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England defence coach Gustard sends stark message to players over Jo'burg collapse

By Online Editors
Paul Gustard, England defence coach

England defence coach Paul Gustard is expecting a vast improvement in the second Test against South Africa and urged the players to “take responsibility and accountability for their actions”.

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Eddie Jones’ side raced to an early 24-3 lead with less than 20 minutes gone in Johanesburg, but collapsed after that, shipping five tries in a 42-39 defeat. It consigned England to a fourth Test loss in a row.

“No team, including the All Blacks, has gone to Ellis Park and put on a performance like that. We couldn’t sustain it, we made some bad errors and we made some poor decisions and let ourselves down a bit. We conceded five tries, we’re not happy about that, but South Africa conceded five tries. The game was fast, attack was the winner of the day and both defences didn’t defend well as we could.” Gustard told Sky Sports.

“We’re disappointed. We didn’t defend well. We were tight and our spacing was poor. I don’t coach that”, the new Harlequins head coach added.

“It’s not what the players want to do, we just didn’t deliver what we know we’re capable of. We’ll look to put that right this week. Overall we played some really good stuff. The first 20 minutes and last 20 were really good, the middle 40 were not so good.”

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“We lost composure. There’s a knock-on effect of things going against you, which you can’t quantify perhaps – the mental and energy drain that comes with losing momentum. And we need to correct that.”

He may be leaving at the end of this series but Gustard is determined to go out on a high and sent out a message to the players that they must to step up.

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“We need to find a way to help coach the players. The players need to take responsibilty and accountability for their actions. We win together, we lose together, we get good memories together and we get bad memories together. This is all part of our journey of winning the World Cup in 2019. ”

And he’s certainly not lost hope of achieving a series success either.

“Absolutely we can rescue the series. We lost by three points. The penalty count was 17 v four. There are lots of positives. There’s still lots of opportunities left and we’re looking forward to putting our best foot forward on Saturday.”

CREDIT: Sky Sports

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Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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