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'Combative' - Richard Cockerill gives glimpse of England pack 2.0
By PA
Richard Cockerill plans to stamp his combative personality on to England’s pack after being recruited by Eddie Jones to establish an edge up-front.
Cockerill was appointed forwards coach three weeks ago and will work with Jones’ 45-man training squad for the first time when they gather at The Lensbury for a three-day camp on Sunday.
The snarling former Leicester hooker was a belligerent force for England throughout the 27 caps won between 1997 and 1999 and he famously stared down New Zealand’s Norm Hewitt as the Haka was being performed.
As a coach at Tigers and Edinburgh the 50-year-old fielded well-drilled and rugged forward packs forged in his own image to earn the approval of Jones as he aims to win the 2023 World Cup.
“Eddie wants a fresh pair of eyes, different eyes. He wants me to bring my personality and my drive,” Cockerill said.
“I’ve always been able to get combative forward packs and drive mentality and I think that’s probably appealed to him.
“To be able to coach this group of players with the quality that England have and to try to bring that edge, physicality and mindset is a real challenge for me.”
Cockerill will oversee the line-out while Matt Proudfoot, who also holds the title of forwards coach, takes charge of the scrum.
The first assignment is an autumn series against Tonga, Australia and South Africa that begins on November 6, but Jones has left little doubt that the ultimate goal is to claim South Africa’s global crown in two years’ time.
“Eddie gave me a call and sounded me out. We had a meeting and a chat around his plans from now until the World Cup and what I thought about it,” Cockerill said.
“We had a good discussion around what I could bring, what he wants from me between now and the World Cup and about trying to win the World Cup.
“We had some conversations and it came to the point where he invited me to join the team. I’m a proud Englishman and to get the opportunity to be part of the national team set-up is fantastic.
“I’m very much looking forward to it. I’ve been in the coaching game a long time as a head coach and when the opportunity arose to join Eddie it was something that really appealed to me.
“You may never get asked again so it’s an opportunity to coach at Test level, which I’ve never done. I look forward to getting my teeth into it.”
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Latest Comments
In another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
Go to commentsBens got a crush on KLA. So cute.
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