Easter urges England Rugby boss Lancaster to select Armitage

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Harlequins FC number eight and former England international Nick Easter has urged England Rugby boss Stuart Lancaster to move away from his stance of not selecting overseas based players and pick Steffon Armitage for the England team.

Easter has said that Lancaster can create a destructive pairing in the middle of the park with Armitage and club mate and England skipper Chris Robshaw as they look to go on an all out assault for the Rugby World Cup on home soil in the summer.

The 34 year old said that at this moment, Lancaster has no other option but go down that route, ending the long Test exile of the Toulon. Armitage has not played for the England Rugby first team since his move to French Top 14 side Toulon in 2011, with England’s policy of not selecting players based overseas blocking any chance of a return to the national team fold. Continue reading “Easter urges England Rugby boss Lancaster to select Armitage”

RFU Chief Hopeful About England Rugby

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Great news for the fans of England rugby team- Whilst the whole world booing the English rugby team on their weak performances in the recent past, the RFU chief Ian Ritchie is hopeful for a positive revival.

Akin to the critics, Ritchie too dubbed England rugby team’s recent performances as “dissatisfactory” but then remarked that he is hopeful about improvements in the team as the time nears for Rugby World Cup 2015 which would be hosted in England.

After coming 2nd in 2014 Six Nations, the English rugby team succumbed with 5 losses on a row- four to the Kiwis & one to the South African team- prior to beating Australia and Samoa in November internationals.

Head coach Lancaster (Stuart) has just 8 matches left to reshape his guys for the upcoming Rugby Worlds & according to RFU chief, the team would have to come up with significant improvements if they’re looking forward to aim for the top prize.

“We have played matches New Zealand & lost in all of them. So9 the verdict is that the result was not at all satisfactory & we have to come up with better performances”, noted the RFU chief while addressing the media recently.

“Absolutely this is no development phase. It’s true that we are require3d to be really competitive & beat those squads. We have to prepare ourselves to beat every team. That is what we would have to come up with”, he continued.

“But there isn’t any doubt for me that the very margin seems really small. It is really marginal & now we have to make it sure that this margin is rightly made up. That is the very view of coaching team too. There is no doubt that we would be way stronger next year.”