Why 'machine' Tom Curry is finally England's answer at No.7
Steve Diamond believes Tom Curry is a “machine” and will deliver another fearless performance against France to prove he is the answer to England’s long running search for a World class No.7.
Sale flanker Curry made 23 tackles in the 32-20 win over Ireland in Dublin and was one of the first three England defenders to the breakdown on 16 occasions, with a yellow card for a late hit on Keith Earls after 13 mins the only negative statistic. Curry now has six caps – four against South Africa – and goes into the clash with France at Twickenham on Sunday as a key member of an England team that faces the biggest forward challenge in the history of the sport.
The mammoth French pack ended beaten and bemused by Wales in Paris having given up a 16-0 lead and the players have been facing criticism all week from their fans for failing to hold onto their advantage. Curry will be tasked with repeating his breakdown excellence but has to avoid the kind of late hit that earned him an early yellow card against Ireland. Decision making is crucial in Curry’s position and Diamond insists the 20-year-old is a quick learner with a huge future.
Diamond, the Sale Sharks director of rugby, said: “Tom is the man for England. He has all the physical attributes; is big, strong, has a low centre of gravity and he understands the link play. He was that involved in the game with Ireland that people will have overlooked his statistics. It was only two days later when they came out that the reaction was ‘Crickey, how much work does this kid do?’.”
“The great thing about Tom is he is a very level headed kid who understands the game really well and age is no barrier. Tom is a machine and will be annoyed about the yellow card and was probably a little bit rash. He is better than that and didn’t need to do it and no doubt Eddie Jones and John Mitchell will have spoken to him about that tackle. However it is good to see because it wasn’t a high tackle – it was a bit late and the game hasn’t changed and in the first 10-20 minutes you want to upset the opposition and he comes from that type of player who wants to make his presence felt early doors.”
Diamond has a warning of double trouble for England’s future opponents with Tom’s twin brother Ben also equipped to make a mark at test level having been robbed by injury of a first England cap against Argentina in 2017 with Tom, 18, handed the No7 jersey in San Juan to become England’s youngest debutant since Jonny Wilkinson. It meant Tom followed his uncle, former Harlequins hooker John Olver, in making his test debut against Argentina.
Diamond added: “Without doing Tom a disservice, there is another one in the family called Ben and I have no doubt he can follow Tom into test rugby and it is tough for him at the moment because his twin is getting all the headlines. Ben goes confidently and quietly about his business, remembering that he is still only 20. Eighteen months ago Ben was picked, got injured and hasn’t had a look in since and we feel for him. However, neither of them whinge or moan and just get on with things.
“We will be getting a lot more out of both of them when the mature physically over the next two or three years. By 23-years-old, Tom could have 30 or 40 caps under his belt and the beauty of this that even though there are other good back row players about, it doesn’t deter them and they just get out there and do their stuff. They are not worried about opponents in their position in the squad.”
Watch: May and Vunipola reflect on Ireland win
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe 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!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 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.
26 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.
26 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 comments