Armand expected England omission
Exeter back rower Don Armand says he expected to be left out of Eddie Jones’ England squad for the autumn internationals, despite going on tour to Argentina in the summer and starring for the Chiefs at the start of this season.
Armand made his international debut in June as a replacement in the first Test against Argentina, has won the most lineouts in the Premiership so far this season and scored two tries in his club’s famous European win away in Montpellier recently.
However, despite being widely considered the form flanker in the English top flight and tipped to be included in the squad, he knew Jones had certain issues with his style of play and expected to be omitted this autumn.
“Having trained with Eddie [Jones] during the summer tour, I knew what he wanted from the balance of the squad and where he wanted to go in the future,” Armand told The Rugby Pod.
“I knew what my work-ons were and that I had more areas to work on, so I was half-expecting him not to pick me this time around.”
Jones suggested, when naming his squad, that Armand played too much out wide and the 29-year-old Zimbabwe-born back rower says that is something he has taken on board but that it’s tricky to change given Exeter’s style of play and hinted that his omission might also be down to a lack of experience.
“He has said that he wants his loose forwards to always be around the ball and obviously at Exeter at certain times in a game guys in different positions will stay out wide,” he said.
“There probably are times when I am out wide and I should be in the middle but I’ve got to stick to Exeter’s system and there’s not really anything I can do about that.
“I think the simplest way to move on with the question is to give an answer that is kind of true and that nobody can really argue with.
“I think he needs experience to go with the new guys that he’s blooding in the squad and that makes more sense to me.
“I think the stage that he’s at with the squad means he needs guys that he knows can do the job so that the others around them can build themselves up.”
Armand is likely to have an unexpected break for a couple of weeks now, with Rob Baxter set to give his younger squad members a run in the Anglo Welsh Cup. He told The Rugby Pod that he hadn’t spoken to Baxter about his omission but that he tries to keep club and country separate and the best way to get back in Jones’ good books was to keep doing his job well for the Chiefs.
“I try not to mix the two [Exeter and England] and we had a short turnaround in the week that the squad was announced, so I haven’t actually sat down with Rob [Baxter] and had a chat,” he said.
“But when I came back after the off-season I said that I can’t really change what I do at Exeter because if I go out of system, then I’m screwing the whole team over to make myself look good and I don’t want to do that.
“I’ve got to where I have by sticking to the system at Chiefs and, as Rob has said in the papers, I’ve just got to carry on doing what I’m doing, keep myself in Eddie’s vision and hope he sees a place for me.
“I’ve trained the way he wants to train and he has seen me train and gave me good feedback from that. I know you can’t see much from training compared to playing but I think he know I’m capable of doing that kind of thing.”
Listen to the full interview with Don Armand on this week’s episode of The Rugby Pod…
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments