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The Super Rugby Aotearoa trend that has Eddie Jones worked up about life without Manu Tuilagi

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Patrick Fox/Visionhaus via Getty Images)

Eddie Jones has admitted England will have to shake up their attack this autumn, not only in the absence of the long-term injured Manu Tuilagi but because he has noticed domestic rugby in New Zealand and France thriving in recent months due to quicker ruck ball.

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Test rugby has been on hold around the world since last March but it finally resumes this month with the Bledisloe Cup in the southern hemisphere and the completion of the delayed 2020 Six Nations in the north. 

Jones, whose staff did some coaching at Championship club Ealing in recent weeks to be ready for this week’s three-day England camp, has spent recent months watching club rugby from around the world as well as attending numerous Gallagher Premiership matches in person. 

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He has now given his verdict on emerging trends, adding that England will have to adapt to potentially quicker ruck ball at Test level while also readjusting to life without Tuilagi, who is sidelined until next April following last week’s achilles tear. While Tuilagi missed the bulk of the early years of Jones’ reign in England, he became part of the furniture in recent times after overcoming previous injury issues. 

After bridging a 32-month gap in between caps with a November 2018 comeback, Tuilagi went on to appear in 16 of England’s next 20 matches, a run that included a start in last November’s World Cup final and culminated in his sending-off versus Wales last March for a high tackle on George North.  

Jones said: “We’re seeing in two domestic leagues, Super Rugby and the France Top 14, the ruck speed increased considerably but in other domestic competitions that hasn’t been the case so much. We just have to wait and see with the refereeing of international rugby. We don’t have any indication at this stage where their emphasis is going to be so we will just wait and see what happens there. 

“We have seen a lot more quick ruck ball. We have also seen a lot more transition in the game because if you’re good at the breakdown you will not only have the opportunity to get quick ruck ball but you will also have the opportunity to turn the ball over.

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“If that continues in Test rugby – we’re not sure – but if it does then we need to be equipped to play a little faster and a little bit faster off quick rugby ball, then as it transitions out just hit the switch quickly. Get in position quicker than the opposition and take the opportunity in either attack or defence, so we have been doing some preliminary work on that and we just have to wait and see how the game evolves there. 

“We’ll miss Manu greatly,” he added. “He has been a terrific teammate, terrific team player and we feel for him. We’ll move on and we’ll try other alternatives and try other ways of playing. He was a focal point of our attack and we have to find other ways of having focal points of our attack.” 

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Jon 6 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 8 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 10 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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