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Will Carling begs England not to make same old mistake with Cadan Murley
By Chris Jones
Will Carling, the former England captain, is urging Steve Borthwick not to repeat the mistakes of the past by dropping Cadan Murley after the Harlequins wing’s defensive mistakes in the 27-22 defeat by Ireland in Dublin.
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Murley twice opted to try to carry the ball out of England’s in-goal area, handing Ireland scoring opportunities. He received a lot of flak on social media despite scoring a try on his debut, setting up Tom Curry for his score, and making a try-saving tackle.
The Harlequins wing is in danger of suffering the same fate that Mathew Tait endured on his debut in 2005, when the Newcastle centre was given a torrid time by Wales’s Gavin Henson. He was taken off early in Cardiff and then dropped.
Carling believes that if Murley’s form and talent were good enough to start against Ireland, then he should be in the starting XV to take on France at Allianz Stadium on Saturday. Carling, who won 72 caps and led his country in 59 Tests, told RugbyPass: “That had an impact on Mathew Tait’s career and the fact is, test rugby is different compared to the Premiership and if you believe someone was good enough to be picked to make their debut you give them more than one go, without doubt. You have to and I presume he will be picked and I very much hope he is.
“Lots of people didn’t see the fact that he touched the first high kick and so he had to play the ball. Harlequins do it and he tried to run it out and in the big scheme of things it wasn’t the right decision. But, so what, he got it wrong; however, he got a lot of things right in the match, including taking his try well, making a try-saving tackle and creating the space to help Tom Curry score a try. If you know rugby, then you saw lots of mistakes (by England) but his was out in the open. There were far more important mistakes by more experienced players and this guy was on his debut.
“Test rugby is that much quicker and instead of having a second (to make a decision) you have half a second. It does take time to get used to it for any player and my hope is that if you genuinely believe he had the talent for one game the key is to nurture that and his confidence because that is what’s needed in test rugby. You could pick out some of the best players and there would have been mistakes when they first experienced test rugby.
“When you look at the vast majority of comments on social media you naturally remember the negative ones and that’s human nature – we become fixated on them. That is why I put out a tweet saying I thought Cadan had, overall, a good debut with positive bits.”
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For those throwing the mud, the truth is @cadan_murley scored a try, assisted another & made a try saving tackle, alongside other positive additions to Englands performance. He made a couple of mistakes, who doesn’t on their debut!! But overall, he should be proud, I hope he is
— Will Carling (@willcarling) February 1, 2025
Carling, who has launched a podcast “Who Gives A Ruck” on Spotify with fellow greats Dean Richards and Jonathan Davies, wants to see strong leadership from Borthwick, the head coach, and does not accept that highlighting your team has fewer caps than the opposition – as mentioned by Borthwick before the Ireland game – is a plausible excuse.
He added: “There was no excuse last season when we beat Ireland (23-22) at Twickenham and so you can’t use that this year. England overcame (the disparity in caps) last time and so it is possible, otherwise, in international sport the most experienced team would always win!
“I am not a fan of excuses and let’s just be honest, one of the toughest things about being the No.1 [head coach] is having the strength of conviction rather than going with the outcry and what path the media is going down. If you are watching players in training then that may not transfer into the first couple of tests but you know it’s there. That is the key and what we need to see.
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“Now, we face France and Antoine Dupont who is exceptional and no one will be giving England a chance. Ireland turned up last year and no one gave us a chance and we need to stand up and do that consistently. France have that blend of power and pace with that young lad at scrum half linking the two who is the best in the world. I thought Ollie Lawrence did well in Ireland and as a team we need confidence and belief. If we do that then we will see the talent that is in the England team. What we need is that foundation of confidence.”
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