'He hits hard, carries hard, sort of a no-nonsense player similar to the George Kruis mould'
Eddie Jones has given a short and sweet assessment as to why he has chosen uncapped Jonny Hill to make a debut start for England in Saturday’s Six Nations finale against Italy in Rome. One point behind Ireland on the table, England are travelling in the hope of running up a big score that will put pressure on the Irish for their late Saturday night match in Paris against France.
Ireland beat Italy 50-17 last weekend in Dublin, but Jones will want an England XV showing seven changes from their last outing – the March home win over Wales – to do better than the seven-try Irish, who conceded two soft tries.
With George Kruis no longer available to England following his decision to leave Saracens and move to the Top League in Japan, Jones has been on the lookout in recent months for a second row enforcer and his search has ended with 26-year-old Hill, the menacing lock who lifted Champions Cup and Premiership titles in recent weeks with Exeter.
“He’s a big, tall guy, hits hard, carries hard, sort of a no-nonsense player similar to the George Kruis mould,” said Jones at his media conference on Thursday prior to England’s departure for Italy.
“We feel like we have got a good balance between experienced players and some young guys coming into the squad. There has been some great competition during the couple of days’ training we have had. We have maximised our training time and this is the best squad we have at the moment.”
7?? changes for England, uncapped trio on bench ?https://t.co/vPkgdG9tTa
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Ireland will be guaranteed the title if they defeat France with a bonus-point win. That type of victory is unlikely, however, meaning the title destination could come down to points difference. The Irish are currently on +38 with England +15, a gap the back-to-back 2016 and 2017 champions will look to close and surpass with a flourish in Rome.
Jones, though, sidestepped talk about the winning margin that might be required to win the title. “It doesn’t (come into our thinking) at all. As soon as we got the full squad in we have focused on maximising our performance,” he said.
“We know Italy will present a challenge and we have just got to be as disciplined and focused on playing to our absolute best. Every minute presents an opportunity to play at our best and we intend to optimise every minute we have got in Rome.”
Aside from Hill’s inclusion, the other pack changes see Mako Vunipola at loosehead for Joe Marler, and Sam Underhill and Billy Vunipola coming in for Mark Wilson and Courtney Lawes at back row.
There are three changes to the backs, George Furbank for Elliot Daly, Jonathan Joseph for Manu Tuilagi while Henry Slade starts at No12 with Owen Farrell switching to out-half in the absence of George Ford. Scrum-half Ben Youngs will also become only the second England player to ever won 100 caps.
“Look, I can only speak with great admiration about Ben,” added Jones. “He had a difficult World Cup in 2015 and since then has worked extremely hard on his game. At his best, he is one of the best half-backs in the world. He has got a great running game, a good kicking game, and he is an important, infectious character in our squad.”
Jones has chosen three uncapped players on the England bench – Tom Dunn, Ollie Lawrence and Ollie Thorley – and he delivered his verdict on all three. “All good young players,” he said.
“Tom Dunn has been knocking around the squad for a while now, has kept improving his game. A good, tough hooker, complements Jamie’s ability to organise the scrum and throw accurately in the lineout. It’s a great achievement for Jamie (George) to be playing his 50th cap as an England hooker. He had a long apprenticeship under Dylan (Hartley) and is now fully established as our starting hooker and Tom will support him well.
“We have got Ollie Lawrence, again a young guy we have a had look at over the last couple of years. He has got good power, runs good lines and certainly adds to the squad. Ollie is just full of enthusiasm, full of beans, engaging character. He has got power and pace and has worked exceptionally hard on his work off the ball which has impressed us greatly.”
What does an intense England session look like? This ?
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— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) October 29, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Pacific Lions, cry me a river
124 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
124 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
124 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
124 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
124 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
124 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
124 Go to commentsHo hum.
124 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
124 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
124 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
124 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
124 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
124 Go to commentsBen, nobody gets fooled anymore by selective and biased data to support an hypothesis. Games are decided on such small margins these days that you win some and lose some, and dominance is a thing of the rugby past. Look at the RWC circle of fortune…. Ireland beats SA who beat France who beat NZ who beat Ireland. And so it goes on. Match officials help to eliminate real indiscretions. If they had been with us years before, no doubt results would have been different. Remember Andy Haden’s dive from a lineout in 1978 for which a match-wining penalty was awarded? Wales should have beaten the ABs that day. They took the loss like the gentlemen they were.
124 Go to commentsWith all the analysis and how good the all blacks were.The fundamental mistake with the ABs is that this is a test match and not an exhibition.There is no better team(country) in world rugby than the Boks that knows how to win a test match(we are post masters at this).We know our rules, we have the discipline, we tackle like beasts, we take our points and we never give up.I now have educated the ABs supporters(at least say thank you).Please stop “bitching” , accept what the outcome is and move along swiftly.
124 Go to commentsAnd they came from behind to win two big games before the final. No one can say what would have happened. Had the boks gone behind the game plan changes and the result may changes. Ifs and ands are irrelevant. The boks won. Neutral critics enjoyed the games they played. Its not a popularity contest. Get over it and move on.
124 Go to commentsI'm happy for the people of SA to get a second WC. And I mean that. I was very disappointed with this man's “stand on the hand” incident with Josh Van Der Flyer (Ireland). Ireland's downfall in the last WC was they did not rotate their first 15 as the head coach probably should have. That said, I'm happy for SA and genuinely hope it lifts the mood in their country. Ireland did beat them in the first match of the tournament. And before the trolls start trolling ….. please don't bother. Etzbeth said recently that the Irish players said after the match “see you in the final”…..this was actually wishing the SA team the best of luck in the rest, the Irish team were not dismissing the AB’s. This is what Etzbeth was implying. But he was wrong. I no longer live in Ireland. But I hope to see them lift that cup before I pass. Anyway, congratulations SA. 👍
13 Go to comments