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England boss Borthwick concerned by a curious Fijian penalty stat
Steve Borthwick has raised concerns about the number of penalties Fiji have won in recent matches, but the England coach won’t be able to meet with this Sunday’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final referee to discuss the matter.
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Following last weekend’s 18-17 English win on Lille, Samoa head coach Seilala Mapusua alleged that an unconscious refereeing bias existed whenever a tier two team plays a tier one side.
However, England boss Borthwick queried this allegation on Friday ahead of his team’s knockout clash with Fiji in Marseille.
The coach referenced the Fijians in some of their recent games – their Summer Nations Series Twickenham win over England and also their World Cup pool matches last month against Wales and Australia.
He then claimed that Fiji had won over 40 penalties in those fixtures while only conceding in the mid-20s and a search of the statistics proved him correct, the overall total coming in at 45 penalties conceded to Fiji’s 23.
In England’s August 26 game against the Pacific Islanders which was refereed by Jaco Peyper, the penalty count was 10-7 against Borthwick’s team.
Fifteen days later, versus Wales in Bordeaux on September 10 at the start of Pool C, Warren Gatland’s team came off worse on the penalty count – 17-9 – in a game that was handled by Matthew Carley while seven days later in Saint-Etienne, Eddie Jones’ Wallabies had an 18-7 penalty count against them in a match refereed by Andrew Brace.
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By coincidence, Brace was the official in charge of last weekend’s close England shave against Samoa and Borthwick was asked on Friday in Aix-en-Provence if the clarification he sought after that game led to anything.
This was the query that opened the door for him to bring Fiji’s penalty record into the conversation ahead of this weekend’s last-eight clash.
“Post-game I talked about aspects of the game and would seek clarity and I did, I received clarity,” began Borthwick before switching his attention to Fiji. “In terms of Fiji, we talk about them being an incredibly strong side.
“I know some statements have been made around tier one, tier two. The situation I have is in the three games Fiji played against England, Australia, Wales in the last few weeks, they have won over 40 penalties, conceded mid-20s.
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“So from that, you see a team that has a lot of penalties given to them. We have just got to control what we can control in the game and we will do that.”
Given that penalty count trend, would Borthwick be speaking to quarter-final referee Mathieu Raynal before kick-off in Marseille? No, was the answer. “It’s part of World Cup regulations you don’t speak to the referee in advance of the game,” he explained.
New England No15 Marcus Smith perfects his step at training in Aix-en-Provence ahead of Sunday's Rugby World Cup quarter-final. #ENGvFIJ #RWC2023 #EnglandRugby pic.twitter.com/ASxSII88jB
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 13, 2023
Owen Farrell is the England skipper tasked with on-pitch communications with the match officials. What will his approach with Raynal be? “Steve has just touched on it there, we have got to control what we can,” he said.
“If there is any sort of confusion you want to ask for clarity and want to ask what you can do better but in terms of what we can control, that is all that really matters to us.
“We talked about parts of our game now that are going to make big differences towards that. We hope we don’t have to speak to the referee.”
Comments on RugbyPass
wel the crusaders were beaten by a queensland reds side that hadnt beaten them at home since 1999 and queensland reds partied like it was 1999
4 Go to commentsHard to disagree with the 5 points - with the exception that Wilson should be a squad member but, depending on the other loose forward selections, is not yet a shoo-in. McReight is. Aussie is looking a lot better this year and JS has some selection options. Also, Havili’s tendency to get caught, charged down is also a liability at times but he seemed focused (mostly) and is definitely a consideration for utility back-up. Still feel Reihana is a better prospect at 1st five for Saders.
4 Go to commentsYeah nah, still not sure on Havili tbh. Even though I’m a Crusaders fan through and through I’d be stunned if Razor considers him after seeing some of the stunning talent coming through up North.
4 Go to commentsThink it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
1 Go to commentsJust came back from the game and the atmosphere was amazing. Players stayed afterwards for more than a hour to sign stuff and take photos with fans. Great day out.
5 Go to commentsA great game. The Sharks without Etsebeth are a shadow of the team compared to when he plays. The limitations of Some of the expensive Sharks players are being exposed. Credit to Clermont for some exhilaration play at times.
5 Go to comments100% Mr Owens. But who would want to be a referee.? It must be the most difficult job on earth.
1 Go to commentsStarts to be overdone and oversold this systematic SA narrative…which nevertheless has the merit in this case to recognise blatant refereeing mistakes in their favor
5 Go to commentsNice article. Shades of Steinbeck. They can win the final if they take the game seriously; but only if they take it seriously.
5 Go to commentsWhat a sad way to end a glittering career. Somebody should tell him to delete his social media accounts and face the consequences of what he's done. Then he should slip away quietly into obscurity. This isn't likely to happen, something tells me he'll be back in The Sun / Daily Mail sooner rather than later.
5 Go to commentsguys its fine! he understands why he did what he did and has taken accountability for it; why should he have to be accountable to a court? after all he did was abuse people in person - its not as if he was engaging in _online_ abuse!
5 Go to commentsChiefs flanker Kaylum Boshier yellow-carded for collapsing the scrum as it rolled towards the line. It was a maul….
1 Go to commentsyou know, i’m a leinster fan so I want Northampton to lose and it is gonna be tuff with Cortney lawes, Alex michell and the other guys🏉 lets go leinster🏉
1 Go to commentsWelcome to the Pro ranks. Those hard teams of old do hit the sole better though. its a dog fight at the top.
6 Go to commentsCan someone fill me in please, I've read a number of Ben Smith articles now and it seems he's got something again South Africa? Surely, this game was over and done with 7 months ago. Can't we have something a bit more interesting and relevant, or is this the calibre of journalist on this site?
238 Go to commentsNot sure what the Welsh are moaning about. They’ve had far more players off England, than England have had off Wales. Guys like Josh Hathaway and Kane James will play for Wales in the end. And they’ll be fsr better players for having played in the Gallagher Premiership, than they ever would have been had they stayed mired in the shambles that is Welsh rugby.
4 Go to commentsThis is all being blown totally out of proportion. First of all, since half the Irish team isn’t Irish - it’s very likely that none of the Irish players said that at all and, thus, we’re not being arrogant. Second, since half the Irish team is Kiwi - it’s very likely the Kiwi players were predicting a NZ SA World Cup final. Which they got spot on. Good on them!
163 Go to commentsAha. An Irishman with logic! Follow the flow: - Ireland peaks with a >80% win record between 2020 and 2023. And then… - crashes out of another QF at the WC; - Beat a poor French Team; - Beat 6N wooden spoonists Italy; - Play shite against eventual wooden spoonists Wales; - Lose against the most boring, “the worst English team ever” , a team widely regarded as unable to attack; - scrape through against Scotland. This article, No - Trimble, is on the money! Except for one glaring statement: _The Springboks have a few aces in the hole in this debate being the reigning world champions and official world number ones_ There is no debate, boys and girls. There it is. In black and white. “Reigning World Champions and OFFICIAL world number ones”. Come July, the overrated Andy Farrell and this overhyped team are going to enter into a world of hurt.
90 Go to commentsI’d like to know what homoerotic events Daniel enjoyed at 8th man. I clearly missed out!
20 Go to commentsThis article is missing some detail, like some actual context or info about what led to him abusing the ref.
2 Go to comments