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Hotly tipped flanker Guy Pepper the latest England back row injured
Guy Pepper, who has been identified by England head coach Steve Borthwick as a player to watch, is battling to recover from the latest injury he has suffered as one of the Premiership’s turnover specialists as Newcastle prepare to face Leicester at Welford Road.
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Seven successive league defeats is pain enough for the Falcons to endure in the Premiership and the loss of Pepper, whose jackal technique has impressed each time he has taken the pitch, will be keenly felt by Alex Codling, the Newcastle head coach. This is a very challenging first season at the helm for Codling who has marked his arrival at the club by giving young talent like Pepper, Ollie Spencer, Louie Johnson and Ben Redshaw the opportunity to gain valuable big-match experience.
However, that does come at a price and a heavy clear out in the weekend’s loss to Exeter left Pepper, who overcame a foot injury to be ready for this season, prone on the ground clutching his hip area and now gives him a 50/50 of facing the Tigers and Wales No7 Tommy Reffell. Pepper, son of former Harlequins flanker/hooker Martin, was one of four Falcons players who recently met Borthwick who is doing the rounds of the Premiership clubs speaking to current and potential England players.
With Tom Curry out for the entire season due to hip surgery, Ben Earl, Ted Hill and Zach Mercer injured, Jack Willis playing in France, Courtney Lawes retired from test rugby and Lewis Ludlam heading to Toulon at the end of the season, there are opportunities for the next group of back rowers.
Codling said: “Guy took a knock to his hip and is 50/50 this week but it is a lot better than when I saw him go down (against Exeter). He was fantastic in the first half and is one of the players who is a huge talent and his heart and soul is in this club. He really has been outstanding for us and I love his resolve and desire to get back after a long-term (foot) injury.
“I raised protection of the jackaler with the authorities and there are some grey areas. There are specific things they are looking about protecting players and while that incident didn’t fall within that it did look pretty nasty at the time. It was a case of a big man going against a smaller man in a prone position and there is always a balance for the rule makers about allowing a contest while protecting the player.
“Thankfully, it is not too serious and Guy is part of the reason why we have stolen the most balls on the floor in the Premiership this season and it has been a big focus for us. We do a lot of practice around body shape and the positions to get into and when to attack the ball. It is a collective thing from a rule-making and coaching perspective and a player understanding and if you get those three things in unison we can do all we can to make the game a contest while protecting everyone involved.
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“Injuries are just part of the game you have to deal with them and we have shown resilience in bucket loads this year. The challenge (at Falcons) is an enormous one and I don’t expect people to understand how big it is. For the future of the club, I am rolling the dice and in the short term that may mean players making mistakes but in the medium and long term it is really positive. Ollie Spencer is back this week and I have enormous faith in these players because they are really talented and my job is to pick when they come into the side. They are getting chances they wouldn’t get at other clubs and we are facing a couple of World Cup winners at Leicester and that challenges you in different ways.”
Comments on RugbyPass
lol that’s your opinion Ben, All Blacks benefited from a forward pass try, SA played 77 min without a recognised hooker, missed a no try conversion and a penalty could have would have but didn’t
195 Go to commentsBrett, from my distant perspective, I hope you get to keep the Rebels. Any ideas of teams from Japan or Argentina are just crazy. Won’t happen. If you look at logistics, it is much easier to get to LA from Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney than to Buenos Aires. All with direct non-stop daily flights. You may even get some “gringos” to watch the games, with some younger players compared to Giteau and Nonu who still “play” in the area. I think it is virtually impossible to get a competitive Argie team for SR. All Pumas are in Europe, almost all second tier players are also in Europe. Fringe players are in South American pro rugby tournament (and many still in the MLR!) but these players who might be most interested in joining a new Jaguares do not have the skills to compete. As I have been saying since the Jaguares joined, they should have had TWO teams to make logistics for visiting teams better and Argie player development improved as well. Jaguares/Pumas was not ideal. But this is where Pichot and his cronies did not think long enough. Further the country with he new president “No hay Plata” Milei is in a very difficult situation. Galperin, the richest man in Argentina owns the Miami franchise of MLR. I don’t think you can get him to invest in Argentina. Actually, he played rugby himself. He was a fly half. He is worth around $6 billion!
1 Go to commentsWell done Baby Boks we will take the Draw. No 9 senseless long passes in those conditions. let’s move on and hope for some good weather
4 Go to commentsHow did it end a draw. South Africa didn’t score any points as far as I can see
4 Go to commentsNo doubt this will be a fantastic occasion and I plan to be there, but I think the bean counters have won out over the rugby brains. In my opinion, it is foolhardy to give the Black Ferns the experience of playing in front of 60,000+ at Twickenham a year before they might be playing there in a World Cup Final. Better to play France at Twickenham and Black Ferns at Kingsholm. The difference in takings would be miniscule.
