have minced Flood, but luckily he's not in the picture.

MJ was also quick to point out that Haskell was unlucky to be moved to the bench, a fact he reiterates a number of times.

I'm not sure this is the case, however.  He was chosen above an established number 8 to do an adequate job at the set-piece, and excel at the breakdown.  How many penalties have England given away, and how many times have we turned the ball over?  Lots to the first, not many to the second.  Then look at the second in reverse, how many times have we given the ball away?  A fair number, which suggests we're playing too far away from our forwards too early in phase play (i.e spreading it to the wingers and praying, allowing them to become isolated) or the loose forwards aren't working hard enough.

It's been aeons since an English pack were consistently competitive at the breakdown, so the likes of Haskell and Moody need to step up.

They might be great in broken play, but if we don't get some ball in areas and situations that allow for those off-loads and runs, they're essentially handicapped.

The other problem with Flood, aside from his lack of tackling ability, is that we've lost a hard runner.  Tindall doesn't have many fans at the moment, because all he does is run with his head down.  This may not be popular, but we rely on our wingers and full-backs to attack, it doesn't come from first phase midfield play (whereas the AB's rely on bosh from up front, flair from the midfield).  This means creating opportunities wide on the field, capitalising where possible.

With Flood we theoretically get that flair, the game-breaking plays other teams enjoy, at the expense of someone who sucks in defenders during phase play.

The problem is simple; this combination has not worked before.  It was tried a number of times and lacked punch.

If you want the flair of Flood, you play him at 10.  You will leak points.

If you don't want to leak points, you play wilko at 10 and hope he sparks into form.

You can't play both on the pitch and expect to get the best from both, with one out of position.