Jack Nowell responds to calls to embrace new life as a flanker
Jack Nowell will gladly come to the aid of England’s pack again in the future but has ruled out making more frequent appearances among the forwards.
Ireland emerged 32-15 winners from a Guinness Six Nations classic at Twickenham on Saturday, but only after Eddie Jones’ men had provided heroic resistance in overcoming the red card shown to lock Charlie Ewels 82 seconds into the clash.
Eventually they fell away in the closing stages, but it was still a remarkable day for England’s scrum as they harvested six penalties even with Nowell packing down in the back row to compensate for the loss of Ewels.
Nowell switched between wing and flanker as the hybrid experiment first mooted by Jones in 2019 was finally seen in action, albeit with a set-piece focus in less than ideal circumstances.
Captain Courtney Lawes joked afterwards that Nowell is “more of a flanker anyway”, but the versatile Exeter Chiefs man has no intention of leaving the threequarters.
“Nah, I don’t think so! I enjoy the open space a bit more and enjoy getting my hands on the ball, although I’m not saying a back row can’t do that,” he said.
“I prefer to be able to get over the ball and get amongst it from the wing or centre, in the backs, not staying in the forwards. I’m happy on the wing, but if I need to fill in in the back, then I’m more than happy to.
“The way the forwards train and the way they’re made is a different level. I look over at how the forwards maul in training and that’s different gravy!
“We were down to 14 men and we wanted to go for the scrum. Our pack got a sense of what could happen, so we decided to stick with eight. It was my job to fill in that back-row gap. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t.
“I kept saying to Ellis Genge after each scrum: ‘Was that OK? Are you happy with that?’.
“The forwards gave me good feedback and the job becomes a lot easier when you have guys like Genge and Kyle Sinckler there, and Courtney Lawes beside me.”
Ireland’s record Twickenham victory, unjustly skewed by Finlay Bealham’s late try as England’s resistance finally ran out of steam in the final eight minutes, created mixed emotions.
It eliminated the hosts from title contention with a round remaining, yet they had delivered a defiant performance that proved whatever the team’s limitations, resilience and a unified sense or purpose are not among them.
Thank you for all the support today guys. We gave it everything, we will be better for this. Onto next week?
— Jack Nowell (@nowellsy15) March 12, 2022
“You live for games like that because that was a real Test match. It’s why we play rugby. Going down to 14 men is a big challenge, but this team are very much together and we dealt with it very well,” Nowell said.
“The forwards were celebrating the scrums, the backs were celebrating their little actions. It shows what it means to us and what it means to this team, it showed that we are willing to fight for everything and for every inch.”
Among the many heroes on display was Maro Itoje, who overcame the illness that almost ruled him out of the game to cause havoc across the pitch.
“We are very proud of the fight we showed. There were numerous times in that game when it would have been easy to roll over, but we stuck in there,” Itoje said.
“The scrum was a big weapon and it gave us a foothold in the game. It’s the hallmark of English rugby and we need to continue develop it.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood 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.
27 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.
9 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.
27 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?
11 Go to comments