1 Go to commentsDom kant
195 Go to commentsBen is a little incel desperately trying to stir the pot and stay relevant. We used to get mad at his articles. Now we just feel sorry for him
195 Go to commentsPerhaps we may need to put an asterisk on NZ’s ‘87 WC win since the Boks weren’t there. You know, just as a reminder. Poor Ben Smith. Go cry somewhere else.
195 Go to commentsNz should have won. I didn't watch the game, but the ref was at fault and the bounce of the ball and the Bokke used the Bomb squad and the Bokke slow the game down and the Bokke scrum. They should remove the scrum. The Bokke are to strong. Not fair. Nz should have won
3 Go to commentsThanks for a much more balanced piece Ned and not that BS that Bin Smuth just posted a short while ago. read this article and then Bin Smuth’s and tell me there isn’t a huge difference🙄
3 Go to commentsWere the Baby Boks part of this game or did the Baby Blacks play themselves?🤔 That man Bin Smuth once again does a little write-up on the game and it is like 95% about the Baby Blacks🤣 Glad he ends off with the Baby Blacks were actually in cruise control for most of the game and weren’t actually playing for the win WTF🤣🤣 Maybe he was expecting the Baby Blacks to run rampant….
4 Go to commentsOne does not expect anything more from Ben Smith who epitomises the worst of New Zealand media arrogance and an inability to balance what he has to say about any team that beats the All Blacks. His reference to context is pathetically thin. He does not comment that Frizell deserved a red card given his blatant manipulation of his body to ensure that he could drop his body weight onto Mbonambi’s lower leg. No mention of the ball lost forward before the All Black’s try (lost in-field of the 5 metre line and gathered beyond). The All Black commitment and effort was superb and there was little in it. Given the Springbok passage to the final and the loss of their hooker in the first three minutes, their resolve and capacity to win their fourth final out of eight attempts (not three out of ten) deserves the praise that has been forthcoming from media around the world, worth reading and listening to. Ben should join his “pundit” friends on TV - he would fit in well. This sort of article reduces any credibility Rugby Pass has ever had. Why persist with this sort of nonsense? The man does his country and a rugby blog a disservice.
195 Go to commentsEtzebeth went on to say: “I would never dream of saying that systems stay in place following a change in captain. To say that would be deeply, deeply, disrespectful of Siya. A while back an Irish person told me they would be fine without Sexton, so I’m just responding to that.”
3 Go to commentsClose games are what we want to see…. What a match it was…. I am sure that everyone was drained by the end of it. The reality of it all there has to be a winner and a loser. The fact that we still talking about it is almost 6 months to the day Rugby is the winner.. Asante sana… Here is to 2027 and what it will bring out.
195 Go to commentsIt’s going to be a good game. COYQ
1 Go to comments“Shock”, the guy was casually saying he was just slightly surprised. Nowadays if you say anything it gets taken completely out of context. Calm down everyone.
156 Go to commentsAll I can say after reading this bitter, sour, sad piece is… Thank you very much! This will be read in the change room just before kick off on 31 August…
195 Go to commentsLook, we know contradicting opinions and wacky comments bring readers and clicks, so well done to RP for allowing always-wrong-Ben to say something here. However RP needs to put a disclaimer next to his comments for their own credibility. NZ was and is incapable of acknowledging their opp beating them. They refused so with Ire and with Arg in 2022 and also the Boks in 2023 x 2. Nothing Ben says here holds water, NZ attacked backwards, except when Kolisi and Kolbe was off And cyncialy took out Bongi, we played without lineouts for 75mins. Kolisi and Kurt-Lee almost scored twice. Thats 3 vs 2 for Boks, but the Boks opportunities was legal. Boks should have been 16-3 up by half time. Tacticaly the Boks attacked better defended better scrummed better (without a hooker) kicked better and crossed the whitewash more times. Boks beat Fr Eng Nz to win in 23, comeon give some credit at least. Even Federer Verstappen NY Mets, Mamoa, was able to see a great human sport achievement by the Boks and their DNA Boks #RWC27 !🏉
195 Go to commentsForget the 85kg bit, that can become something else. However I do like the one off test on ANZAC day idea. SR plays Fri/ Sat, test players travel Sunday and the squads have the full week together before playing Saturday. Rest of SR has a week off. Either involve women's teams in same location or in the other country and rotate annually. Herbert is right in that change is needed.
3 Go to commentsI’ve read loads of nonsense before but this article takes the cake. Or perhaps someone changed the date for April Fool's Day.
3 Go to comments