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England

Sam Underhill: Rucks no longer about winning penalties


Sam Underhill
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Comment

Sam Underhill has urged England to adapt quickly to the refereeing of the breakdown when they clash with Argentina on Saturday.

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Victory in the pivotal World Cup clash at Tokyo Stadium would secure a place in the quarter-finals but the Pumas are dangerous opponents capable of causing an upset.

The breakdown has been one of several officiating flashpoints in Japan and Underhill insists England must adjust swiftly to referee Nigel Owens’ approach to the key battleground.

“I don’t envy the referees. It’s a physical contest and more important than ever is your timing around it,” Underhill said.

“It can be a fairly confusing place, but with that it’s your responsibility as a team to ensure you’re getting quick ball.

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“I don’t know if it’s more confusing, but certainly every referee has their interpretation of the breakdown. As a player, all we can ask for is consistency.

“It’s down to getting to grips with that interpretation during the game – you don’t have an awful lot of time to do that – and adjust accordingly.

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“Being adaptable and pragmatic are important – you need to react depending on how the game is going and how the referee is seeing things.”

Known as a hard tackler who won plaudits for completing 20 tackles on his England test debut, Underhill is equally adept working on the deck.

“It’s such a crucial part of the game because now we are seeing the outcomes of the breakdown, not so much in terms of penalties but definitely speed of ball.

“You might not get a penalty but the speed of ball is certainly affected by it, so that’s the biggest difference now for teams – not just focusing on retaining the ball, but the quality of the ball as well.”

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Bet 365 kindly invited RugbyPass along to interview Matt Giteau and Mike Tindall to speak about their countries chances at the Rugby World Cup.

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Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

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Comments on RugbyPass

N
NoLongerARuck 4 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

I think hes done plenty of articles before about speed of game, ball in play time, pens etc in the Southern context and the North are now seemingly ahead in terms of key metrics that determine the quality of game especially those that World Rugby are after in terms of creating more value for fans

32 Go to comments
C
Conrad 5 minutes ago
Where's the power? And what to do with Sua'ali'i? The key questions facing the Wallabies

Plenty would say that. When he first came to Leinster the guy ended careers. Overnight.

32 Go to comments
N
NoLongerARuck 5 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

England were really awful on defence that game, were shellshocked half way through it

32 Go to comments
C
Conrad 7 minutes ago
Where's the power? And what to do with Sua'ali'i? The key questions facing the Wallabies

Toner was treated terribly. Nobody would call him world class but he had to have been one of the most improved players as test level for a period. He was the only reason the 2016 SA tour was even close. Awful treatment in the end.

Henshaw has spoken about being the 24th man early on and accompanying the sqaud on tours. Schmidt would still expect non-playing sqaud memebrs to be able to talk him through all the set plays when he asked them. If you couldn't, it was never overlooked.



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G
GrahamVF 7 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

In all fairness the ref backed off giving penalties and after the pack had marched the Irish pack backwards on the double for ten meters then folded he tol the Bok scrummie “Play it.”

The psychological advantage of being so comprehensively dismantled in the scrums is huge. You can fix missed tackles and sloppy attack - even fix high ball skills - but it’s far more difficult to fix an entire scrum when they are that comprehensively beaten. And that’s what Rassie’s aim was - not necessarily scoreboard dominance but to send the message if you want to play on the same field as us you had better fix your scrum. Like I said - not so easily done.



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32 Go to comments
N
NoLongerARuck 9 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

How do you judge the North South battle and if the North is catching the South? I think theres a couple of categories to consider. In the early 2000’s the South was ahead on almost every category that determines the quality of rugby playing region. I would say the categories are:

Coaching



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32 Go to comments
G
GrahamVF 13 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

“Having opened it up coincided with a massive uplift in the success of the Springboks.” That and the development of black and Coloured players. A huge previously untapped resource to the Springboks.

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G
GrahamVF 15 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

“The North arguably offers more in terms of entertainment than the South at club level as well. The Prem, the Champs Cup, URC and Top 14 all feature plenty of scoring and different playing styles while Super Rugby seems to be the same thing game in game out. While the South tries to speed up the game artificially with new trials and law variations the North has shown you can do it with good refereeing which penalises cynical play harshly and encourages positive actions on the field.”

