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The staggering odds against Georgia beating England and 4 other talking points

By PA
England and Georgia packs go head-to-head in 2018. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

England open their Autumn Nations Cup against Georgia at Twickenham on Saturday as they look to build on their recent Six Nations success.

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Here, the PA news agency examines five talking points ahead of the match.

A star is born
Jack Willis’ debut is one of the easier selection decisions made by Eddie Jones. The Wasps flanker is a force of nature at the breakdown, an unrivalled poacher of opposition ball to the extent he was named Rugby Players’ Association and Premiership player of the year for 2019-20. Apart from the obvious courage it takes to contest for the ball, Willis is blessed with the flexibility to get into awkward positions and the strength to ride the hits as they land. Still only 23, a stellar future awaits.

Riches at openside
Willis is the latest in a succession of outstanding opensides to appear from the Premiership conveyor belt. For years England relied on six-and-a-halves to get the job done, but the emergence of Tom Curry and Sam Underhill changed the dynamic of their back row. Curry and Underhill are class acts, while snapping at their heels for the past nine months is the marauding Ben Earl. With Willis joining their ranks, Jones is spoilt for choice.

Video Spacer

Ryan Wilson on his tunnel fight with Owen Farrell in 2018:

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Ryan Wilson on his tunnel fight with Owen Farrell in 2018:

Autumn blues
Administrators deserve huge credit for setting up a tournament amid the dire circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic. With the southern hemisphere giants forced to cancel their customary end-of-year tours, a void was created in the rugby calendar with the Autumn Nations Cup devised as an emergency alternative. The staging of any internationals at all is to be applauded, but there is no escaping the fact that a contrived format of the Six Nations plus Fiji and Georgia is no substitute for collisions with New Zealand and South Africa.

Are you not entertained
Jones rejects the idea that England must not only win, but also serve up spectacle at a time when the game is contending with a financial crisis caused by Covid-19. Rugby is battling for its place in the sporting landscape and the final round of Six Nations fixtures staged a fortnight ago will have attracted few new fans. With no supporters present to supply noise and colour, the poor quality of the matches was emphasised. It will be Amazon Prime Video’s first venture into rugby and a grinding win will do little to engage audiences at home.

David v Goliath
Some bookmakers are offering 150/1 that Georgia can stage one of the biggest upsets in rugby history at Twickenham on Saturday, but even those odds fail to reflect the size of the task ahead of them. The world’s 12th ranked team have defeated a tier-one nation only once in 31 previous attempts, and that was against Japan who were only elevated to the top table in May. They will be tough and confrontational and will ask questions up front, especially in the scrum where they could cause problems, but anything other than a resounding England victory will be a bad day at the office.

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 12 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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