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England flanker Brad Shields cops it on social media after pear-shaped offload attempt


Brad Shield's over-head offload attempt went pear-shaped at a critical moment in the Springboks test.
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Ex-Hurricanes and new England flanker Brad Shields has copped the wrath of English fans for attempting an offload that went pear-shaped, slipping from his grasp and flying metres forward into the in-goal.

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Shields’ mistake came as he broke away down the right sideline as England searched for a go-ahead score, trailing 11-9 with less than 10 minutes remaining.

Luckily for Shields, England won a penalty from the ensuing scrum that Owen Farrell kicked to re-take the lead 12-11, which was the final score of the match.

Shields – picked over a number of local prospects – start to his international career hasn’t been up to the level expected of an England recruit according to many fans.

https://twitter.com/alexh_williams/status/1058770365579698177

Shields had a mixed performance against South Africa, winning two turnovers and making 10 tackles, but he also conceding a penalty and making the crucial offloading mistake, which the commentatory team labeled ‘awful’.

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“Brad Shields has to keep hold of this ball,” they said.

“Step infield, control it, not the moment to throw that speculative pass. That’s awful.”

If retained in the starting lineup next week, Brad Shields will face off against the All Blacks for the first time with a point to prove.

England fans will be hoping he at least shelves the offload for the occasion.

In other news:

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Phantom 1 hour ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Fact: the gap between the North and the South has narrowed considerably - that I get. However, determining that only selecting only Home grown players or playing in the home country is is the optimal strategy is a bit of a toss up and highly reliant on the economies of the home union. I do understand that England and to a lesser degree Ireland selects home based only. The top 14 is a massive threat to their domestic product. France would probably not be affected (the money is at home). Fiji, Argentina, Samoa, Italy and you could even argue Scotland have only benefitted from this. Their players either go overseas to learn at higher levels (Fiji, Samoa, Argentina) or players coming into their leagues to strengthen the home product and their National teams (Scotland, Italy, Japan).

South Africa used to limit its selection to the home based players, but the reality of a weak currency vs what players could earn oversees meant that you lost access to your best players at some stage of their careers, with very few exceptions. Kolbe left SA as he was considered too small for International Rugby (yes coaches/selectors view), but ironically in France he forced selectors to notice his endeavors and select him. He is only reaching 50 caps now despite being north of 30 - granted rotation and the odd injury also played a role, but for the most part it is having debuted or becoming a regular so late.



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