Great para and sums it up perfectly. In SA we were sooooo tired of the endless 26 phase going nowhere or backwards cycles of Super Rugby the URC came as a breath of fresh air. We were back to the various elements that make rugby stand out from league. Scrum, ruck, lineout, maul - variety fGs



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32 Go to comments
N
NoLongerARuck 23 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

The Six Nations produced so many compelling games and so much of action packed moments that you can only conclude that its the best international comp out there at the moment except for a world cup. If Wales improve it will be even better especially given the strides Italy have made in recent times. The Rugby Championship is now taking a hiatus in a year it really should be building toward something better which is terrible considering the competition was so tight last year. The Nations Champs promises much but one gets the feeling that the 6 Nations teams will not be at their peak given its at the end of their long season. In terms of rugby quality and entertainment Id rather watch the 6 Nations over everything else other than a world cup right now. The North arguably offers more in terms of entertainment than the South at club level as well. The Prem, the Champs Cup, URC and Top 14 all feature plenty of scoring and different playing styles while Super Rugby seems to be the same thing game in game out. While the South tries to speed up the game artificially with new trials and law variations the North has shown you can do it with good refereeing which penalises cynical play harshly and encourages positive actions on the field. In terms of entertainment the North wins. In terms of winning? They are making strides but until they win another world cup or get a team to rank number 1 again for an extended time again they cant really say they are better than the South.

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C
Conrad 24 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Agree. In the end, they had to resort to starting off the ball stuff at 77 mins to rattle Ireland and run the clock as it was only a two score game - which is insane given their dominance.

I suspect Rassie may have gone hard on them afterwards.



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32 Go to comments
C
Conrad 26 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Agree. Tournament play or a knockout game I’m sure they would be nailing their kicks instead.

Even conservatively, they left 12-15 PTS behind which is strange as they should have been worth double that by getting their opponents down to 12 players.



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32 Go to comments
C
Conrad 29 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

It’s noticeable that most NH test teams now refuse to kick for goal until maybe the 3rd or 4th time of asking across the same phases of play. It’s such a trend that they have to be coached that way now.

I think the amended rules around playing the 9 - or not being able to - have helped things as the teams seem to prefer kicking 50/50 constables or going multi-phase in the opponents 22. The 6N teams generally have tempo 9’s that are hitting 70+ rucks a match, so it suits them.



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C
Conrad 37 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

I view it that way also. In most cases advantage for the home teams across both July/Nov legs. The Boks are obviously the exception and poor old Fiji never seem to get to to play at home.

The NH teams rarely went into these July windows having to pick full strength to lock horns with 3 Tier one’s on the bounce.



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32 Go to comments
D
DC 40 minutes ago
Why the Wallabies-Ireland rematch won't look anything like last time

Ireland should win handily. Even if they are subpar these days - and with an incompetent 10 in Wonderboy. SH rugby is poor ‘and always has to rely on the incompetent refs to even be worthy oppo.

7 Go to comments
C
Conrad 40 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Exactly right Mzi! If LSL is in that squad I think it’s a long old evening for us.

I don’t really see us going 6 in a row so I do think a fast starting WB’s take this one.



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32 Go to comments
C
Conrad 43 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Very in-depth!!!

Some of the stats are very interesting. Still not sure how Ireland putting 42 PTS on england without a scrum can be explained!



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32 Go to comments
N
NoLongerARuck 43 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

South Africa sometimes get carried away when the going is good. They lost to Australia that way and they should have won by way more against Ireland but they were more interested in battering and brutalising their opponents than being clinical.

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T
Tom 1 hour ago
Losing to Henry Pollock would be unbearable

Absolutely. England are unlikely to out-Bok the Boks. I say only unlikely because they did nearly do it in the 2023 world cup which was a hell of a performance by the forwards (until Dan Cole got benched).

If England go into the game and try to win an armwrestle I'm gonna be p*ssed off. The Boks are a fantastic side but they have shown occasional frailty when sides take them out of their comfort zone. If England play into their hands, they lose.



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R
RT 1 hour ago
Losing to Henry Pollock would be unbearable

As an Englishman i fear the worst for Saturday , very tough afternoon in store .

12 Go to comments
L
Lou Cifer 1 hour ago
Losing to Henry Pollock would be unbearable

One feels there is too much media pressure to, at a bare minimum, include him in the matchday 23. A hype-monster has been created & some days it’ll work in England’s favour and some days it won’t. Only time will tell which outweighs the other….

12 Go to comments
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