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What England really made of this week's Wales strike threat
England coach Steve Borthwick has revealed he always planned that this Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations match versus Wales in Cardiff would go ahead. Ken Owens’ Welsh squad had been involved in a contractual standoff with the WRU over the lack of financial arrangements beyond the end of the current season across the four regional sides.
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With a host of players out of contract and facing an uncertain future in 2023/24, the Wales team skippered by Owens threatened to go on strike and not play in this weekend’s round three championship match. The dire situation forced Wales coach Warren Gatland to shelve plans to name his XV on Tuesday and it took emergency talks with the WRU on Wednesday for the threat over Saturday’s match to be removed.
Borthwick watched the controversy evolve from the safe haven of the England training base at Pennyhill and after naming his XV on Thursday to play Wales, he gave his view on the strike threat that generated fears that Gatland’s side would forfeit the match.
“We planned that it was always going to go ahead. Nothing has changed from our perspective,” said Borthwick when asked about the uncertainty that had surrounded the fixture until Wednesday evening. He went on to voice his sympathies for the Welsh players caught up in the contractual mess.
“Myself and everybody involved in the England team, we have incredible sympathy for what the Welsh players have gone through. No professional athlete should have to deal with that level of uncertainty and anxiety and we really sympathise with them. From our point of view we focused on the games and being the best team we possibly can be. The other stuff we can’t contol, so just concentrate on the stuff we can do.”
Borthwick worked with Gatland as his assistant on the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand. They now go head-to-head for the first time as Test-level head coaches. “I had the opportunity to work with Warren on the Lions in 2017. It was a great opportunity to work with him and understand a little bit more about how he sees the game and clearly I have a lot of respect for him.
“I have been very clear with what we are trying to do with the England team, we are trying to rebuild it and this is only a few weeks into that rebuild and it is a different situation to other teams are in. Certainly, they [Wales] have picked a team that is packed full of experience. They have got a huge number of caps in their team. That just added to the excitement of what a fantastic fixture this is.
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“What a privilege for us all to be involved in a fixture like this… We can’t wait to get down to Cardiff, there has been a buzz around training all week. I could sense it last week and as you came in at the start of this week you could really feel it.”
Comments on RugbyPass
To me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
30 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
2 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
30 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
49 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
30 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
30 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
30 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
30 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
1 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to commentsChances of Blackadder being injured seem too high to give him serious consideration. ABs loosie combination finally looked good with 2 committed to tackling and clearing rucks in the centre and Ardie roaming. Hoskins/Ardie together would force one of them into where they don’t excel and don’t get to use their talent, or require a change in tactics. If we continue to evolve last years systems I would take Papali’i and Finau at 6 and 7 (conceding that Blackadder will be injured) and Ardie at 8.
30 Go to commentsArdie’s preferred position 7? Where do they get these writers from? I've no idea where he's playing in Japan, but the previous two seasons he wore the 7 jersey exactly twice.
17 Go to commentsNot good to hear Ulster described as “financially troubled”. Did not think it was getting to that level. I would hope the Irish system of spreading players of talent away from Leinster would kick in now. Better to have a Leinster fringe player with Ulster or Connacht, then getting only a few games a season in Dublin. 10, for example, would seem to be a case for spreading the talent. I would not be at all adverse to a SA man coming in as head coach/DR. Ludeke is worth trying. Certainly got a long and impressive coaching career at this level…..149 games in SR, then Japan, 30 years experience. And Ulster’s ledger of successful SA coaches and players is on the positive side. Is talk of Ruan Pienaar interested in coming back as a coach…..could be a good combination with Ludeke. And Pienaar and family would have no settling in to do, one would judge. He loved life in Ulster when there, by all reports.
1 Go to commentsSome thoughts to consider here, Sam. Thanks
2 Go to commentsI think he is right, SBW is respected in RSA. The guy who never stood up is a worm. Sseems lots of NZ SBW hate, you do the crime do the time.
17 Go to comments