This Aus side is a bit more battle hardened than the current England lineup, who've only really played scratch teams since the 6N. Man-for-man, England probably better, but I don't envisage anything other than a tight match if we do win.3times wrote:Looking at the England & Convicts teams should be an England win, by about 10!!. This assumes that a different England turn up to last week.
I can only see Genia & Hooper that would definitely make the England team and possibly Foley & Beale.
Our pack, starters & finishers look too strong, although the starting aus front row is not bad.
Our back 3 have pace to burn and while I think Brown is better defensively, Watson gives us more offensively. If the aussies decide to play a kicking game they will need to be up quick as they could get punished by Watson, May & Daley.
Our back row is interesting as Underhill is not as good a carrier as Haskell but in the loose is supberb and Robshaw is, well......Robshaw, you know exactly what you will get. If these 2 can sort out Hooper that could make a big difference. I can see a lot of play where Hughes is out wide as he will drag 2 defenders with him thus creating space for the wingers etc.
Oh, and we have Farrell!!
Hooper vs Underhill could be interesting. Hooper a vastly more rounded player, and a bit of a c*nt (in a good way). But if Sam gets a few big hits in, who knows?