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England have 'so much to work on' despite win - Hartley

By Ben Spratt
England captain Dylan Hartley

Dylan Hartley acknowledged England have “so much to work on”, despite making a winning start to their Six Nations title defence against France on Saturday.

Last year’s grand slam champions scraped to a 19-16 victory at Twickenham, a late score from Ben Te’o ensuring Eddie Jones’ side extended their winning streak to 15 Tests – a new national record.

Although Hartley was understandably pleased with a battling win over a hugely physical French side, England’s skipper identified areas for improvement ahead of next weekend’s clash with Wales.

“There’s plenty to work on,” said Hartley in an on-pitch interview after the final whistle. “We got through that one.

“I think a huge amount of credit needs to go to our finishers. Ben Te’o and James Haskell came on and gave us a good bit of go-forward at the end. It was an unbelievable impact from our subs – and big shifts from Maro [Itoje], Courtney [Lawes] and Dan Cole in playing 80 minutes.

“We dug in, we found a way and we’ll take something from that. We’ll take that win, but there’s plenty to work on. It was pretty obvious out there that we need to be a bit more clinical with ball in hand and not so passive in defence.

“There’s going to be so much to work on. It keeps us grounded. It keeps us ready for next week [against Wales], basically. We’re going to have to be a lot better than that.”

England are now just three wins short of New Zealand’s record 18-match winning streak for tier-one sides.

An unprecedented second successive Six Nations grand slam would see Jones’ men surpass the All Blacks.

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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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