Shambolic no more: Kevin Sinfield explains improved England defence

Defence coach Kevin Sinfield has delivered his verdict on the rapidly improved England rearguard. Steve Borthwick’s team arrived at the Rugby World Cup with a crisis on its hands following the concession of 30 tries in nine matches in 2023 – a leakage on average every 25 minutes.

However, that wounding weakness has since been remedied with England negotiating their three September games in France versus Argentina, Japan and Chile at the loss of just a single try in 240 minutes, putting an end for now to negatives August headlines such as “Kevin Sinfield’s defence is utterly shambolic”.

The litmus test, of course, is on the horizon with an October 15 quarter-final looming in Marseille after this Saturday’s pool finale takes place versus Samoa in Lille. In the meantime, though, what has changed with the England defence and why is it now snuffing out the opposition unlike before?

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“We try and make it important,” suggested Sinfield, the former rugby league great who initially switched to coaching in union under Borthwick at Leicester. “What we showed in August wasn’t a reflection of how hard the lads had worked and how we trained. We have obviously improved since then; we have got to continue improving.

“We have tried a number of different ways to create buy-in and get it to land… in general, my view is it is all about the players and if you can get the players on the same page and create the right environment for them, these guys want to defend. I have no doubt about it.”

Suited-up England get stuck into tackle practice at training in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage ahead of their Pool D finale versus Samoa next Saturday. #EnglandRugby #ENGvSAM #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/YWKrCPZtjE

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 3, 2023

“I said from day one every player I came across wanted to wear the badge, desperate to put an England shirt on, and we show a lot of that in how we defend and what we have done for each other. The last few weeks have been a massive step forward but, as I said on Friday last week, there is plenty of improvements still in us.

“Try and find different ways of making it important but the guys know that. Typically the best defensive team in any competition wins the league or the cup. We understand that and know how important it is.”

While the concession of just one try in three matches is currently the best record out of all 20 teams at the tournament, Sinfield won’t get carried away with Samoa and potentially Fiji in the quarter-finals the next two fixtures for England.

“I never think it is perfect. When you have got an opposition with some of the quality we have faced so far and will face moving forward, especially on Saturday, we can’t expect to have it all our own way.

“But what I have been happy to see is how hard they have been prepared to cover each other’s backsides. We’ll get split, we’ll get broken, we’ll concede penalties at times but our attitude and mindset to defend our try line is really, really important. The guys certainly have that at the minute.”