Many of the readers who have been following the performances of our Divisional teams on the county blog will have been pleased to see that the adult team won their title on Sunday with a clean 100% sweep over their rivals. On the same day the U18s remained unbeaten after two of their games, and are favourites to lift their title next month, while Syd and her Divisional U15 colleagues also looked good when they won their first match a couple of weeks ago.
This overwhelming dominance by the country's largest division (in terms of players and population) is probably no great surprise... or maybe it should be if you've been watching the performances of the national U20 team.
Take a look at their last squad. Ten of the starting 15 for the game against Scotland were from the South West, and 11 of the overall 22. London & South East provided five players, three of whom began on the bench.
Now check-out again where South West finished in the Divisional championship - yep, last. The U18s have done slightly better, drawing with London & SE and narrowly beating Midlands - but that is a Midlands team that lost to North, who L&SE blew away this weekend.
Admittedly, L&SE have Maggie Alphonsi in charge of them - and it is more than likely that she is both a genius on and off the field - but even so... its all a bit odd...
Monday, March 21, 2011
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The selection process is often a mystery, unless you’re involved.
ReplyDeleteInterpretations undoubtedly follow selections and as they say, ‘there’s two sides to every coin’ – sometimes more!
England WU20 have played two and won two this season, very different matches in many respects.
First a narrow win against France on a terribly muddy pitch at Worcester, followed by a huge win against Scotland on a 3G pitch at Gosforth
The players involved in both matches were mostly from the original squad selected in November ’10.
The original squad includes five South West players at Hartpury College where coincidentally they are coached by someone that was involved in the original selection process.
For the Wales match in April and the Nations Cup this summer, let’s hope that selection is not such a mystery and that performance prevails.