England claim Wales was 'perfect' preparation for Pumas RWC opener
Steve Borthwick has claimed that the back-to-back Summer Nations Series matches versus Wales were the perfect preparation for England to take on Argentina in their opening match at the Rugby World Cup.
The 2019 tournament finalists are set to face the Pumas in their pool starter in Marseille on September 9 and while he admitted that his team must become sharper in the coming weeks, he suggested taking on the Welsh was ideal.
England were beaten 9-20 in Cardiff last weekend after failing to build on a 9-6 interval advantage, but they made good their 6-0 interval lead at Twickenham on Saturday in a dramatic second half where they found themselves at one stage reduced to 12 players and trailing 9-17 before hitting back with a late flourish to win 19-17.
Having had Henry Arundell yellow carded for cynically blocking Liam Williams from trying to take a quick restart after he had marked the ball in the Welsh 22, and they then copped three more yellow cards in a crazy seven-minute spell in the second half.
England first had vice-captain Ellis Genge binned after his team’s blinked when both front rows were on a general warning at the scrum. Freddie Steward then needlessly took Josh Adams out in the air, giving up a card and a lead-conceding penalty try, before skipper Owen Farrell crunched his shoulder into the head of the ball-carrying Taine Basham on 64 minutes.
The hosts then conceded a breakaway converted try to fall eight points down before hitting back with 12 men, Maro Itoje credited for the converted maul try. Before play restarted, Farrell’s yellow card was upgraded to red by the TMO bunker, forcing him to give up his seat in the bin and instead trudge disconsolately down the tunnel to the England dressing room.
His team, though, rallied again, pressure with Genge and Steward back on the pitch helping to earn the 75th-minute penalty that George Ford kicked to clinch the 19-17 win and leave Borthwick enthused that England had emerged victories from a nip-and-tuck encounter.
“If you look at the game, I said beforehand games against Wales are often arm wrestles,” he suggested. “Warren (Gatland) coaches a team that is just hard to beat, so they are often arm wrestles and that is very similar to the way Argentina play.
“Now I know they were well beaten by New Zealand, but the rest of their games are always very, very tight so that is the perfect dress rehearsal for the game in four weeks’ time.”
Not that England were perfect, just their reaction to the bizarre situation they found themselves in with Wales having a three-player advantage. “I have said my piece around we want to have 15 players on the pitch and we certainly do want that.
“What I will say here is the players, talk about their character, their resilience, we are going through a tough training phase right now and the players trained very hard. When I look at the figures it was one of our highest training weeks.
“To go out this weekend, to go down to 12 men and to still come through in the end, it shows the character of these people, and I’m also confident as we reduce the training load the sharpness is going to come in the team and it will improve over the next few weeks.
“The attack area takes the longest to develop. That is where we are focusing our attention and as the training load in the next week or two starts to decrease, that will encourage players to sharpen up and that will help our attack. We know where we are aiming for and right now we are on track for four weeks’ time.
“We never had a Test week with that high a training load (as we had on Tuesday), but we are building for four weeks’ time and I’m very confident that our preparation is going to get the players ready for where we need to be.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 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 …
31 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
4 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!😭😭😭 !!!
31 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
31 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.
31 Go to comments