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18-year-old tasked with defending George Ford's spiral bombs
England Rugby World Cup trainee Ben Redshaw has been given the daunting task of trying to catch George Ford’s spiral bombs when he appears at full-back for Newcastle at Sale on Friday night in the Gallagher Premiership.
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The England U18 captain was invited to train with Steve Borthwick’s squad during the early part of their France 2023 stay at their Le Touquet-Paris-Plage base camp. That was the same week that ended with Ford firing the team to victory when scoring all 27 points in their opening pool match against Argentina in Marseille.
Two months later, Redshaw will now be tasked with trying to hold on to the wickedly spinning bombs traditionally fired into the sky by Ford, the England and Sale out-half.
Those kicks have left some of the sport’s most experienced full-backs totally flummoxed and while Alex Codling, the Newcastle head coach, has admitted that his young 18-year-old full-back will make mistakes, he believes the former Sedbergh schoolboy is a special talent.
Codling said: “Ben Redshaw starts on Friday and he is the future of the club. Ben is 18, has just come out of school and has an unbelievable attitude and loves this club. We are going through a tough patch as a club and it is refreshing that he has no baggage and has worked extremely hard.
We're 1??/1?? so far this season against our Northern rivals, @SaleSharksRugby ?.
Hands up if you remember the last time we met, ? in September? ?
Derby Weekend ? heading your way this Friday!#TrueNorth // #NorthernRugbyMatters
— Newcastle Falcons (@FalconsRugby) November 14, 2023
“We saw that when he played in the Premiership Cup against Sale when he was outstanding. He will make mistakes, no doubt, but that is the only way you learn in environments like when you have George Ford sending up spiral bombs.”
Redshaw has emerged from the same rugby school that produced Scotland centre Cameron Redpath and England prop Bevan Rodd, who is expected to be at loosehead for Sale when Newcastle attempt to end a five-game losing run in the Premiership.
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Redshaw, who played in the defeats against Bath and Gloucester, has been marked out as a rising star. He joined the Newcastle senior academy in summer 2023 having come through the junior academy. Born in Leeds, he can play at centre or full-back. He captained England U18s to an emphatic victory over Ireland in Dublin earlier his year.
Codling explained that Redshaw was the future of the club, with bringing through local talent the key to ensuring that Newcastle remain competitive given the constant raiding of their squad by other clubs. For example, Mateo Carreras, who is sidelined with a hamstring injury, is leaving the Falcons at the end of the season to join Bayonne on a three-year deal.
“We have people like Mateo leaving who is a world-class player and we have done all we can to keep him. He has made a massive impact on the club. Getting the balance right and dealing with the here and now is important and for young players, there are both physical and mental pressures.
“I will not overload them and Ben is a huge talent along with others here. It is about giving them exposure for the wider benefit of the player, the club, and hopefully the national team. You have to live within your means and it makes it challenging at times and you are going to hit bumps.
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“This is a massive job and the toughest in the Premiership by an absolute mile and we have made some changes straight away. We have a habit at the moment of compounding errors in games.
“We have to start making the right decisions or you will be punished by teams like Sale. Our loss to Saracens (50-12) was hugely disappointing and this challenge on Friday is just as big.”
Comments on RugbyPass
It will interesting to know which Irish players said that…
1 Go to commentsNaaaww boys will be boys! Now run along ya wee scamp! Don’t let us catch you at again😏
1 Go to commentsGreat to have Ethan Blackadder back in the Crusaders in the last few weeks. One of the best all round loose forwards around. He played so well last week against the Rebels. Fantastic attitude Ethan has and his comments are spot on.
2 Go to commentsThe author is 100% right. The Springboks know that they don't have near the natural attraction, mana, skill and mystic the All Blacks have. So, Chasing the sun 1 & 2 was concocted to overblow the Boks image on the back of a corruptly obtained “win". It's marketing ploy to force the Boks delusion as the World's Best. I guess World Rugby is also not to be believed when it came out with an apology about how the final was officiated. And if the 2023 final such a superb game by the Boks, then the Boks crying about Referee Bryce Lawrence for decades is also deserves a laugh. Chase the sun and get burned like a moth. A very well written literary piece that tore the Boks and Chasing the sun farce to shreds. 🖤All Blacks🏉
144 Go to commentsI’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
144 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
144 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
144 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
144 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
144 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
144 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
144 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
144 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
144 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
144 Go to commentsHo hum.
144 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
144 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
144 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
144 Go to comments