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Test rookie Bevan Rodd backed to deliver as new England loosehead
It has been quite an eventful week for 21-year-old Bevan Rodd, the new England No1 who will start Saturday’s Autumn Nations Series game at Twickenham versus Australia. At the start of the week, Premiership Cup training at Sale was the schedule but that was soon to change. With Joe Marler ruled out through Covid, Rodd got the call to come down from Manchester.
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Come Thursday the uncapped front-rower had leapfrogged the one-cap Trevor Davison in the pecking order and was chosen to sit on the England bench, but fast forward less than 24 later and he was dramatically promoted to the starting line-up after Ellis Genge reported a positive virus test.
It was an eve-of-match drama that England had gone through the previous week versus Tonga. Skipper Owen Farrell was ruled out after he tested positive, his place at the starting No10 going to rookie George Furbank, the full-back who had never started at Test level at out-half.
Courtney Lawes, who was promoted to skipper in Farrell’s absence, dismissed any anxiety about the late reshuffle. “He [Furbank] is just a class player all round,” enthused the back-rower. “He can pretty much play any position so he will be fine… It will be sweet. I guarantee you.”
It was and a week later it was the turn of Farrell, restored to the line-up after it was confirmed his test result was a false positive, to provide the reassurance to England fans that there should be no fretting about suddenly having Rodd in the starting line-up after Genge was forced to isolate.
It has been an incredible week for the 21-year-old Rodd who started it at Sale and will end it as the starting England loosehead versus Australia#England #ENGvAUS #AutumnNationsSeries #Wallabies #Sharks https://t.co/Ay3cxcMFNK
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 12, 2021
“There are other people in the squad who have spent a lot more time with Bevan than I have,” said Farrell, whose leadership was praised this week by new England assistant Anthony Seibold. “He was involved in the summer and has been in and around the squad since then. I know that people have a massive amount of respect for him around here and I know people are looking forward to playing with him.
“I got to know him a little bit when we got to meet up for a few days a couple of months ago and then him coming in this week. We will all make sure we are in a good to give him as much or as little information because we don’t want to overdo it. The thing about this team is making sure we look after each other, that it is never about one person. In that regard, he will hopefully be well looked after.”
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Saturday will also be an outing where there will be a great focus on Farrell as it will be the first time he will play with Marcus Smith alongside him in the England team. What does he make of the rookie Test No10 whose inclusion will see the skipper run the inside centre channel?
“Probably the more special thing about him is the ability to unlock a game on his own – his ability to control a game, control his team but with a sharpness to rip a game open in the blink of an eye. That is something he keeps going. He has only just started at the minute but he hopefully keeps that going for the rest of his career.”
The new England assistant was hugely impressed three years ago by Farrell, immediately comparing him to some NRL greats he had coached… #England #ENGvAUS #AutumnNationsSeries #Wallabieshttps://t.co/Fdzh09tCnO
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 10, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Je 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!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 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.
25 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.
25 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 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.
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