'If you're over the ball and have two blokes over 100 kilos flying into you off their feet, it can be pretty difficult to survive'
Sunday at The Rec marked a milestone for Sam Underhill. Not since the 2015/16 season at Ospreys had the back row started 11 games in a domestic league season.
As someone who managed just four starts in his debut Premiership campaign at Bath last term, making his 11th in the 29-17 win over Wasps marked a triumph for the fetcher with the reputation as potentially one of the best in the business.
He may have missed the Six Nations with England, but that ankle injury didn’t massively hinder his availability to a club he joined in 2017 following a successful PRO12 apprenticeship in west Wales.
But here’s there rub. Having potential is one thing. Ensuring your body has the sufficient long-term robustness and durability to see this through to fruition quite another.
Underhill doesn’t want to come across in any way that he is moaning. It’s just that he more than a tad fed up with some refereeing interpretations surrounding the breakdown. It’s the wild west of rugby, a chaotic area where anything can go from one ruck to the next.
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For a sniffer constantly on the scent of securing valuable turnover ball, as successfully witnessed when winning the penalty turnover that led to Bath’s bonus try move against Wasps, this lack of protection is a concern for a 22-year-old with a history of head injuries amongst his other setbacks.
Judging by his considered response to RugbyPass, it sounds as if he has been waiting for someone to ask him what actually can be done to better improve player safety in this most dangerous of areas in the sport, a situation where you have players foraging with their head down who then get blown away by other colliding into them like a tonne of bricks.
“Good question, great question,” he said, glad of the opportunity to give a No7’s insight into the mayhem that goes on in this type of collision.
“The breakdown is one of the last grey areas of the game for me. The law at the moment is you have to make an effort to bind before you hit a ruck. The letter of the law is you make an effort to bind onto a player before you enter a ruck. That never happens.
“It doesn’t happen because it can’t happen. If you try and bind on to someone before you try and move them off the breakdown, you’re going to be there late and you’re not going to have enough momentum to get them off the ball.
“I understand it is the way the game is played and it’s commonly interpreted the same, but my issue is if all clean-outs are illegal by the letter of the law then you can’t differentiate between the bad ones and the okay ones.
“If everyone is breaking the law by not binding before they hit a ruck you can’t penalise the people that really don’t do it right, those who hit them hard, go off their feet and stuff.
“I’m not going moan about it because it is part of the game, it is how it is played at the moment, but it can be a bit confusing at times. I’d probably like to see it treated similarly to a tackle because that is effectively what a breakdown is now.
“It is sort of a tackle but the problem is you get a lot of them where there is no effort, there is no arms involved and players are flying in off their feet. It’s a lot of momentum. If you’re trying to get over the ball and have two blokes who are over 100 kilos flying into you off their feet, it can be pretty difficult to survive that.
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“It’s sort of acknowledged that that is the way it is at the moment but I’d probably like to see the ambiguity cleaned up. Also for the refs because the refs have a hard enough job as it is being consistent in their interpretation and in being fair.
“For them they have got a pretty hard job because I don’t think the guidelines are particularly clear as to what is and isn’t okay – and you probably see that a spectator. It’s a part of the game but if you want to make the game safer and reduce injury rates, it’s probably a good place to start,” he continued.
“You know it [the impact] is coming but the physics of it are pretty difficult if you have got that much momentum coming at you that quickly, it is nearly impossible to survive that.
“If you have got the majority of clean-outs where there is two players and they’re both off their feet and neither of them are making an effort to do a wrap in any way, then you’re going to struggle to survive.”
Underhill’s switch to Bath was life-changing. Another season at Ospreys would have made him Welsh qualified, but proving himself in a Premiership where his previous experience was nine minutes off the bench during two seasons at Gloucester resulted in the former England under-18 player returning across the Severn on a three-year deal that now has 13 months remaining.
“Very fondly,” is his reply when quizzed on how he looked back on his stint at Bath so far. “I have really enjoyed my time here, really enjoyed it as a club. I didn’t really have a plan. I kind of learnt from my time at the Ospreys that if you have a plan it tends not to work out.
“My plan was to get to Bath, be fit all season and play really well. It turned out for Bath that I wasn’t fit for the majority of that first season. It was a bit of a hiccup. This season has been better and I’m hoping next season will be even better.
“I’m hoping it will be third time lucky fitness-wise. I have really enjoyed it here, learnt a lot, built some really good relationships and had some good times. It’s a good club to be around and I’m glad I made the move.”
Much of his work, though, continues to go unseen. Ask your regular rugby fan what memory they have of Underhill and it will invariably be that infamously disallowed try versus the All Blacks last November where be left Beauden Barrett for dead with his fleeted footed acceleration.
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“I guess it probably won’t happen again. It is what it is,” he said about that likely match-winning try ruled out for marginal offside by Courtney Lawes at a ruck. What matters most to the flanker is the respect his those he is in the trenches with.
“You’re probably most appreciated by your players and coaches. There is obviously a broader perception of you as a player, but the people whose opinions matter the most are the coaches I’m playing under and the players I’m playing with.
“They’re the ones who see the work that you do in the week and see the unseen work in the games and notice the smaller things. You look to those people as the barometer of how you’re doing and your performance.
“I’d hope as a seven if you’re doing your job you’re probably not getting an awful lot of attention. If you’re doing your job well you’re probably going unnoticed. That is kind of how you want it to be.”
Currently in seventh, victory over Leicester on the final day of the regulation Premiership season on May 18 can earn Bath a Champions Cup qualification spot. After that, it’s the notice of England boss Eddie Jones that Underhill will be hoping to grab in time for Rugby World Cup selection.
“It would be unbelievable. It’s a childhood dream. You grew up playing in England, you want to play for England and you want to be at a World Cup. It would mean the world to me, but you can’t get too distracted by where you want to go. You have to focus on how you are going to get there. Playing well Bath will hopefully be rewarded with selection. If not, then so be it.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Good to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
17 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
7 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
17 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
7 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
7 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
17 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
17 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
7 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
17 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
14 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
17 Go to comments